Recently in news Category

As you may have noticed if you are viewing this in a browser and not via a feed (RSS) reader, we have switched domains.

Since this site's inception we've been using "isquattedyour.eu" which while "amusing" to some was probably not that memorable.

From now on the site will be reachable (and redirect to) DNSNews.me which is shorter and easier to remember (or at least I hope it is!)

Keep an eye out for the new design which is coming soon ..

Several people have made comments about how ICANN has been losing staff over the last few months.

The most recent departure is their head of compliance - David Giza. His interim replacement will be Pam Little.

What makes this departure noteworthy is the level of activity in the compliance department over the past 18 months - the number of registrars whose accreditations were terminated due to non-compliance increased by several hundred percent

Facebook is currently trialling an IPv6 version of their social network site.

If you have access to IPv6 go to: http://www.v6.facebook.com/

ICANN have published the 4th version of the DAG.

The DAG - Draft Applicant Guidebook - is like the "bible" for anyone aspiring to run a new TLD.

Unfortunately the new TLD launch cannot take place until the DAG has been finalised - a point that seems to be always just over the horizon.

Nominet is stepping down as chairman and director of the company.

Nominet released a statement on Mr Gilbert's resignation this morning:

Following the successful recent conclusion of Nominet's corporate
governance review, Bob Gilbert is stepping down as a director of the
Company and Chairman of the Board.  Gordon Dick, Deputy Chairman, will
take on the role of Chairman on an interim basis, whilst the Board
undertakes the process of identifying a new Chairman to lead Nominet onto
further success.

Bob Gilbert was appointed Chairman in May 2005 and has successfully led
Nominet through five years of record growth and significant change,
culminating in the major constitutional reforms  approved by Nominet
members at the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on 24 February
2010. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Nominet Trust.

Bob Gilbert states: "Leading Nominet over the past five years has been a
challenge. We have overcome some substantial hurdles and I am especially
pleased with the way the membership wholeheartedly supported the Board and
embraced positive changes to Nominet's constitution.  Having successfully
updated Nominet's constitution, a time consuming exercise for all
involved, it is now time for the company to move into its next phase of
development under new leadership. I am very pleased to be leaving the
Company in a strong position to embrace future opportunities and I would
like to thank the staff of Nominet for all their support and hard work
during my tenure as Chairman"

Lesley Cowley, CEO at Nominet states: "We thank Bob for his hard work and
commitment over the past five years.  His knowledge of corporate
governance has served us well over that time and he brought a strength and
determination that has helped us deal with some significant challenges.
His work has laid the foundations for building a bright future for Nominet
and the .uk domain name space. We all wish him the very best."

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nominet EGM Results Are In (isquattedyour.eu)
• Nominet To Release 1 and 2 Character Domain Names (isquattedyour.eu)

The board has put forward a motion to decide vertical integration once and for all. There will no cross-ownership allowed.

The board's decision is very interesting.

They are, to quote Dennis Jennings, setting a baseline, but will bow to any policy decision that comes from the GNSO.

There is now a GNSO PDP (Policy Development Process) to discuss vertical integration.

This morning the ICANN board is meeting in Nairobi

On the menu this morning are a number of topics, but only a couple of them are attracting any serious attention. One of them, EOI (Expressions of Interest), was hoped, by some, to be a way to move the new TLD project forward.

The board looks set to completely reject the EOI concept this morning.

At present board members are giving their thoughts on why they are doing this (or not doing it .. )

Sex and the internet.
Put the two together and you are bound to find an interesting story.
While the saga surrounding sex.com took a new twist in the last couple of days, with the current owners going dotbomb, the .xxx story also took an interesting turn.

ICM Registry LLC applied to ICANN to run the .xxx TLD. You don't need to be a genius to work out which sector .xxx was aimed at - adult entertainment / mature content.

For several years ICM and ICANN tangoed.

In the end the ICANN board voted during the Lisbon meeting (March 30th 2007) against .xxx and focus shifted to other events. The Lisbon meeting was the first ICANN meeting that I attended and I remember the tension in the hotel bar on the night before the board meeting. You could have cut the air with a knife. ICM and their supporters were literally in one camp, while those in opposition were in another. Westerdal's article (linked above) covers most of the salient points in the history of the .xxx bid to that date.

However the story of .xxx did not end in Lisbon.

But ICM weren't going to simply "roll over". They'd already had one application for the .xxx TLD rejected and so they then asked for an independent review. That was back in September of last year, with parts of the process taking place earlier in the year.

The independent review involved testimony from not only ICM executives, but also former ICANN CEO Dr Paul Twomey, Dr Vint Cerf and many many others.

For those involved with the new TLD process the outcome of any review of ICM's .xxx application will be examined very closely. The new TLD application guidebook, which is still being drafted, will obviously be influenced by any previous TLD applications. Any review process that takes place outside the "normal" ICANN process could be a source of concern not only for ICANN, as an organisation, but also for organisations wishing to launch a new domain extension. If the ICANN procedures and processes can be shown to be flawed then there may be a whole range of issues for both ICANN and the applicants to deal with prior to any forward movement in the new TLDs.

So earlier this evening ICANN CEO, Rod Beckstrom, tweeted that the independent review had found in ICM's favour - with a vote of 2 - 1.

Shortly afterwards the actual decision was published on the ICANN website.

If you have the time you can plough through the entire document (about 80 pages), but the key "takeaway" from this is that ICANN has lost.

The ICANN board's decision has been shown to be flawed.

The panel states:

...the Panel finds ground for questioning the neutral and objective performance of the Board, and the consistency of its so doing with its obligation not to single out ICM Registry for disparate treatment

Not good. That strongly suggests that ICANN's board may have been influenced by external forces - in all likelihood the US government.

The rest of their findings are worth quoting, as they are very important and shine a spotlight on the inconsistencies:

The Panel concludes, for the reasons stated above, that:
First, the holdings of the Independent Review Panel are advisory in
nature; they do not constitute a binding arbitral award.
Second, the actions and decisions of the ICANN Board are not entitled
to deference whether by application of the "business judgment" rule or
otherwise; they are to be appraised not deferentially but objectively.
Third, the provision of Article 4 of ICANN's Articles of Incorporation
prescribing that ICANN "shall operate for the benefit of the Internet
community as a whole, carrying out its activities in conformity with relevant
principles of international law and applicable international conventions and
local law," requires ICANN to operate in conformity with relevant general
principles of law (such as good faith) as well as relevant principles of
international law, applicable international conventions, and the law of the
State of California.
Fourth, the Board of ICANN in adopting its resolutions of June 1, 2005,
found that the application of ICM Registry for the .XXX sTLD met the required
sponsorship criteria.
Fifth, the Board's reconsideration of that finding was not consistent
with the application of neutral, objective and fair documented policy.
Sixth, in respect of the first foregoing holding, ICANN prevails; in
respect of the second foregoing holding, ICM Registry prevails; in respect of
the third foregoing holding, ICM Registry prevails; in respect of the fourth
foregoing holding, ICM Registry prevails; and in respect of the fifth foregoing
holding, ICM Registry prevails. Accordingly, the prevailing party is ICM
Registry. It follows that, in pursuance of Article IV, Section 3(12) of the
Bylaws, ICANN shall be responsible for bearing all costs of the IRP Provider.
Each party shall bear its own attorneys' fees. Therefore, the administrative
fees and expenses of the International Centre for Dispute Resolution, totaling
$4,500.00, shall be borne entirely by ICANN, and the compensation and
expenses of the Independent Review Panel, totaling $473,744.91, shall be
borne entirely by ICANN. ICANN shall accordingly reimburse ICM Registry
with the sum of $241,372.46, representing that portion of said fees and
expenses in excess of the apportioned costs previously incurred by ICM
Registry.

 
Note the financial portion of the judgement. ICANN, which has already had a budget overrun, gets hit again, this time for nearly half a million dollars.

You can download the full text of the review panel's decision from the ICANN website, although some sections have been redacted by ICM for reasons of confidentiality.

Since this was released on a Friday night it's unlikely that there will be much public reaction from either ICANN, ICM or any others until next week, but I suspect that there will be some very interesting discussions surrounding this decision.

Amazing how a single document can rock the boat, isn't it?

UPDATE: Since this story has attracted quite a bit of attention from ICANN observers some of their comments on Twitter and elsewhere have led to extra material worth citing. Former ICANN board member Susan Crawford made a very interesting statement about the Board's vote, which is worth reading. (Thanks to Antony Van Couvering for the link)

UPDATE 2: Milton Mueller who was one of the expert witnesses during the review of .xxx has posted on the subject as well.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Sex.com goes titsup (go.theregister.com)
• Sex.com at Foreclosure Auction? (domainmacher.com)

Afilias, which runs .info and provides registry services to a lot of other domains, has acquired the .mobi registry operator - mTLD Ltd.

The acquisition was officially announced on February 11th 2010, with both Afilias and mTLD releasing press releases etc., as well as a message to pass on to any registrants who might be concerned by the acquisition.

Is this good news or bad news?

I'd suspect that it's good news. It's certainly not bad!

It will be interesting to see what, if any, changes Afilias will bring to the .mobi namespace.

You can read the official announcement here

Related articles by Zemanta

• Afilias Limited Acquires .Mobi Domain Registry And Expands Market Leadership (prweb.com)
• Good News For Mobi (blacknight.com)
• Domain Name Wire " News " Afilias Aquires DotMobi - The Domain ... (domainmacher.com)
• Irish domain name company buys `.mobi' suffix (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

The relaunch of Colombia's ccTLD got underway within the last couple of hours and the new registry operator is already reporting several hundred domains registered. According to a "tweet" from their official account 322 domains were registered in the first few minutes.

While the full launch of .co is still a few weeks away today's launch is probably a good "warm up" for the new registry operator.

You can currently register com.co via a limited number of registrars, while there will be only ten registrars offering the .co domain when it the launch takes place in March

In common with most launch phases, trademark holders will be able to register names prior to the general launch.

More information on the .co site