Note: I’ve been on vacation, so this might be old news to some people.

A recent article at GulfNews.com talked about new TLDs and positioned domaining in a negative light. As in past mainstream media coverage, legitimate domain owners weren’t called cybersquatters this time around. Instead, domaining was singled out and defined in the article, and using quotes and info gathered from Paul Twomey, CEO of ICANN, the article implied that domaining was part of an overall problem with rolling out new TLDs. The quote from the article that upset domainers was :

While many would welcome the ability to have domain names in their native languages, there is a number of downsides, Twomey said, including cyber-squatting, typo-squatting and domaining.

DomainBits covered the story early on and spoke with ICANN reps who then provided a response from Twomey :

In no way did I say or suggest that domainers were a negative force in any way and certainly did not refer to them as “a downside.”

Enter Jothan Frakes. Frakes apparently knows the reporter at Gulf News and was able to provide him with more details and a better understanding of the domain space. Thanks to his “ambassador” work, a follow-up article came. Prepare for Battle Over Domain Names, included more information about domaining and what it entails and addressed the issue of how the good gets mixed with the bad.

Interestingly, the reporter still claims Twomey portrayed domaining negatively :

Twomey has since said he said nothing negative about domainers. Well, we’re going to have to agree to disagree there, although Paul’s words were not as critical nor as directed as some websites portrayed them.

We all know words can be twisted, things can be misunderstood and quotes taken out of context, yet one has to seriously wonder what really was said by Twomey in that conversation and what the CEO of ICANN really does think about domainers and domaining.

Two individuals have filed a complaint in US Federal Court in California accusing ICANN, Registerfly.com and Enom.com of anti-trust activities  [pdf document].

 

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“Lack of Accountability”, “Malign Oligarchy”, “Regulatory Capture” – these were some of the concerns raised during the ICANN review open meeting held February 28^th at the Department of Commerce (DOC) in Washington, DC. The concerns come as ICANN moves closer to full privatization.

ICANN currently operates under a Joint Project Agreement (JPA) that gives the US Government oversight and some authority over ICANN. The JPA’s three-year term expires in September 2009. The meeting was the part of the DOC’s mid-point review of the JPA to assess ICANN’s performance and readiness for full privatization.

A consistent theme throughout the morning was whether a fully privatized ICANN would be responsive to and accountable to its many stakeholders. Panelists as diverse as representatives from Network Solutions, Yahoo, Nominet, Consumers Union and a copyright association all expressed doubts as to whether the ICANN board is sufficiently accountable to the various groups that are affected by its decisions, and stated their fears that if the ICANN board ever became dominated by a particular interest group little could be done to correct the problem.

The comments came from two five-member panels composed of a mix of business, user, registry, registrar, and international representatives as well as some audience members. Most speakers agreed with the aim of full privatization of ICANN, and complimented ICANN on substantial recent progress especially in the area of transparency. The international representatives expressed their desire for the end of the US Government’s authority over ICANN. But deep concerns about ICANN’s accountability, structure, and its ability to enforce its contracts led the business and user group panelists to say that ICANN was not yet ready to operate without oversight from the US Government, despite assurances from ICANN leadership to the contrary. The consensus of the panelists was that ICANN has a lot of work to do during the remaining 18-months of the JPA if it wants to demonstrate it is ready for full privatization.

The meeting follows a request for comments on ICANN’s performance that generated over 170 submissions from a wide variety of interested parties (though around 70 were identical one page submissions from individuals). Phil Corwin submitted a very detailed critique of ICANN’s performance on behalf of the ICA. A number of other thoughtful responses were submitted, including one in particular by Danny Younger, on behalf of domain registrants.

My personal opinions on the meeting will appear in a separate editorial piece.

Editor’s Note: We’re very pleased to have Nat Cohen join us as a contributor. Nat was able to attend the recent meetings in Washington discussing the ICANN JPA.

Nat Cohen is the founder and President of Telepathy, Inc. and StateVentures, LLC. Telepathy holds an extensive domain portfolio with a focus on brandable, generic domains. StateVentures owns and develops a portfolio of geo-domains, including several state dot-com domains. Its current development focus includes the OceanCity.com resort guide and the RezEZ online hotel reservation system. Nat lives in Washington, DC with his wife and two daughters.

For those of you who haven’t heard about it already, Sen. Ted Stevens is proposing the Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008 (APCPA), which is also being supported by CADNA. We were first alerted to this topic by Michael Berkens’ post on The Domains. A recent article by Larry Fischer points out these are the reasons why this act is a bad idea:

1. There are already laws against Phishing.
2. This act makes whois-privacy illegal.
3. The bill would also allow businesses to take over generic domains if they match their business name.

[via The Domains, Direct Navigation, CNET]

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will be holding a public meeting to address ICANN’s performance under the current Joint Project Agreement (JPA) on February 28, 2008 at the Department of Commerce building in Washington, DC.

Twelve days ago ICANN stated that they want independence from US Government control, arguing that there is no longer a need for the JPA as the terms have been “fundamentally achieved”, according to Paul Twomey, President of ICANN.

With the meeting later this month, ICANN is hoping to move beyond government control with the belief that they can continue to improve independently.

While the US Government will still have input on matters if ICANN gets their way, they will no longer be able to dictate their agenda on ICANN, the overseer of the internet’s addressing system.

For more information about the meeting and details about how you can attend, please visit the NTIA website. The meeting will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time. Admittance is on a first-come, first-served registration basis.

ICANN, the overseer of the internet’s addressing system, has made a plea to the US government to be freed from official control.

In a lengthy report that was sent to the US Department of Commerce, ICANN argued that the objectives that were put in place by the US government to earn independence have been met faster than expected and that it is time to focus on the future.

The report has set up a meeting to discuss the Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between ICANN and the US government and see how ICANN can move on without the current official oversight.

“The board proposes that the JPA is no longer necessary and can be concluded,” wrote Peter Dengate Thrush, the chairman of the ICANN board.

Paul Twomey, president of ICANN, added that “the JPA has been fundamentally achieved and what’s more important is for the Department of Commerce and ICANN to talk about what the next stage looks like.”

Twomey also emphasized that it was important for governments to still have a role in matters, but not be able to have any control over the registry’s development.

ICANN will meet with the US Departnment of Commerce in March, 2008. If you’d like your views to be known, then you have until February 14 to contact the US Government.

For more information, head over to BBC News.

[via CircleID]

ICANN is seeking expressions of interest from auction design experts.

[From their announcement] ICANN has identified several areas where auctions might be an appropriate tool, such as the efficient disposition of data from terminated registrars and registries, the allocation of single-character second-level domain names, and perhaps, resolution of contention between competing commercial applicants for identical strings in the application process for new generic Top Level Domains. […]

This does not necessarily mean that ICANN has decided to formally proceed with auctions or that auctions will occur any time soon. At this point, ICANN is seeking expertise to further work in this area. However, ICANN is hoping to select a qualified entity or entities to assist with auctions in 2008.

[via ICANN Blog]

Iron Mountain Inc announced in a press release today that it’s technology division has been chosen by ICANN as the data escrow back-up for the over 900 ICANN accredited registrars.

“The vast majority of ICANN’s accredited registrars offer high levels of service and integrity; however, as we have seen, there is the risk that poorly performing registrars can hurt registrants significantly,” said Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN. “ICANN has selected Iron Mountain Digital as its escrow agent to help implement the Registrar Data Escrow program, a sensible and practical measure to protect registrants by storing and safeguarding a backup copy of domain name registration data in escrow.”

Data escrowing can be used in any number of situations such as a registrar losing accreditation, failing, going out of business, etc. Data escrowing is required by every registrar as part of the terms of accreditation. The former registrar RegisterFly.com implosion showed the importance of having back-up information. As the company management dealt with internal conflicts, many domain registrants were left in the dark about the future of their domains. ICANN has been working to implement safeguards and measures to prevent any possible future issues with registrar related problems.

The 30th International Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers meeting in Los Angeles concluded today, November 2nd with the election of a new Chairman of the Board of ICANN. Peter Dengate Thrush, a New Zealand barrister with a specialization in intellectual property, has been elected unanimously as the new Chairman of the Board.

From ICANNwiki.com :

Peter has been involved in ICANN since its inception. As a member of the Boston Working Group, he provided comment in 1998 on the early drafts of the ICANN bylaws, and as President of AIPPI-NZ he co-chaired one of the pre-formation meetings of the Intellectual Property Constituency (IP Constituency), in Wellington NZ. In 1999 he was appointed to ICANN’s IRAC (the Independent Review Advisory Committee) a multi-national panel of legal experts charged with defining the principles of independent review of the actions of the Board of ICANN. He contributed to InternetNZ’s submission to WIPO 1, and served on ICANN’s Working Group A, which led to the development of the UDRP. He is currently on the WSIS Workshop Working Group.

The election of the new Chairman comes this year after former Chairman Vint Cerf, announced his retirement after having served for eight years on the ICANN Board. The newest ICANN board also consists of 3 new board members selected in September 2007.

Today the ICANN meeting in Los Angeles begins. With Vincent Cerf stepping down as ICANN chairman, will this also be the continuation of change? While many additional members of the domain industry are attending this year’s conference, it still looks like ICANN would like to keep many things under cover as Karl Auerbach notices on his CaveBear Blog:

Wow, somewhere between one quarter and one third of all of the meetings are closed to the public! Well, we have long known that ICANN takes its responsibility to be open and transparent with more than a few grains of salt. But this seems far more secrecy than is normal, even for ICANN.

But look at this this: The meeting of the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) is closed to the public! The meeting of the ICANN’s company union is closed to its own membership. One would hope that this is a misprint. (Not that it matters much - I consider the ALAC to be a fraud upon the public and merely a means for ICANN to have a story, plausible to those who don’t dig deeper, that ICANN has a means for the public to have a say in what ICANN does.)

The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) and several of it’s members will be attending the ICANN meeting as well.

The author expects changes coming out of this meeting. One of these changes will most likely be related to purchasing companies that own existing registrars. These changes are based upon the Registerfly disaster, a registrar that went out of business and left it’s registrants without the ability to renew or manage their names. Registerfly had also purchased an existing registrar, Unified Names, in order to become ICANN accredited. The contract modifications will most likely mean that a company that buys an existing registrar will also have to meet certain ICANN requirements.