http://www.circleid.com/ Postings from George Kirikos on CircleID en Copyright 2010, unless where otherwise noted. 2009-09-30T12:49:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090930_doc_to_icann_end_double_weighted_voting_registries_registrar http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090930_doc_to_icann_end_double_weighted_voting_registries_registrar Affirmation of Commitments. One of the important elements of that document was in section 4, namely that "ICANN and DOC recognize that there is a group of participants that engage in ICANN's processes to a greater extent than Internet users generally." More...]]> 2009-09-30T12:49:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090618_most_popular_invalid_tlds_should_be_reserved http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090618_most_popular_invalid_tlds_should_be_reserved More...]]> 2009-06-18T13:38:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/how_is_icann_spending_your_money http://www.circleid.com/posts/how_is_icann_spending_your_money More...]]> 2009-06-17T17:11:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090304_flawed_economic_report_gtlds_icann http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090304_flawed_economic_report_gtlds_icann reports and analysis by Dr. Dennis Carlton are deeply, deeply flawed. I will prepare a long rebuttal to it in the coming weeks, but wanted to go on the record early as to its weaknesses. The analysis appears to be based on a very limited review of the market for domain names, and utilizes little actual data. It fails to even consider how nuanced the market for domain names has become, and how registry operators can exploit those nuances, including tiered-pricing... More...]]> 2009-03-04T20:54:01-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090219_tiered_pricing_continues_in_new_gtld_guidebook http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090219_tiered_pricing_continues_in_new_gtld_guidebook More...]]> 2009-02-19T08:06:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090108_pir_anti_abuse_policy_domain_names http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090108_pir_anti_abuse_policy_domain_names More...]]> 2009-01-08T13:20:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090108_wipo_proposal_paperless_udrp http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090108_wipo_proposal_paperless_udrp World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has sent to ICANN a letter proposing Paperless Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP)... This would save considerable amounts of paper, reduce courier charges (as the notice weighs far less than the full complaint), and thus would be good for the environment. More...]]> 2009-01-08T10:50:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090105_icann_for_profit_companies_comparables http://www.circleid.com/posts/20090105_icann_for_profit_companies_comparables More...]]> 2009-01-05T15:34:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/20081024_verisign_tiered_domain_pricing_soon http://www.circleid.com/posts/20081024_verisign_tiered_domain_pricing_soon More...]]> 2008-10-24T07:12:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/86215_potential_danger_ahead_dot_info_policy http://www.circleid.com/posts/86215_potential_danger_ahead_dot_info_policy ICANN has posted a request by Afilias for a new registry service in relation to "abusive" domains in dot-info. While in general the proposal is motivated by good intentions, the devil is in the details. While most folks (including myself) probably care very little about the .info TLD, my concern is that any bad implementation in .info might be copied or used as a precedent in other more important TLDs, in particular .com run by VeriSign. More...]]> 2008-06-21T17:07:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/710118_short_domain_names_igo_udrp http://www.circleid.com/posts/710118_short_domain_names_igo_udrp draft report on dispute resolution procedures for IGO (inter-governmental organization) domain names. This proposal has deep flaws and should be rejected by the community, as it does not have the balance and protection of registrant rights present in the existing UDRP. Initially, the proposed policy would apply to new Top-Level Domains (TLDs), but via a Policy Development Process (PDP) it could be extended to existing TLDs. More...]]> 2007-10-01T19:29:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/79133_microsoft_files_cybersquatting_cases http://www.circleid.com/posts/79133_microsoft_files_cybersquatting_cases Inside Indiana Business article. I took the liberty of accessing the cases via the PACER system, and posted the major documents... It looks like they're stepping up efforts to defend their trademarks, and seeking big damages in court, rather than go the way of the UDRP. These cases demonstrate that new TLDs should not be a priority with ICANN until the problems in existing TLDs are addressed. More...]]> 2007-09-13T15:58:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/78298_ireit_drops_typo_domains http://www.circleid.com/posts/78298_ireit_drops_typo_domains iREIT (Internet REIT, Inc.), a Texas domain name portfolio investment corporation, has been sued by Verizon and by Vulcan Golf for cybersquatting. It appears iREIT is taking steps to clean up its portfolio by deleting obvious typos of famous trademarks... More...]]> 2007-08-29T09:23:01-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/070807_transparency_domain_name_pricing http://www.circleid.com/posts/070807_transparency_domain_name_pricing Tucows issued a press release today wherein they announced lower domain name pricing and enhanced services. The bigger change, which might set a trend for other registrars, is the greater transparency of the registry and ICANN fees relative to the fees charged by Tucows... If all registrars were to quote domain name prices in this manner (I had called it "Asterisk Prices" when I had suggested the idea to various registrars last December, for lack of a better term), it would shift the blame to ICANN and the monopoly registry operators (e.g. VeriSign) every time they raised their fees. More...]]> 2007-08-07T09:43:00-08:00 http://www.circleid.com/posts/neustar_losing_us_domain_name http://www.circleid.com/posts/neustar_losing_us_domain_name Neustar is facing a potential loss of the Dot-US franchise as competitors bid against them. Why might this be of interest to .com registrants? ...The issue of antitrust with regards to the .com agreement has never really been properly settled, as a well-funded complainant hasn't brought forward a case to full fruition in the courts. ICANN sold out the public by agreeing to a settlement that would see its own coffers swell, at the expense of registrants, so they do not count. More...]]> 2007-07-31T14:18:00-08:00