Throughout this series of articles we've been talking about DKIM, and what a valid DKIM signature actually means. .. What this means for senders (of any type) is that with DKIM, you’re protected. On the internet, your domain name is a statement of your brand identity – so by signing messages with DKIM, you can finally, irrevocably tie those messages to your brand. more»
Former U.S. presidential candidate and congressman Rob Paul has filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization against the registrants of RonPaul.com and RonPaul.org in order to gain control of the domains. more»
Although Internet domain names may be getting longer or more complex as Web sites creatively squeeze into the crowded ".com" address space, most single-letter names like "a.com" and "b.com" remain unused.
That may soon change as the Internet's key oversight agency considers lifting restrictions on the simplest of names. more»
"In apparent observation of international trade sanctions against Syria, a U.S. firm that ranks as the world's fourth-largest domain name registrar has seized hundreds of domains belonging to various Syrian entities, including a prominent Syrian hacker group and sites associated with the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad," reports Brian Krebs. "The apparently coordinated action ended with each of the site's registration records being changed to include Web.com's Florida address, as well as the notation 'OFAC Holding'." more»
According to recent reports, the total number of new domain name registrations in the third quarter of 2008 reached 11.5 million, pushing the total number of domain names registered in total across all Top-Level Domain Names (TLDs) to 174 million. While the growth continues, the newly released Domain Report by Verisign, indicates a "a decline of new registrations by 2%t from second quarter and 2% from third quarter 2007, driven by declines in both gTLD and ccTLD growth." The decline in new domain name registrations are found to be partly due new changes made by Google to its AdSense program -- the report explains... more»
At the House Energy and Commerce Internet Subcommittee hearing today, Verizon Communications urged the panel to stop the expansion of new Top-Level Domains (TLDs) -- such as dot.eco and dot.movie -- until there is clear proof for market demand and that the Internet is secure and stable. ICANN plans to go ahead with accepting application for new TLDs given all concerns have been addressed. "ICANN financially benefits from this expansion. It will bring in more than $90 million from the initial grant of applications alone," said Sarah Deutsch, Verizon VP and associate general counsel. "As a result, however, businesses and consumers will face higher costs. This isn't very helpful in the current economic climate." more»
The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG), in consultation with the ICANN Registrar Constituency and several domain name registrars, has published a "best practices" advisory for registrars to help them implement mechanisms to make it more difficult to register and use domains for illicit uses such as phishing, a confidence scheme used to dupe consumers out of personal financial information. Several globally active registrars, including APWG members Go Daddy, the world's largest registrar and Network Solutions, the world's oldest commercial registrar, have already implemented or are planning to implement many of the best practices prescribed by the APWG's Anti-Phishing Best Practices Recommendations for Registrars, released this month. more»
Surfing the Web on a cellphone can be as difficult as surfing the ocean on a tiny board. Now, a company founded by Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., Vodafone Group PLC, Nokia Corp., and several other companies, aims to make it easier to browse the Internet on wireless devices such as cellphones or BlackBerries...
Many sites can't be displayed on tiny cellphone screens, and most would take a much longer time to download than on a PC. Mobile Top Level Domain aims to change that in part by setting up a new domain name specifically for wireless Internet Web sites called dot-mobi. more»
Cybersquatting the domain name of a celebrity and selling it for a king's ransom was one of the great get-rich-quick schemes of the early internet. But since courts now tend to favor the star over the squatter, a new kinder, gentler cybersquatting tactic has emerged.
These days, cybersquatters seek to register a star's domain before that person becomes famous, and then develop a business relationship with the new celebrity, offering website hosting or design work. These so-called soft squatters are registering the domains of hundreds of amateur athletes, musicians and other would-be stars in the hope that one or two of the names will become well-known. more»
This Friday, it looks as though the ICANN Board will follow the clear conclusions drawn by its independent review and approve dot-xxx. Given the importance of the first use of the review process, the importance of the Board being seen to be accountable and the fact that the community was pretty unanimous in recent public comment, it is pretty much the only reasonable course of action. The question then is: how do things move forward? more»
In my last post we talked about the value of introducing new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) to Tribes. We discussed what a Tribe was and how communities of people sharing knowledge and experiences can benefit from new TLDs. In the next three posts from my blog we'll discuss how brand owners can either benefit from creating a tribal home and/or come together with other tribes for the benefit of their members. more»
ICANN has its 34th international public meeting in Mexico City on 1-6 March i.e. in just over a fortnight. One of the consistent concerns I hear in my role as general manager of public participation for the organization is that there is not a way for people to ask questions to the staff and the Board. I don't think that's really true but I do accept that the formats used are not liked by a large number of people... more»
Some Russian Internet users are struggle with ICANN to save the .su country code top-level domain (ccTLD) that was assigned to the country just before the Soviet Union collapsed. ICANN says that the name is out of date and is planning to remove it from the root servers. On the other hand, thousands of Internet users are still using .su ccTLD -- figures reported indicate nearly 10,000 registered domain names with approximately 1,500 new ones added this year alone. more»
As the fall of 2012 begins the implementation of rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) for new gTLDs is reaching a critical stage... Given the half year interval between the upcoming Toronto ICANN meeting and the following Beijing meeting in April 2013, it is highly desirable, and perhaps essential, that community discussion in Toronto result in a clear consensus on how RPM implementation should proceed if new gTLDs are to launch without further delay and if potential registrants are to perceive them as acceptable platforms for speech and commerce. more»
The U.N. copyright agency (World Intellectual Property Organization) that arbitrates more than half the world's "cybersquatting" cases saw a 25 percent increase in complaints last year. WIPO received 1,823 complaints in 2006 alleging abusive registrations of trademarks as Internet domain names. more»