ICANN Says It Is Not an Internet Enforcement Agency

ICANN says domain name issues are not always a matter of contractual compliance... "There remain occasional misconceptions about ICANN's authority. Some appear to believe ICANN is an Internet enforcement agency, with broad power to shut down websites, restrict website content, and penalize Internet users for unethical behavior. This is not the case," says a section from ICANN's July magazine. more»

Open Registration of Top-Level Domain .Me Turns into Crisis

The .Me Top-Level Domain (TLD) Registry officially opened today for everyone on a first-come, first-served basis at 15:00UTC July 17, 2008. In follow up to the launch of this TLD, companies, organizations and members of the public where told that they can get a "Web presence that is truly personal, and have their new Web site working within minutes!" But apparently the process hasn't gone as smoothly as planed. more»

Google Sued for Selling Ads on Parked Domains and Error Pages

Google on Friday was sued for fraud, business code violations, and unjust enrichment, claims arising from the company's alleged sale of low-quality ads, reports Thomas Claburn, of InformationWeek. The class-action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., by lawyers from San Francisco-based Schubert Jonckheer Kolbe & Kralowec. The plaintiff is attorney Hal K. Levitte, who advertised his legal services though a Google AdWords pay-per-click campaign last year. Should the lawsuit move forward as a national class action and succeeds in claming that all Google's AdWords advertisers have spent a similar percentage of their ad budgets on low-quality ads, Google could be liable for a significant sum. more»

Turkish Hacker Group Strikes Again, This Time Victims are ICANN and IANA

The same Turkish Hacking Group, NetDevilz, responsible for the hacking and defacement of the popular photo sharing site, Photobucket, has been reported to have briefly succeeded in accessing ICANN and IANA domain names yesterday, June 26, 2008, and redirecting them to a page containing the message: "You think that you control the domains but you don't! Everybody knows wrong. We control the domains including ICANN! Don't you believe us?"... more»

ICANN Board Approves Sweeping Overhaul of Top-level Domains

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has just approved the relaxation of the rules for the introduction of new Top-Level Domains -- a move that could drastically change the Internet. The new decision -- some calling it of historic importance and others predictable -- will allow companies to register their brands as generic top-level domain names (TLDs). For instance, Microsoft could apply to have a TLD such as '.msn' and Apple apply for '.mac'. more»

Brand Owners Express Concern Over Introduction of New Top-Level Domains

Monika Ermert reporting on Intellectual Property Watch says: "Some think ICANN should have moved much faster to introduce new names in the Internet to join the likes of .com and .org. Others moan about the widespread trademark infringement they expect to occur when the private internet governance body introduces several long-awaited new top-level domains. But the prospect of news about the next round in extending the global domain name space has brought them all to ICANN's Paris meeting that might emerge as the largest in the organisation's history." The ICANN Board will decide on Thursday which Top-Level Domains will move and which ones will not. more»

Bulgaria Applies for Top-Level Domain .bg in Cyrillic Script

Bulgaria has submitted a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the Top-Level Domain (TLD) '.bg' in Cyrillic script as part of efforts to boost national pride amid a growing influence of English. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has also called for his country to be assigned a Cyrillic TLD as the Kremlin is concerned that Russian, once the main language throughout the Soviet Union, is losing ground to local languages. more»

ICANN to Decide Approval of Thousands More TLDs, eBay Already a Contender for dot eBay

Officials at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), during the currently on going meetings in Paris, have said that they were poised to bring the most dramatic change to the Internet in four decades by opening up top-level domains to endless variations. This decision would potentially allow companies to turn their own brands into domains (think .CNN, .MAC, or .LIVE) or to create broad product groups such as .CAR, .SPORTS or .BANK. Ebay is already a contender to use its name, according to Paul Levins, executive officer of ICANN. "We're talking about introducing potentially thousands more names," said Levins. more»

New .tel Domain Uses DNS to Store Personal and Business Data

Telnic Limited, the Registry Operator and Sponsoring Organization for the new sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) .tel, has just announced, at the ICANN meetings in Paris, the launch of its website and date when domain name registration will be accepted... The .tel will offer a service that allows individuals and businesses to store and manage all their contact information and keywords directly within the Domain Name System (DNS) without the need to build, host or manage a website. more»

FTC Halts Cross Border Domain Name Con Artists

A U.S. District Court Judge has ordered a halt to the illegal practices of Canadian operators who deceptively posed as domain name registrars and sent bogus bills to thousands of U.S. small businesses and nonprofit organizations for their annual "WEBSITE ADDRESS LISTING." Many of the businesses and nonprofits believed they would lose their domain names unless they paid the bill, so they paid. The Federal Trade Commission alleged that in most cases the defendants did not provide domain registration services, did not provide the "search optimization" services it claimed to provide, and bilked small businesses and nonprofits out of millions of dollars. more»

ICM Registry, Applicant of the Proposed .XXX Domain, Files Independent Review Petition Against ICANN

In a public letter posted on ICM Registry's Website, Stuart Lawley, Chairman and President of the organization has announced that last week an independent review petition against ICANN was filed. In March 2007, ICM's application for a new .XXX Top-Level Domain (TLD) was rejected by ICANN after a three year long process costing ICM reportedly over US$ 4 million in total (view all related posting). Following is the text from today's announcement... more»

14 Million Domain Names Registered in First Quarter of 2008, Total Reaching 162 Million Worldwide

In the first three months of 2008, the growth of the Internet has remained steady as 14 million new domain names were added according to the first quarter 2008 Domain Name Industry Brief published by VeriSign, Inc. According to the report, at the end of the first quarter of 2008, there were more than 162 million domain name registrations across all of the Top-Level Domain Names (TLDs). This represents a 26 percent increase over the same quarter last year, and 6 percent growth over the fourth quarter of 2007. That pace of quarterly growth is about the same as the average quarterly growth rate from 2007. more»

Domain Registrars Releasing Suspended Domains to Attackers

Mary Landesman of ScanSafe reports: "A new outbreak of SQL attacks began on the 8th. Not that they ever really go away, but new waves replace the old ones. The attackers are using a much larger number of domains than seen in previous months. Just 11 days into June, and already 54 of these domains have been observed. Many of these are previously suspended domains that registrars have released back to the attackers. more»

CADNA Held London Online Brand Abuses and Internet Governance Education Forum

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) recently held its London Online Brand Abuses and Internet Governance Education Forum. The forum included companies from the US, UK, Belgium, Netherlands and Switzerland, with half of the attendees representing Global 500 companies. Forum attendees expressed concerns over issues such as online brand dilution and the often-ineffective governance of ICANN. more»

Security Research Names Hong Kong and China Most Dangerous Country Domains, Finland Safest

Recent security report suggests country code top-level domains '.hk' and '.cn' -- belonging to Hong Kong and China respectively -- are currently among the most dangers domain names. As to why? Making the Hong Kong online registration process "more user-friendly" by allowing registration of several domains at one time as well as "buy-one, get-two domains," are partly blamed for the decline in security. As a consequence, "phishers usually registered eight or more domains at one time." Hong Kong last year began to tighten policies to rectify the situation. more»