ICANN to Launch Testing of IDNs for TLDs in the Third Quarter of 2006

ICANN will start the trial testing of internationalized domain names (IDN) in the Top-Level Domain (TLD) system, in the third quarter of 2006, Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN, told Interfax in an interview Tuesday. Once IDN domain names are implemented Internet sites will able to have domain names in foreign languages, and foreign character sets -- such as Chinese.

"The preparation for the testing is already underway, and it will be a testing on the top of the root," said Twomey. "We are presently moving to introduce the IDNs of TLD, and are much closer to the end for the answer." But the exact date for the launch of the IDN is not yet available.  more»

Volkswagen Gets polo.eu Domain Name

Volkswagen has scooped the polo.eu domain name, despite fierce competition from Ralph Lauren and Polo-mint maker Nestle, a leading registrar reveals.

NetNames said the trio applied within five minutes of each other, and Ralph Lauren, owner of polo.com, missed out by only three minutes and 24 seconds. The .eu domain was launched in December and opens to the public in four weeks. more»

China Adds Chinese Top-Level Domain Names

China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) has made adjustment to China's Internet domain name system in accordance with Article 6 of China Internet Domain Names Regulations.

After the adjustment, ".MIL" will be added under the top-level domain (TLD) name of "CN". A new Internet domain name system will take effect as of March 1 in China. Under the new system, besides "CN", three Chinese TLD names "CN", "COM" and "NET" are temporarily set. more»

IANA Up For Grabs?

The US government wants to hear from organizations interested in running some of the internet's key resources, including the master lists of IP address space and domain names.

The Department of Commerce last week published a request for information, a step before potentially putting a contract out to bidding, soliciting interest from anybody interested in taking over the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. more»

Opposition to ICANN-VeriSign Proposal Grows

Eight of the world's largest domain registrars have sent an open letter to ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf, stating their formal opposition to the revised proposition with VeriSign for continued control of the Internet registry.

The eight signatories, which lay claim to 25 million domain names, or 57 percent of those currently registered, are GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Tucows, Register.com, BulkRegister, Schlund + Partner AG, Melbourne IT and Intercosmos Media Group.
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EU To Compete with Dot-Com

There has been a flurry of activity among businesses and other domain-name holders in Europe following Tuesday's launch of the new ".eu" Internet domain by the European Union.

As of Thursday morning, some 270,000 applications for 198,000 different names using the new .eu tag had been received by the European Registry of Internet Domain Names (Eurid), which is authorized by the EU to operate the .eu registry, according to organization spokesperson Patrik Linden. more»

Effects of Domain Hijacking Can Linger

Malicious hackers who are able to hijack an organization's Web domain may be able to steal traffic from the legitimate Web site long after the domain has been restored to its owner, according to a recent report.

Design flaws in the way Web browsers and proxy servers store data about Web sites allow malicious hackers to continue directing Web surfers to malicious Web pages for days or even months after the initial domain hijacking. more»

New Policy in China Favors Cybersquatters

New regulations will make it more difficult for companies to protect their domain names from cybersquatters in China.

Under the new rules, foreign and local firms will need to prove malicious intent and act quickly to have any hope of retrieving stolen domain names, according to a regulatory official interviewed by Chinese news site Sina. The new rules appear to give a green light to cybersquatters who buy up domain names which are similar to brand names in the hope of selling later for a profit. more»

Domain Names for Newborns Becoming a Trend

Luke Seeley, 22 months, has two Web sites of his own, including lukeseeley.com, a domain his father purchased soon after an ultrasound showed that his first child was a boy, four months before the baby was born.

"It's like owning a piece of real estate online for him," said Seeley, 34, who lives in Vancouver, Wash., and specializes in Internet sales for an advertising firm. "By the time he's a teenager and he's really into the Internet, who knows what's going to be left in terms of domains?"  more»

Sex.com Sold for $14m

The infamous and controversial domain Sex.com has officially been sold to Boston-based Escom LLC for a reported $14 million, as reported by XBiz.

Prior to learning of the sale of Sex.com, numerous adult industry message board postings had already begun speculating on the sale after noticing the radical change in the appearance of the Sex.com website. On the homepage of the updated website, the new owners refer to the site as "the new Sex.com," and the appearance is radically different from the former site. The site is copyrighted by Escom.  more»

China's .CN Domain Name Registrations Top 1 Million

The number of registered .cn domain names has topped 1 million for the first time, according to the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), which oversees the administration of the top-level domain for China.

At the end of December, nearly 1.1 million domain names had been registered under the .cn top-level domain, CNNIC said in a statement. That represents an annual increase of 154 percent and makes the .cn top-level domain the largest in Asia and the sixth-largest in the world, it said. more»

NAF Issues Decision on George Foreman's Domain Name

The National Arbitration Forum announced today that a ruling has been issued in favor of heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic gold medalist George Foreman regarding the rights to georgeforemanenterprises.com.

George Foreman Ventures LLC, represented by Jeanine L. Gibbs of Wargo & French LLP, filed a complaint electronically with the National Arbitration Forum on November 17, 2005, asserting legal rights to the domain name georgeforemanenterprises.com. The panel found that the Web address was registered by the Respondent, "zinnia c/o Zinnia Gonzalez," on August 18, 2005, and resolved to an "under construction" web page. more»

Domain Name Scammers Fined AU$2.3m

A pair of fraudsters who made millions using a domain registration scam have been ordered to pay AU$2.3m by an Australian court.

Brad Norrish and Chesley Rafferty conned victims into stumping up non-existent fees under the threat that they risked losing their domain names unless they paid up. The duo used data from domain name registrar Nominet to produce authentic-looking notices that lent credibility to the trick, the Australian reports. more»

Berlin May Get Its Own Domain

A German entrepreneur sometime next year hopes he will be able to boast, "Ich bin ein dot-Berliner."

The businessman, Dirk Krischenowski, is bidding to make his city the first in the world with its own domain name: .berlin. Berlin's businesses and citizens will flock to the domain because millions of people regard the hip European city as a part of their identities, he believes. more»

Cyberspace Unity Eludes Europeans

They couldn't agree on a single constitution, and now it looks like Europeans can't agree on the best way to identify themselves on the Internet. For the first time on Wednesday, residents of the 25-nation European Union can register Internet addresses ending in ".eu". The move, which lifts .eu to the same prominence as the Web site suffixes .com, .org and .net, is intended to allow the expression of a single European identity in cyberspace. more»