Registry Services

Atallah, ICANN’s Global Domains Division Joins Donuts as CEO

Akram Atallah, head of ICANN's Global Domains Division, has left the organization to join leading gTLD registry Donuts Inc. as its new CEO. more

PIR, the .ORG Domain Registry, Announces Radical Change to Marketing Scheme

Public Interest Registry, the non-profit organization managing the .ORG top-level domain, says it will not be offering any further volume discounts to domain registrars when the current agreements expire. more

Donuts Holder of the Largest Portfolio of New TLDs Acquired by Abry Partners

Donuts Inc., a global leader in new top-level domains (TLDs), has announced that it has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Abry Partners, a private equity firm. more

Neustar Announces New President and CEO Succeeding Lisa Hook

Neustar Inc. today announced that its Board of Directors have appointed Charles Gottdiener as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. more

ICANN Issues Notice of Breach of Registry Agreement to .Pharmacy TLD Operator

The National Association of Board of Pharmacy ("NABP"), the operator of the .Pharmacy top-level domain is in breach of its Registry Agreement with the ICANN according to a letter issued by the agency today. more

Anti-Phishing Working Group Proposes Use of Secure Hashing to Address GDPR-Whois Debacle

The AntiPhishing Working Group (APWG) in a letter to ICANN has expressed concern that the redaction of the WHOIS data as defined by GDPR for all domains is "over-prescriptive". more

MMX Announces Acquisition of ICM Registry

Minds + Machines Group Limited (MMX), a leading operators of Internet Top-Level Domains, announced on Friday that it has entered into a conditional agreement to acquire the entire membership interests of ICM Registry LLC. more

EFF Urges EURid to Refuse EU Commission’s “Misguided Advice” to Eliminate UK-Registered .EU Domains

In response to the European Commission surprise announcement last week that British domain owners may no longer be entitled to keep their ".eu" domain names, EFF is urging the registry for .eu (EURid) no to follow through. more

ICANN CEO “Cautiously Optimistic” EU to Provide Clear Guidance for Domain Industry GDPR Compliance

"ICANN could invoke emergency powers in its contracts to prevent Whois becoming 'fragmented' after EU privacy laws kick in next month," reports Kevin Murphy in Domain Incite. more

ICANN’s GDPR Compliance Model for Whois Unlikely to Be Implemented in Time for May 25 Deadline

Domain name registries and registrars will not be able to implement ICANN's proposed overhaul of the Whois system in time for the EU's General Data Protection Regulation according to an estimated timetable from ICANN. more

Donuts Acquires .TRAVEL TLD

Donuts Inc. today announced it has acquired the .TRAVEL domain name from registry operator Tralliance Registry Management Company; the .TRAVEL domain becomes Donuts' 239th TLD. more

DOJ Closes Probe of VeriSign Over .Web TLD

The Justice Department has closed its investigation into VeriSign Inc.'s involvement in an auction for the .web internet domain. more

CENTR Reports TLD Slowdown Partly Due to Deletes by Chinese Investors Which Had Peaked in 2016

The Council of European National Top-Level Domains Registries (CENTR) in its quarterly report released today, says global domains under all TLDs have contracted slightly due to declines in several larger new gTLDs. more

EFF Warns ICANN Not to Engage in Censorship, Says It Should Stick to Technical Role

A series of articles published by EFF, coinciding with ICANN's 60th meeting in Abu Dhabi this week, Jeremy Malcolm warns that domain name registrars, registries and ICANN can become "free speech week leaks" for online censorship. more

Dutch Geographic TLDs Refuse Public Access to Whois Data

Organizations behind two of the new geographic top-level domains, .amsterdam and .frl, have refused to provide public access to information about the registrants of domain names, otherwise known as Whois records. more