Four senators (Rockefeller, Bayh, Nelson, and Snowe) have recently introduced S.773, the Cybersecurity Act of 2009. While there are some good parts to the bill, many of the substantive provisions are poorly thought out at best. The bill attempts to solve non-problems, and to assume that research results can be commanded into being by virtue of an act of Congress. Beyond that, there are parts of the bill whose purpose is mysterious, or whose content bears no relation to its title. more
Drawing on standard-setting approaches and the regulatory options at the disposal of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), I outline three alternative venues to decide on launching new top-level domain names (TLDs). ICANN needs to analyze all these venues before making a final procedural decision. more
Nearly ten years ago, the Government of Canada wrote a letter to the chair of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) that set out the framework for the management of the dot-ca domain. The government articulated a vision of the dot-ca domain as a “key public resource” and called on CIRA to act in an open and transparent manner. CIRA has long sought to live up to those standards, but in recent months the organization has shown an unmistakable shift toward prioritizing commercial gain over the public interest along with a troubling move toward secret decision making... more
This article is the first in an occasional series on DKIM/ADSP edge cases that may not be generally recognized or understood. Many people advocate DKIM/ADSP adoption without fully recognizing potential implementation and operational issues. The fact is that the email messaging environment is fraught with opportunities for poor outcomes because of common practices that need to be considered or poorly understood implementations that are not considered... more
Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to attend the The Emerging Communications (eComm) 2009 conference in San Francisco which was packed with 3 days of fascinating conversations about the future of communications. I absolutely enjoyed talking to various speakers and attendees giving me a deep level of appreciation and perspective on technical, commercial and political issues at hand -- and what is likely to come in the next few years. And speaking of politics, Lee Dryburgh, who founded eComm in early 2008, has generously allowed us to share with you a fascinating panel discussion which took place on day 3 of the conference called "Spectrum 2.0 - What's really happening?" more
The IANA -- Internet Assigned Numbers Authority -- is, functionally, the boiler room of the Internet. Every protocol in use to shovel data from Tallahassee to Timbuktu? Listed there. IP addresses? They are the root from which all addresses flow. Domain names? They are the Source. The entire operation is chock-full of magic numbers, numbers that form and fuel the digital world we use daily. But there are other, lesser-known numbers... It is of PENs that I write today... more
If there's one thing that scares the bejabbers out of me, it's when organized religion -- either directly or via proxies -- attempts to nose its way into technology policy issues. It appears that such a scenario is unfolding currently, with a concerted new effort to fundamentally remake the Internet in a manner befitting the sensibilities of top-down religious hierarchies. An Internet Pope? The Spanish Inquisition? Not exactly -- that's the incorrect religion for this particular case. more
It's coming up on two years since the DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) standard was published. While we're seeing a certain amount of signed mail from Google, Paypal, and ESPs, there's still a long way to go. How hard is it to sign your mail with DKIM? The major hurdle might seem to be getting mail software that can sign outgoing mail. more
According to latest reports from the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), allegations of cybersquatting by trademark holders continued to rise in 2008, with a record 2,329 complaints filed under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). This represented an 8% increase over 2007 in the number of generic and country code Top-Level Domain (gTLDs and ccTLDs) disputes handled and brings the total number of WIPO cases filed under the UDRP since it was launched ten years ago to over 14,000. To improve efficiency and respond to growing demand, WIPO has proposed an "eUDRP Initiative" to render the UDRP paperless... more
Defendant Shui registered the domain name citybank.org and established a site there promoting financial services, sometimes using the mark CITIBANK. The real Citibank, armed with its trademark registrations in over 200 countries and over 50 years of use of its CITIBANK mark, filed suit against Shui under the Anticybersquatting and Consumer Protection Act, 15 USC 1125(d) ("ACPA")... Citibank sought $100,000 -- the maximum amount of statutory damages available under the ACPA, plus payment of Citibank's attorneys' fees... more
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is the leading email authentication technology, supported by major ISPs including Google, AOL, and Yahoo! (who invented its predecessor), popular mail server software like Sendmail, and many of the best minds in email technology. But if you peruse the archives of the IETF DKIM mailing list, or start up a conversation at MAAWG, it might appear that there's still a lot of disagreement about what a DKIM signature actually means. more
ICANN Meetings can be an intimidating place for first-timers or even those who have only attended for the few years. The acronyms fly fast and furious. The participants, or at least most of them, have been working on the issues for years (even decades). The technical and policy issues are complex. Luckily, however, an attendee can overcome these barriers to entry with a few drinks at the hotel bar. .. more
It didn't seem to make any headlines, but it is an interesting sign of the Internet times that, effective January 1, 2009 , the United State Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") changed the International Classification of "domain name registration services" to Class 45 (defined below). The reason that the move is interesting is that it is just one more indication that the world of the Internet is becoming less and less about technology and more and more about law and policy. more
Philbrick's Sports is a New Hampshire retailer of sporting goods. eNom's customer registered two domain name variants of Philbrick Sport's website. When the customer didn't pay eNom, eNom took the names back for itself... Each of these domain names were parked with Yahoo, who displayed sponsored ads on the domains. Philbrick's then sued eNom, claiming cybersquatting and trademark infringement. more
U.S. Republican politicians on Thursday introduced a bill that would require Internet service providers and network operators to track the use of and maintain records for their publicly accessible wired and wireless networks. Two bills have been introduced... Each of the bills carries the title "Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act," and is referred to as the "Internet SAFETY Act." more
A World-Renowned Source for Internet Developments. Serving Since 2002.