Last time the ICANN faithful gathered in Sydney, there was a fair bit of unrest and some big unknowns. The Implementation Recommendation Taskforce (IRT) report on how Intellectual Property (IP) could be protected in the era of new Top-Level Domains (TLDs) stirred the pot as did, to a lesser extent, the issue of Registry-Registrar separation in new TLDs. Additionally, everyone had big questions on their minds - when the root would be signed (and DNSSEC fully implemented)... Four months later and five thousand miles almost due north, the netizens gathering at ICANN 36 in Seoul know the answers to some of those very important questions. more
Ten years ago, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman lamented the "Business Community's Suicidal Impulse:" the persistent propensity to persecute one's competitors through regulation or the threat thereof. Friedman asked: "Is it really in the self-interest of Silicon Valley to set the government on Microsoft?" After yesterday's FCC vote's to open a formal "Net Neutrality" rule-making, we must ask whether the high-tech industry -- or consumers -- will benefit from inviting government regulation of the Internet under the mantra of "neutrality." more
U.S. Senator John McCain has introduced a legislation that could block the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from developing open Internet regulation which the agency voted on unanimously on Thursday. "Today I'm pleased to introduce the Internet Freedom Act of 2009 that will keep the Internet free from government control and regulation," said McCain. "It will allow for continued innovation that will in turn create more high-paying jobs for the millions of Americans who are out of work or seeking new employment. Keeping businesses free from oppressive regulations is the best stimulus for the current economy." more
RIPE, or Réseaux IP Européens, is a collaborative forum open to all parties interested in wide area IP networks in Europe and beyond... RIPE has been a feature of the European Internet landscape for some twenty years now, and it continues to be a progressive and engaged forum. These days RIPE meets twice a year, and the most recent meeting was held at Lisbon, Portugal, from the 5th to the 9th of October 2009. In this column I'd like to share some of my impressions of this meeting. more
A new phishing survey released by the Anti-Phishing Work Group (APWG) reveals that the longevity of phishing Web sites dropped by 25 percent over the last year. The survey has also revealed that a single criminal syndicate dubbed "Avalanche" was responsible for nearly one quarter of all phishing attacks in the first half of 2009. Indications are that the gang is continuing to claim a larger proportion of all detected phishing attacks. more
In a joint statement released today by Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO of Google, and Lowell McAdam, President and CEO of Verizon Wireless, the two companies have expressed their support for making existing 'net neutrality' principles enforceable. The joint statement was published as a blog post late Wednesday on both Google and Verizon policy blogs. more
The Dot Gay Alliance has announced plans to create the .GAY top-level domain (TLD) that also aims to become a source of funding for the LGBT civil rights groups in the US and abroad. The Dot Gay Alliance is led by Founder & Executive Director Joe Dolce, whose media strategy firm, DolceGoldin, provides communications services for the Alliance, according to the announcement released today. Dot Gay Alliance supporters include, New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Sunil Babu Pant, the first openly gay member of the Nepal Parliament. more
Most people take it for granted that domain names are property. As such, there shouldn't be much dispute that domain names are subject to the claims of judgment creditors. But I've seen enough resistance to this position that I thought a recent case was worth a quick mention. more
There is a difference between rhetorical leadership and actually instituting regulations. As the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) chair Konrad von Finckenstein said on October 21: "Canada is the first country to develop and implement a comprehensive approach to internet traffic management practices." In a regulatory policy decision, the CRTC affirmed that it already has sufficient legislative authority within Canada's Telecom Act to police discriminatory practices by ISPs. Similar clauses do not exist in US legislation. more
As readers of CircleID have seen, there has been a lot of activity (for example, Michael Geist's "Canadian Marketing Association Attacks Anti-Spam Bill"), as the final votes of C-27 grow nearer. The history towards getting a spam law passed in Canada has been a long one. For years, CAUCE encouraged legislators to undertake this important work... Fast forward a few years, and a few governments, and suddenly we have a law tabled in the House of Commons... more
An independent review of the .XXX Top-Level Domain application by ICM Reegistry was held in Washington DC last month, September 2009. All the documents from the hearing have now been posted online including witness statements from Vint Cerf, VP and chief Internet evangelist for Google and former Chairman of ICANN; Milton Meuller, Professor and Director of the Telecommunications Network Management Program at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies; Stuart Lawley, Chairman and President of ICM Registry and others. more
A group of 24 CEO's and Internet company founders submitted a letter today to the Federal Communications Commission in support of the Net Neutrality initiative. Also last week, in a similar letter, Vinton Cerf, Stephen Crocker and other Internet pioneers spoke out on Net Neutrality supporting FCC's recent open Internet initiative. more
With the final Industry Committee review of C-27, Canada's anti-spam legislation, set for Monday afternoon, lobby groups have been increasing the pressure all week in an effort to water down many of the bill's key protections. Yesterday, the Canadian Marketing Association chimed in with an emergency bulletin to its members calling on them to lobby for changes to the bill. While the CMA was very supportive of the bill when it appeared before the committee in June, it now wants to kill the core protection in C-27 - a requirement for express opt-in consent. more
In 1999, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) developed a policy to resolve disputes between trademark owners and registrants of domain names. This policy, the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) was made available for disputes concerning an alleged abusive registration of a domain name. In the past 10 years alone, more than 16,000 disputes have been filed resulting in more than 10,000 domain name transfers. more
Finland's national broadband strategy (NBS) was set up in 2004 by the Ministry of Transport and Communications with the practical goal of increasing the number of broadband connections. The strategy, part guided by the EU's i2010 'Broadband for all by 2010' plan which focuses on rolling out broadband through a range of measures while promoting competition in and between networks, included an implementation program of 50 separate measures. Broadband access in sparsely populated and rural areas was to be supported by structural funds from the EU and central government. more
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