Blocking of a TLD by a local government is not going to lead to the fracturing of the Internet. If the case of Egypt is any guide, it's more likely to lead to the fracturing of the local government.
Interactive Investor Interviews Antony Van Couvering and Peter Dengate Thrush
The new gTLD program is not going to be undone. For that to happen would mean jettisoning 10 years of the ICANN experiment and all the work that has gone into it.While a more secure online banking may be offered should banks choose to take advantage of ICANN's recently liberalized generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) application process, some banks may have difficulty taking advantage of their new domain-name liberty because of their "klunky names", according to nomenclature specialist Naseem Javed, founder of New York-based ABC Namebank. Additionally the American Bankers Association is concerned that whatever entity ends up controlling the .bank domain could either charge high fees to financial institutions wishing to protect their intellectual property or fail to securely operate such domains, damaging consumer confidence in the internet channel. more»
In a letter to Mr. Rod Beckstrom, President, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has expressed major flaws in ICANN's program for introducing new generic Top-Level Domains. A program which ANA warns would allow as many as 1,000 new Top-Level Domains in the first year and the same cap every year thereafter. more»
Joly MacFie writes to report: "iBreakfast is presenting About the 'Domain' Conference: The Era of New TLDs, this Wednesday Aug 3 2011 at Herrick, Feinstein LLC in NYC. Wendy Seltzer, Esther Dyson, and Annalisa Roger, representatives of dotgay, .berlin, .xxx, plus major registries are among the participants who will discuss how the Internet will be impacted by the coming new TLD rollout." more»
In its second quarter 2011 earnings call, Verisign announced that Mark McLaughlin has submitted his resignation to become the CEO of a private company. His last day with the company will be August 25, 2011. Mark concluded his board service at the regularly scheduled board of directors meeting on July 27, 2011 and resigned as president and chief executive officer effective August 1, 2011. Jim Bidzos, Verisign's founder and previous CEO, will become the president and chief executive officer effective August 1, 2011. more»
ICM Registry announced this week it has struck a deal with McAfee for a free malware scan for every .XXX domain. The deal would include McAfee's "trustmark" and date stamp, ICM said. Every .XXX domain will be scanned for vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, browser exploits and phishing sites, reputational analysis and malware, Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, said in a statement. more»
The Board of ICANN today gave final approval to the most dramatic change to the Internet in four decades -- allowing the expansion of new Top-Level Domains (TLDs). This monumental decision will allow companies and organizations to turn their own brands into Internet domain extensions (that is .brand) or to create broad generic strings such as .CAR, .SPORTS or .BANK. ICANN's TLD expansion plan was first announced three years ago on June 26, 2008 at the 32nd ICANN Meeting in Paris. more»
Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "As ICANN's 41st meeting begins in Singapore, the Governmental Advisory Committee is sticking to its guns on a number of its outstanding demands on new top-level domains. GAC chair Heather Dryden said in a Saturday letter to the ICANN board (pdf) that its concerns relating to controversial string objections, trademark protection, and vertical integration have not been satisfactorily addressed." more»
The latest Domain Name Industry Brief published by Verisign reports 4.5 million domain names were added to the Internet in the first three months of 2011. According to the report, the first quarter of 2011 closed with a base of more than 209.8 million domain name registrations across all Top Level Domains (TLDs), or a 2.2 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2010. Registrations grew by 15.3 million, or 7.9 percent year over year. more»
Following in Twitter (T.co) and Overstock's (O.co's) footsteps, Amazon has registered a number of domain names ending with the .CO extension including, A.Co, Z.Co, K.Co and Cloud.co in a deal made with Columbia-based .CO registry. "We're not looking for a major brand to switch over to .co, but every day new companies are starting and can't get the domain name that they want," says .CO representative Lori Anne Wardi. more»
Jennifer Baker or IDG News reports: "The U.S. and the European Union have agreed to work together to ensure that domain naming on the Internet remains in the hands of independent private-sector stakeholders, but have demanded reforms. On Thursday, E.U. Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes and Larry Strickling, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce, said that they will continue to support the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) system for assigning top level domains..." more»
VeriSign reports that it has reached a Settlement Agreement and Mutual Release with the Coalition for ICANN Transparency, Inc. ("CFIT"), CFIT's members, and specified related parties that resolves the over five-year long CFIT litigation. Under the terms of the Agreement, no payment will be made and the parties immediately will file a dismissal with prejudice of all claims in the litigation. Further, the parties executed mutual releases from all claims now and in the future related to the litigation. more»
Kieren McCarthy reporting in .nxt: "The European Commission has confirmed a high-level meeting with the US government tomorrow over ICANN and new Internet extensions. The meeting between vice-president Neelie Kroes and US Assistant Commerce Secretary Larry Strickling follows an extraordinary correspondence in recent weeks between the two institutions over the introduction of dot-xxx and ICANN's approach to governments while developing rules for hundreds of new extensions." more»
Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes asked the US Department of Commerce to delay the introduction of the .xxx top-level domain after ICANN approved it, I can reveal. In an April 6 letter to Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, a copy of which I have obtained, Kroes expressed dismay with ICANN's decision, and wrote..." more»
Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "Employ Media, manager of the .jobs top-level domain, has become the first registry operator to take ICANN to arbitration to fight off a shut-down threat. The company in the last hour said it has filed a Request for Arbitration with the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, after informal efforts to reach agreement with ICANN broke down." more»
Kevin Murphy reporting in DomainIncite: "The House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet will hold an 'ICANN Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Oversight Hearing' on Wednesday May 4 at 10am local time. The hearing has been called at the direction of the committee's chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte." more»
