The Whois database may disappear... An ICANN committee is considering a sunset proposal at its meeting this week in Los Angeles that would effectively scrap the directory system on privacy grounds. Among those arguments is that a public-by-default Whois listing may run afoul of Canadian and European Union privacy laws. more»
ICANN is investigating complaints that insider information is being used to snatch desired domain names before an individual or business can register them. The Security and Stability Advisory Committee of ICANN termed the practice "domain name front running" and likened it to a stock broker buying or selling shares ahead of a client's trade, in anticipation of a movement in price. In the case of Internet addresses, many people who see a domain name available the first time they check find it already taken by the time they return to buy it. more»
The company that manages the .name top-level domain registry is charging for access to domain registration information (Whois data), a step that security researchers say frustrates their ability to police the Internet and creates a haven for hackers who run internet scams. more»
Is Western Sahara a part of Morocco or is it truly independent? Never really settled in the real world, an old dispute now has repercussions on the Internet as two governments fight for one of the last unassigned country codes. Undelegated extensions -- ones that haven't been assigned to anyone yet -- are like 2 character .COMs: extremely rare... more»
Help may be on the way as the Whois task force last week endorsed a proposal that would give more privacy options to small businesses, individuals with personal websites and other domain name owners.
"At the end of the day, they are not going to have personal contact information on public display," said Ross Rader, a task force member and director of retail services for registration company Tucows Inc. "That's the big change for domain name owners." more»
Intellectual property lawyers guarding corporate trademarks on the Internet may soon have a harder time tracking down the people behind websites infringing on their clients' brands.
After several years of debate, this year ICANN is likely to decide on adopting a new policy that would let website owners keep most of their contact information confidential when they register for domain names. Instead, they would be allowed to list a separate go-between point of contact. more»
On Google's annual top 10 list of the hottest search words and phrases, "ip who is" has taken the top 10 spot in "Who is..." category. Google does not reveal how many searches it takes to reach the top 10, but it said millions of searches are conducted each day. more»
" ...my next step in testing was to go to the four hosting services meta-searched by CNet and search them directly with new domain names also picked out of thin air. Two days later they haven't been taken.
At this point I have to say I don't know exactly what's happening, but something fishy is going on. With a whole lot more testing, I think I could figure out the source of Chesterton's domain name feed, but I decided it was time to get the story out first." more»
Nominet has issued a warning about commercial companies that are swiping copyrighted information on domain name owners from its Whois database.
Several weeks ago, the UK internet registry owner noticed a sharp increase in the number of people accessing its Whois service, an online searchable database that provides ownership details for individual .uk internet addresses, including the name of the individual and sometimes their home address. more»
The amount of message board spam has been escalating dramatically since mid-2005, according to experts and a search of Google shows a number of frequently recurring domains are appearing in bogus comments on message boards all over the internet.
Domains such as 888.typo7.com, e-casinoroom.com, HobbyWorkshop.com, onlinepokerment.com, TopSitesRanking.com and g4h5.com all appear in bogus postings which reference online gaming. Many of the actual sites link through to more than one established poker site. more»
