[news release] The ICANN71 Policy Forum will be held 14 through 17 June 2021. Initially planned for The Hague, Netherlands, this meeting will take place virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please visit the schedule to register for the sessions you want to attend. Important note: ICANN71 will be held in the UTC +2 Central European Summer Time (CEST) zone.
Public Interest Registry launched their .2021 .ORG Impact Awards Tuesday with a call for nominations, an increase in prize money and updated categories.
Now in their third year, the awards seek to honour innovative and inspiring organisations and individuals making the world a better place.
InternetNZ Thursday publicly disclosed a vulnerability against authoritative DNS servers such as the ones run by top-level domain (TLD) operators, like .nz. This vulnerability could be exploited to carry out Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks across the world.
InternetNZ Tuesday announced it is cementing its relationship further with their Canadian counterpart the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) through customising and deploying the CIRA Registry Platform for .nz. The new .nz registry will be fully operational by late 2022 and InternetNZ will continue to run and maintain it on-shore.
The European Union’s top-level domain .eu turned 15 this week, celebrating entering adolescence Wednesday.
This week GoDaddy Registry announced it was expanding its registry services with the acquisition of more than 30 new generic top-level domains (new gTLDs), including 28 from Minds + Machines, .club and .design, plus the provision of registry services for .basketball and .rugby and Ally Financial’s branded .ally domain. The move will see the company add over 3 million domains under management to their portfolio, although GoDaddy Registry already provides registry services for .club’s 1.1 million domain names. Upon close of the acquisitions, it will see GoDaddy Registry own, manage or operate more than 240 top-level domains, with more than 14 million DUM.
Ethos Capital announced Thursday it has completed an investment to acquire a controlling interest of Donuts Inc. from Abry Partners. Based in Seattle, Washington, Donuts holds the world’s largest portfolio of top-level domains with 260 new gTLDs as well as providing registry services for a number of other top-level domains (both gTLDs and ccTLDs) through both its Donuts and Afilias brands.
An Extraordinary General Meeting held Monday saw four of Nominet’s directors including Chair Mark Wood removed from their positions, while CEO and board member Russell Haworth stood down on Sunday, the day before the meeting. The Board clear-out follows a campaign for reform of the .uk ccTLD registry by Public Benefit .UK.
Nominet’s CEO Russell Haworth has become the sacrifice in the ongoing battles over management of the .uk ccTLD. In an announcement today, Nominet said Haworth “intends to step down from the Board and relinquish his duties as CEO. Russell will complete a short transition, arrangements for which details are being finalised. The board will announce interim leadership measures in due course.” Whether Haworth’s sacrifice minimises the fallout coming from today’s EGM remains to be seen.
[news release] ICANN org has extended the date that Registry Reports will permanently move to ICANN Open Data to 30 July 2021. This means Registry Reports will still be available on https://icann.org on the Registry Reports landing page beyond the previously announced 15 March deadline. The extension gives the community more time to adjust to the upcoming changes announced on 7 January 2021. On 30 July 2021, ICANN Open Data will become the permanent home of Registry Reports.