Daily Wrap: New gTLDs, PICS, Registrar Rights And Responsibilities And Use More Arabic Domains

“ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee may delay the approval of new gTLDs if applicants don’t submit Public Interest Commitments” by 5 March, Domain Incite reports.

PICs “are binding, enforceable commitments that new gTLD applicants are able to voluntarily add to their registry contracts with ICANN” and are meant to satisfy the GAC’s request for ICANN to tighten its grip on new gTLD registries and to give applicants a way to avoid GAC Advice and formal objections against their bids.”

Also on 5 March, ICANN will be publishing “for public comment a version of the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement that accredited registrars have not yet agreed to.”

“CEO Fadi Chehade told a conference call of registries and new gTLD applicants as much this afternoon [4 march], causing the Registrars Stakeholder Group to immediately state that talks have not finished yet,” reports Domain Incite.

And Domain Incite has heard that “ICANN is set to publish and start promoting a new Registrant Rights & Responsibilities charter at some point over the next couple of days.” There is also what is believed to be a close-to-final draft copy of the responsibilities published in the report.

ICANN has told the first Arab Internet Governance Forum that more domain names need to be registered using local domain names in Arabic, says a report in the United Arab Emirates’ The Nation.

Icann regards Arabic domain names as an important step to helping the region fully profit from the internet, promote a better online economy, build a strong, networked community, and add to the overall knowledge base of a country.

“You can create spaces on the internet that have unique cultural rules,” said Fadi Chehade, the president and chief executive of Icann.

“That can be very attractive to countries in this part of the world.”