Goldstein Report

Site blocking won’t work

InternetNZ is surprised by today’s announcement of court action from Sky TV to a range of ISPs, asking them to block New Zealand Internet users from accessing certain websites. Sky’s assertion is that this move is designed to hamper piracy of online content.

“This is an extreme step in response to a problem of limited scale, and one that is unlikely to achieve the stated goal,” says InternetNZ Chief Executive Jordan Carter.

“InternetNZ cares about the rights of Kiwi Internet users. We are taking an interest here to make sure that the fundamental openness of the Internet in New Zealand is not hampered.

“Site blocking works against the very nature of the Internet. Site blocking is very easily evaded by people with the right skills or tools. Those who are deliberate pirates will be able to get around site blocking without difficulty.

“If blocking is ordered, it risks driving content piracy further underground, with the help of easily-deployed and common Internet tools. This could well end up making the issues that Sky are facing even harder to police in the future.

“The introduction of legal, easy to use streaming like Neon from Sky, or Lightbox, or Netflix and more, makes piracy less desirable over time. We encourage Sky and others to focus on getting their content online and easy to see and pay for, rather than going down avenues like site blocking.

“InternetNZ is taking legal advice on this matter, to understand better whether the Court has the ability to order such a block. Parliament has never signalled an intention to allow this when it has considered these matters, and if site blocking was to be introduced it should only happen after a broad public debate establishes it is unavoidable, and a parliamentary mandate is given.

“In the meantime, we would expect the ISPs named to decline to proceed with blocking the sites named by Sky. ISPs should never act on the simple request or demand of a content owner. Only proper due process should lead to any interference of this type,” Jordan Carter says.

https://internetnz.nz/news/site-blocking-wont-work

Announcing State of New Zealand’s Internet 2017

Today we’ve published our 2017 State of the Internet report. This report is a look at some key aspects of the Internet in New Zealand. It looks at access to the Internet, and creative uses of the Internet, and has an in-depth look at trust and security issues in New Zealand as the focus for the 2017 edition.

You can download the PDF here.

The notion of a State of the Internet report was first canvassed by InternetNZ in 2015, and at that time we published a range of data with WikiNZ (now Figure.NZ) You can see our blog post from the time here. In 2016, we looked at a sort of almanac approach (see https://stateoftheinternet.nz/) grouped around similar topics as this year – access, use and confidence.

This year we took a close look at trust because of the events around the world that have impacted trust in the past year or so. Fake news, social media use in election campaigns, some high profile security incidents and data breaches have made it all an important topic.

In pulling this report together, our team has relied on a range of public sources – our own market research conducted by UMR; Statistics NZ data, data published by APNIC. We also developed a research framework to guide this work and inputs to it, which we plan to publish for review and improvement later this year or early next.

The report does identify gaps and challenge in data that could usefully be filled to allow for better analysis of the impact the Internet is having. We comment on those areas in the report, and welcome feedback on whether new data sources are needed, or whether information is already available we could incorporate.

In finalising the report, we benefited from a close review and set of changes recommended by research house IDC. Their input was very helpful and I extend our thanks to the IDC team for their support.

Already we are thinking about the 2018 version of this report – how to focus, what to add and so on. An authoritative section on the .nz domain may be a useful addition, and making broader use of the Internet Data Portal (https://idp.nz) may be on the cards too.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about the topics and the approach, and any other matters that come to mind, feel free to email me directly jordan@internetnz.net.nz

Let me close with thanks to all the authors and reviewers who contributed – Ben Creet as lead author and Andrew Cushen, James Ting-Edwards, Nicola Brown and Dean Pemberton from the InternetNZ team and Jay Daley, Sebastian Castro, Dave Baker and Angela Ogier from NZRS.

https://internetnz.nz/blog/announcing-state-internet-2017

Revenge Porn Laws in Europe, U.S. And Beyond

Revenge porn is the unauthorized and malicious dissemination of intimate images or videos on the internet. The victim is usually naked or engaging in a sexual act. In most cases, the material will originally have been taken with the subject’s consent, often by a partner on a camera phone.

Indeed, the images may have been taken by the victim themselves and sent as a private message, but sometime later, perhaps after a relationship has ended, the images are published without the victim’s consent. The publisher is commonly motivated by a desire to punish, threaten or control the subject and the consequences can be catastrophic.
http://www.newsweek.com/revenge-porn-laws-europe-us-and-beyond-499303

German spy agency attacks Facebook and others for failing to tackle fake news

The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has accused US tech giants such as Facebook of failing to take enough responsibility for content on their sites, undermining democracy by not distinguishing between fact and opinion.

Also see:
German domestic spy agency hits out at Silicon Valley
The head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency accused U.S. tech giants like Facebook on Monday of failing to take enough responsibility for content on their sites, undermining democracy by not distinguishing between fact and opinion.

“Today we are discovering a ‘fifth estate’ that makes claims but up until now does not want to take any social responsibility,” Hans-Georg Maassen told a conference on cybersecurity organized by Germany’s Handelsblatt daily.
https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-germany-cyber-facebook/german-domestic-spy-agency-hits-out-at-silicon-valley-idUKKBN1DR1XA
https://in.reuters.com/article/germany-cyber-facebook/german-domestic-spy-agency-hits-out-at-silicon-valley-idINKBN1DR1ZR

Hackers Put Porn In ISIS Propaganda

A group of young Iraqi hackers launched an online operation against the Islamic State this weekend by sticking pornography into the terrorist group’s propaganda.

The group called Daeshgram, a play on the word Instagram and the acronym many use for ISIS, is making ISIS supporters doubt whether they can trust the group's information channels by infiltrating messaging and media sites and spreading fake information. One of its main targets is pro-ISIS groups on the encrypted application Telegram, which is often used by ISIS supporters.
http://www.newsweek.com/hackers-put-porn-isis-propaganda-720139

Also see:

Hackers putting porn on ISIS propaganda sites
A group of Iraqi computer hackers has launched a cyber operation against the Islamic State terror group by slipping pornographic images into its official communication channels, according to a report published this week.

Members of the hacker group, which calls itself Daeshgram (a play on an Arabic acronym many use to describe IS), told Newsweek that the goal is to show distrust among IS supporters about messages from the group’s leadership.
http://www.news.com.au/technology/online/hacking/hackers-putting-porn-on-isis-propaganda-sites/news-story/c6f04928cc6a81803958cb0d9f6bec1f

Decline in TLD Growth Rates Stabilises: CENTR Report

Growth rates among the 1,500 plus top level domains available around the world has continued to decrease, with the trend being consistent since early 2016 when quarterly growth rates peaked. This was the main finding of CENTR’s latest quarterly DomainWire Global TLD Report for the third quarter of 2017. The decline also followed 2 years after the launch of the first of the new gTLDs in January 2014.

The report notes there’s 311 million domains under management across the 1,500-plus top-level domains globally. Over the past 2 years, quarterly growth rates have been decreasing since peaks in early 2016. The slowdown according to the report is the result of deletes after a period of increased investment from Chinese registrants. Additionally the 2 largest of the new gTLDs, .xyz and .top, have contracted significantly. Without these outliers, global TLD growth would be at 1.0% for the quarter ending 30 September and 2.5% year-on-year.

The report also notes there are around 71 million domains registered across 56 ccTLDs in the European region. Overall growth over the region was 1.8% with a median rate of 2.9%. Across Europe, ccTLDs have a market share of around 58%, up 0.5% for the year, with an average renewal rate of 84%. Legacy gTLDs make up 39% and the new gTLDs make up 2.4%.

Globally legacy gTLDs made up 52.7% of all DUM, while ccTLDs accounted for 40.7%. The reduction in .xyz and .top meant the market share for new gTLDs dropped from 7.5% at the end of the second quarter to 6.6%. As legacy gTLDs and ccTLDs were not affected by this drop, the report suggests previous gains in those TLDs may have been speculative.

The report also breaks down growth rates for large, medium and small registries for the European ccTLDs. Growth rates have declined to just over 2% for the large ccTLDs and just under 4% for the small and medium sized ccTLDs.

When looking at year-on-year growth rates, the report shows that the median growth rates peaked between 2015 and 2016. This was in part attributable to an increase in registrations from Chinese registrants during that period. Since then, those domains are being dropped and growth is returning to stable rates.

Over the past year, the median “growth” rate among most European ccTLDs has become flat; however, there is a small increasing growth trend among some of the larger ccTLDs. Based on data available to CENTR, the stabilisation of growth might be explained by a general down trend in average deletion rates.

Market share of ccTLDs in European countries ranges from 16% to 79%, with an average of 54%. These figures include gTLDs as well as other European ccTLDs registered from within the country. Among the 265 ccTLDs around the world, there was an average growth rate of 2.5% to 126.5 million domains under management.

Excluding the brand TLDs, there are around 671 gTLDs available globally with combined registrations of 185 million. New gTLDs make up around 11% of all gTLDs.

CENTR is the association of European country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registries. CENTR currently has 54 full and 9 associate members – together, they are responsible for over 80% of all registered domain names worldwide.

To download the DomainWire Global TLD Report for the third quarter of 2017 in full, go to: https://centr.org/library/library/statistics-report/domainwire-global-tld-report-q3-2017.html and click on “download”.

Are New gTLDs Impacting on ccTLD Registrations? .PL Thinks So As Registrations Decline.

The number of .pl domain names has decreased by 124,485 in the 12 months to 27 November according to statistics provided by NASK, the Polish ccTLD registry, and currently stand at 2,579,310. When those domain names with ENUM are included, the figure is 2,604,336. And at least some of this decrease the registry has attributed to the launch of new gTLDs the NASK Director Wojciech Kamieniecki said in the latest report on the .pl domain name market.

The last month for which there was an increase in registrations was November 2016. The .pl country code top level domain is one of a very few that have a lot of second level domains for which registrants can register under – 153 of them in fact. Three-quarters (1,958,302 – 75.19%) of them are registered under .pl directly, another 391,997 (15.05%) under .com.pl and 33,001 (1.27%) under .net.pl.

Back to the third quarter report and while total domains under management (DUM) have declined, and stood at 2,592,014 at the end of September, the number of registrants has increased, growing by over 5,500 in the third quarter and there is a renewal rate of 62.2%.

The number of .pl domain names signed with DNSSEC is low, which is unfortunately something that is common across almost all TLDs, but the number did increase by almost 2,000 to 38,153 for the quarter to around 1.5% of all DUM.

The report also noted that of all .pl domain names, active in DNS, 25.52% were registered in 2017, 18.42% in 2016, 33.73% of names were registered between 2011 and 2015, 15.98% between 2006 and 2010, while remaining 6.35% of names were entered in the registry in years 1994-2005.

According to the report there were 1,035,681 unique registrants and the vast majority (93.96%) were in Poland and of those from abroad Germany accounted for 1.47% of registrants, Great Britain 0.67% and then the United States (0.60%). There were also 38,534 internationalised .pl domain names registered.

The report also includes information on how NASK deals with illegal content and .pl domain names with an interview with Martyna Różycka, leader of the Illegal Content in the Internet Response Team – Dyżurnet.pl.

To download the full report, go to:
https://www.dns.pl/english/registrar/NASK_Q3_2017_REPORT_EN.pdf

And for more up-to-date .pl statistics, go to:
https://www.dns.pl/english/statistics.html

MyWorld.Com Tops Weekly Chart in Blockbuster 6-Figure Sale

The myworld.com domain name sold for a whopping $1.2 million through GetYourDomain to top the Domain Name Journal weekly chart for the week ending 8 October to become what was then the fifth biggest sale of the year

The sale has since been topped by eth.com, which is the equal second biggest sale for 2017 to date. Coming in second, in a sale that in many weeks would top the chart itself, was agenda.com, which sold for $225,000 through Buckley Media Group/Flippa while wealth365.com and 365.tv each sold for $60,000 in sales brokered by DomainProducts/Sedo and NameJet respectively.

There were 11 sales through NameJet and another 3 through Sedo while there were 2 each on the chart for Nidoma and Grit Brokerage. On the top level domain side of things there were 15 .com sales, 2 each for .it and .co and one for .tv.

To check out the Domain Name Journal chart of top reported sales for the week ending 8 October in more detail, see:
http://dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2017/20171018.htm

ICANN: Competition, Consumer Trust, and Consumer Choice Review Team – New Sections to Draft Report of Recommendations

Brief Overview

Purpose:

The purpose of this second call for input is to gather community input on the new sections that have been added to the draft report. The final report will be published in Q1 2018.

Brief Overview

Purpose:

The purpose of this second call for input is to gather community input on the new sections that have been added to the draft report. The final report will be published in Q1 2018.

Current Status:

The CCT is now soliciting your input on the CCT Review Team’s new findings and recommendations, pertaining to DNS abuse, costs to trademark holders, parking and consumer choice related sections.

This Public Comment Proceeding follows the call for input on the draft report [PDF, 4.94 MB] (translations available here) that was published on 17 March 2017.

To facilitate the review and analysis of all comments, we request that commenters clearly indicate to which section(s) of the report, or which numbered recommendations, their comments relate.

Next Steps:

ICANN will prepare a Public Comment summary report for the CCT‘s review. The CCT will carefully consider these comments as it shapes its final recommendations for Board consideration. The final report will be published in Q1 2018.

Section I: Description and Explanation

The CCT Review Team is seeking input on new sections to its draft report. New sections reflect results from the “Statistical Analysis of DNS Abuse in gTLDs” Report (see here for more information) and address costs to trademark holders, based on a survey conducted by the International Trademark Association (INTA) (see here [PDF, 1.4 MB] for more information). In addition, the CCT is calling for feedback on updates made to its parking and consumer choice sections.

The draft report and translations can be found here for full reference. It includes several recommendations the review team labeled as prerequisites to the opening of the next application period for new gTLDs.

The following topics are covered in the full draft report:

New gTLD Program history
Competition in the DNS Marketplace
Consumer Choice
Consumer Trust
DNS Abuse
Safeguards
Public Interest Commitments
Right Protection Mechanisms
Application and Evaluation
Trademarks

Comments will be reviewed and summarized in the report of Public Comments, which will be included as a supplement to the final report.

For ease of reference and to facilitate Review Team deliberations, ICANN requests that commenters clearly indicate the relevant sections of the draft report, or numbered recommendations, within their comments.

Section II: Background

Launched under the Affirmation of Commitments (AoC), the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice (CCT) Review Team was formed to assess the New Generic Top-Level Domain (New gTLD) Program in three areas: competition, consumer trust and consumer choice. The review also assesses the effectiveness of safeguards put in place to mitigate issues arising from the introduction of new gTLDs and the Program’s application and evaluation process. The review, now contemplated under ICANN Bylaws section 4.6, examines the degree to which the process of implementing the New gTLD Program was successful in producing desired results and achieving the stated objectives. The CCT is analyzing both quantitative and qualitative data to produce recommendations for the ICANN Board to consider and adopt.

Bylaws call for the CCT to indicate whether the recommendation, if accepted by the Board, must be implemented before opening subsequent rounds of new generic top-level domain application periods. The recommendations contained within the draft report identify those that should be prerequisites to future application periods for new gTLDs.

Producing recommendations that are data and fact-driven is a fundamental priority of the review team. The CCT has constructed its report to have findings supported by data received prior to and throughout the review process.

The review team sought to measure the effectiveness of a number of technical safeguards developed for the New gTLD Program in mitigating various forms of DNS abuse. To accomplish this, ICANN commissioned the Statistical Analysis of DNS Abuse in gTLDs (SADAG) [PDF, 2.23 MB] report by researchers from SIDN Labs and Delft University of Technology, both in the Netherlands, to address the CCT Review Team’s request for a comprehensive DNS abuse study. The study serves to inform the CCT analysis of potential factors explaining abuse rates in a given gTLD. The study analyzes rates of spam, phishing, and malware distribution in the global gTLD DNS from 2014 to 2016, distinguishing between legacy and new gTLDs.

The CCT, comprised of 15 community representatives and volunteer subject matter experts, divided the evaluation of the New gTLD program into four subteams:

Competition and Consumer Choice: This subteam examined the effects of the entry of new gTLDs on price and non-price competition in the expanded domain name marketplace, as well as whether consumer choice in the marketplace was effectively enhanced with the introduction of new gTLDs.
Consumer Trust and Safeguards: This subteam focused on the extent to which the expansion of new gTLDs has promoted consumer trust and the impact of the safeguards that had been adopted to mitigate any problems that might have arose as a result of the Program.
Application and Evaluation Process: The review team explored issues related to the effectiveness of the application process, with a particular focus on the applicant experience, the paucity of applications from underserved regions, and the objection processes.
To better understand the impact of the Program on rights holders, the CCT worked with INTA, which commissioned a survey of its members. The CCT considered the results of this survey as it made recommendations on rights protection mechanisms that were incorporated into the Program.

Section III: Relevant Resources

New Sections of the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review Team Draft Report (EN) [PDF, 1.12 MB]

AR [PDF, 1.57 MB]
ES [PDF, 1.22 MB]
FR [PDF, 1.21 MB]
RU [PDF, 1.13 MB]
ZH [PDF, 1.01 MB]

Listen to the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review Engagement Session at ICANN60 for more information on their findings and recommendations. See here for details and recordings.

Section IV: Additional Information

Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review Team

Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review Team Draft Report [PDF, 3.91 MB] â March 7, 2017

AR [PDF, 2.9 MB]
ES [PDF, 2 MB]
FR [PDF, 2.1 MB]
RU [PDF, 2.7 MB]
ZH [PDF, 2.5 MB]

Statistical Analysis of DNS Abuse in gTLDs (SADAG) Final Report [PDF, 2.23 MB]

INTA New gTLD Program Surveys:

INTA New gTLD Cost Impact Survey [PDF, 1.4 MB] (April 2017)

INTA New gTLD Impact Study Status Report II [PDF, 75 KB] (May 2017, Updated August 2017)

Open Date: 27 Nov 2017 23:59 UTC

Close Date: 8 Jan 2018 23:59 UTC

Staff Report Due: 22 Jan 2018 23:59 UTC

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/public-comments/cct-recs-2017-11-27-en

ICANN Publishes RSSAC2 Review Survey for Community Input

Interisle, the independent examiner conducting the second review of the ICANN Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC2), is launching a survey to collect input from those who have interacted with RSSAC and/or have ideas for ways to improve it

Please share your input by taking the survey found at this link: https://rssac2017.limequery.net/168544. The survey will close on 27 December 2017.

Background

A periodic review of the RSSAC is mandated by ICANN Bylaws Section 4.4 “Periodic Review of ICANN Structure and Operations”.

The RSSAC plays a critical role within ICANN, advising the ICANN community and Board on matters related to the operation, administration, security, and integrity of the Internet’s Root Server System. It communicates on matters relating to the operation of the Root Servers and their multiple instances with the Internet technical community and the ICANN community. The RSSAC gathers and articulates requirements to offer to those engaged in technical revision of the protocols and best common practices related to the operation of Domain Name System servers, as well as ongoing threat assessment and risk analysis of the Root Server System, among other related activities.

Next Steps

Following the close of the survey, the independent examiner will analyze survey responses received along with input received via interviews at ICANN60, IETF100, and other forums, as input into its assessment report, to be posted in February 2018.

RSSAC Resources

RSSAC Review wiki page: https://community.icann.org/display/ACCRSSAC/RSSAC+Home
RSSAC home page: https://www.icann.org/groups/rssac

About ICANN

ICANN‘s mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet, you need to type an address â a name or a number â into your computer or other device. That address must be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN helps coordinate and support these unique identifiers across the world. ICANN was formed in 1998 as a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with a community of participants from all over the world

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2017-11-27-en