auDA Launches RFT For .AU Backend Registry

auDA has released a Request for Tender (RFT) for a backend registry operator for the .au ccTLD and the 4.2 million domain names under management.

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.AU Wholesale Fee Slashed By A Whopping… 0.63%

Afilias made the jaw dropping announcement to registrars this week that the .au wholesale, or registry fee, is being reduced by a whopping A$0.05 or 0.63%.

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ASPI Launches Website and eMail Security Check Tool .auCheck

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) recently launched .auCheck to help internet users check their website, email and internet connections for use of the latest and most secure internet standards. It’s aimed at .au domain names but appears to be able to check domain names in any top-level domain. And the .au policy and regulatory body, auDA, and registry, Afilias, don’t come out well.

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Former .AU Registry Operator Calls for Resignations in Light of auDA and Afilias Failures

It’s not been a good week for auDA, the .au policy and regulatory body, and their backend registry provider Afilias. First on Tuesday there was a security incident that auDA claims saw “a small number of domains” disappear for half an hour. Then today with the launch of second level (or .au direct) registrations, there has been another stuff up that sees all new second level/direct registrations having to be manually entered after registration with no timeframe given for a resolution.

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Chagos Islanders Lodge Complaint With OECD To GEt Their .IO Back

The Chagos Islanders, banned from their island chain by “apartheid-like laws and do not participate in the island chain’s booming Internet and defence-oriented economy” want their ccTLD .IO back. Two organisations, The Crypto Currency Resolution Trust (Bahamas) and The Chagos Refugees Group, have now lodged a complaint with the OECD “detailing consumer and human rights harms committed by Afilias”.

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Ethos Capital Acquires Majority Control of Donuts Inc.

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.

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One Month After Donuts Took Over Afilias, Ethos Takes Over Donuts

Less than one month after it was announced Donuts were taking on the domain name registry business of Afilias, Ethos Capital has announced it is taking over Donuts by acquiring a controlling interest in the company.

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More Domain Name Industry Consolidation As Donuts Takes On Afilias Registry Business

Donuts dropped a bit of a bombshell on the domain name industry Thursday by announcing they were taking on the domain name registry business of Afilias, making it one of the largest providers of backend registry services for hundreds of ccTLDs, legacy gTLDs and new gTLDs.

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.APPLE’s Backend Registry Provider, Afilias, Slaps Apple Over Antitrust

Afilias logo

An interesting news observation. As possible antitrust investigations into four of the biggest tech companies are discussed, this week MarketWatch reported how “some big names in videogaming could speed up things” including Fortnite, which they note “is one of the initial conclusions of legal experts and developers following Epic Games Inc.’s lawsuits against Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google for booting Epic’s hit videogame Fortnite out of their app stores Thursday.”

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.PR Releases 64,000 Premium Domains

Over 64,000 previously unregistered .PR domain names were released on Monday, Puerto Rico Top Level Domain has announced. The domains released are a mix of words and terms in Spanish and English as well as numerical strings.

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