ICANN Board Rules .AMAZON Canned

The ICANN Board ruled last week the application for the .amazon gTLD, including its related internationalised domain names in Japanese and Chinese should not proceed.

The ICANN Board ruled last week the application for the .amazon gTLD, including its related internationalised domain names in Japanese and Chinese should not proceed.The decision came about after the board accepted the advice of the New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC). And while it is possible the applications could proceed at some stage in the future, this is very unlikely.The applications had been vigorously opposed by the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, with the full support of the Amazon basin countries.In a statement to the 47th ICANN Durban meeting, the “involved governments … expressed serious concerns related to public interest. In particular “.amazon” is a geographic name that represents important territories of some of our countries, which have relevant communities, with their own culture and identity directly connected with the name. Beyond the specifics, this should also be understood as a matter of principle.”In making its recommendation, the NGPC took into account the issues raised by the applicant, the GAC advice and an independent, third-party expert commissioned by ICANN “to provide additional analysis on the specific issues of application of law at issue, which may focus on legal norms or treaty conventions relied on by Amazon or governments.”The Expert Analysis considered “whether the consensus advice issued by the GAC is of such nature as to oblige ICANN to reject the application filed by Amazon, or to the contrary, whether the rules and principles cited by Amazon in its response of 23 August 2013 to the GAC’s advice oblige ICANN to approve the applications for .AMAZON (and related IDNs). The Expert Analysis concludes the following:
As regards the application for assignment of the new gTLD ‘.amazon’ filed by the Amazon company:
i) there is no rule of international, or even regional or national, law applicable in the field of geographical indications which obliges ICANN to reject the application;
ii) there is no rule of international, or even regional or national, law applicable in the field of intellectual property and in particular of trade marks or in the field of fundamental rights, which obliges ICANN to accept this application.”
The ICANN Bylaws require the Board to take into account the GAC’s advice on public policy matters in the formulation and adoption of the policies. If the Board decides to take an action that is not consistent with the GAC advice, it must inform the GAC and state the reasons why it decided not to follow the advice. The Board and the GAC will then try in good faith to find a mutually acceptable solution. If no solution can be found, the Board will state in its final decision why the GAC advice was not followed.The board decided to “accept the GAC’s advice to the ICANN Board contained in the GAC’s Durban Communiqué stating that it is the consensus of the GAC that the applications for .AMAZON (application number 1-1315-58086) and related IDNs in Japanese (application number 1-1318-83995) and Chinese (application number 1-1318-5591) should not proceed.”More details of the NGPC advice are available from:
www.icann.org/en/groups/board/documents/resolutions-new-gtld-14may14-en.htm#2.b.rationale

Pirate Bay ccTLD World Tour Moves On Again After .PE Option Canned

The Pirate Bay’s world tour has moved to another ccTLD after the Peruvian option was cut off after only a few days. This time TPB has moved to Guyana (.gy)

The Pirate Bay’s world tour has moved to another ccTLD after the Peruvian option was cut off after only a few days. This time TPB has moved to Guyana (.gy).

This week has been especially busy for TPB with the .sx (Sint Maarten) option cut off after pressure from the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN. And this was only eight months after it was forced to change from .se (Sweden). From .sx, TPB had a brief stopover in .ac (Ascension Island) before moving for what it hoped was a more permanent stay in .pe.

However while it would obviously hope the stays would be more permanent, TPB says they have more than 70 domain names, by which one would assume they mean ccTLDs, in reserve.

The .pe option was suspended yesterday without prior warning reported TorrentFreak, which has been keeping tabs on TPB’s moves. And it means the site has had to switch to its fourth ccTLD in a week.

TorrentFreak reports it is unclear how long the Co-operative Republic of Guyana will allow the site to use its domain name, but they are ready to relocate again if needed.

“We have some 70 domain names left, so eventually we will find one that sticks,” a Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak. “A few domains have been prepared so we can switch over whenever’s needed.”

TLD Hopping Pirate Bay Seeks World Where Domains Irrelevant

The Pirate Bay this week was forced to change its TLD from .sx (Sint Maarten) to .ac (Ascension Island) after pressure from the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN. And this was only eight months after it was forced to change from .se (Sweden). And it seems TPB, which flagged this as only a temporary move due to the Ascension Island’s links to the United Kingdom, has already moved on to its next TLD – .pe (Peru).

The Pirate Bay this week was forced to change its TLD from .sx (Sint Maarten) to .ac (Ascension Island) after pressure from the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN. And this was only eight months after it was forced to change from .se (Sweden). And it seems TPB, which flagged this as only a temporary move due to the Ascension Island’s links to the United Kingdom, has already moved on to its next TLD – .pe (Peru).Clearly global anti-piracy groups have TPB in their sights. But TPB is already thinking ahead to their next move saying they have “a new system currently under development [that] will not only make domain names irrelevant, but will herald the arrival of a new generation of hardened file-sharing services,” according to TorrentFreak.Currently under development, TorrentFReak continues, “is a BitTorrent-powered browser that will enable users to store and distribute The Pirate Bay and other sites without need for central hosting. This means sites will be able to exist in a new and decentralized form with no reliance on a public-facing website.””In a message to ‘BREIN and friends,’ The Pirate Bay cautions that while closing down domains may be an irritant today, that loophole won’t be open forever.””They should wait for our new PirateBrowser, then domains will be irrelevant,” an insider told TorrentFreak.”Once that is available then all links and sites will be accessible through a perfectly legal piece of browser software and the rest of it will be P2P, with no central point to attack via the legal system.”And according to the spokesman this process of attack and adaption, such as Pirate Bay’s move to the cloud last year, is leading to one place – the advent of new and hardened file-sharing networks.”By their actions they finally brought on the next generation of decentralized services,” the insider concludes.TorrentFreak is informed that the new system, which is still under development, will appear as a standalone browser and also as Firefox and Chrome plugins. Until then the varied climate of Peru will suffice.

TLD Hopping Pirate Bay Forced To Move Once Again

Following the seizure of its .sx domain name, The Pirate Bay has once more been forced to change its domain, this time moving to .ac, the ccTLD for Ascension Island.

Following the seizure of its .sx domain name, The Pirate Bay has once more been forced to change its domain, this time moving to .ac, the ccTLD for Ascension Island.Its previous domain with the Sint Maarten ccTLD was shut down Monday night. The Pirate Bay has previously used the ccTLDs of Iceland (.is), Sweden (.se), Greenland (.gl). The latest stop with .ac is only temporary though and is the fifth TLD used in 2013.”Fearing a domain seizure by the Swedish authorities The Pirate Bay quickly switched to a Greenland-based domain in April, later hopping to Iceland, and eventually landing .SX domains as other problems became apparent,” reported Torrent Freak.”The AC domain is directly connected to the UK, so it’s just a quick stop there,” a Pirate Bay insider told Torrent Freak. After solving some technical issues the infamous torrent site plans to move to the Peruvian .PE ccTLD.The latest seizure has come about following pressure from the entertainment industry, the .sx ccTLD appearing to seize the domain, Torrent Freak also reported. “The torrent site itself hasn’t been taken down and has quickly relocated to a new address on Ascension Island’s .AC ccTLD.””It’s seems possible that the domain seizure is connected to pressure applied by Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, which represents a variety of copyright holders,” Torrent Freak also reported.”Last month BREIN sent a letter to the contact email address for The Pirate Bay’s domain, which is registered to site co-founder Fredrik Neij. In their letter BREIN pointed out that the site infringes on the rights of copyright holders worldwide.”The group added that the .SX domain is controlled by the Dutch part of Sint Maarten, suggesting that BREIN has jurisdiction over it.””We expressly point out that by registering domain names and using these and/or allowing these to be used by The Pirate Bay, you infringe on the rights of Rights Owners. Therefore, the Rights Owners hold you liable for the damages that they have suffered and will suffer from your actions,” the letter read. The letter threatened a €25,000 per day fine if the site remained online.

Peruvian Internet Policy Expert Seeks Political Ambitions

Erick Iriarte Ahon imagePeruvian domain name expert and general manager of Latin American and Caribbean TLD Association (LACTLD), Erick Iriarte Ahón, is seeking election to parliament

Erick Iriarte Ahon imagePeruvian domain name expert and general manager of Latin American and Caribbean TLD Association (LACTLD), Erick Iriarte Ahón, is seeking election to parliament.

Iriarte, a regular at ICANN and domain name meetings in Latin America, is a candidate for the Peruvian Congress in the upcoming election representing the Partido Aprista Peruano (Aprista Party).

Eleven parties are contesting the upcoming election with Iriarte number 12 on the list for the Aprista Party out of 36 candidates.

Despite being only 34 years old, Iriarte has an extensive knowledge of internet policy issues and has helped many countries in the Latin American region to develop policies in relation to the information society and to understand the importance of the access to the internet for all people.

Iriarte is a law graduate, specialising in computer law, and founded the non-governmental organisation Alfa-Redi that ended up becoming a group of experts from Latin America, Spain, Italy and other countries dealing with issues such as intellectual property, privacy and protection of data, spam and free internet access.

In the domain name arena, Iriarte began his involvement in the domain name space as a lawyer managing the .PEccTLD, and has worked as coordinator of the ICANN Membership Implementation Task Force. Since 2003, Iriarte Ahon also has been a member of the Non-Commercial User Constituency, and he was a member of the ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee, serving as vice-chair and representing Latin America and the Caribbean, he finished his job in December 2006 when signed the LAC-RALO Foundation Act in Sau Paulo.

In October 2004, Erick coordinated a meeting on Internet governance in Latin America, as a commission of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies Task Force. There, he was a leader and instructor of the Track “Internet and Society” in WALC 2004. He is member of Multi-Stakeholder Advisory Group of Internet Governance Forum (www.intgovforum.com).

As an activist, he is involved in issues including Internet governance and information society policy in Latin America and the Caribbean; regulation of the information society in the World Summit on the Information Society frame; and the background of national domain name policies in various Latin American countries. He worked with ECLAC, Organization of American States, UNESCO, Andean Community, and different government in Latin American Region.

More information in Iriarte’s campaign is available (in Spanish) from iriartealcongreso.pe. Some biographical information was sourced from his biography on the ICANN website.