Public Interest Registry announced Wednesday the launch of the DNS Abuse Institute as part of its ongoing efforts to protect Internet users from the threat of DNS Abuse such as malware, botnets, phishing, pharming and spam.
ICANN’s Brad White sits down with outgoing Board Chair, Steve Crocker, and new Board Chair, Cherine Chalaby, to discuss the future of the ICANN Board.
In a wrap of the recent workshop ICANN held in Montevideo, Uruguay, the current Chair Steve Crocker posted a blog with a few updates on what came out of the workshop. The most noteworthy was the announcement that there was unanimous support for the future election of Cherine Chalaby as the next Chair of the ICANN Board.
The formal election will take place at ICANNâs Annual Meeting at ICANN60 in Abu Dhabi, to be held from 28 October to 3 November. Crocker noted the Board has also indicated its support for the future election of Chris Disspain as the next Vice-Chair.
Chalaby has had an extensive international career encompasses leadership roles in banking and technology and was selected by the Nominating Committee (NomCom) to serve on the Board. Heâs a citizen of Egypt and also holds a British citizenship. He attended the French Jesuits School of Cairo, holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Cairo University and an MSc in Computing Sciences from the Imperial College of London. He is fluent in English, French and Arabic. As well as his extensive career, heâs also served on seven separate boards of directors.
In his post, Crocker wrote that a few things discussed were:
An update about the Root Zone Key Signing Key (KSK) roll, resulting in direction from the Board to the ICANN organization to roll the DNS root KSK as soon as is practical, so long as there are no significant observed effects on the security, stability, or resiliency of the DNS as a whole.
The full post by Steve Crocker is on the ICANN blog at:
https://www.icann.org/news/blog/chairman-s-blog-the-montevideo-workshop-wrap-up
Stephen Crocker, ICANNâs Chair, has provided an update on the process to choose a successor to Fadi Chehadé. In short, Crocker says he âcannot say much more nowâ but that he âlooks forward to giving a fuller update just as soon as he can.â Chehadé is set to have his last day with ICANN on 12 March.
The .tickets gTLD has an interesting means of protecting against cybersquatting. Itâs one that Domain Incite asks if it could be âthe ultimate anti-cybersquatting system.â
The registry, Accent Media, âhas launched an anti-cybersquatting measure that lets the world know who is trying to register what domain name a whole month before the domain is allowed to go live.â
âThe service, at domains.watch, is currently only being used by .tickets, but it seems to be geared up to accept other TLDs too.â There are two processes for registrations â âfast trackâ and âstandardâ. The former âis for organisations with trademarks matching their names. It take five days for the trademark to be verified and the domain to go live.â
âInstagram has launched legal proceedings in the US in a bid to have a 2011 domain name purchase agreement upheld and block a âshamâ lawsuit in Chinaâ reports IPPro. Facebook paid $100,000 for the domain in 2011, which was previously owned by a Chinese registrant. The registrant, Murong Zhou, has âalong with other family members, has made a business out of squatting on domain names containing famous trademarks, including Instagramâs, according to the district court complaint.â
Afilias was recently awarded a whopping $10 million in a court case against Architelos in a âtrades secrets caseâ reports Domain Incite. A jury decided Architelos âhad misappropriated trade secrets from Afilias in order to build its patented NameSentry domain security service, may even be thrown a lifeline enabling it to continue business.â
âA little over a week ago, the judge ordered that the $10 million judgment originally imposed by the jury should be reduced to $2 million.â Even this reduced would be too much for Architelos that has suffered a loss of business since the decision. âBut the judge seems to be considering an injunction that would enable Architelos to continue to exist.â
The .cars, .car and .auto gTLDs have got off to a flying start, financially at least, taking in over a clear $1 million during the Early Access Period according to Domain Incite. General Availability started on 20 January and followed the Sunrise and lucrative Early Access Period, the latter closed on 12 January.
One of the most prominent registrations was Appleâs registration of âa trio of domains related to carsâ according to USA Today. The trio were apple.car, apple.auto and apple.cars.
[news release] ICANN today (21 May) announced that President and CEO Fadi Chehadé has informed the Board he will be concluding his tenure in March 2016 to move into a new career in the private sector (outside the Domain Name Industry).At the request of the Board, Chehadé will be available to work closely with ICANN after March 2016 to support the transition to a new leader, as well as to advise the Board on any issue they require including the implementation of the IANA Stewardship Transition from the US Government to ICANN and the technical operating community.”I want to thank Fadi for his strong commitment,” said Dr. Stephen Crocker, Chair of the Board of Directors. I am very confident that with Fadi’s continued leadership and ICANN’s very experienced management team who have the breadth to ensure that ICANN continues to manage its key responsibilities effectively, that the organization’s work will proceed smoothly.””I am deeply committed to working with the Board, our staff, and our community to continue ICANN’s mission as we still have much to accomplish,” said Chehadé. “During the remaining 10 months of my tenure, it’s business-as-usual. My priority remains to continue strengthening ICANN’s operations and services to the global community.”
[ICANN news release] ICANN will convene its 52nd Public Meeting in Singapore, from February 9th to 12th.The meeting will bring together stakeholders from around the globe to discuss what the future of the Internet may look like in light of last year’s announcement that the United States (U.S.) government will transition stewardship of the IANA functions to the global multistakeholder community.Former Senior Advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton, Ira Magaziner, and Singapore’s Minister of Communications and Information, Dr. Yaacob bin Ibrahim, will address attendees at the meeting’s opening ceremony. Details are provided below.In the afternoon, ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehadé will join Board Chair Dr. Stephen D. Crocker, Global Domains Division President Akram Atallah and Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific (APAC) Yu-Chuang Kuek in responding to journalists’ questions during an international news conference. They will address a wide range of issues, including the current status of the IANA stewardship transition and the continued delegation of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs).Journalists who are unable to attend the Singapore meeting are encouraged to participate remotely via a live web stream or an international toll-free telephone connection. The details for connecting are provided below.A recording of the news conference will be posted to the press page of the ICANN web site (www.icann.org/en/news/press) after the event.To see the full schedule of events and meetings taking place during ICANN52 in Singapore, go to singapore52.icann.org/en/schedule-full.Registration for ICANN52 is available on-site or at registration.icann.org.
[news release] The President and CEO of ICANN says the organization’s 49th meeting that just concluded in Singapore marked the beginning of a new era for the organization and the future of Internet governance.
“ICANN49 will be remembered as a meeting that, in many ways, ended the early phase of ICANN and brought the organization into a new phase of maturity and responsibility,” said Fadi Chehadé. “It is exemplified by the recent decision of the United States Government to hand us the very ominous responsibility to facilitate and convene the world toward determining how ICANN will be providing assurances of accountability across the board.”
Chehadé made the comments during a video interview at the conclusion of the Singapore meeting, for which more 1,940 people registered from 150 countries.
“People from all over the world, from all segments of the Internet community are here, interacting not just with ICANN, but also interacting with each other,” said Dr. Stephen Crocker, ICANN‘s Board Chair.
The Singapore meeting was dominated by discussions stemming from the recent announcement by the U.S. Government that it wants to transfer stewardship of some vital Internet technical functions to provide for global accountability. It has reached out to ICANN, which will continue to manage those functions as it has for more than 15 years, to help determine the best process for transferring that stewardship.
“These are important times,” said Chehadé. “The U.S. Government has modulated its stewardship over time, it has dialed it down and this was just a natural moment for all this to happen, as the U.S. government has said, due to the community’s readiness to actually embrace these responsibilities and establish the appropriate accountability mechanisms to replace the U.S. role.”
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To view the video interview with ICANN President Fadi Chehadé and Board Chair Dr. Stephen D. Crocker, go here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY3DbUVzyHQ&feature=youtu.be
To learn more about the transfer of the Internet technical functions, go here: www.icann.org/en/about/agreements/iana/transition
[ICANN news release] ICANN President and Chief Executive Officer, Fadi Chehadé says he is prioritising efforts to reach a resolution with domain name registrars in the on-going negotiations to achieve a Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).Chehadé said he will also become personally involved in ICANN’s efforts to establish a Trademark Clearing House prior to the introduction of new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) in 2013.”I’m going to be inserting myself personally in both these issues,” said Chehadé. “I’ve already discussed this with the community and there’s frankly universal agreement that if I participate personally in these activities, I could help us come to hopefully reasonable conclusions that we can all bank on in moving forward to next year and with the new gTLDs”The chief executive made the comments during a video interview at the close of the organisation’s 45th public meeting in Toronto. 1,800 People from around the world registered for the meeting, making it the second largest in ICANN history.The meeting began only a few days after ICANN announced a plan to use a draw, or drawing, to determine which gTLD applications would be prioritised. This system would be used as a way to equitably schedule the release of initial evaluation results, pre-delegation testing, and contract execution.When asked to characterise the reaction he had received to the plan for a draw Chehadé said, “There is a collective sigh of relief that we have a mechanism that is equitable, that is fair, that is very transparent and simple in many ways and which allows us to move forward.”During the same video interview, Board Chair Dr. Stephen Crocker said his take-away from the Toronto meeting was “progress across every front.”ICANN’s next public meeting will be 7-11 April 2012 in Beijing.
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To view the video interview with the CEO and Board Chair, go here: www.icann.org/en/news/press/kits/toronto45/video-post-meeting-19oct12-en.htm
On the eve of ICANNâs 45th public meeting in Toronto — the last such meeting for the next half year until the April 2013 Beijing event — the United States government has urged ICANN to consider adding new trademark protections at .com and other incumbent gTLDs, and to adopt a Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) model that includes a default judgment procedure. These proposals could dramatically alter the balance between complainants and registrants in both UDRP and URS cases involving domains at new and existing gTLDs, and ICA intends to fully engage in the ensuing debate.
These suggestions are contained in an October 4th letter sent by Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information Lawrence Strickling to ICANN Board Chairman Steve Crocker (letter available at www.icann.org/en/news/correspondence/strickling-to-crocker-04oct12-en).
In regard to considering new trademark protections beyond those being implemented for the new gTLD program, the letter urges ICANN to âexplore additional trademark protections across all TLDs, existing and new, through community dialogues and appropriate policy development processes in the coming yearâ. (Emphasis added) This call for initiation of a policy development process (PDP) for altering trademark protections at incumbent gTLDs is at direct odds with a mid-December 2011 resolution passed by ICANNâs GNSO Council, made under substantial pressure from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and major brand interests, to defer initiation of any PDP until 18 months after the first new gTLD is delegated to the root. GNSO Resolution 20111215-1 (available at gnso.icann.org/en/resolutions) states:
RESOLVED further, the GNSO Council requests a new Issue Report on the current state of all rights protection mechanisms implemented for both existing and new gTLDs, including but not limited to, the UDRP and URS, should be delivered to the GNSO Council by no later than eighteen (18) months following the delegation of the first new gTLD.
At the time, ICA and many other groups were urging the GNSO Council to initiate a PDP on procedural UDRP reform based on a decade of UDRP experience, and rejected the notion that ICANN and the community lacked the capacity to simultaneously implement the new gTLD program and consider procedural improvements. When the GNSO passed on that option, it was expected that the first new gTLD would be delegated in early 2013 and that the PDP would therefore kick off in mid-2014 â but intervening events have now pushed the schedule back by at least a year.
We see several major issues raised by Secretaryâs Stricklingâs suggestion:
Again, there is plenty to evaluate and decide in any procedural UDRP PDP without debating substantive changes to rights protections. ICA has advocated that the heart of such reform be the development of a standard contract for all UDRP providers that delineates and limits their powers and provides ICANN with effective and flexible enforcement tools, with clear goals such as assuring uniformity and integrity in decision-making and the prevention of forum shopping. The need for such a contractual framework was illustrated again by the recent updating of attorney Zak Muscovitchâs survey of National Arbitration Forum (NAF) panelist selection procedures. The updated August 2012 study (available at dnattorney.com/NAFdomainnamedisputestudy2012.shtml) found that, while NAF claims to have 136 panelists on its trademark experts roster, 70 of whom (about half) were from the United States, in actual practice only seven of these panelists, all from the U.S., Â decided almost half (45.9 percent) of UDRP complaints filed with NAF.
So, clearly, one provision of a standard UDRP provider contract could be that when a provider is accredited by ICANN on the basis of claiming a large number of panelists from a variety of jurisdictions it should be required to actually use those panelists on a random basis — and not direct nearly half of all cases to a favored five percent of those panelists. The Muscovitch study certainly raises further questions about the quality of decisions provided by the number two UDRP provider. Earlier this year ICA requested that ICANN investigate NAFâs UDRP practices (see internetcommerce.org/NAF_UDRP_FAIL) and the response we received to our letter was unsatisfactory and indicated that ICANN takes UDRP provider oversight less seriously than it should. Frankly, we have always found it outrageous that ICANN accredits UDRP arbitration providers to extinguish or transfer valuable domain assets without any written or enforceable standards â trademark owners would never stand for a private entity being given such powers over their assets absent written and credible controls.
We do note that in Secretary Stricklingâs letter the NTIA does not take a position for or against any potential trademark protection proposal, and does advocate that âICANN should continue an open and transparent dialogue between all actors in order to find solutions to these issuesâ. (Emphasis added) ICA definitely intends to be a clear and consistent voice in that dialogue for the proposition that registrant rights must receive balanced treatment vis-Ã -vis trademark rights.
As for the letterâs advocacy for a clear linkage between the TMC and URS and to âprovide efficient default judgment proceduresâ in the URS, we have two big concerns —
URS default judgments would be too much like the IP-based, due process-lacking âdomain censorshipâ that would have been authorized by the SOPA legislation that incited a netizens revolt earlier this year. It is also just too prone to potential abuse, as no human expert would be checking to see if the rights holder complainant actually possessed the rights it claimed, or reviewing the domain name to see if it actually constituted a black-and-white, slam dunk instance of cybersquatting. We have nothing against a URS that is as cost-efficient as possible â but not at the cost of cheapening domain registrantsâ rights.
We already expected the upcoming Toronto meeting to feature quite a bit of heated discussion of the final shape of RPMs for new gTLDs. By throwing .com and other incumbent gTLDs into the mix, and pushing the default judgment proposal, the Strickling letter should raise the temperature to an even higher level.
This article by Philip Corwin from the Internet Commerce Association was sourced with permission from:
internetcommerce.org/NTIA_URS_at_dotcom
Vint Cerf, Jon Postel, Al Gore and Steve Crocker are among 33 people inducted into the inaugural Internet Hall of Fame it was announced Monday at the Internet Society’s Global INET 2012 conference in Geneva, Switzerland.The full list of the 2012 inductees are:Pioneers Circle
Recognising individuals who were instrumental in the early design and development of the Internet: Paul Baran, Vint Cerf, Danny Cohen, Steve Crocker, Donald Davies, Elizabeth Feinler, Charles Herzfeld, Robert Kahn, Peter Kirstein, Leonard Kleinrock, John Klensin, Jon Postel, Louis Pouzin, and Lawrence Roberts.
Innovators
Recognising individuals who made outstanding technological, commercial, or policy advances and helped to expand the Internet’s reach: Mitchell Baker, Tim Berners-Lee, Robert Cailliau, Van Jacobson, Lawrence Landweber, Paul Mockapetris, Craig Newmark, Raymond Tomlinson, Linus Torvalds, and Philip Zimmermann.
Global Connectors
Recognising individuals from around the world who have made significant contributions to the global growth and use of the Internet: Randy Bush, Kilnam Chon, Al Gore, Nancy Hafkin, Geoff Huston, Brewster Kahle, Daniel Karrenberg, Toru Takahashi, and Tan Tin Wee.”This historic assembly of Internet visionaries, innovators, and leaders represents an extraordinary breadth of vision and work,” said Internet Society President and CEO Lynn St.Amour. “While the inductees have extremely diverse backgrounds and represent many different countries, each individual has an incredible passion for their work. We all benefit from their outstanding contributions to a global Internet, making it one of the greatest catalysts of economic and societal development of all time.”In conjunction with the announcement, the Internet Society has launched a website at internethalloffame.org that will showcase the inductees and their contributions on an ongoing basis. The website, which includes inductee photographs and biographies, will feature an exclusive interview series authored by Wired. Highlighting multiple inductees each month in Q&A interviews, the first interview will feature Internet Hall of Fame Pioneer Vint Cerf.The Internet Hall of Fame is an annual awards program that has been established by the Internet Society to publicly recognise a distinguished and select group of leaders and luminaries who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the global Internet.”The Internet, which connects more than two billion people around the world today, is the result of many important contributions from creative and visionary individuals over the past several decades,” said Raúl Echeberría, Chairman of the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees. “The 2012 Internet Hall of Fame celebrates the accomplishments and advancements of 33 talented people who have made significant contributions to the design, development, and expansion of the Internet.”
