Every year a number of positions with ICANN's various committees, councils and boards become available, as people's terms end. This year is no different with the following posts being up for grabs: Three members of the ICANN Board of Directors.Three regional representatives to the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) – one each representing the Africa region, Asia, … [Read more...] about ICANN Seeking Applicants for Multiple Roles via NomCom
French Domain Registry Blocking UK Registrations due to Brexit
While the .eu ccTLD's handling of UK registrants post-Brexit has grabbed headlines, they aren't the only domain name registry that is impacted. Many of the European country code domain names have or had policies that link registration requirements to membership of the EU. Bear in mind that one of the core tenets of the EU treaties is to allow ease of commerce across the entire … [Read more...] about French Domain Registry Blocking UK Registrations due to Brexit
Ethos Capital is Buying Donuts
Ethos Capital is buying a controlling stake in domain registry company Donuts. Donuts recently announced that it was buying Afilias and now it too is being bought. Ethos Capital is the entity that attempted to acquire PIR, the .org domain name registry. Ethos Capital described itself at the time of its attempted acquisition as being "firmly rooted in the belief that … [Read more...] about Ethos Capital is Buying Donuts
Tucows Puts Download Site Out to Pasture
In the mid 1990s the internet was a very different place. There was no Google. There was no Facebook and "app stores" did not exist. If you wanted to find software to do something you'd often end up on shareware download sites like TUCOWS - The Ultimate Collection of Winsock Software. A lot of us who first went online in the 1990s probably spent a lot of time on the … [Read more...] about Tucows Puts Download Site Out to Pasture
Parler Attempting to Come Back Online
Parler has been offline for several days now and there have been thousands of articles written about how that happened and, more importantly, why. At time of writing Parler.com is showing a simple holding page: The text reads: Now seems like the right time to remind you all — both lovers and haters — why we started this platform. We believe privacy is paramount and … [Read more...] about Parler Attempting to Come Back Online
Why is Leave EU’s Site and Domain Offline?
Back in October of last year I noted that one of the Brexit campaign's more visible groups had switched their leave.eu domain name over to an Irish entity. Under the .eu registration rules the registered holder of a .eu domain name has to be within the European Union or, in the case of private citizens, a citizen of a member state. Switching a domain name over to an entity in a … [Read more...] about Why is Leave EU’s Site and Domain Offline?
ICANN 70 Confirmed as Virtual
It's looking less and less likely that there will be any big "in person"" events in 2021 with more and more event organisers announcing their plans to hold their events online. ICANN has announced that ICANN 70 which was meant to be held in Cancún, Mexico is being held online, though it will be scheduled on the Mexican city's timezone. You can register for the event … [Read more...] about ICANN 70 Confirmed as Virtual
What is .art Playing at?
When new TLDs were being introduced one of the arguments in their favour is that they'd offer more choices to registrants. Earlier today the .art registry made a rather odd announcement: https://twitter.com/Art_Domains/status/1346502397644972039 Apparently they're now offering "3rd level domains" What now? According to the blog post: ART’s third-level domains … [Read more...] about What is .art Playing at?
Donuts’ Afilias Deal Closes
Back in November many were surprised by the news that Donuts was acquiring Afilias. While mergers and acquisitions happen all the time, this deal was big news and to many observers probably a little surprising. Yesterday the deal closed. The "change of control" had been on the agenda of a recent ICANN Board meeting, but nothing of any substance came out of that. … [Read more...] about Donuts’ Afilias Deal Closes
Video: Section 230 Explained
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is arguably one of the most important bits of legislation that impacts the internet. Without it a lot of what we all consume and interact with online would probably cease to exist. While it is a US law its impact is global. For the last couple of years the legislation has been under constant attack from both sides of the aisle … [Read more...] about Video: Section 230 Explained