Since ICANN woke up to the very large conflicts between its policies and contracts and privacy law there have been some groups that have been pushing for ICANN to find a swift resolution. One of the more vocal among them was the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which is made up of representative of governments from around the world. Now, however, it's clear that … [Read more...] about ICANN’s Government Group Wants to Slow Whois Work
GAC
IEDR Publish 2012 Domain Figures
IEDR have published their latest annual report which covers the period up to the end of 2012. Here's a few of the highlights: Renewal rate of 86% Total .ie domains at year-end of 182,284, up 5.3% year-on-year New .ie domain registrations down 15% on 2011 By way of comparison the .no domain registry (Norway) currently has 588999 domains registered. In terms of … [Read more...] about IEDR Publish 2012 Domain Figures
Making Sense of GAC Advice?
On the final day of the recent ICANN meeting in Beijing the GAC, which includes representatives from many countries' governments, issued their communique as they do at all ICANN meetings. While the contents of a GAC communique always attracts commentary and reaction, the GAC communique from Beijing has probably provoked more debate, anger and confusion than any … [Read more...] about Making Sense of GAC Advice?
Google Bows To Pressure On Closed Generics
The debate surrounding "closed generics", which we've covered several times in the past, has attracted a lot of attention in recent weeks. At the centre of the debate were a number of new TLD applications from large companies including Google, Amazon and others. Google had stated that they planned to establish a number of domain extensions and operate them as "walled … [Read more...] about Google Bows To Pressure On Closed Generics
ALAC To Submit Objection Against .health
ICANN's ALAC plans to submit an objection against .health Why? Their rationale is as follows: Objection statements on community grounds will be drafted for the applications for .health given that the four tests for community objection grounds were passed. ALAC were also examining a few other strings including: .nyc .patagonia .amazon However they did not feel … [Read more...] about ALAC To Submit Objection Against .health
ICANN 44 Weekend Meetings
This weekend the 44th ICANN public meeting kicked off in Prague. Yesterday's big news came early in the morning with the announcement that "Digital Archery" had been "suspended". Whether it will come back to haunt new TLD applicants at a later date or not is not clear, though many attendees are hoping that it won't. Yesterday also saw the meeting between the GNSO and … [Read more...] about ICANN 44 Weekend Meetings
D-Day For New TLDs?
Later this morning, during the ICANN meeting in Singapore, ICANN's board will meet. This is not a "normal" board meeting, as it has only one item on the agenda: Consideration of New gTLD Program. That single line says so little and yet so much. For the last few years the new gTLD program has dominated ICANN meetings. This meeting could be the one … [Read more...] about D-Day For New TLDs?
New TLD Advocates Circulate Open Letter / Petition To ICANN Board
Next week's ICANN meeting in Singapore could herald the official launch of the new TLD process. ICANN's board might decide to give the entire thing a "green light". Of course it's not that simple. The GAC isn't exactly impressed with ICANN, the US definitely isn't and the IP lobby is still more than a little piqued .. If you think that signing on to the letter and the … [Read more...] about New TLD Advocates Circulate Open Letter / Petition To ICANN Board
ICANN 41 Schedule
If you're planning on either attending the ICANN 41 meeting in Singapore or participating remotely here is the schedule As usual the meeting doesn't officially start until Monday, but there is a very busy schedule of meetings from Saturday morning onwards. The schedule is "subject to change" and if the last meeting is anything to go by, there will … [Read more...] about ICANN 41 Schedule