Dear Members:
It has been a very busy week and it is only Wednesday. Things really started late last week when Jay Westerdal published on his blog that Google will end funding for domains during the Add/delete Grace Period (AGP). See the top story at InternetCommerce.org for more. Yesterday, the ICANN Board announced that they will start applying the ICANN fee that all of us pay when we register and renew our domains to domains that are deleted during AGP. Tasting is only made possible because millions of names can be registered at no cost during the tasting period. The addition of even this 20 cent fee should kill the profit from tasting and make this practice unsustainable.
Internet Commerce Association applauds the ICANN Board for responding urgently to the mass outcry against this practice and not waiting for the normal policy development process which can take months or years. This is the very action that ICA recommended to the board in ICANN meetings and in a written statement to the Board. If there is some clean-up work necessary to address any continued abuse, it can be handled through more routine policy development process.
Opt-in Membership List
Monday, I sent a special email asking for permission to publish your name as a member of ICA. About one third of our members gave your permission within one day. Thank you to each one of you who responded. I still appreciate receiving permission from more of you.
CAC – Upcoming Article
I am working on an article about a big potential threat to domainers. ICANN also announced that the Czech Arbitration Court was approved as a UDRP arbitrator. Paul Keating, an European attorney who is very knowledgeable of domain issues and a member of ICA’s volunteer legal advisor council, has provided me with information about what we might expect to see when this group starts hearing UDRP cases. It is not pretty. Watch for this article to be published at InternetCommerce.org.
ICANN Meeting
The next ICANN meeting in New Delhi, India starts February 9th. This is a long, long trip for most of our members and for all ICA staff. Phil Corwin and I will be there to make sure that this distant location isn’t used to cloak detrimental policy development. As announced in an earlier email, Internet Commerce Association has applied for membership to ICANN Commercial and Business Users Constituency (BC). We are hoping to receive an answer from the BC before the meeting in Delhi. Most members of ICA should also qualify for membership to BC. I encourage ICA members to join BC to help us influence the formal ICANN policy development process.
If you are not an ICA member, please join here. Our ability to effectively represent this community increases with every new member.
ICANN Positions Open
The Nominating Committee for ICANN is seeking applicants (volunteers) to fill several key positions in ICANN. The openings include two board seats and a GNSO Council seat.
The Nom Com says this about qualifications for applicants. “Nom Com seeks persons of the highest integrity and capability with experience and talents for problem solving, policy development, and decision-making involving diverse perspectives regarding how best to accomplish the mission and responsibilities of ICANN. Those selected in the Nom Com process will also be expected to place the public interest of the global Internet ahead of any particular interests.
In Nom Com's selections, such qualifications are more significant than is deep involvement in technical aspects of the Internet. The Nom Com Selected Nominees are expected to be knowledgeable, or committed to becoming knowledgeable, about the environment in which ICANN operates and the technical functions for which it is responsible, but strong technical knowledge of the Internet is not the determining factor in the Nom Com selections." Nom Com seeks persons of the highest integrity and capability with experience and talents for problem solving, policy development, and decision-making involving diverse perspectives regarding how best to accomplish the mission and responsibilities of ICANN. Those selected in the Nom Com process will also be expected to place the public interest of the global Internet ahead of any particular interests."
More specific qualifications are being sought for GNSO Council seat that include knowledge of international law, DNS security and IDN. Get involved. If you are qualified, apply. Otherwise, encourage those who can make a difference to volunteer.
DOMAINfest
Thank you to Oversee.net for putting on a terrific conference in LA. It was attended by more than 700 people and all were saying good things about the conference. Phil Corwin and I were invited to speak about ICA issues. Internet Commerce Association also proudly accepted an award from Domainer’s Choice Awards for internet trade association.
Best regards,
Michael Collins