Internet Commerce Association - ICA

Back in September 2010 ICANN invited public comment on the proposal of the Arab Center for Dispute Resolution (ACDR) of Amman, Jordan to become a UDRP arbitration provider. Most of the comments opposed approval or requested changes and clarifications. Nothing more was heard of the application – until it showed up on the Consent Agenda for the ICANN Board meeting scheduled for February 28^th!

ICA just filed a comment letter responding to a draft ICANN framework for determining what is policy and what is just implementation of existing policy. We’ll be the first to admit that the subject is dry, vague, and of general interest only to Internet policy wonks – but the answers are critically important to assuring that domain investors and registrants get a fair shake in the ICANN process.

Domain Sherpa, a well-known website that features video interviews with domain investment industry leaders, has now made available an interview with ICA Counsel Philip Corwin.

Commentary on ICANN’s proposed “Strawman Solution” for the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH) is reaching impressive heights. With just a few hours remaining before the filing deadline eighty-three separate comments have been submitted on the proposal, and we imagine that a few more will trickle in before the inbox is closed.

The International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) concluded its Dubai meeting in some disarray last week, with 89 nations (with a collective population of 2.6 billion) signing the revised International Telecommunications Regulations (ITR) and 54 (with a collective population of 3.8 billion) abstaining and thereby effectively saying ‘No’.

While ICANN provides excellent remote participation technologies for its thrice-yearly public meetings, it’s been our experience that there is no real substitute for attending in person if you want to get the full picture of activities and have a meaningful impact. A tremendous amount of information is gained from hallway and other informal conversations, and it also allows for one-on-one networking with other participants as well as ICANN staff and Board members.

VeriSign and the Department of Commerce (DOC) announced this morning that the Agreement allowing VeriSign to remain in place as the .Com registry operator had been approved with one major alteration -- .Com wholesale prices will be frozen at $7.85 for the six-year length of the Agreement absent extraordinary circumstances.

In the past two years VeriSign has bestowed “special dividends” on its shareholders totaling nearly $1 billion, still has a cash pile exceeding $1.4 billion, and has so little need for all that cash that it is planning to spend more than half of it on stock buybacks. Meanwhile, under the .Com registry operations renewal Agreement already okayed by ICANN, it stands to reap more than $1.2 billion in above-market rate excess profits over the next six years. Nice monopoly work if you can get it.

Straw man >n. a person compared to a straw image; a sham.

• ·         a sham argument set up to be defeated.

--- The New Oxford American Dictionary