ICA and its members will have a major presence at The Domain Conference, a new industry gathering being held September 26-29 at the beautiful Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel and Spa in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,. The four-day event will start with two days of relaxed poolside networking overlapping with three days of highly informative sessions on the business of domaining. …
ICANN Opens “IANA Stewardship and Accountability Public Comment Periods”
Over the past week ICANN has opened dual comment periods on the interrelated proposals for transitioning oversight of the IANA root zone functions form the U.S. government to the multistakeholder ICANN community, and for significantly enhancing that community’s ability to hold ICANN’s Board and staff accountable. When the final proposals are implemented they will mark the biggest changes in ICANN’s …
ICANN Staff Publish Summary of Public Comments on URS at .Travel
On July 31st ICANN staff finally published the Report of Public Comments regarding the Proposed Renewal of .TRAVEL Sponsored TLD Registry Agreement, after missing the July 5th due date by more than three weeks. The Report accurately reflects that all but two of the many comments filed on the proposal opposed imposition of Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) by contract upon …
ICA on the Record at ICANN 53 Buenos Aires
ICA Counsel Philip Corwin told ICANN’s Board of Directors that they needed to take responsibility, fully review, and “own” the recent decision by Global Domains Division (GDD) staff to try to insert Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) in legacy gTLD contracts up for renewal – and that any further alterations of the URS and other rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) created …
RPM Comments Report Makes URS Expansion Danger Clear
On May 29th ICANN staff issued its Report of Public Comments on the “Draft Report: Rights Protection Mechanisms Review”. Back in May ICA advised ICANN that, “ICA would vigorously oppose any attempt to amend the URS to provide a domain transfer option as such a rapid and circumscribed process could be readily abused to further the scourge of reverse domain …
ICANN Proposes URS for .Cat and .Pro in Steady March Toward .Net and .Com
Just ten days ago we advised the domain investment community that ICANN staff was seeking to act in an unacceptably unaccountable manner that appears to violate ICANN’s own Bylaws by improperly imposing Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) and other new gTLD program Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPM) implementations on legacy gTLDs. This would have the de facto effect of converting these RPMs …
ICA Counsel Quoted in WSJ Op-Ed on ICANN
ICA Counsel Philip Corwin is quoted in a May 18th Wall Street Journal Op-Ed. The article, “Obama’s Bungled Internet Surrender’, was penned by L. Gordon Crovitz, whose weekly column addresses technology-related policy matters. As the title suggests, Mr. Crovitz is not a fan of the Administration’s plan to relinquish its counterparty role on the IANA functions contract. His Op-Ed states: …
ICA Counsel to Testify before Congress on IANA Transition and ICANN Accountability
ICA Counsel Philip Corwin has been invited to testify on ICA’s behalf before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. The Subcommittee is holding a hearing on Wednesday, May 13th on the subject of “Stakeholder Perspectives on ICANN: The .Sucks Domain and Essential Steps to Guarantee Trust and Accountability in the Internet’s Operation”. The hearing …
Senate Judiciary Leaders Ask New IP Czar to Facilitate ICANN-Focused Conversations
Daniel Marti was nominated to become the new White House “IP Czar” in August 2014 to replace Victoria Espinel. His predecessor, in yet another illustration of Washington’s “revolving door” shuffling key individuals between the government and private sector, departed the post a year earlier to become head of BSA/The Software Alliance, the leading trade group for the software industry. …
$59 Million and Counting: ICANN Board Downgrades Community Say on Use of Last Resort Auction Proceeds
ICANN’s new gTLD program provides for last resort auctions to settle contention sets where the competing applicants are unable to reach agreement by negotiation or private auction, with the proceeds going to a segregated ICANN account. With the recent $25 million bid of Google to secure control of the .App registry the total proceeds of those ICANN auctions has swelled …