.VOTE and .Vote Domain Names Launched
Afilias announced today the first phase of the introduction of two new generic top-level domain names . Vote and .Voto.
You can read the press release after the jump :
“Monolith Registry, a venture backed by global registry services provider Afilias, today announced the first phase of the introduction of two new generic top-level domains: “dot VOTE” or .VOTE; and its Spanish/Italian/Portuguese counterpart “dot VOTO” or .VOTO. .VOTE and .VOTO are designed to help governments, candidates and organizations get information to voters such as candidate materials or voter registration information. The first phase is the “sunrise” period, which is limited to eligible trademark holders and is open from January 13, 2015 through February 12, 2015.
Today, voters are confused and frustrated by the tidal wave of negative and misleading information characteristic of current elections in the US. Web site names can be registered and used by anyone for any purpose, resulting in a torrent of false and often deceptive messages targeting every voter group. Where can voters turn?
.VOTE and .VOTO are new web addresses designed for participants in the democratic process who need to provide information on their issues/candidacy to voters. As the names imply, .VOTE and .VOTO are dedicated to voter-focused, politically oriented information. Registrants must be able to demonstrate a nexus between their political activities and the name they are using. And they are prohibited from using names that are deceitful or disparaging. As a result, VOTE/.VOTO addresses will be respected as THE space dedicated to politically oriented information.
“In a cluttered and often negative political environment, candidates and other political participants have had no easy way to get their word out to voters,” said Roland LaPlante, CMO of Afilias. “The new .VOTE and .VOTO top-level domains now make it easy to get a memorable name that voters will know comes from you. And, we’ve built in safeguards to help ensure .VOTE/.VOTO names are neither misleading nor deceptive.”
The notice period for .VOTE and .VOTO sunrise period has begun: Sunrise will run from January 13, 2015 through February 12, 2015. During sunrise, domains will be awarded in a first-come, first-served manner; however, eligibility during this period is limited strictly to trademark holders whose marks are registered in the Trademark Clearinghouse. Once the general availability period opens on February 17, 2015, everyone will be eligible to register addresses with the .VOTE and .VOTO domains.
For more information about the .VOTE and .VOTO domains, please visit: www.nic.vote and www.nic.voto.”
.Vlaanderen and .Brussels Domain Names Now Available For Everyone
Starting today, December 16,2014 and running through until January 15,2015, everyone can register their favourite .Brussels and .Vlaanderen domain names.
It doesn’t matter what nationality you are or what type of applicant you are, you can now register your .Vlaanderen and .Brussels domain name.
You can read the announcement after the jump :
“Are football.vlaanderen and shopping.brussels still available? Starting today, everyone has the opportunity to grab their favourite .vlaanderen or .brussels domain name. And if there is more than one applicant for any particular domain name, that name will then go up for auction.
Beginning today, 16 December, and running through until 15 January 2015, it doesn’t matter what type of applicant you are, what nationality you have or which domain name you want to register. Because right now, anyone can apply to register any .vlaanderen or .brussels domain name they want. All of the names that are still available and not reserved can be applied for via your registrar. Which includes generic names such as football.vlaanderen, or whatever. You’ll find more inspiring ideas for generic names if you go to www.trotsopvlaanderen.be.
Read all about the Landrush phase here.
A typical feature of a Landrush phase is that we don’t allocate the domain names immediately on a first come, first served basis. Instead, we collect all of the applications and keep them until the end of the phase. This means that until 15 January 2015, everyone has the same opportunity to apply for a specific domain name. Then, after the phase closes, we take a look at how many applicants there are for each specific domain name. If there is just one applicant, we automatically allocate the domain name to that one person. But if there are several applicants for the same domain name, we proceed to an auction, with the domain name being allocated to the highest bidder.”
Still No Ranking Advantage Using New gTLDs: Google
New gTLDs may have benefits in getting a more relevant, and shorter, domain name, but there is no advantage when it comes to how well they perform in online search results.
Writing on his Google+ page, Google’s John Mueller wrote “it feels like it’s time to re-share this again. There still is no inherent ranking advantage to using the new TLDs.”
“They can perform well in search, just like any other TLD can perform well in search. They give you an opportunity to pick a name that better matches your web-presence. If you see posts claiming that early data suggests they’re doing well, keep in mind that’s this is not due to any artificial advantage in search: you can make a fantastic website that performs well in search on any TLD.”
Mueller was reiterating a post by his former colleague Matt Cutts in response to a follower’s question who asked “will a new TLD web address automatically be favoured by Google over a .com equivalent?”
“Sorry, but that’s just not true, and as an engineer in the search quality team at Google, I feel the need to debunk this misconception,” wrote Cutts. “Google has a lot of experience in returning relevant web pages, regardless of the top-level domain (TLD). Google will attempt to rank new TLDs appropriately, but I don’t expect a new TLD to get any kind of initial preference over .com, and I wouldn’t bet on that happening in the long-term either. If you want to register an entirely new TLD for other reasons, that’s your choice, but you shouldn’t register a TLD in the mistaken belief that you’ll get some sort of boost in search engine rankings.”
Mueller also added that “just to be complete — we treat all of the new TLDs as gTLDs, meaning you can set geo-targeting as you wish in Webmaster Tools. There’s no automatic geo-targeting for TLDs that look like city or regional names.”
Terrorism Victims Wanting Control Of ccTLDs Appeal US Court Decision
In November, a US federal court that ccTLDs are not “subject to attachment” in a case brought by victims of terrorism. However the plaintiffs are now appealing that decision.
The victims of terrorism in the case came from Israel and the United States. They sued to have the assets of the Iranian (.IR), Syrian (.SY) and North Korean (.KP), (as well as internationalised TLDs for Iran and Syria) ccTLDs seized for compensation have failed.
The federal court ruled that the ccTLD’s “at issue may not be attached in satisfaction of plaintiffs’ judgements because they are not property subject to attachment under District of Columbia law.”
The court ruled that under District of Columbia law their attachment is not permissible. However the court also noted that even though ccTLDs may not be attached, it did not mean they cannot be property. In a footnote, “the Court concluded that ccTLDs may not be attached as a matter of District of Columbia law, there are no factual disputes that require further consideration. Therefore, the Court denies the plaintiffs’ motion for discovery as moot.”
The federal court ruling agreed with ICANN’s legal filings in the case. ICANN sought to quash the writs of attachment citing ICANN’s technical coordination role in the domain name system (DNS) and arguing that ccTLDs are not subject to attachment.
At the time ICANN noted they were pleased with the ruling.
“We are pleased that the court ruled in our favour on the grounds that the ccTLDs are not property, subject to attachment”, said John Jeffrey, ICANN’s General Counsel and Secretary. “The court’s ruling demonstrates a technical understanding of the DNS, and the role of ccTLDs in the single, global, interoperable internet.
Should the appeal be successful, it could set a precedent and mean countries, in this case Iran, North Korea and Syria, could lose control of their ccTLDs. The case was brought by families who have won American federal court judgments that amount to more than a billion dollars against the Iranian government seek to own all the TLDs provided by the US to Iran including the .ir TLD, the ایران TLD and all Internet Protocol (IP) addresses being utilised by the Iranian government and its agencies. The court papers were served on ICANN.
The case followed earlier cases brought in the US by the terror victim plaintiff/judgment holders against Iran. The districts courts repeatedly ruled that the suicide bombing and shooting attacks perpetrated by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist organisations in Israel were funded by the Islamic regime through MOIS. However, although the families have received compensatory and punitive damage judgments against the defendants, Iran refused to satisfy the court awards. Iran has been designated by the Department of State as an outlaw nation that provides material support and resources to terrorist groups worldwide since 1996.
For more details on the case, including an interview with one of the plaintiff’s lawyers, see Kieren McCarthy’s article in The Register here.
Join ICANN for Middle East’s First Regional Webinar on IANA Stewardship Transition and ICANN’s Accountability
The ICANN Middle East team invites you to participate in the first regional webinar on the IANA Stewardship and ICANN ‘s Accountability. There will also be an opportunity to contribute to the discussion.
When: Monday, 22 December 2014 at 1600 UTC (for time conversions, please refer to the link at www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/).
Where: Adobe Connect at https://icann.adobeconnect.com/meswg and over Telephone/Skype (dial-out numbers can be found online at http://adigo.com/icann/).
The call will be conducted in English and there will be real-time Arabic translation.
| Agenda | ||
|---|---|---|
| Time | Slot Name | Speaker |
| 16.00 – 16.05 | Welcome note | Baher Esmat, VP, Stakeholder Engagement, Middle East – ICANN |
| 16.05 – 16.25 | Overview of the IANA Stewardship Transition and ICANN Accountability processes | Theresa Swinehart, Senior Advisor to the President on Global Strategy |
| 16.25 – 16.45 | The IANA Coordination Group ( ICG ) | Manal Ismail, Director, International Technical Coordination, National Telecom Regulatory Authority – NTRA
Mohammed Elbashir, Technical Department Manager – ictQatar |
| 16.45 – 17.25 | Q&A | Open Floor |
| 17.25 – 17.30 | Closing Remarks | Baher Esmat, VP, Stakeholder Engagement, Middle East – ICANN |
Questions and interventions can be made in either language, and can be posted either over the call, or as text in the Adobe Connect room.
In order to join the call, you can either:
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Request for dial-out assistance. Please send your name, a phone number you want to be called at and your language preference to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
, no later than 20 December 2014 at 23.59 UTC; or -
Join by dialing into a toll-free number for your country as shown at http://adigo.com/icann/ either using a telephone or via Skype Call one of the toll-free numbers listed in the same link (toll-free numbers do NOT show an ‘L’, ‘M’, or ‘T’ in front of them). Once you are prompted for the conference code, please enter 47139 if you wish to join the Arabic channel or 83137 if you wish to join the English channel.
Details
ICANN Announcements- 15 Dec 2014
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