Europol Leads Operation To Seize Hundreds Of Domains Linked To Counterfeit Goods In Lead-Up To Christmas
In its third operation in 12 months, Europol working with European and US law enforcement agencies has seized hundreds of domain names linked to the sale of counterfeit goods online.
The latest operation saw Europol and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), together with 25 law enforcement agencies from 19 countries, seize 292 domain names. The latest announcement brings the total to 1,170 domain names seized in the three operations.
The 292 domain names seized are part of project ‘In Our Sites (IOS) Transatlantic V’. The operation was coordinated by Europol for its partners (Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain and the United Kingdom) and the HSI-led National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center) in Washington, DC, for the United States.
Since August, Europol and the IPR Center (NIPRCC) have received leads from trademark holders regarding the infringing websites, which were then circulated to law enforcement authorities in the participating countries.
The domain names seized are now in the custody of the governments involved in these operations. Visitors typing those domain names into their web browsers will find either a banner that notifies them of the seizure and educates them about the crime of wilful copyright infringement, or the visitors will not be able to access the website anymore. The most popular counterfeit products concerned include the traditional luxury goods but also sportswear, electronics, pharmaceuticals and pirated goods like movies and music.
“The infringements of intellectual property rights is a growing problem in our economies and for millions of producers and consumers. Europol is committed to working with its international partners to crack down on the criminal networks responsible for this illegal activity,” says Rob Wainwright, Director of Europol.
While seizing the websites is only one way of disrupting and hindering the criminals behind the sale of counterfeits on the Internet, law enforcement authorities also now focus increasingly on the ‘follow-the-money’ approach, in line with the EU Action Plan on the enforcement of intellectual property rights.
Project IOS is a sustained law enforcement initiative that began to protect consumers by targeting the sale of counterfeit merchandise on the Internet. The 292 domain names seized under Operation IOS V brings the total number of IOS domain names seized to 1829 since the IOS project began in November 2012.
“Working with our international partners on operations like this shows the true global impact of IP crime,” said NIPRCC Acting Director Bruce Foucart. “Counterfeiters take advantage of the holiday season and sell cheap fakes to unsuspecting consumers everywhere. Consumers need to protect themselves, their families, and their personal financial information from the criminal networks operating these bogus sites.”
Counterfeit products being sold online not only rip off the consumer and provide shoddy products, but also put their personal financial information at risk. Consumers are encouraged to report counterfeit products and websites selling them, but also encouraged to raise awareness with others because counterfeiting crimes result in many victims. In addition, the crimes can cause revenue and tax losses, unemployment, environmental, health and safety issues for humans and animals, human exploitation and child labour.
ICANN: Cross Community Working Group on Naming Related Functions Draft Transition Proposal
Purpose (Brief): Following the request of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for ICANN “convene a multistakeholder process to develop a plan to transition the U.S. government stewardship role” with regard to the IANA Functions and related root zone management, a Cross Community Working Group (CWG) was tasked with developing to produce a consolidated transition proposal for the elements of the IANA Functions relating to the Domain Name System (DNS). The CWG has now published its draft transition proposal for public comment.
Public Comment Box Link: https://www.icann.org/public-comments/cwg-naming-transition-2014-12-01-en
This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2014-12-01-en
.CO.COM Namejet City Auction Results
The .co.com City domain name auction closed a few days afo . NYC.co.com was the highest selling domain name at $4,245.Total sales were $22,419 .
Here are the results :
brussels.co.com 69
bucharest.co.com 90
budapest.co.com 80
bangkok.co.com 220
amsterdam.co.com 498
cologne.co.com 309
beijing.co.com 609
buenosaires.co.com 780
barcelona.co.com 1,000
berlin.co.com 1,109
copenhagen.co.com 99
curacao.co.com 69
helsinki.co.com 79
dublin.co.com 112
edinburgh.co.com 69
genoa.co.com 69
glasgow.co.com 90
hamburg.co.com 519
ibiza.co.com 513
dubai.co.com 1005
kiev.co.com 69
lasvegas.co.com 349
leeds.co.com 69
lisbon.co.com 119
liverpool.co.com 109
london.co.com 391
madrid.co.com 131
manchester.co.com 120
melbourne.co.com 221
milan.co.com 119
naples.co.com 82
nice.co.com 109
oslo.co.com 69
paris.co.com 883
moscow.co.com 702
mumbai.co.com 649
newyorkcity.co.com 1,109
nyc.co.com 4,245
prague.co.com 365
rome.co.com 365.00
stockholm.co.com 121
warsaw.co.com 69
venice.co.com 132
rio.co.com 867
saopaulo.co.com 259
seoul.co.com 545
shanghai.co.com 359
sydney.co.com 1,600
tokyo.co.com 545
vienna.co.com 259
ICANN Finalizes Process for Requests for Release of Two-Character ASCII Labels
As previously announced, ICANN has been working towards developing a process to permit registries to request the release of two-character ASCII labels at the second-level for registration to 3rd parties and activation in the DNS pursuant to Section 2 of Specification 5.
That process is now final and available.
For all digit/digit, letter/digit and digit/letter two-character ASCII labels, because this category has been determined not to raise significant security, stability or competition concerns and has received no objections from governments, country code top-level domain managers, and members of the technical community or rights holders, ICANN has authorized their release for all registries:
Authorization for the Release of All Digit/Digit, Letter/Digit and Digit/Letter Two-Character ASCII Labels at the Second-Level Authorization [PDF, 142 KB]
Accordingly, registries are not required to submit any individual request for release of any digit/digit, letter/digit or digit/letter two-character ASCII label, and may immediately make such labels available for third party registration and activation in the DNS.
Registries seeking to release letter/letter two-character ASCII labels at the second-level will continue to follow a transparent process as recommended by the Government Advisory Committee (GAC).
Registry operator submits a request to ICANN to release one or more letter/letter two-character ASCII label(s).
ICANN reviews the request and posts it for comment for 30 days.
ICANN notifies the GAC of the request and the comment period.
If there are no relevant and reasoned objections to the request, ICANN will approve the letter/letter ASCII label(s) request within 7-10 calendar days of the close of the 30-day public posting period.
In accordance to Section 6 of Specification 5 of the Registry Agreement, a list of reserved names for this section are still subject to the reservation requirements and will not be available for release at this time.
To learn more about the Authorization Process for Release of Two-Character ASCII Labels at the second level, and to obtain the form for “Request for Release of Letter/Letter Two-Character ASCII Labels at the Second Level,” please click here. ICANN will communicate in writing its approval of any such request, if and to the extent appropriate.
ICANN’s Registry Services and Engagement team looks forward to implementing these processes to allow registries and their registrants access to two-character SLDs, and thanks the community for its input.
This announcement was sourced from :
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2014-12-01-en
ICANN : WEBINAR: Cross Community Working Group On Naming Related Functions Public Consultation on Draft Transition Proposal
Following the request of the NTIA with regard to the IANA Functions and related root zone management, a Cross Community Working Group (CWG) was tasked with developing a consolidated transition proposal for the elements of the IANA Functions relating to the Domain Name System (DNS).
The CWG has now published its draft transition proposal for public comment. Comments can be submitted until 22 December at 23:59 UTC.
In order to brief the community on the contents on this draft transition proposal and encourage community feedback, the CWG will be organizing three identical webinars at different times to facilitate participation across time zones. The webinars will take place on:
3 December from 7:00 – 8:30 UTC (time zone converter here)
4 December from 12:30 – 14:00 UTC (time zone converter here)
4 December from 16:00 – 17:30 UTC (time zone converter here)
Webinar Details & How to Attend
The webinars will be run in an Adobe Connect room. If you are interested in attending the webinar and would like to receive dial-in details, please send an email to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
and indicate which day / time you would like to attend the webinar. Please note that the webinar will be conducted in English and will be recorded and transcribed. Subsequently the transcripts will be translated in the 5 UN languages and posted on the CWG Wiki here.
The Draft Transition Proposal
The CWG structured its draft transition proposal based on the IANA Stewardship Transition Coordination Group (ICG) Request for Proposals. These are:
1 Description of Community’s Use of IANA Functions
2A Existing, Pre-Transition Arrangements – Policy Sources
2B Existing, Pre-Transition Arrangements – Oversight and Accountability
3 Proposed Post-Transition Oversight and Accountability Arrangements
4 Transition Implications
5 NTIA Requirements
6 Community Process
Sections 1, 2A and 2B describe the current situation.
Section 3, which is the heart of the transition proposal, is still a work in progress as not all details have been ironed out as of the publication of this consultation. Although lacking some details, the information provided in this section should be sufficiently detailed to allow the communities to comment on all key components. In summary, section 3 proposes the creation of 4 new entities to replace the current NTIA arrangements. These are:
Contract Co. – This primary function of this entity (likely a non-profit corporation) is to be signatory to the contract with the IANA Functions Operator. This entity should be lightweight and have little or no staff.
Multistakeholder Review Team (MRT) – The MRT would be a multi-stakeholder body with formally selected representatives from all of the relevant communities (exact composition TBD). The operation of the MRT would be based on the concept of maximum public transparency. The responsibilities of the MRT will include:
Developing the detailed contract terms for the agreement between Contract Co. and the IANA Functions Operator, based on the key contract terms proposed as part of this proposal and set forth as Annex 3
Making key decisions for Contract Co. (e.g., whether or not to enter into a rebidding (RFP) process for the operation of the IANA Naming Functions)
Conducting the IANA Functions Operator Budget Review
Addressing any escalation issues raised by the Customer Standing Committee (CSC) including the possibility of engaging in enforcement
Performing certain elements of administration (including periodic performance reviews) currently set forth in the IANA Functions Contract and currently being carried out by the NTIA
Managing a re-contracting or rebidding (RFP) process for the operation of the IANA Functions, both as an enforcement option and as part of a regular rebidding procedure
The CWG is in the process of discussing whether there is an additional enforcement role for the MRT related to policy implementation by the IANA Functions Operator; specifically, whether the MRT should be able to commence a proceeding before the Independent Appeals Panel.
Customer Standing Committee (CSC) – While the exact composition is still to be determined, the CSC would primarily be made up of a number of representatives of registry operators, including ccTLD and gTLD registries. Input from the CSC would feed into and inform the work of the MRT. It is possible that the CSC would also include additional individuals with relevant expertise and/or liaisons (or representatives) from other SO/ACs. The CSC would:
Work with the MRT to establish Service Levels and Performance Indicators for the performance of the IANA Naming Functions
Receive reports from the IANA Functions Operator including regular performance reports.
Review these reports against established service levels and escalate any significant issues to the MRT
Independent Appeals Panel (IAP) – The CWG recommends that all IANA actions which affect the Root Zone or Root Zone WHOIS database be subject to an independent and binding appeals panel. The Appeals Mechanism should also cover any policy implementation actions that affect the execution of changes to the Root Zone File or Root Zone WHOIS and how relevant policies are applied. This need not be a permanent body, but rather could be handled the same way as commercial disputes are often resolved, through the use of a binding arbitration process using an independent arbitration organization (e.g., ICDR, ICC, AAA) or a standing list of qualified people under rules promulgated by such an organization.
Sections 4, 5 and 6 are currently in development and are directly dependent on the final choices that will be made for section 3.
For further details, you are encouraged the review the draft transition proposal in its entirety, available here.
Further information
For further information about the CWG’s work, please see https://community.icann.org/x/37fhAg.
For further information about the ICG and the IANA Stewardship Transition, please see https://www.icann.org/stewardship.
This announcement was sourced from :
