BTC.com Sells For $1.1m Following Bitcoin Demand

The demand and popularity of Bitcoins has seen the domain name btc.com sell for a whopping $1.1 million.

The domain was purchased by Josh Garza of GAWMiners according to a report in Cryptocoins News “as larger players and investors come into the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency world, more money is being invested in properties and businesses.”

The biggest reported sale for 2014 to date is still mi.com according to Domain Name Journal, which sold for $3.6m in April while whisky.com ($3.1m) and sex.xxx ($3.0m) coming in second and third are the only domain sales to top the $3m mark. Btc.com comes in seventh.

To read the Cryptocoins News report in full, see:
www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/bitcoin-domain-btc-com-acquired-1-1-million-usd-josh-garza-gawminers/2014/08/04

ICANN: GNSO Review 360 Assessment: Participate and Make Your Voice Heard!

The Generic Names Supporting Organization ( GNSO ) serves an important function – it is responsible for developing and recommending to the ICANN Board substantive policies relating to generic top-level domains.

Participate in the GNSO Review 360 Assessment!

The GNSO Review is part of ICANN ‘s commitment to continuous improvement, accountability and transparency. It uses mechanisms and measures to maintain public confidence in the viability, reliability and accountability of ICANN .

ICANN ‘s Bylaws¹ require that its structures, including the GNSO , be reviewed on a five-year cycle. The purpose of the review is to evaluate organizational effectiveness of the GNSO , acknowledge areas that are working well, identify areas that need improvement and affect needed changes.

The quality, validity and acceptance of the GNSO Review and the resulting improvements depend on relevant and useful feedback from a diverse and representative group of people. This is the cornerstone of ICANN ‘s bottom-up multistakeholder model.

The 360 Assessment, a new component within the organizational reviews, is designed to gather data for an independent examiner, Westlake Governance, to use in the review process and may also inform GNSO self-improvement efforts.

The 360 Assessment is an easy-to-use online tool for the GNSO community, other ICANN structures and community members, the Board and staff to provide valuable feedback to the independent examiner.

To participate in this survey and make your voice heard, please click here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNSOREVIEW360SURVEY.

The 360 Assessment will be live from 4-August-2014 23:59 UTC to 10-September-2014 23:59 UTC.

Translated versions in all UN Languages will be made available shortly.

Informational Webinars

We will hold two webinars to provide an overview of what the 360 Assessment is, how to participate and how it fits into the GNSO Review process, on the following dates:

Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2014 Time: 19:00-20:30 UTC (time converter: http://goo.gl/kJvuIm)
Date: Wednesday, 13 April 2014 Time: 14:00-14:30 UTC (time converter: http://goo.gl/UNDIsl)

The two sessions are duplicates, scheduled to accommodate different time zones.

The webinar will be recorded and available for those who may not be able to join the sessions.

Additional Information – GNSO Review 2014

Participation Opportunities

	Interested SOs/ACs	Interested Individuals
GNSO Review Working Party	Appoint an observer – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Follow the work here Send your comment to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.	Follow the work here Send your comment to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
360 Assessment	Participate in the 360 Assessment https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNSOREVIEW360SURVEY	Participate in the 360 Assessment https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNSOREVIEW360SURVEY
Independent Examiner	Provide feedback to Westlake Governance This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.	Provide feedback to Westlake Governance This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Public Comment	Public comment period in November 2014-January 2015	Public comment period in November 2014-January 2015
Structural Improvements Committee	Provide feedback here	Provide feedback here
Staff	Provide feedback – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.	Provide feedback – This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

¹ Article X of ICANN Bylaws provides further detail. ICANN ‘s Bylaws require that its structures, including the GNSO , be reviewed on a five-year cycle. According to the Bylaws, the goal of the review is “to determine (i) whether that organization has a continuing purpose in the ICANN structure, and (ii) if so, whether any change in structure or operations is desirable to improve its effectiveness.”

This ICANN announcement, with a link to a video, was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2-2014-08-04-en

ICANN: You are Invited to Attend the GNSO Review 360 Assessment Webinar!

You are invited to attend a webinar regarding the 360 Assessment of the Generic Names Supporting Organization ( GNSO ). This briefing will provide the ICANN community with an overview of what the 360 Assessment is, how to participate and how it fits into the GNSO Review process.

Date: Tuesday, 12 August 2014 Time: 19:00-19:30 UTC (time converter: http://goo.gl/kJvuIm)

Date: Wednesday, 13 April 2014 Time: 14:00-14:30 UTC (time converter: http://goo.gl/UNDIsl)

The webinar will be recorded and available for those who may not be able to join the sessions.

The 360 Assessment is an easy-to-use online tool for the GNSO community, other ICANN structures and community members, the Board and staff to provide valuable feedback to the independent examiner.

To participate in this survey and make your voice heard, please click here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GNSOREVIEW360SURVEY..

The 360 Assessment will be live from 4-August-2014 23:59 UTC to 10-September-2014 23:59 UTC.

Webinar Details

Please join the webinar
on Tuesday, 12 August 2014 Time: 19:00-19:30:30 UTC (time converter: http://goo.gl/ylVlQZ) or on Wednesday, 13 April 2014 Time: 14:00-14:30 UTC (time converter: http://goo.gl/UNDIsl).

The two sessions are duplicates, scheduled to accommodate different time zones.

The webinars will be run in an Adobe Connect room with a brief slide presentation to frame interactive discussion, along with a dial-in conference bridge for audio. The session will be conducted in English.

If you cannot join the live session, the recording of the session will be made available shortly after the meeting.

Please register via email to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
by Tuesday, 11 August 2014 – 23:59 UTC to receive the dial-in details. A reminder with log-in and dial-in details will be sent to you prior to the call.

Additional Information – GNSO Review 2014

Webinar Materials

Tuesday, 12 August 2014:

AC Recording – To be provided following the webinar
Audio Recording – To be provided following the webinar
Transcript – To be provided following the webinar
Chat Transcript – To be provided following the webinar
Presentation – To be provided following the webinar

Wednesday, 13 August 2014:

AC Recording – To be provided following the webinar
Audio Recording – To be provided following the webinar
Transcript – To be provided following the webinar
Chat Transcript – To be provided following the webinar
Presentation – To be provided following the webinar

This ICANN announcement, with link to a video, was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2014-08-04-en

Rightside Group Announces Board of Directors and Executive Team, Begins Trading On Nasdaq

[news release] Rightside Group, Ltd., a leading provider of domain name services that enable businesses and consumers to find, establish and maintain their online presence, today announced the members of its board of directors and executive management team following the completion of Rightside’s spin-off from Demand Media, Inc.® on August 1, 2014. In conjunction with the completion of the spin-off, Rightside common stock begins “regular-way” trading under the symbol “NAME” at today’s opening of the Nasdaq Global Select Market.

“Today’s milestone is a tribute to our team’s vision, ingenuity and commitment to making Rightside a leader in advancing the way businesses and consumers define and present themselves online,” said Taryn Naidu, CEO of Rightside. “Success will come from driving new TLDs through each aspect of our business – with our Registrar, Registry and Aftermarket businesses each doing their part to innovate and deliver for our customers.”

David E. Panos, Chairman of the Board of Directors, commented, “Rightside is ideally positioned to be a leader in the revolution taking place in the previously limited and tradition-bound world of domain names. As we move past the .com era into a ‘new Internet’ with a multitude of creative and memorable options, the domain name is now a strategic asset for branding and marketing.”

Rightside Board of Directors

Rightside’s board is composed of three independent members and two non-independent members. The board is structured with three standing board committees (an audit committee, a compensation committee, and a nominating and corporate governance committee) comprised solely of independent directors.

David E. Panos, Chairman

Mr. Panos has served in several senior roles with Demand Media since 2008, including Executive Vice President of Emerging Markets, Chief Strategy Officer and Chief Marketing Officer. He has been an integral part of the Demand Media team responsible for the strategy for acquiring gTLD registry operator rights in ICANN’s New gTLD Program and for establishing and implementing business operations to support Rightside’s registry operations, both domestically and internationally. Mr. Panos is an entrepreneur with 25 years of early stage software company and venture capital experience. He holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Furman University.

Taryn J. Naidu, Rightside Chief Executive Officer and Director

Mr. Naidu joined Demand Media in 2006 as an executive advisor to the eNom management team, before taking a full-time position to drive business and product development strategy and corporate growth. Since becoming Executive Vice President of Domain Services for Demand Media in 2011, he has led the registry team establishing Rightside’s strategy for acquiring gTLD registry operator rights, building the technology platform, and establishing and implementing domestic and international business operations. Prior to Demand Media, Taryn was the CEO of Pool.com, where he joined the domain marketplace company as an engineer and worked his way up to become president and ultimately, CEO. Taryn holds a computer science degree from the University of Regina in Canada.

Robert J. Majteles, Director

Mr. Majteles is the managing partner of Treehouse Capital LLC, an investment firm he launched in 2000. He serves as an active and involved board member for the companies in Treehouse’s portfolio. Prior to launching Treehouse Capital LLC, Mr. Majteles was the Chief Executive Officer of three technology companies, including one which was publicly traded. Mr. Majteles has also served as a board member of, and an investor in, many public and private technology companies. In addition, he has been an investment banker and a mergers and acquisitions attorney.

James R. Quandt, Director

Mr. Quandt currently serves as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Demand Media. Since 2005, Mr. Quandt has served as co-founder and Managing Partner at Thomas James Capital, Inc., a private equity firm that also provides financial advisory services. He has served on a number of public and private company boards, including Intermix Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company that owned MySpace, Inc., Blue Label Interactive, Inc., Digital Orchid Incorporated, The FRS Company, where he is currently Chairman of the board, and the Brain Corporation. Mr. Quandt is a member of the Board of Trustees of Saint Mary’s College of California and currently serves as Chairman Emeriti, and is the President of the Pacific Club of Newport Beach, California.

Richard C. Spalding, Director

Since 2003, Mr. Spalding has been the Managing Director at Kearny Venture Partners, focusing on life science and drug sector investments. From 2000 to 2003, Mr. Spalding was a General Partner at ABS Ventures, investing in emerging companies in the healthcare sector. From 1997 to 1999, Mr. Spalding served as a Vice President and the Chief Financial Officer at Portal Software, a software company for online billing services, where Mr. Spalding’s responsibilities included working on corporate financing and legal and financial reporting. Prior to that, Mr. Spalding served as the Chief Financial Officer at Fusion Medical Technologies, a medical device company, and was responsible for all aspects of the company’s initial public offering. Earlier, he was with Alex, Brown and Sons, an investment bank to emerging growth companies, which he joined after a 14-year tenure at Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison LLP, acting as general counsel for initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance matters.

Rightside Executive Team

Taryn Naidu, Chief Executive Officer

Tracy Knox, Chief Financial Officer

Tracy leads Rightside’s financial operations, including accounting and financial reporting, treasury, and investor relations. With nearly 20 years of experience in global finance, Tracy has worked in a variety of industries, including software development and ecommerce. Previously, she served as CFO for several innovative companies including A Place for Mom, UIEvolution, and Drugstore.com.

Wayne MacLaurin, Chief Technology Officer

Wayne is responsible for managing both the technology roadmap and day-to-day operations of Rightside’s technical systems. Prior to joining the Rightside team, Wayne served in various senior management positions within the domain name industry, including as CTO of Momentous, a Canadian domain name services company. Wayne also served as Executive Director for the DNS Operations, Analysis, and Research Center (DNS-OARC), an industry trade group.

Rick Danis, General Counsel

As Rightside’s General Counsel, Rick oversees all legal matters and initiatives across the organization. Prior to managing the legal components of Rightside’s transformation into an independent company, Rick was Demand Media’s SVP, Assistant General Counsel, and was responsible for managing all legal issues related to its domain name services businesses since 2009. Rick has held senior legal positions at Nokia, Yahoo, and Broadcast.com before its acquisition by Yahoo.

David Ryan, VP & GM, Registry Services

David leads Rightside’s registry business operations. Prior to joining Rightside, David opened and managed the international headquarters for what later became Rightside’s domain name services business in Dublin, Ireland. He has years of executive experience at start-ups and multi-national corporations, building and running high-availability, customer-facing, mission-critical services. His past roles include leading global customer support at Electronic Arts, one of the largest game developers in the world.

Steve Banfield, SVP & GM, Registrar Services

Steve leads Rightside’s Registrar Services group, which includes the company’s eNom and Name.com businesses. A 20-year technology industry veteran, Steve has built and marketed digital products and services used by millions of consumers worldwide. Steve has previously been a startup CEO, consultant, and held senior leadership roles at Sony, Microsoft, and RealNetworks.

Matt Overman, VP & GM, Aftermarket and Premium Domains

Matt leads Rightside’s monetization and premium domain sales business. Matt previously served as General Manager of NameJet, establishing it as the premier auction marketplace in the domain name industry. He has also managed specialized sales efforts for five of the Web’s top 10 registrars. Prior to joining Rightside, Matt held positions at Hotkeys and McCann Erickson in Seattle.

Dwayne Walker, SVP, Business Development

Dwayne leads business development strategy across Rightside. Before joining Rightside, he served in SVP and GM roles for Domainsponsor.com, TrafficMatch.com, and aftermarket domain sales for Oversee.net. Dwayne has also held executive management positions at Microsoft, Fidelity and other technology companies where his responsibilities included sales, marketing, business development, engineering, and product management. Dwayne has also served on the boards of directors at Escrow.com, iClick.com, FreeShop.com and Micro General.

For a full list of Rightside’s executive staff, go to Rightside.co.

About Rightside

Rightside™ inspires and delivers new possibilities for consumers and businesses to define and present themselves online. The company, with its affiliates, is a leading provider of domain name services offering one of the industry’s most comprehensive platforms for the discovery, registration, development, and monetization of domain names. This includes 15 million names under management, the most widely used domain name reseller platform, more than 20,000 distribution partners, an award-winning retail registrar, the leading domain name auction service through its NameJet joint venture and an interest in more than 100 new Top Level Domain registry operator agreements or applications through Rightside affiliate, United TLD Holdco Limited, trading as Rightside Registry. Rightside is home to some of the most admired brands in the industry, including eNom, Name.com, and NameJet (in partnership with Web.com). Headquartered in Kirkland, WA, Rightside has offices in North America, Europe and Australia. For more information please visit www.rightside.co.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended, including, among others, statements relating to the trading of the Company’s common stock and prospects for Rightside as an independent entity following the separation from Demand Media, Inc. Statements that are not purely historical are forward looking statements. Statements containing words such as may, believe, anticipate, expect, intend, plan, project, and estimate or similar expressions constitute forward-looking statements. Statements regarding Rightside’s future performance are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about our industry, financial condition, operating performance and results of operations, including certain assumptions related thereto. Actual results may differ materially from the results predicted, and reported results should not be considered an indication of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, among others: revenue and growth expectations for Rightside following its separation from Demand Media, Inc.; the ability of Rightside to operate as an independent entity following the separation; market conditions in general; Rightside’s ability to successfully pursue, acquire and operate new gTLD registries; the impact on Rightside’s registry business given its limited experience in providing back-end infrastructure services to new and existing registries; the impact of any delays or limitations in introducing new gTLDs; Rightside’s ability to successfully market and sell its gTLDs; and the difficulty in predicting and developing consumer demand for new gTLDs. More information about potential risk factors that could affect Rightside’s operating and financial results are contained in Rightside’s Registration Statement on Form 10, as amended, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on July 14, 2014. All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Rightside does not intend to revise or update the information set forth in this press release, except as required by law, and may not provide this type of information in the future.

Is ICANN’s .IR Response at Odds with the ACPA and ICE Domain Seizures? by Philip Corwin, Internet Commerce Association

An initial review of ICANN’s response to litigation seeking it to turn over control of the ccTLDs of Iran, Syria and North Korea led to the conclusion that it had opened a “legal can of worms”. A few more just wriggled out, and they threaten the basic assumption that underlies the U.S. statute governing cybersquatting and the practices engaged in by Federal officials seizing domain names engaged in intellectual property infringement.

In a blog post, “Are Internet domain names “property”?”, placed at the influential Volokh Conspiracy legal discussion website, Temple University Law Professor David Post further explores the implications of ICANN’s response. His comments carry considerable weight, as he is also a Fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Adjunct Scholar at the Cato Institute, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Nexa Center for Internet and Society.

Professor Post starts out by declaring his distaste for “resolving through private litigation matters that are more properly viewed as substantial international disputes between nation-states”. That aversion is heightened when it “embroils ICANN in either (a) complicated questions of international politics or (b) the resolution of private disputes”. And he gets to the heart of the potential international political dangers of this litigation with his observation that, “the notion that the decisions of US courts can interfere in ICANN’s management of the domain name system in a way that courts elsewhere cannot… will not go over very well in an international community that already thinks the US government exercises too much control over ICANN, and over Internet infrastructure in general.

While agreeing with ICANN’s argument that a ccTLD is not property, he goes on to observe that this contention is actually at sharp odds with existing U.S. law and enforcement practices involving the protection of trademarks and copyrights:

It’s a very sensible argument, and I’ve made it myself many times. The problem, though, is that US law already – very unfortunately, in my view, but there you are – treats domain names as if they were “property”. The Anti-Cybersquatting Protection Act permits aggrieved trademark owners to institute in rem actions against domain names whose owners are located abroad (and not subject to the jurisdiction of the US courts) – to seize the domain names and then to adjudicate the rights associated with them, on the fiction that the names are indeed property located in the judicial district where the particular domain name registry is located. On very much the same theory – that domain names are seizeable “property” – the Dept. of Homeland Security has issued several thousand seizure orders over the past few years against domain names allegedly involved in large-scale copyright infringement.

Professor Post, after noting that, “I would expect the plaintiffs here to press this argument in opposition to ICANN’s motions to quash”, concludes his post with the hope that “ICANN’s other arguments are strong enough that the judge can (and hopefully will) grant its motion without having to delve into this rather tricky nomenclatural minefield about what is, and what isn’t, property”.

But what if the case doesn’t play out that way? What if the plaintiffs raise the “are domains property?” issue with sufficient force to get the DC Court of Appeals to rule on it? What if the politically fraught nature of this case propels it on to the Supreme Court, which may have to resolve conflicting Appeals Court decisions that have split on whether second level domains are property or just a form of licensure?

Any holding that domains are not property could well be the basis for a challenge to the in rem provision of the ACPA, and to ICE’s domain seizure practices.

There is of course an argument to be made that ccTLDs assigned to nation-states and whose relationship with ICANN is strictly voluntary are fundamentally different in legal character than gTLDs that are based upon a registry agreement contract between the operator and ICANN. But that argument is most unlikely to be raised in this case as it only involves ccTLDs.

Lots of parties not involved in this litigation have a considerable stake in it. New gTLD applicants that have expended large investments in their registries would like certainty over the U.S. legal status of them, since all registry contracts are governed by US law. While there is no consensus within the domain investment community as to whether it would be desirable to have interests in second level domains classified as a property right, it seems axiomatic that if a gTLD is found to not constitute property than a second level subunit of it will likewise lack that status. And trademark and copyright owners may not be pleased with any judicial decision that undermines the basis of their current online protections.

This is but the latest potential fallout of this most unusual case. More consequences may be in the offing. Stay tuned.

This article by Philip Corwin, Internet Commerce Association, was sourced with permission from:
www.internetcommerce.org/is-icanns-ir-response-at-odds-with-the-acpa-and-ice-domain-seizures/