U.S. Plans to Relinquish IANA Contract in 2015 by Philip Corwin, Internet Commerce Association

The NTIA has just announced that it plans to turn its IANA functions contract counterparty role over to “the global multistakeholder community” when the current contract expires at the end of September 2015.

 

As for who exactly constitutes the global multistakeholder community – well that is to be left to a process that starts with ICANN convening  “global stakeholders to develop a proposal to transition the current role played by NTIA in the coordination of the Internet’s domain name system (DNS)”. It is not clear whether this means that ICANN should fulfill this role through its regular public meetings, through the NETmundial meeting that is being held at ICANN’s request next month in Sao Paulo, Brazil, or by other means.

Specific parties that NTIA wants ICANN to collaborate with in fashioning a transition plan include “the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Society (ISOC), the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), top level domain name operators, VeriSign, and other interested global stakeholders”.

Aside from the specific technical functions carried out pursuant to the IANA contract, its renewal has provided leverage that puts teeth into  the Affirmation of Commitments (AOC) entered into between ICANN and the U.S. in 2009. The AOC requires ICANN to have a process dedicated to improving its accountability and transparency, and also requires it to remain headquartered in the United States.

According to the press release:                      

NTIA has communicated to ICANN that the transition proposal must have broad community support and address the following four principles:

• Support and enhance the multistakeholder model;
• Maintain the security, stability, and resiliency of the Internet DNS;
• Meet the needs and expectation of the global customers and partners of the IANA services; and,
• Maintain the openness of the Internet.

Accountability and transparency, the continuation or replacement of the AOC, and remaining headquartered in the U.S. are all conspicuous in their absence from those principles – and that is worrisome.

It is somewhat heartening that the release notes that “NTIA will not accept a proposal that replaces the NTIA role with a government-led or an inter-governmental organization solution”. However, there is no reason to presume that this will be the final transition of IANA and ICANN control, or that the governments who favor multilateral over multistakeholder control will retreat from that position. The question then arises whether the new multistakeholder recipient of the IANA contract will be more vulnerable to a future UN, ITU, or another form of multilateral takeover once the U.S. has fully relinquished its role and disengaged from ICANN.

The NTIA release also appears to presume that relinquishing the IANA contract can be accomplished by the Executive Branch without any explicit authorization from Congress. However, that is an open legal question and groups that have concerns about this turnover may well encourage Congress to wade in. There is good reason to believe that if Congressional concerns are voiced they will be bipartisan.

Shortly after the NTIA made its announcement, ICANN issued its own press release stating that it had just “launched a process to transition the role of the United States Government relating to the Internet’s unique identifiers system”.

It continues:

“We are inviting governments, the private sector, civil society, and other Internet organizations from the whole world to join us in developing this transition process,” said Fadi Chehadé, ICANN’s President and CEO. “All stakeholders deserve a voice in the management and governance of this global resource as equal partners.”

It is not at all clear whether this transition process will build upon the existing 1NET and Cross-Constituency Working Group (CCWG) processes launched in the wake of last fall’s Montevideo Statement and ICANN’s request for Brazil to host the NETmundial meeting, or will add yet another layer on top of those ongoing efforts. Many of ICANN’s stakeholders are already complaining of being overwhelmed by the effort required to just keep up with events and prepare statements for submission to the Brazil meeting’s organizers by the just-expired March 8^th deadline.

Leaders of the Internet technical organizations responsible for coordination of the Internet infrastructure also issued a statement welcoming the U.S. announcement. Yet a review of these organizations makes clear that ICANN is by far the dominant member in terms of staffing and ever-growing financial resources. This raises the possibility that , if these groups are determined to constitute “the global multistakeholder community”  ICANN will essentially be placed in charge of overseeing itself, and that the transition will actually amount to effectively handing the contract over to ICANN. That in turn could erode accountability while making ICANN a more attractive target for future multilateral takeover.

The upcoming ICANN meeting in Singapore was already expected to be dominated by the events initiated in Montevideo last October. This latest announcement will just reinforce that focus, even though ICANN is in the midst of the biggest and perhaps riskiest venture in its history – the ongoing rollout of more than one thousand new gTLDs.

ICA will be present in Singapore and will seek to ensure that, however events unfold, the Internet remains friendly to entrepreneurial business models, including those of domain investors and developers.

The press statements referred to in this post are below:
www.ntia.doc.gov/press-release/2014/ntia-announces-intent-transition-key-internet-domain-name-functions

This article by Philip Corwin from the Internet Commerce Association was sourced with permission from:
www.internetcommerce.org/IANA_Transition

CIRA And DomainsBot Bring Advanced Domain Suggestion Technology To The Canadian Market

[news release] The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is pleased to partner with DomainsBot to bring domain name suggestion technology to Canadians seeking to register a .CA website.

 

Domain name suggestion technology is known in the industry as “name spinning”. It is a tool that helps people looking for a website address by suggesting alternative variations of a word or term that they enter. It can help them sort through similar sounding options and more importantly, provide alternatives when a domain name is already taken.

“With over two million .CA domain names already registered, common nouns, common phrases, and personal names may not be available to the interested Registrant.” said Dave Chiswell, Vice President of Product Development at CIRA, “by enabling DomainsBot’s industry-leading name spinning technology we’re helping Canadians quickly and easily find a good name for their business, non-profit, or personal websites. This benefits the person registering the website because a good .CA name has been shown time and again, to be a critical factor in online success.”

“CIRA’s role in the market is to enable our channel partners with this technology and we have created two options for them to implement a name spinning solution. For those Registrars who have already implemented DomainsBot technology, they will be able to simply flick a switch to include .CA results in their search queries. For Registrars who are new to name spinning, CIRA is providing the code and technical documentation to help them enable it on their websites. We expect uptake to be high because DomainsBot’s name spinning technology has been shown to increase sales of domain names so it benefits our channel partners as well as consumers,” Chiswell concluded.

“CIRA and .CA is a fabulous fit for DomainsBot technology and we are very excited about this partnership,” said Daniel Ruzzini Mejia of DomainsBot. “Our goal is to help registries and registrars enhance their domain sales and grow their customer base. We believe our technology will be a great benefit to CIRA in helping to translate the success of .CA, in Canada to the global market. The inclusion of CIRA’s data gives our Domain Suggestion Engine a rich data-set to work with so we may provide relevant options that will help Canadian businesses find the millions of great .CA domain that are still available.”

About CIRA
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the organization that manages Canada’s .CA domain name registry, develops and implements policies that support Canada’s internet community and represents the .CA registry internationally.

About DomainsBot
DomainsBot is the domain industry’s leading provider of domain name and TLD suggestion technology. Working closely with registrars and registries since 2005, the DomainsBot Recommendation Engine powers domain name suggestion tools at the world’s leading registrars including GoDaddy, Tucows, eNom, MelbourneIt, and Directi. Annually, an estimated 1.5 million new domain names are registered as a result of DomainsBot suggestions. Offices are located in Los Angeles, Istanbul, and Rome.

This CIRA news release was sourced from:
www.cira.ca/news/announcements/name-spinning/

Four More new gTLDs Delegated : .世界, .机构, .”संगठन and .组织机构

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that four other new gTLDs were delegated, bringing the total number to 173.

 

The four new gTLDs are :

.世界 (xn--rhqv96g) – Chinese for “world/shijie”
.机构 (xn--nqv7f) – Chinese for “agencies/institutions”
.”संगठन  – Hindi for “organization/sangathana”
.组织机构  – Chinese for “organization”.

Here are all the 173 new gTLDs delegated so far :

12 March 2014     .世界 (xn--rhqv96g) – Chinese for “world/shijie”     Stable Tone Limited
9 March 2014     .机构 (xn--nqv7f) – Chinese for “agencies/institutions”     Public Interest Registry
9 March 2014     .”संगठन (xn--i1b6b1a6a2e) – Hindi for “organization/sangathana”     Public Interest Registry
9 March 2014     .组织机构 (xn--nqv7fs00ema) – Chinese for “organization”     Public Interest Registry
5 March 2014     .орг (xn--c1avg) – Russian for “organization/org”     Public Interest Registry
5 March 2014     .KOELN     NetCologne Gesellschaft für Telekommunikation mbH
2 March 2014     .OKINAWA     BusinessRalliart Inc.
2 March 2014     .VOTE     Monolith Registry LLC
2 March 2014     .VOTO     Monolith Registry LLC
2 March 2014     .BID     dot Bid Limited
5 March 2014     .OPR     Public Interest Registry
5 March 2014     .KOELN     NetCologne Gesellschaft für Telekommunikation mbH
27 February 2014     .BAR     Punto 2012 Sociedad Anonima Promotora de Inversion de Capital Variable
27 February 2014     .KRED     KredTLD Pty Ltd
27 February 2014     .BEST     BestTLD Pty Ltd
26 February 2014     .CHRISTMAS     Uniregistry, Corp.
26 February 2014     .PUB     United TLD Holdco, Ltd.
26 February 2014     .дети     The Foundation for Network Initiatives “The Smart Internet”
26 February 2014     .ACTOR     United TLD Holdco, Ltd.
25 February 2014     .SUPPLIES     Atomic Fields, LLC
21 February 2014     .FISH     Fox Woods, LLC
21 February 2014     .삼성      Samsung SDS Co., LTD
21 February 2014     .VACATIONS     Atomic Tigers, LLC
21 February 2014     .INDUSTRIES     Outer House, LLC
21 February 2014     .SUPPLY     Half Falls, LLC
19 February 2014     .XYZ
19 February 2014     .WIKI     Top Level Design, LLC
19 February 2014     .NEUSTAR     NeuStar, Inc,
18 February 2014     .بازار (xn--mgbab2bd) – Arabic for “bazaar/bazar”     CORE Association
16 February 2014     .MANGO     Punto FA S.L.
12 February 2014     .QPON     dotCOOL, Inc.
11 February 2014     .CARDS     Foggy Hollow, LLC
11 February 2014     .FOUNDATION     John Dale, LLC
11 February 2014     .REVIEWS     United TLD Holdco, Ltd.
11 February 2014     .FUTBOL     United TLD Holdco, Ltd.
11 February 2014     .VISION     Koko Station, LLC
11 February 2014     .CONDOS     Pine House, LLC
11 February 2014     .VILLAS     Koko Station, LLC
11 February 2014     .PARTS     Sea Goodbye, LLC
11 February 2014     .PRODUCTIONS     Magic Birch, LLC
11 February 2014     .MAISON     Victor Frostbite, LLC
5 February 2014     . 移动 (xn--6frz82g) – Chinese for “mobile”     Afilias Limited
5 February 2014     .BLUE     Afilias Limited
4 February 2014     .FLIGHTS     Fox Station, LLC
4 February 2014     .CLEANING     Fox Shadow, LLC
4 February 2014     .REPORT     Binky Glen, LLC
4 February 2014     .EVENTS     Pioneer Maple, LLC
4 February 2014     .CRUISES     Spring Way, LLC
4 February 2014     .RENTALS     Big Hollow, LLC
4 February 2014     .PARTNERS     Magic Glen, LLC
4 February 2014     .PROPERTIES     Big Pass, LLC
4 February 2014     .CATERING     New Falls, LLC
4 February 2014     .EXPOSED     Victor Beach, LLC
29 January 2014     .VOTING     Valuetainment, Corp.
29 January 2014     .TOKYO     GMO Registry, Inc.
29 January 2014     .NAGOYA     GMO Registry, Inc.
27 January 2014     .DATING     Pine Fest, LLC
27 January 2014     .COMMUNITY     Fox Orchard, LLC
23 January 2014     .BOUTIQUE     Over Galley, LLC
23 January 2014     .BARGAINS     Half Hallow, LLC
23 January 2014     .TIENDA     Victor Manor, LLC
23 January 2014     .WORKS     Little Dynamite, LLC
23 January 2014     .WED     Atgron, Inc.
23 January 2014     .EXPERT     Magic Pass, LLC
23 January 2014     .WATCH     Sand Shadow, LLC
23 January 2014     .KIM     Afilias Limited
23 January 2014     .COOL     Koko Lake, LLC
23 January 2014     .TOOLS     Pioneer North, LLC
18 January 2014     .CLUB     .Club Domains, LLC
18 January 2014     .BUILD     Plan Bee, LLC
18 January 2014     .PICS     Uniregistry, Corp.
18 January 2014     .PINK     Afilias Limited
18 January 2014     .LUXURY     Luxury Partners, LLC
18 January 2014     .PHOTO     Uniregistry, Corp.
18 January 2014     .GIFT     Uniregistry, Corp.
18 January 2014     .网络 (xn--io0a7i) – Chinese for “network”     Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences (China Internet Information Center)
18 January 2014     .公司 (xn--55qx5d) – Chinese for “company”     Computer Network Information Center of Chinese Academy of Sciences (China Internet Information Center)
18 January 2014     .MONASH     Monash University
18 January 2014     .RICH     I-REGISTRY Ltd. Niederlassung Deutschland
18 January 2014     .RED     Afilias Limited
18 January 2014     .SHIKSHA     Afilias Limited
18 January 2014     .中信 (xn--fiq64b) – Chinese for “CITIC”     CITIC Group Corporation
18 January 2014     .LINK     Uniregistry, Corp.
18 January 2014     .GUITARS     Uniregistry, Corp.
14 January 2014     .ZONE     Outer Falls, LLC
14 January 2014     .CHEAP     Sand Cover, LLC
14 January 2014     .MARKETING     Fern pass, LLC
14 January 2014     .DEMOCRAT     United TLD Holdco Ltd.
14 January 2014     .SOCIAL     United TLD Holdco Ltd.
14 January 2014     .AGENCY     Steel Falls, LLC
14 January 2014     .MODA     United TLD Holdco Ltd.
14 January 2014     .DANCE     United TLD Holdco Ltd.
8 January 2014     .BERLIN     dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG
3 January 2014     集团 (xn--3bst00m) – Chinese for “group”     Eagle Horizon Limited
3 January 2014     我爱你 (xn--6qq986b3xl) – Chinese for “I love you”     Tycoon Treasure Limited
3 January 2014     中文网 (xn--fiq228c5hs) – Chinese for “Chinese network”     TLD Registry Limited
3 January 2014     .WANG     Zodiac Leo Limited
3 January 2014     .KIWI     Dot Kiwi Limited
3 January 2014     .WIEN     punkt.wien GmbH
2 January 2014     .EMAIL     Spring Madison, LLC
2 January 2014     .IMMOBILIEN     United TLD Holdco Ltd.
2 January 2014     .在线 (xn--3ds443g) – Chinese for “online”     TLD Registry Limited
28 December 2013     .INSTITUTE     Outer Maple, LLC
28 December 2013     .CEO     CEOTLD Pty Ltd
28 December 2013     .SOLAR     Ruby Town, LLC
28 December 2013     .FARM     Just Maple, LLC
28 December 2013     .EDUCATION     Brice Way, LLC
28 December 2013     .GLASS     Black Cover, LLC
28 December 2013     .ONL     I-REGISTRY Ltd. Niederlassung Deutschland
28 December 2013     .INTERNATIONAL     Wild Way, LLC
28 December 2013     .CODES     Puff Willow, LLC
28 December 2013     .TRAINING     Wild Willow, LLC
28 December 2013     .HOUSE     Sugar Park, LLC
28 December 2013     .KAUFEN     United TLD Holdco Ltd.
28 December 2013     .NINJA     United TLD Holdco Ltd.
28 December 2013     .REPAIR     Lone Sunset, LLC
28 December 2013     .BUILDERS     Atomic Madison, LLC
28 December 2013     .COFFEE     Trixy Cover, LLC
28 December 2013     .FLORIST     Half Cypress, LLC
28 December 2013     .HOLIDAY     Goose Woods, LLC
28 December 2013     .SOLUTIONS     Silver Cover, LLC
18 December 2013     .BUZZ     dotStrategy Co.
18 December 2013     .SUPPORT     Grand Orchard, LLC
17 December 2013     .RECIPES     Grand Island, LLC
17 December 2013     .COMPUTER     Pine Mill, LLC
17 December 2013     .ACADEMY     Half Oaks, LLC
17 December 2013     .CAREERS     Wild Corner, LLC
17 December 2013     .CAB     Half Sunset, LLC
17 December 2013     公益 (xn--55qw42g)      China Organizational Name Administration Center
17 December 2013     政务 (xn--zfr164b)     China Organizational Name Administration Center
17 December 2013     .SYSTEMS     Dash Cypress, LLC
17 December 2013     .DOMAINS     Sugar Cross, LLC
17 December 2013     .VIAJES     Black Madison, LLC
17 December 2013     .COMPANY     Silver Avenue, LLC
17 December 2013     .CAMP     Delta Dynamite, LLC
17 December 2013     .LIMO     Hidden Frostbite, LLC
17 December 2013     .MANAGEMENT     John Goodbye, LLC
17 December 2013     .PHOTOS     Sea Corner, LLC
17 December 2013     .SHOES     Binky Galley, LLC
17 December 2013     .CENTER     Tin Mill, LLC
10 December 2013     .RUHR     Regiodot GmbH & Co. KG
30 November 2013     .MENU     Wedding TLD2, LLC
30 November 2013     .UNO     Dot Latin, LLC
23 November 2013     みんな (xn--q9jyb4c) – Japanese for “everyone”     Charleston Road Registry, Inc.
19 November 2013     .diamonds     John Edge, LLC
19 November 2013     .tips     Corn Willow, LLC
19 November 2013     .photography     Sugar Glen, LLC
19 November 2013     .directory     Extra Madison, LLC
19 November 2013     .enterprises     Snow Oaks, LLC
19 November 2013     .kitchen     Just Goodbye, LLC
19 November 2013     .today     Pearl Woods, LLC
14 November 2013     .plumbing     Spring Tigers, LLC
14 November 2013     .graphics     Over Madison, LLC
14 November 2013     .contractors     Magic Woods, LLC
14 November 2013     .gallery     Sugar House, LLC
14 November 2013     .sexy     Uniregistry, Corp.
14 November 2013     .construction     Fox Dynamite, LLC
14 November 2013     .tattoo     Uniregistry, Corp.
14 November 2013     .technology     Auburn Falls
14 November 2013     .estate     Trixy Park, LLC
14 November 2013     .land     Pine Moon, LLC
14 November 2013     .bike     Grand Hollow, LLC
06 November 2013     .VENTURES     Binky Lake, LLC
06 November 2013     .CAMERA     Atomic Maple, LLC.
06 November 2013     .CLOTHING     Steel Lake, LLC
06 November 2013     .LIGHTING     John McCook, LLC
06 November 2013     .SINGLES     Fern Madison, LLC
06 November 2013     .VOYAGE     Ruby House, LLC
06 November 2013     .GURU     Pioneer Cypress, LLC
06 November 2013     .HOLDINGS     John Madison, LLC
06 November 2013     .EQUIPMENT     Corn Station, LLC
23 October 2013     شبكة (xn--ngbc5azd)     International Domain Registry Pty. Ltd.
23 October 2013     онлайн (xn--80asehdb)      CORE Association
23 October 2013     сайт (xn--80aswg)      CORE Association
23 October 2013     游戏(xn--unup4y) –     Spring Fields, LLC

Capital Credit, Inc Acquires CapitalCredit.com Domain Name

Capital Credit, Inc has recently acquired the domain name CapitalCredit.com, after the company waited seven years for the domain name to become available.

 

You can read the press release after the jump :

” Capital Credit, Inc offers accounts receivable factoring services nationwide to trucking companies, manufacturing plants, distribution centers and service providers. Clients are able to log into the website real time to see their account status, along with online credit checks and upload documents for funding.

Capital Credit, Inc is happy to announce it has finally acquired CapitalCredit.com. It is also proud to present its new website with easier navigation and user experience. Previously the website was running under the domain capitalcreditusa.com.

The new domain CapitalCredit.com was acquired in February of 2014 by Capital Credit, Inc of Austin, TX and has no affiliation with any business with similar or exact names that has owned it in the past.”

ICANN Updates Application Status and Contention Sets

Today ICANN is updating application statuses to reflect the results of various New gTLD Program processes including objection determinations. Additionally, the Contention Set Status page has been redesigned to reflect the current status of all Contention Sets.

 

Together these updates provide a more complete picture of the status of all applications in the New gTLD Program. For more information about the application status and contention set updates please see the Applicant Advisory: Update of Application Status and Contention Sets.