ICANN : Notice of Preliminary Determination To Grant Registrar Data Retention Waiver Request
ICANN has made a preliminary determination that it is prepared to grant a data retention waiver request submitted by Registrar OVH SAS under the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (the “2013 RAA”).
Section 2 of the Data Retention Specification (the “Specification”) of 2013 RAA provides that prior to granting any exemption under the Specification, ICANN will post its determination on the ICANN website for a period of thirty (30) calendar days.
Pursuant to Section 2 of the Specification, OVH SAS submitted to ICANN a Registrar Data Retention Waiver Request (“Waiver Request”) on the basis of OVH SAS’s contention that compliance with the data collection and/or retention requirements of the Specification violates applicable law.
The Waiver Request was accompanied by a legal opinion from French counsel asserting that compliance with the data collection and/or retention requirements of the Specification violates Article 6-5 de la loi du 6 janvier 1978 ainsi que la Directive 95/46/CE (Article 6-5 of the law of January 6th 1978, as the European directive 95/46/CE).
The Waiver Request concerns Articles 1.1.1 through 1.1.8 of the Specification and seeks to reduce from two years to one year the period for which these specified data elements must be retained after the Registrar’s sponsorship of the Registration ends.
Following review of the materials submitted by OVH SAS, ICANN has determined on a preliminary basis that it is prepared to grant the data retention waiver request. ICANN is posting this preliminary determination for a period of thirty (30) days to seek feedback and input from the community on the proposed data retention waiver. After the thirty (30) day period following this posting has expired, ICANN will consider all feedback and input received before making a final determination on whether to grant the Waiver Request.
The scope of the proposed waiver would be to permit OVH SAS to maintain the information specified in Articles 1.1.1 through 1.1.8 of the Specification for the duration of its sponsorship of the Registration and for a period of one (1) additional year thereafter rather than two (2) additional years thereafter. In all other respects the terms of the Specification would remain AS-IS.
The specific change to the Specification would be that, for the duration of the Waiver, the retention requirement of Paragraph 1.1 of the Data Retention Specification be changed from “two additional years” to “one additional year.”
If ICANN does make a final determination to grant the Waiver Request sought by OVH SAS, the provisions of Section 3 of the Specification would apply to similar waivers requested by other registrars located in the same jurisdiction. Section 3 of the Specification provides as follows:
If (i) ICANN has previously waived compliance with the requirements of any requirement of this Data Retention Specification in response to a Waiver Request from a registrar that is located in the same jurisdiction as Registrar and (ii) Registrar is subject to the same applicable law that gave rise to ICANN’s agreement to grant such wavier, Registrar may request that ICANN to grant a similar waiver, which request shall be approved by ICANN, unless ICANN provides Registrar with a reasonable justification for not approving such request, in which case Registrar may thereafter make an Wavier Request pursuant to Section 2 of this Data Retention Specification.
A public comment period will remain open until 5:00 p.m. PDT/California, 27 February 2014. Public comments will be available for consideration by ICANN staff and the ICANN Board.
OVH SAS’ Waiver Request and supporting documents are available here: OVH SAS Data Retention Request and Supporting Materials
Comments can be posted to:
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Comments can be viewed at:http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-ovh-sas-27jan14
This announcement was sourced from:
http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-27jan14-en.htm
T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas Conference To Hold No Reserve gTLD Auction
In an email sent out this morning, Rick Schwartz announced that T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas will have a No Reserve gTLD auction, with domain names released directly from the registries.
Rick Schwartz also announced that the Florida T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference will be held from October 20th until November 2nd,2014 .
The Florida conference will be held at the Fontainebleau Hotel on Miami Beach.
Here is the announcement :
“T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Las Vegas will have a No Reserve gTLD auction with domains released directly from the registries plus 18 gTLD proponents representing as many as 2/3 of all the new extensions will be offered 5 minutes of podium time to pitch their new extensions to those that are interested.
By the end of May, there will be many gTLD’s that will be actively seeking your business and T.R.A.F.F.I.C. will give them a platform to do that business. Many will relish the opportunity to sway a professional and skeptical crowd and some will not be up to or ready for that challenge. As professionals, you will take it all into account. THEY have to make the case. The burden is on them and they will have to share their visions.“
Keyword Rich Domains Do Not Help Search Ranking
Keyword-rich domains do not help a website become more relevant to the topic. That is what Duane Forrester, a Senior Product Manager at Bing wrote on the company blog in response to several comments at the recent Namescon conference.
While ten years ago, Forrester writes there may have been some truth to this. But today, none. And with the introduction of new gTLDs, the same rules will apply to them as existing gTLDs and ccTLDs.
“Ranking today is a result of so many signals fed into the system the words used in a domain send less and less information into the stack as a percentage of overall decision making signals,” writes Forrester. “This is great from our view (the engine) as it results in better results showing at the top since no one signal can be manipulated. From the searchers POV, it’s better simply because those sites trying to abuse their way to the top with a keyword rich domain and irrelevant or poor content cease to rank well.”
On what a registrant’s focus should be, Forrester writes “if you’re focused on the user experience and relevancy, however, the value remains intact to a greater degree. Good domain names are easy to remember, easy to spell, easy to pronounce and often short. If you look around, you’ll see no shortage of made up words as domains, too. You CAN create a new word that passes many tests and you CAN build awareness of it and over time you’ll see it become an actually searched-on phrase in its own right.”
“To reach this point, however, there has to be something of value on the site. Something that makes people want to share the site, recommend the site and revisit the site themselves. This is where your content, user experience and relevancy come into play.
“It’s perfectly acceptable to use words in domains in unique ways. Its fine to use words in domains in ironic ways, though be sure those looking for you understand your meaning. Think of The Onion. People don’t go there looking for produce.
“Today, this is our reality. It’s inescapable. There are no shortcuts. Even the new generic top level domains (gTLDs) coming out near the end of February will be treated in this manner. Domain spamming isn’t new, so sites that provide value, are relevant and that people like will rank as usual. They won’t rank ‘just because’ they have certain words in them, and thinking that keyword stuffing a domain (think: cars.cars) will give you an edge is dangerous. You’ll fall off that cliff in a hurry if abused. If it appears that it’s just all going to bring forward spam, well, you know we aren’t interested in that approach.”
The complete article by Duane Forrester on the Bing blog is available at:
www.bing.com/blogs/site_blogs/b/webmaster/archive/2014/01/15/domain-name-importance-in-ranking.aspx
Justin Bieber Arrest Causes Reaction in Domain Name Industry
Minutes after Justin Bieber was arrested, more than 50 .com and .net related domain names were registered,such as BieberArrest.com and BieberMugShot.com .
If most of the registered domain names fit the situation, there are some domain names describing what may come next, such as BieberTrial.com,FreeTheBieber.com and BieberIsInnocent.com .
Other people thought that Justin Bieber will have troubles with his legal status in the United States since the 19 year old star is Canadian and registered domain names like DeportJustinBieber.com and ExpelBieber.com .
Here are some of the domain names registered right after Justin Bieber was arrested:
bieberarrest.com
bieberarrested.com
bieberbusted.com
biebercrash.com
bieberisinnocent.com
biebermugshot.com
biebermugshot.net
biebertrial.com
deathtobieber.com
deportjustinbieber.com
freethebieber.com
fuckbieber.com
hatejustinbieber.com
deport-bieber.com
deportbiebernow.com
deportjustinbieber.net
deportjustinbieberplease.com
deportthebieber.com
downwithbieber.com
drunkjustinbieber.com
duijustinbieber.com
expelbieber.com
free-bieber.com
freejbieber.com
freejustinbiebershirt.com
freejustinbiebershirts.com
freejustinbiebertshirt.com
freejustinbiebertshirts.com
huntingbieber.com
APRICOT 2014 Moving To Malaysia
[announcement] Following the decision to move APRICOT 2014 from Bangkok earlier this week, APIA and APNIC announce today that APRICOT 2014 will now be held in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. Petaling Jaya is a satellite city of Kuala Lumpur and is accessible via Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
While it was the strong intention of APIA and APNIC to hold APRICOT 2014in Thailand, the announcement of a 60-day State of Emergency by the Thai Government in Bangkok, advice from our local hosts, and the subsequent upgrading of Thailand’s travel warnings by international governments means that hosting APRICOT 2014 in Thailand is now not possible.
We apologize for any inconvenience this change in location will cause for our delegates.
APRICOT 2014 will be held at Sunway Resort Hotel & Spa in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. All registrations already made by delegates for Bangkok remain valid for APRICOT 2014 in Petaling Jaya.
We urge all delegates to check their visa requirements for Malaysia as soon as possible and if a visa is required, please contact your closest Malaysian Embassy urgently to ensure your application will be processed in time for travel.
A Frequently Asked Questions page is now available on the APRICOT 2014 website.
The APRICOT 2014 site will be updated regularly with new information on the event. Please check the website, the APRICOT 2014 Facebook page or follow @apnic on Twitter for the latest updates.
APIA and APNIC would also like to thank True and NECTEC for their support in helping arrange APRICOT 2014 in Thailand, and we hope that APRICOT will return to Thailand in the future.
If you need any further information, please contact us at
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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This announcement was sourced from:
www.apnic.net/publications/news/2014/apricot-2014-is-moving-to-malaysia
