Expansion of ICANN’s gTLDs Program

A new list of gTLDS has been released by ICANN, with .NTT being number 500 on it, at the rate of about one new gTLD string each day being published.  

 

The program that ICANN is running on new strings has known quite a success because of the top level names which were introduced, the first four being released on the 23rd of October 2014.

 

ICANN continues to invest in competition and innovating programs and invites users to contribute with ideas and comments in order to enable registries to be delegated faster.

A link for this has been provided:

http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/reviews#overview

 

Alert from the US Trade Office on Counterfeit Pharmacy Products

The Office of the United States Trade has issued an alert on websites which allegedly sell counterfeit medical products, thus not only avoiding paying taxes but also putting the health of those who buy them at risk (some of them even contain toxic substances). The report shows that there is a number of domain names that allow such products to be commercialised and it urges registrars to take action in order to solve this situation.

This is also seen as an attack to brand owners and the above mentioned institution urged for a coordinated program which could prevent this issue to continue. A report from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy shows that almost 96 percent of the online stores that sell medical products are breaking the copyright law and there is a constant policy that these websites hide their IP address so that they can avoid being caught.

There is also a problem in finding the law resources in applying necessary measures and apparently some of the registrars are reluctant in taking actions. Such is the case for Tucows who answered to these accusations that they try to make sure first that the rights of their users are protected and all the complaints they receive are carefully examined and actions are taken only if  justified.

Leaving aside the economical aspect, the revenues that these illegal stores get every month, the main concern remain the health of those who venture in buying these ineffective or dangerous products.

.FROGANS Shows Innovation in ICANN’s View

Among all the applicants that required new strings, there is one that fits ICANN’s policy of promoting innovation regarding website functionality. The .frogans gTLD was not created in order to sell a website or an email address, it was meant to allow new techniques of publishing that will work in any location and on any device.

The released domain names get.frogans and fcr.frogans are the places where users will be able to download the Frogans Player which is useful for any of the businesses that will want to present themselves mainly as applications. For instance, restaurants can show their menus options, a press agency can display their main headlines, or a bike shop will show how many bicycles are available for hiring at a certain moment. This comes with other advantages, the small bandwidth required to run these applications, very handy in countries where data amounts are short and expensive, and the guaranteed security against all kinds of attacks.

In point of design, they seem to resemble Windows 7 widgets and they run independently of the protocol they use, their simple name typed being enough to enable them.

As for the prices, a normal registered address with this string will cost  €6 a year, while companies names may climb up to a price of  €1.500 a year. Ten languages are allowed for registering the addresses, namely Latin, Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, Devanagari and Cyrillic.

The final version of the Frogans Player will be released in the second half of this year.

ICANN Launches Initiative Concerning LGRs

ICANN has announced they are searching for specialists in order to create a program which will use and manage what are called Label Generation Rulesets. They are intended to be based on a XML format which can be read by new machines and will allow the latest data of language and script hosted by ICANN to generate IDN tables known under the names of LGRs.

 

The newly created format will be under use for the Root Zone in order to validate targeted TLD labels and to determine other variants of them and it is managed with the contribution of many communities which will be able to utilize it under open source license.

ICANN wants to use the software for their internal need and will dedicate their efforts for an agreement to be signed in the nearest future possible.

 

ICANN Turns Attention to Middle East

Following the release of ICANN’s Middle East Engagement Strategy, the need for a provider which is expected to research on the domain names field has risen, and will lead to fulfilling the goal of identifying and defining the strengths and weaknesses of this industry in the “MEAC” region.

There will also be recommendations about how to approach the opportunities and will define three strategic directions to follow in order to develop the industry of domain names.

For a start, ICANN’s study will evaluate the present state of the Internet and of the domain names field in the Middle East and will analyze the practices concerning online services. It will also evaluate the evolution of this industry and the impact of the infrastructure on the market.

The prediction about the report delivery is that it will be done until the 9th October 2015.