ICANN has suggested it should become independent of U.S. Department of Commerce oversight when the current Joint Project Agreement (JPA) with the agency expires in September 2009. However, some people have suggested the JPA should remain in place to provide accountability. Those include, Thomas Lenard, president and senior fellow at the conservative think tank iGrowGlobal, who has filed a comment with NTIA saying: “The fact that ICANN may be making progress toward meeting its responsibilities does not imply that the JPA is no longer needed…”
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Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

Several people pointed out that although the suit still hasn’t appeared in PACER, copies of the complaint are available online, including this one [PDF] at Lextext. Having read it, I’m rather underwhelmed… I do not purport to be a lawyer (nor do I usually play one on the net), but it’s hard to see how the facts, which are not in serious dispute, would support any of these charges. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

This post is based on the scenario that a trademark.tld domain name is registered with a UK ICANN accredited registrar, (they have an exclusive UK jurisdiction clause in their contracts), the trademark.tld criticism website located at that domain name is strictly non-commercial, the servers are located in the UK, and the registrant is a British citizen. In the above circumstances, the corporations and/or their lawyers are taking a big risk when they use the Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policies (UDRP) in order to silence criticism at trademark.tld. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

A Los Angeles firm today announced a federal class action lawsuit against Network Solutions (NSI) and ICANN over the NSI’s practice of locking up domain names as soon as they are searched for on its website, which means the party searching can buy the name only from Network Solutions. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

Day two of Domain Pulse 2008 last Friday (see review of day one) focused on online security issues giving the techies amongst us details of security issues, and the more policy-orientated amongst us something to chew on in a few other presentations. Kieren McCarthy, these days of ICANN, also gave some insights into the drawn out sex.com drama with more twists and turns than the average soap opera has in a year! And Randy Bush outlined the problems with IPv6. Among other presentations… More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

Around 350 attendees came from Russia in the east to Ireland in the west, as well as a few people from elsewhere around the globe, to attend Domain Pulse 2008 in Vienna on February 21 and 22. Day one’s focus was internet governance. The future of the DNS was one of the key issues addressed by Michael Nelson of Georgetown University in Washington DC, with domain names becoming less important, but their numbers still increasing, as online access by a myriad of devices skyrockets connect — everything from the television, refrigerator, washing machine, pets, sprinkler systems and cars. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

Internet addresses ending in popular extensions such as “.pdf”, “.doc”, or “.mp3″ could appear under a new proposal by ICANN. However, ICANN said it would likely bar all-numeric suffixes, such as “.123″. Once ICANN finishes crafting its criteria, it will start taking bids from outside companies and groups for new domain names, so a “.pdf” domain would appear only if an applicant comes forward and wins approval. The organization is looking for feedback on security and operational issues that may arise from the introduction of new domain names as early as this year. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

Internet issues from around the world are front and center in India as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) opened its 31st International Public Meeting today in New Delhi. “This year is an important one for the future of ICANN. The U.S. government is in the middle of its Midterm Review of its Joint Project Agreement with ICANN, and we’re arguing it’s time to take the final step to originally envisioned private sector model for ICANN,” said Peter Dengate Thrush, ICANN’s Board Chairman. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

Domain Pulse, the yearly get-together of the German-speaking registries of nic.at (Austria), Denic (Germany) and SWITCH (Switzerland) is happening on February 21 and 22 in Vienna. The conference alternates between the countries — last year it was Switzerland, this year Austria and next year Germany… Domain Pulse covers everything in the domain name arena from management of the DNS, what’s happening in each of the ccTLDs, after market and domaining, security threats to the DNS and internet as well as wider issues affecting the internet’s development such as internet governance. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back

A new book by David Lindsay, an academic at Monash University’s Law School and a widely published expert on internet law, intellectual property law and privacy, has recently been published. …In this path-breaking work the author examines the extent to which principles of national trade mark law have been used in UDRP decisions. It will be essential reading for anyone, whether academic or practitioner, interested in internet law, intellectual property, and e-commerce law. More…

Original post by submitnews@thewhir.com (Web Hosting’s Premier Daily News) and software by Elliott Back