Online Content Africa’s Next Consumer Boom?

The Alaba Market, in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, is a chaotic mass of noise, vehicles and electronics shops; open air stalls selling software and movies of dubious provenance and tiny dark rooms housing the country’s ruthlessly profiteering film producers. Financed at Alaba and filmed in houses-turned-sets, ‘Nollywood’ has become a $500 million-a year business, …

German justice minister Heiko Mass seeks to further delay implementation of EU data retention laws

Germany is to further delay its implementation of the Data Retention Directive despite facing potential financial penalties of more than €300,000 for each day it fails to transpose it into national law, according to media reports. The country previously implemented the 2006 Directive but a court in the country ruled in 2010 that it was …

ICANN Beta Testing for Automated Registrar Onboarding System (AROS) to Begin in January 2014

In an effort to prepare for the upcoming launch of a new Registry/Registrar accreditation tool, ICANN is inviting Registries and Registrars to participate in a Beta Test session of Automated Registrar Onboarding System (AROS). This session will allow users to explore the various accreditation functionalities of the system and provide valuable feedback to ICANN for …

ICANN Issues Advice to IT Professionals on Name Collision Identification and Mitigation

6 December 2013Los Angeles, California… ICANN today issued comprehensive advice to IT professionals worldwide on how to proactively identify and manage private name space leakage into the public Domain Name System (DNS) and thus, eliminate the causes of name collisions as new Top Level Domains (TLDs) are added to the DNS. In a report titled …

De-accredited Pacnames to allow for Bulk Transfer of Domain Names to Net-Chinese

4 December 2013 ICANN has authorized the bulk transfer of gTLD domain names from Pacnames Ltd to Net-Chinese Co., Ltd. due to compliance actions taken by ICANN that resulted in the de-accreditation of Pacnames Ltd. The affected gTLD registries have processed the bulk transfers. Former registrant-customers of Pacnames Ltd should receive notices from Net-Chinese Co., …