The newest Chinese top-level domain (TLD) on the block is quickly overtaking the competition. Within 48 hours of its public availability, .WANG – which translates to “dot net”, or “king”, and is one of the most common names in China – received more than 20,000 registrations. After four weeks on the market, .WANG is …
By Yohannes Tadesse CIO East Africa In my last piece Quid Pro Quo: Secrets of ICANN’s Africa Strategy with AUC, I sought answers to the secret dealers that have characterized the African dream registry for “.africa,” The domain that was ranked possibly among the most promising new gTLDs with an advantage of being established in …
Earlier this year while World Wide Web celebrated its 25th birthday, 25 years of unparalleled expansion, economic growth and social good. Sir Tim Berners Lee said “this is for everyone”. It’s up to us to make sure it stays that way. The freedom of the internet growth in a free thriving manner is a responsibility …
ICANN has announced that It has been brought to ICANN‘s attention that some online entities have attempted to sell fraudulent “certificates”, which they claim are required to protect generic top-level domain names. The perpetuators of this scam threaten registrants on the protection service with the objective of securing a fee from the registrant. The “certificates” …
Kurdish organizations have sent a request to The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in an attempt to obtain an ccTLD for the Kurdistan Region. Every country has its own code: (.DE) for Germany, (.SE) for Sweden, (.IR) for Iran, etc. However, this code is not unique to countries, and can also be …
Noted American Wine Regions Join Forces to Protest ICANN’s Release of .wine and .vin Domain Names Nearly 2,000 American wineries decry misappropriation of hard-fought regional name recognition Seven noted American wine regions have banded together in opposition to the rights-to-the-highest-bidder release of generic top level domain names (gTLDs) such as .wine and .vin by the …
As we move toward the IANA transition, many observers are concerned about the relationship between an autonomous ICANN and Internet freedom. One proposal even went so far as to propose to replace NTIA oversight with an “Internet Freedom Panel” that could veto any ICANN decisions that threaten Internet freedom. That proposal is unworkable because of …
If ICANN indeed is not giving lip service to its accountability process, then it should respect the outcome of its own Independent Review Process (IRP) During the ICANN 50 Press Conference in London the ICANN president was fielding questions from Journalists and .africa came in discussion as the string that has been mentioned quite severally …
In a rare instance of consensus amongst the Generic Names Supporting Organisation’s (GNSO) various stakeholder groups, the leaders of the body’s committee today called for the creation of an independent accountability mechanism that “provides meaningful review and adequate redress for those harmed by ICANN action or inaction in contravention of an agreed upon compact with …
First Minister Carwyn Jones this morning announced that the Welsh Government will drop the “.gov.uk” internet domain name and adopt “.wales” and “.cymru”. Speaking at a major conference of Icann, the body which coordinates the internet’s global domain name system, Mr Jones said he was “thrilled that Wales will finally have a natural home on …