Second gTLD applicant refusing to withdraw .amazon next to .africa

Amazon just like DotConnectAfrica is Not Backing Down – Strong Response to GAC and ICANN on New gTLD Rejection – Amazon is not backing down from ICANN or the GAC, as earlier this week ICANN published the responses to the Durban GAC Communique, including Amazon’s which stood as perhaps the most forceful and comprehensive. DotConnectAfrica …

DotConnectAfrica .Africa Objection treatment at ICANN becomes A Musical Chair Circus

DotConnectAfrica’s objection application treatment at ICANN and the hands through which the application passed, makes for a very interesting governance case at ICANN.   Owing to the highlighted conflict of interest cases in the past, its hard to determine how transparent and impartial it remained in determining the application’s destiny. At ICANN Board Level: Advice that …

ICANN Board Prohibits Dotless Domain Names

At its meeting on 13 August 2013, the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) adopted a resolution affirming that “dotless domain names” are prohibited. Dotless domain names are those that consist of a single label (e.g., http://example, or mail@example). Dotless names would require the inclusion of, for example, an A, AAAA, or MX, record …

The Great Internet Land Grab

It’s not easy to get a short, crisp Web address. In the twenty-eight years since the now-extinct computer maker Symbolics registered the first .com address, symbolics.com, the most economical and memorable Internet addresses have mostly been claimed. Even longer addresses, or domains, like a person’s full name, might not be available—or, more likely, there will …

ICANN: Potential Name Space Collision Report’s Impact on Contracting

As ICANN previously announced, we commissioned a study to consider the likelihood and impact of name space collisions between applied-for new gTLD strings and non-delegated TLDs. In light of that study, ICANN proposed to the community several possible mitigation measures, including: Proceeding with contracting and delegation of those strings categorized as “low risk” (80%) but …

VeriSign Profiting From .Com Slows Addition of New Names

The biggest expansion of Internet addresses is being delayed as VeriSign Inc. (VRSN), which gets most of its revenue from managing .com websites, argues with competitors over whether corporate networks could be disrupted. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the non-profit that manages the Web, has proposed holding on to new names to …

150 RDNH cases highlight flaws with the UDRP; MountainRovers.com identified as the 150th RDNH

The UDRP complaint against MountainRovers.com has the dubious distinction of being the 150th case of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking identified so far. Five thoughts on this milestone- 1.  The problem of RDNH is getting worse.  The UDRP is used more frequently than ever to attempt to steal domain names from their rightful owners. The early …