domain name & governance news - 13 November

[David Goldstein <goldstein_david@yahoo.com.au>]

Don't forget to check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/ for the most recent edition of the domain news, including an RSS feed - already online! And see my website - http://technewsreview.com.au/ - for recent updates and news and RSS feeds as well.

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Sponsored by the Singapore Internet Research Centre 
http://www.ntu.edu.sg/sci/sirc/

Sponsored by EuroDNS and AsiaDNS - for your domain name registration
http://www.eurodns.com/?refid=57d25a87c8bffdc565a16a5bf01e8825
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Internet governance: it's like an arranged marriage
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1942283,00.html

When elephants make love, the grass gets trampled
http://news.com.com/2010-1028_3-6134252.html

InternetNZ commissions New Zealand history of the Internet (news release)
http://www.internetnz.net.nz/media/historycommissioned

Spam blocker under gun
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/Columnists/Canton_David/2006/11/11/2314247.html

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GOVERNANCE
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Internet governance: it's like an arranged marriage
Lithuania vs Azerbaijan has to be one of the least likely conflicts imaginable. But as attendees at the UN-backed Internet Governance Forum in Greece learned last week, never underestimate the internet's ability to throw up novel problems. "First of all, in the name of all the Lithuanian delegation, I want to thank the Greek government for the hospitality of the Internet Governance Forum." So began the government of Lithuania's request last Thursday that it be allowed to host a meeting of the newly founded forum in 2010.
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,1942283,00.html

When elephants make love, the grass gets trampled
The first IGF wrapped up last week, providing an appropriate point to reassess the state of international Internet governance activities.
http://news.com.com/2010-1028_3-6134252.html

Gates heralds the next revolution
... At the recent Internet Governance Forum in Athens his senior policy counsel, Fred Tipson, admitted that China's persecution of bloggers was worsening, and there might come a time when Microsoft would no longer be able to comply with government censorship. Quizzed about this statement, Gates said: 'I don't know what thing you're referring to. We don't set those rules. We're not involved in that. We follow the law - that's what we do.'
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1945938,00.html

The Inaugural Session of the IGF: Informal Summing-up by the IGF Secretariat
The first session covered a very broad range of issues. The moderator himself recalled that 10 years a similar gathering was mainly attended by engineers and academics from North America and Europe, while this meeting had a much broader participations, both in terms of geography as well as stakeholder groups. One panellist made the remarks that four years ago many people assembled in the meeting room would not have spoken to one another.
http://intgovforum.org/Summary.Final.07.11.2006.htm

A glimpse inside the real IGF
You've seen the show, read the reviews, bought the t-shirt, but now it's time to reveal the real IGF, the kind of IGF that only photographs with pleasingly childish captions can provide...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/08/igf_in_pictures/

ITU admits it must change or die as it faces cash crunch (reg req'd)
Some 2,000 delegates including 80 government ministers from 150 countries have converged on Antalya, in southern Turkey, for the 17th Plenipotentiary Conference of the ITU. The Conference opened with the ITU’s own media unit admitting that the agency faces some grave financial challenges resulting from declining funding and massively increased mandates.
http://www.telecomtv.com/news.asp?cd_id=7412

Hamadoun Touré is new Secretary-General of the ITU
The election to determine the new Secretary-General of the ITU held within the context of the regular ITU conference has furnished a winner: On the third ballot the representatives of the 157 member states of the ITU chose Hamadoun Touré, who up to now was director of the ITU's Telecommunication Development Bureau, to head the organization. 
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/80858
http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/7051/127/

Hamadoun Touré neuer Generalsekretär der ITU
Die Wahl zum neuen Generalsekretär der ITU im Rahmen der turnusmäßigen ITU-Konferenz ist entschieden: In der dritten Wahlrunde haben sich 157 Mitgliedsstaaten der ITU auf den bisherigen Direktor des für Telekommunikation und Entwicklung zuständigen ITU-Büros, Hamadoun Touré, geeinigt. Er wurde mit 95 Stimmen gewählt. Der deutsche Kandidat Matthias Kurth, Chef der Bundesnetzagentur, bekam 60 Stimmen. In der letzten Runde waren nur noch Touré und Kurth angetreten, die auch in den ersten beiden Runden klar geführt hatte.
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/80824

Story in Arabic
http://www.hamshahri.org/News/?id=8284

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DOMAIN NAMES
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Harry Potter author wins back domain name
The Daily Telegraph reports the author JK Rowling, she of the Harry Potter fame, persuaded an international arbitrator that she is entitled to the domain name jkrowling.ir rather than the Iran-based cybersquatter who registered it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/09/nlaw109.xml

.eu rules at odds with 'Internet for all'
Business and internet communities were right to insist on ‘dotting the EU’ to offer pan-European domain names, but the registration process is dumbing down the principle “Internet for all.”
http://www.contractoruk.com/news/002947.html

Bahrain Meeting Will Bring Together Internet Experts to Discuss Regional Issues (news release)
ISPs, regulators and government representatives will have the opportunity to discuss developments in IP networking in the Middle East at the RIPE NCC Regional Meeting in Manama, Bahrain, to be held 14 – 15 November 2006.
http://ripe.net/news/bahrain_20061114.html

InternetNZ commissions New Zealand history of the Internet (news release)
InternetNZ (The Internet Society of New Zealand) is pleased to announce the commissioning of a book on the history of the Internet in New Zealand, to be released by September 2007. From a short list of excellent candidates, experienced technology journalist and author Keith Newman has been selected to write the book, which will explore the impact of the Internet on New Zealand economically, politically and socially.
http://www.internetnz.net.nz/media/historycommissioned

Spam blocker under gun
Some entities, such as e360Insight (e360), did not like the volunteers to whom we are indebted and sued them for blocking their spam. Spamhaus ignored the e360 lawsuit, which, if successful, would shut down or suspend the Spamhaus domain name, because Spamhaus refused to recognize the U.S. court's jurisdiction and $11.7-million judgment.
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/Columnists/Canton_David/2006/11/11/2314247.html

Internet Censorship in China
Li Yonggang, a professor at the School of Public Management at Nanjing University, is the well-known founder of the Frontiers of Thought Website (www.sixiang.com), a collection of articles and commentaries by many prominent Chinese intellectuals. ... Another tactic employed by the Internet police is the hijacking of domain names; a person logs on to a website only to be instantly redirected to a CCP propaganda site.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/news/6-11-10/47995.html

eu: Helpful tool on ADR .eu decisions
Thomas Schafft, a German attorney at Lovells and CAC panelist, has built up a wiki on ADR decisions. This tool may prove helpful if you have to deal with ADR procedures. Not only will you find there all the texts related to .eu names, but also additional resources of great interest. For example, Thomas was abllowed to publish a recent Discussion note which the Arbitration Center for .eu Disputes recently circulated, to initiate a discussion on the divergences of CAC jurisprudence.
http://domaine.blogspot.com/2006/10/helpful-tool-on-adr-eu-decisions.html

Netcraft November 2006 Web Server Survey
There are now more than 100 million web sites on the Internet, which gained 3.5 million sites last month to continue the dynamic growth seen throughout 2006. In the November 2006 survey we received responses from 101,435,253 sites, up from 97.9 million sites last month.
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2006/11/01/november_2006_web_server_survey.html

net.wars: ICANN dreams by Wendy M Grossman
This week ICANN announced its three new board members for 2006 to 2009: Persistent readers of this column will know that I put my name in for the job. I made the short list - but I'm not one of the three.
http://www.newswireless.net/index.cfm/article/3022

ICANN: RSTEP Report on Tralliance Proposal Posted for Public Comment (news release)
On 18 September 2006, ICANN referred the Tralliance Corporation search.travel proposal to the Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel (RSTEP). The RSTEP had 45 calendar days to review the proposal and prepare a written report on whether the proposed Registry Service creates a reasonable risk of a meaningful adverse effect on Security or Stability.
http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-09nov06.htm

us: Commerce Web site goes offline
The Web site for the South Carolina Department of Commerce went offline Tuesday and Wednesday after the department did not renew the site’s domain name — www.sccommerce.com.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/15963733.htm

International Dispute Resolution (reg req'd)
In a civilised society, citizens look to the courts to settle their disputes. The courts put judges at the disposal of the parties, the courts determine the substantive and procedural law which is to be applied and the courts enforce their own orders through court officers, when necessary. It is a one-stop shop. For those engaged in alternative dispute resolution ("ADR"), the courts are available not merely to enforce decisions and awards but also to supervise and control the chosen ADR procedures, should matters go awry.
http://www.mondaq.com/news.asp?e=1&a=44022

us: Overstock files suit against imitator
This is not the real Overstock, but an alleged upstart calling itself Apparel Overstock.com. And the real Overstock is suing to put the purported e-commerce usurper out of business. ... The real Overstock, which has levied charges ranging from trademark infringement and false advertising to unfair competition and cybersquatting, also seeks $100,000 in statutory damages. It asks that punitive damages be determined at trial.
http://www.sltrib.com/business/ci_4621265

World's Standard of Online Poker (WSOP.com) Raises HARRAH'S Bluff
Provided by wsop.com - In a dispute between World's Standard of Online Poker and Harrah's Entertainment, Frederico Schiavo filed a lawsuit in the state of California alleging that prior to the sale of Binion's Horseshoe Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada to Harrah's in 2004, the former president of Binion's Horseshoe, Becky Binion Behnen, gave Schiavio the rights to the WSOP.com domain name and that Binion's saw no conflict between this domain name and the World Series of Poker. The lawsuit claims that Binion's was not using the term WSOP as a trademark, and exhibits filed in the lawsuit show that WSOP was not mentioned in the trademark assignment agreement from Binion's to Harrah's. Filed court documents allege that Harrah's has admitted that the trademark assignment from Binion's to Harrah's, which explicitly lists dozens of trademarks included in the transfer, such as World Series of Poker, "does not specifically identify the WSOP mark".
http://onlypunjab.com/fullstory2k5-insight-Poker+HARRAH-status-23-newsID-128183.html
http://emediawire.com/releases/2006/11/emw475949.htm

in: More than Two Lakh Names Registered with 'in' Domain (news release)
National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and Afilias India Private Limited announced that the ‘.in’ domain has reached 2,00,000 registrations, nearly doubling its presence in the market place since last year.  The .IN registry has grown to nearly 30 times the initial size of approximately 6500 domains prior to the January 2005 re-launch. The re-launch included a more competitive price, expanded eligibility, a state of the art technology platform, and broader distribution through the global registrar network.
http://www.afilias.info/news/press_releases/pr_articles/2006-11-06-01

dotMobi To Dole Out Mobile Domain Names
dotMobi has begun the request for proposal process for four mobile domain names: news.mobi, ringtones.mobi, sports.mobi, and weather.mobi.
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=50955

dotMobi Launches RFP Process for Premium Names (news release)
dotMobi launched the first round of its Request for Proposals process for four highly anticipated premium .mobi domain names: "news.mobi," "ringtones.mobi," "sports.mobi" and "weather.mobi."
http://pc.mtld.mobi/mobilenet/release_110806.html

Fast food on the internet - FastFood.com to be auctioned!
On November 28 the domain name FastFood.com will be sold up to the highest bidder.
http://24-7pressrelease.com/view_press_release.php?rssID=20596
http://domaininformer.com/news/press/061110FastFood.html

NetMovie.com sells for US$31,500 (news release)
http://domainnamewire.com/2006/11/10/netmoviecom-sells-for-31500/

Property Domain Name Goes Under the Hammer
The domain name newflats.com, aimed at the property market, is being auctioned this week.
http://onlypunjab.com/fullstory2k5-insight-Property+Hammer-status-20-newsID-128095.html

Cambridge co. sells gay.com domain US$500K
A Cambridge-based online marketplace for domain names notched a US half-million dollar sale yesterday when two German Internet entrepreneurs bought the rights to gays.com.
http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=166242
http://domaininformer.com/news/press/061109Sedo.html

Microsoft becomes master of others' domains
Microsoft has joined the list of organizations authorized by ICANN to sell top-level domain names.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/08/microsoft_icann_office_live/
http://p2pnet.net/story/10383
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/index.cfm?newsid=7538
http://www.techworld.com/news/index.cfm?NewsID=7305
http://infoworld.com/article/06/11/07/HNmsdomaingame_1.html
http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=6509
http://www.itworld.com/Net/2607/061107msdomain/
http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2006/11/07/microsoft_approved_as_icann_registrar.html

Mit anderen Zeichen zum selben Ziel
Wer eine Internetadresse im Browser eingibt, muss lateinische Buchstaben benutzen. Mittelfristig soll sich das ändern, die Internetverwaltung Icann startet erste Tests mit URLs in Schriften wie Chinesisch oder Arabisch. Ein schwieriges Unterfangen.
http://stern.de/computer-technik/internet/:Internetadressen-Mit-Zeichen-Ziel/575880.html

Microsoft wird Domain-Registrar
Microsoft steigt ins Geschäft mit der Registrierung von Domain-Namen im Internet ein: Der Softwarekonzern hat sich als von der Internet-Verwaltung ICANN anerkannter Domain-Registrar eintragen lassen.
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/80707
http://www.infoweek.ch/news/NW_single.cfm?news_ID=14723&sid=0
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/tech/0,1518,447162,00.html

Neue Schriftzeichen für Internet-Adressen: Ergänzung könnte ganzes Web lahmlegen
Bis Ende des Jahres werden erstmals Internet-Adressen in Sprachen mit einem anderen Zeichensatz als dem lateinischen Alphabet getestet, also zum Beispiel auf Chinesisch oder Arabisch. Dies gab die Internet-Adressverwaltungsorganisation ICANN auf einer UN-Konferenz in der griechischen Stadt Vouliagmeni bekannt.
http://www.networld.at/index.html?/articles/0645/542/155926.shtml

Tests mit URLs in nichtlateinischen Schriften beginnen
Bis Ende des Jahres werden erstmals Internet-Adressen in Sprachen mit einem anderen Zeichensatz als dem lateinischen Alphabet getestet, also zum Beispiel auf Chinesisch oder Arabisch. Dies gab die Internet-Adressverwaltungsorganisation ICANN auf einer UNO-Konferenz in der griechischen Stadt Vouliagmeni bekannt.
http://www.heute.de/ZDFheute/inhalt/29/0,3672,3998461,00.html

DotMobi sammelt Vorschläge für besondere Domains
DotMobi startet einen Wettbewerb um die Vergabe von besonders interessanten .mobi-Domains. Die Registry sammelt Vorschläge für die Domains "news.mobi", "ringtones.mobi", "sports.mobi" und "weather.mobi.", die von einer Vergabe bislang gezielt ausgeschlossen wurden.
http://golem.de/0611/48849.html

Vers une internationalisation des noms de domaines sur le web
Plusieurs participants au Forum mondial sur la gouvernance d'internet, qui se tenait la semaine dernière à Athènes, ont dénoncé la domination de l'anglais dans cet univers. «Je pense que la fracture numérique n'est pas aussi importante que la fracture linguistique. Et c'est cette dernière que nous devons réduire si nous voulons garantir une gouvernance démocratique de l'internet», a notamment déclaré Amada Samassékou, le président de l'Académie africaine des langues.
http://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/internet/0,39020774,39364550,00.htm
http://archquo.nouvelobs.com/cgi/articles?ad=multimedia/20061107.ZDN9364550.html

.EU : fin du processus de validation des dossiers sunrise
Un an de travail ! Voilà ce qu'il aura fallu à EURid pour mener à bien la mission de valider les demandes sunrise du .EU. Si de manière générale, 51% des dossiers n'ont pas pu aboutir, certains s'en sont toutefois beaucoup mieux sorti
http://domainesinfo.fr/extension/1051/europe-eu-fin-du-processus-de-validation-des-dossiers-sunrise.php

Proposition de loi contre le cybersquatting en Afrique du Sud
L'Afrique du Sud révise sa loi sur les communications et transactions électroniques, et sanctionne le cybersquatting.
http://domainesinfo.fr/actualite/1048/proposition-de-loi-contre-le-cybersquatting-en-afrique-du-sud.php

ICANN: Microsoft è registrar accreditato
L'ICANN ha accreditato Microsoft come registrar per domini .biz, .com, .info, .name, .net, .org, .pro. L'accredito è valido dal 31 Ottobre e Microsoft segue su questa strada Google ed Amazon.
http://webnews.html.it/news/leggi/4982/icann-microsoft-e-registrar-accreditato/
http://www.01net.it/01NET/HP/0,1254,0_ART_74110,00.html

Jon Bing inn i ICANN
Jusprofessor og scifi-forfatter Jon Bing er blitt medlem av ICANN, organisasjonen som passer på spillereglene på nettet.
http://www.itavisen.no/php/art.php?id=356838
http://www.digi.no/php/art.php?id=356831
http://www1.vg.no/teknologi/artikkel.php?artid=138125

Microsoft ackrediteras av ICANN
ICANN godkände i slutet av oktober Microsoft som domännamnsregistrator vilket öppnar för nya Internet-baserade tjänster i framtiden. Redan i Office Live kommer Microsoft att kunna dra nytta av sin nya roll.
http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.81361

Story in Russian on Microsoft becoming an ICANN-accredited registrar
http://www.utro.ru/news/2006/11/08/599339.shtml
 
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Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>.

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(c) David Goldstein 2006


--------- 
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