Official Google Blog: "Today, as part of our ongoing effort to make the web faster, we're launching our own public DNS resolver called Google Public DNS, and we invite you to try it out. Most of us aren't familiar with DNS because it's often handled automatically by our Internet Service Provider (ISP), but it provides an essential function for the web. You could think of it as the switchboard of the Internet, converting easy-to-remember domain names — e.g., www.google.com — into the unique Internet Protocol (IP) numbers — e.g., 74.125.45.100 — that computers use to communicate with one another."

• Google Public DNS: An Introduction
  
• Google Public DNS: Performance Benefits
  
• Google Public DNS: Security Benefits
  
• Google Public DNS: Setup Instructions and Support
  
• Google Public DNS: Privacy Policy
  
• Google Public DNS: Official FAQ

News release: "In a video posted on her website this morning, Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media, called for greater transparency and accountability in Internet Governance as of October 2009. Key decisions related to Internet Governance, like top level domains and managing the internet's core directory, are currently made by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private not-for profit corporation established in California. So far, ICANN has been operating under an agreement with the US Department of Commerce. However, this agreement expires on 30 September this year. For the time after, Commissioner Reding today outlined a new governance model for the internet. This would include a fully private and accountable ICANN, accompanied by an independent judicial body, as well as a "G12 for Internet Governance" – a multilateral forum for governments to discuss general internet governance policy and security issues."

News release: "Introducing new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) is central to fostering choice and competition in domain registration services, and as such is significant to the promotion of ICANN’s core values. The evolution of the namespace towards an enhanced diversity of services and service providers must be planned and managed effectively to preserve the security, stability, and global interoperability of the Internet.

The proposed policy to guide the introduction of new gTLDs was created by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) through its bottom-up, multi-stakeholder policy development process. The elements addressed in the development of the new gTLD policy involve technical, economic, operational, legal, public policy, and other considerations. The intended result is a straightforward, fair, and efficient process for allocating new gTLDs."

News release, June 26, 2008: "The Board of ICANN today approved recommendation that could see a whole range of new names introduced to the Internet's addressing system. "The Board today accepted a recommendation from its global stakeholders that it is possible to implement many new names to the Internet, paving the way for an expansion of domain name choice and opportunity" said Dr Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN. A final version of the implementation plan must be approved by the ICANN Board before the new process is launched. It is intended that the final version will be published in early 2009.

"The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net," said Dr Twomey. "It's a massive increase in the 'real estate' of the Internet."

Presently, users have a limited range of 21 top level domains to choose from — names that we are all familiar with like .com, .org, .info.

This proposal allows applicants for new names to self-select their domain name so that choices are most appropriate for their customers or potentially the most marketable. It is expected that applicants will apply for targeted community strings such as (the existing) .travel for the travel industry and .cat for the Catalan community (as well as generic strings like .brandname or .yournamehere). There are already interested consortiums wanting to establish city-based top level domain, like .nyc (for New York City), .berlin and .paris.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) news release: "Against the background of an unprecedented number of cybersquatting cases in 2007, the evolving nature of the domain name registration system (DNS) is causing growing concern for trademark owners around the world. Last year, a record 2,156 complaints alleging cybersquatting - or the abusive registration of trademarks on the Internet - were filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center (Center), representing an 18% increase over 2006 and a 48% increase over 2005 in the number of generic and country code Top Level Domain (gTLDs and ccTLDs) disputes (see Table 1)."

ICANN: "The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers will launch an evaluation of Internationalized Domain Names next week that will allow Internet users to test top-level domains in 11 languages... The evaluation is made possible by today’s insertion into the root of the 11 versions of .test, which means they are alongside other top-level domains like .net, .com, .info, .uk, and .de at the core of the Internet. Next Monday, 15 October 2007, Internet users around the globe will be able to access wiki pages with the domain name example.test in 11 test languages — Arabic, Persian, Chinese (simplified and traditional), Russian, Hindi, Greek, Korean, Yiddish, Japanese and Tamil...More information on the IDN program is available here."

Hao Chen, Assistant Professor, UC Davis in collaboration with In collaboration with Microsoft Researchers Yi-Min Wang and Ming Ma, pub lished Spam Double-Funnel: Connecting Web Spammers with Advertisers. [Darlene Fichter]

"This is the online participation website for the meeting [Lisbon meeting for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN) is being held between 26-30 March 2007]. Available here will be: a rundown of each meeting complete with full details, including panellists; topics for discussions; links to resources and presentations; and links to webcasts and audiocasts where available. At the same time, blogs, chatrooms, polls and forums will help people both at the meeting and dotted around the globe to share information and interact with one another."

Web Site Owners May Get Tougher to Find - Proposal could aid infringers on the Net, by Lynne Marek, The National Law Journal: ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - is considering a new policy that will allow domain name holders to keep their registration information private."

"About 4,000 government websites now are registered with .gov domain names, according to Stephen P. Wardius of the GSA Center for Information Infrastructure, which manages the .gov domain registration program. Almost half belong to federal organizations, and half belong to state and local governments. There are 86 Native Sovereign Nation .gov domain names."

Press Release, September 29, 2006: "The Commerce Department announced it has signed a Joint Project Agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to continue the transition of the coordination of the technical functions relating to the management of the Internet Domain Name and Addressing System to the private sector."

FTC press release: "The Federal Trade Commission today told the U.S. Senate that access to Whois databases – the directories that contain information about Web site operators – are "critical to the agency’s consumer protection mission, to other law enforcement agencies around the world, and to consumers." In Commission testimony before the Subcommittee on Trade, Tourism and Economic Development of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Commissioner Jon Leibowitz said improvements should be made to the current Whois database system and the databases should be "kept open, transparent, and accessible."

Press release: "According to MarkMonitor's AntiFraud Operations Center™ (AFOC), domain-based phishing attacks now represent 73 percent of all attacks, up from 35 percent just 18 months ago." Related reference in this press release to an academic paper titled, Why Phishing Works.

FTC press release: "The Federal Trade Commission today told a meeting of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers that access to the Whois databases is "critical to the agency’s consumer protection laws, to other law enforcement agencies around the world, and to consumers." Whois databases are online information directories that contain contact information about website operators. Access to the databases is in question because one of ICANN's advisory bodies recommended limiting access to Whois data to technical purposes only."

ICANN Publishes Third Annual Update on the InterNIC Whois Data Problem Report System, 31 March 2006.

Internet Management: Prevalence of False Contact Information for Registered Domain Names, GAO-06-165, November 4, 2005. Highlights.

News from the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) that the U.S. and representatives from 100 other nations have reached an agreement to continue the oversight of Internet domain names in the control of the United States, with administration provided by the Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

Press release from October 24, 2005: "ICANN today announced that it has reached an proposed agreement to end all pending litigation over its long-standing dispute with VeriSign. The proposed agreement documents are being posted for public comment and are subject to final approval of the ICANN Board. This settlement will clear the way for a new and productive public/private partnership in coordinating technical management of the Internet's domain name system."

Today's Wall Street Journal featured a front page article ($), Lawyers' Delight: Old Web Material Doesn't Disappear - Wayback Machine and Google Archive Billions of Pages, Including Deleted Ones, which is worth review. It focuses on how old web pages available from the Internet Archive and cached pages from Google can be of particular value in cases involving domain name disputes.

The United Nations Secretary-General today transmitted the Report of the Working Group on Internet Governance (24 pages, PDF) to the President of the Preparatory Committee of the World Summit on the Information Society, Ambassador Janis Karklins, and the WSIS Secretary-General, Mr Yoshio Utsumi.

"In remarks to the Wireless Communications Association (WCA) on June 30, 2005, Assistant Secretary Michael Gallagher announced U.S. principles on the Internet's Domain Name and Addressing System." [Link]

ICANN Watch reports: "At the Luxembourg ICANN meeting, the US Government is organizing a 4-hour session of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) on how public display of Whois data supports "combating illegal activities on the Internet." Perhaps sensing that time is running out on unrestricted access to Whois data, the US GAC representative and US-based business/IPR interests have organized the meeting to propagandize the idea that compulsory, public display of domain name registration data and intrusive measures to enforce the accuracy of the data should be retained."

Klein and Mueller: What to Do About ICANN: A Proposal for Structural Reform, April 5, 2005.

Press release from The National Academies: "The domain name system that helps users find their way across the Internet by substituting user-friendly names for computer-friendly addresses, has performed well, says a report from the National Academies' Computer Science and Telecommunications Board. However, the report emphasizes that the system should be managed by a non-governmental organization, and not be used for broader purposes like controlling spam, protecting intellectual property rights, or regulating e-commerce."

Press release: Key Internet System Faces Technical and Political Challenges

ICANN Completes Negotiations with Applicants for .JOBS and .TRAVEL: "ICANN has completed negotiations with the applicants for the .JOBS and .TRAVEL sponsored top-level domains. The .JOBS and .TRAVEL sponsored TLD registry agreements have been posted on the ICANN website and submitted to the ICANN Board for approval."

Announced yesterday: "Earlier this week, ICANN's Board took steps to authorize the delegation of .EU as a ccTLD (country code Top Level Domain), and for ICANN Staff to enter into an agreement with EURid and to complete the delegation of .EU." Additional details available in this AP article.

Another Expanded Whois Service, by Chris Sherman

From Susan Kuchinskas, interesting news of the continuing saga concerning Google's domain name challenges, as documented in Of Boobles, Froogles and Googles. See also Google's challenge of Froogles.com name rejected.

The Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act (H.R. 3754), to provide additional civil and criminal remedies for domain name fraud, was approved by the House Judiciary Cmte. on May 12, as was H.R. 1731, the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act. For reference, see the Lanham Act.

As a follow-up to my previous postings on ICANN's dispute with VeriSign's over SiteFinder, from February, VeriSign Files Lawsuit Against ICANN, this update today from AP, ICANN's latest challenge tests new Internet services, and the following related information and documents:

Verisign Inc. v. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers et al. (Central Dist. of Calif., Civil No. 04-1292). A hearing on ICANN's motion to dismiss VeriSign's complaint will be held on May 17.

ICANN Files Anti-SLAPP Motion to Strike Claims in VeriSign Lawsuit (html version...the pdf version is unavailable at this time)

An Economic Analysis of Domain Name Policy, by Karl M. Manheim and Lawrence B. Solum.

The domain area created by law just for kids has attracted little interest or investment, resulting in the creation of but a handful of new children friendly websites.

"E-mail communication to and from The Washington Post was disrupted yesterday after its washpost.com Internet address was shut down because the company failed to renew its $35 annual registration." [Link]

Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act (Introduced in House), February 3, 2004: HR 3754, To provide additional civil and criminal remedies for domain name fraud.

VeriSign to implement change to .com and .net:

From a December 16 announcement by ICANN:

The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), scheduled to begin in Geneva on December 10, is shaping up to be the backdrop for an escalating dispute focused on Internet governance.

From Ben Edelman, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School:

Who Runs the .GOV and .EDU Domains?

CircleID reports that a letter to ICANN, seeking increased privacy for the wealth of personal data available in the WHOIS database, has been signed by a coalition of 50 organizations, including the American Library Association (ALA). The ICANN Meeting is currently underway in Carthage, Tunisia through October 31, and a link to the agenda is here.

From VeriSign's press release: "VeriSign, Inc, the leading provider of critical infrastructure services for the Internet and telecommunications networks, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to sell the Network Solutions business unit to Pivotal Private Equity. Under the terms of the agreement, VeriSign will receive approximately $100 million..." The company will retain its VeriSign Naming and Directory Services, which "is the backbone of a global .com and .net domain name infrastructure that handles over 10 billion interactions per day." [Link]

From dc.internet.com:

Technical Responses to Unilateral Internet Authority: The Deployment of VeriSign "Site Finder" and ISP Response.

VeriSign's introduction of its Site Finder service on September 15 ignited a firestorm of controversy. Today ICANN President and CEO Paul Twomey sent a letter to VeriSign's Executive VP Russell Lewis stating:

False Solicitations Allegedly Duped Consumers to Transfer Domain Name:

The Controversy Over New Web Typo Site continues as ICANN issued an Advisory Concerning VeriSign's Deployment of DNS Wildcard Service, requesting that pending the organization's review and publication of a report, VeriSign suspend this service. In addition to ICANN's action, last Friday Popular Enterprises, parent of search engine Nester.com, filed an unfair trade practices lawsuit in Florida, and domain registrar Go Daddy also filed a lawsuit the same day, in Arizona. VeriSign's news release dated today maintains that Site Finder is a "useful tool" that "has been visited over 65 million times by Internet users" since its introduction on September 15.

From the The Berkman Center for Internet & Society:
"UDRP (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) Opinion Guide summarizes opinions of the UDRP panelists on various issues. In addition to questions about procedures, the Guide looks at elements necessary to establish trademark rights, what activities constitute "bad faith" and the nature of legltimate interests. The UDRP Opinion Guide has a Table of Contents followed by the text which will be in chapter, title, and section order."

The Center for Democracy and Technology sent a letter on September 4 to Reps. Adam Smith and Howard Berman, House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, urging the implementation of privacy protections for personal information entered in the WhoIs domain name database.

From the Committee on Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property September 4, 2003 - Oversight Hearing on "Internet Domain Name Fraud - the U.S. Government’s Role in Ensuring Public Access to Accurate Whois Data":

Amazon wins tussle over lookalike site:

From the US Association for Computing Machinery: CM's Internet Governance Committee released a white paper entitled Internet Governance: A View from the Trenches, Participation Needed for Successful Advocacy in the ICANN Arena.

Informational Briefing on the kids.us Domain: The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) will host an informational briefing regarding the launch of the new kids.us domain, Tuesday, July 22, 2003, at 3 p.m.

"Public Interest Registry (PIR) is a not-for-profit corporation created to manage the .ORG registry. PIR looks forward to serving the .ORG community by providing superior technology; new services designed for noncommercial registrants; and responsive, responsible stewardship. PIR has established its new .ORG Advisory Council. The council will focus on .ORG policy, outreach, and service issues."

The .pro domain, launching July 1, is initially available only to licensed professionals including doctors (med.pro), lawyers (law.pro) and CPAs (cpa.pro).

According to the Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002, the kids.us domain will be a "haven for material that promotes positive experiences for children and families using the Internet." This task poses significant challenges to those who plan to publish and maintain "G" rated-only content beginning this September.

Related posting:
President Signs Kids Internet Law

Staff Manager's Issues Report on Privacy Issues Related to Whois (13 May 2003).

WHO WAS, WHOIS, AND WHO WILL BE: Domain Name Ownership Research Tools by Mark Goldstein.

The Center for Information Technology and Dispute Resolution and the Markle Foundation have announced the launch of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy Database, which "provides Internet users worldwide with free access to precedents regarding disputes over Web addresses, giving parties the tools necessary to better prepare for Web-based cases than ever before. The database will be updated on an ongoing basis, making it the most complete resource available." Current Decisions in Database: 5005. Domain names: 8409.

The General Services Administration (GSA) issued a final rule, published in today's Federal Register establishing a new policy for the registration of .gov domain names, over which GSA has had jurisdiction since 1997. Such action now requires approval by cabinet level CIOs.

The Truth in Domain Names Act, H.R. 939, introduced on February 26.

On March 4, the Supreme Court released a unanimous decision in Moseley et al., dba v. V Secret Catalogue, Inc., et al., No. 01-1015, a trademark dilution case (Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995 (FTDA) at Section 43(c) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1125(c). According to Declan McCullagh's article on the decision, "the justices effectively narrowed the scope of a federal trademark law that frequently is invoked in spats over domain names."

According to a report in today's Seattle Times via AP and Bloomberg, and the March 1 WSJ, on December 6, 2002 ICANN granted Amazon.com approval to sell TLD (top level domain) Internet addresses to the public. A search of ICANN's site yielded confirmation of this approval in a very discreet manner: on a ICANN-Accredited Registrars document, where Amazon is listed in a chart half way down the page.

Web Sites Sharing IP Addresses: Prevalence and Significance, a study by Benjamin Edelman of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society, establishes that "more than 87% of active domain names are found to share their web servers with one or more additional domains, and more than two third of active domain names share their web servers with fifty or more additional domains." These findings have significant ramifications on large scale efforts to block and censor web content, as well as efforts to do so on a local or state level.

As a follow-up to my February 12 posting on the expansion of the .edu domain by the Department of Commerce, which begins on April 15, see this article, Is Commerce 'dumbing down' the '.edu' domain name? Along with accredited colleges and universities, the .edu domain will now host technical and distance learning programs (including cosmetology, funeral services and accupuncture). Educase, the sole registrar for the .edu domain, has a link to the eligability requirements.

The Department of Commerce is extending the use of the .edu domain beyond colleges and universities to now include a wide range of "educational institutions," according to this Reuter's report.

In April 2002, the FTC obtained a judgment and permanent injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennyslvania barring cybersquatter John Zuccarini from continuing an extensive cyberscam. It involved diverting individuals from their intended website destinations to the more than 5,300 sites he owned, through the use of commonly occuring misspellings of domain names. Users were then trapped on his sites and subject to viewing ads that often contained pornography.

In a follow-up to this decision, Ben Edelman has authored a research report, Large-Scale Registration of Domains with Typographical Errors, establishing that most of the domains remain operational despite the FTC's injuction.

ICANN announced that effective January 3, 2003, the non-profit Public Interest Registry (PIR) is now the registry operator for the important .org domain.

VeriSign, Inc., the global "digital trust service," issued a press release today announcing the relaunch of Network Solutions Inc. as the company through which it will now provide "domain name, Web site and e-mail service business." The Network Solutions site has been redesigned to enhance ease of use and highlight the range of services available.

Reuters reports that ICANN announced during their December 15 meeting that there will be new topic/area specific domains added to the roster that includes .com and .org, in 2003.

See ICANN's announcement on recommendations for new Top Level Domains (TLDs) as well as a comment period which will end December 10. According to this related Washington Post article, ICANN is in favor of creating three new top level domains that target specific users, rather than the current dot-com grab-bag approach.

ICANN has published the text of their agreement for administration of the .org Top Level Domain by The Internet Society (ISOC). According to internet.com, the ISOC claimed they established a separate entity, the Public Interest Registry (PIR), to "carry out the registry functions." A FAQ on the PIR is available here.

See the ICANN annnouncement indicating the choice of theInternet Society to operate the huge .org top level domain (TLD). The decision has stirred controversy according to an internet.com article, Will Big Business Dictate Public Interest?

On October 2, ICANN issued its Final Implementation Report and Recommendations of the Committee on ICANN Evolution and Reform. See also the Markle Foundation Report, dated September 18: Enhancing Legitimacy in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - Accountable and Transparent Government Structures.

A report commissioned by the Markle Foundation,
"Enhancing Legitimacy in the Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and
Numbers: Accountable and Transparent Governance Structures, has been published which recommends specific actions that ICANN can take to improve confidence and trust in its actions as well as focus its mission.

The Department of Commerce has extended its Memorandum of Understanding with ICANN through September 2003. ICANN manages the .com domain, as well as seven other domains (including .name, .museum, .biz and ".info).

NeuStar Inc. was chosen as the manager of the new Congressionally mandated (S. 2537) .kids.us domain, and has been embroiled in a dispute with the government ever since over the company's quest to include e-commerce/revenue generating applications on the site. NeuStar recently released a report seeking public comment on content "guidelines and requirements" for the new domain.

On September 12, 2002, the Center for Democracy and Technology sent a letter to Chairman Wyden and Senator Allen of the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space detailing its opposition to the creation of the .kids.us domain in favor of more effective alternatives.

NeuStar.com, manager of the ".us" domain, argued against legislation requiring the creation of a ".kids.us" domain during a September 12 hearing held by the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space. The Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002 was passed by the House on May 21, 2002. NueStar seeks to make the .kids domain commercially viable using e-commerce transactions, and believes this goal cannot be achieved with government regulation.

ICANN provides a searchable database for Proceedings under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) that is updated daily. The database is maintained by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School.

The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)sent a letter to the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space concerning its objection S. 2537, The Dot Kids Implementation and Efficiency Act of 2002. The House had already passed a similar bill, H.R. 3833. The CDT contends that this legislation simply cannot guarantee that children would be protected from exposure to inapropriate materials via the proposed .kids.us domain. Furthermore, the creation of this domain "sets a dangerous precedent for regulation of the domain name space...and creates new concerns about free expression online."

In their report, Domain Name Services: Let Competition, Not ICANN, Rule, the PFF continues what has become steady bombardment against ICANN policies. The author, William Adkinson, senior policy council to PFF, contends there is no need for price regulation as there is already a competitive market to obtain web addresses.

ICANN adopted a resolution on August 22 creating a waiting list service (WLS) for those who are interested in acquiring dot-com and dot-net domain names that have lapsed.