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Category Archives: Domain Names

EU Commissioner Reding calls for full privatisation and full accountability of ICANN as of 1 October

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… Continue Reading

ICANN issues proposed guidelines for new generic top-level domains

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,… Continue Reading

Biggest Expansion to Internet in Forty Years Approved for Implementation

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… Continue Reading

WIPO: Cybersquatting Dispute Cases Continue to Rise

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… Continue Reading

One of the Biggest Changes to the Internet Is Arriving Next Week

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… Continue Reading

Reseachers Focus on Fighting Web Spam

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] Overview: “Web spamming is a prevalent problem on the Web. Publishing and contributing to the web is increasingly easy. Spammers, motivated by money, want to… Continue Reading

ICANN Launches Public Participation Website

“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… Continue Reading

Will ICANN Approve Limiting Access to Domain Registery Data?

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.” EPIC Supports Privacy for WHOIS… Continue Reading

4,000 Gov't Websites Registered With DotGov Domain

“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.” Continue Reading

ICANN Joint Project Agreement: With Commerce

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.” Joint Project… Continue Reading

FTC Calls for Openness, Accessibility in Whois Database System

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,… Continue Reading

MarkMonitor Reports Domain-Based Phishing Attacks Now Represent 73 Percent of All Phishing Scams

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. beSpacific postings on ID theft and cybercrime Continue Reading