2017-05-31

My .NET Comment Was REJECTED (at first) By ICANN, Was Yours?

Public comments on the Proposed Renewal of .NET Registry Agreement close 30 May 2017 at 23:59 UTC, which is 7:59pm EDT (US).

Because I had a busy Tuesday morning out of the office, I stayed up late last night to finish my comment (8 pages long--embedded below) and submitted it very early Tuesday morning (EDT - US) before going to bed. Right after submitting the comment, I received the ICANN email:
Hours later I received the following email from ICANN:
I discovered that email when I returned to my office Tuesday afternoon, and immediately responded:
I also forwarded a copy of the foregoing to the ICANN Ombudsman and ICANN Complaints Office with the following email:
I then received an email from ICANN Complaints Office:
And then I heard from an ICANN GDD (Global Domains Division) staff member:
And then I received the following from another ICANN staff member (Carlos Reyes):
And after submitting my comment again (exactly the same way I had originally sent it), I received the following:
Here's my comment (pdf), also embedded in full below. All comments "accepted" by ICANN may be viewed here. In the course of the chaotic back-and-forth I asked the ICANN Ombudsman and Complaints Officer "how many comments are being censored (rejected) by ICANN?" and never heard back. If your comment was rejected by ICANN, please let me know via Twitter @DomainMondo or via the email address at the bottom of the DomainMondo.com web page.


My Comment Conclusion (pp. 7-8):
IV. Conclusion
1) RPMs specifically designed, and applicable to new gTLDs, are not appropriate for legacy gTLDs .COM, .NET, and .ORG, and I commend ICANN for resisting pressure from trademark and other special interests who may urge otherwise.

2) Verisign is a capable and qualified registry operator to continue operating the .NET generic top-level domain.

3) However, I have three objections to the proposed renewal of the .NET registry agreement, the first two are substantive and deal with pricing, and the third is an “ICANN process” objection:
1. The Section 7.2 ICANN fee of $0.75 per .NET domain name is discriminatory and unconscionable to .NET domain name registrants, and ICANN should reduce it to $0.25 (similar to other gTLDs). What may have been negotiated or appropriate in 2005, is no longer applicable 12 years later. ICANN should be ashamed for being so greedy and unfair to .NET registrants who are the ones bearing this cost.

2. The Section 7.3(a) provision for 10% compounded annual increases in .NET registration, renewal and transfer fees is unconscionable, particularly considering .NET has approximately 15 million domain name registrations, and the publicly reported profitability of Verisign, and its low cost of operations. It may be easy for ICANN staff to “roll over” and continue using the same boilerplate from previous renewals, but it has no justification based on reality—industry operating costs, market conditions, economic factors, and other relevant financial factors. This “formula” would lead to a doubling of registration fees every 7.2 years (Rule of 72). ICANN legal and GDD staff and management need a refresher course on good public stewardship and how to represent the global internet community in the global public interest.

Compare the ccTLD pricing for ccTLD .US ($6.50) with only about 2.5 million domain name registrations.

Approval of this proposed renewal with the $0.75 ICANN fee and 10% compounded annual increases in registration/renewal/transfer fees intact, will most likely cause renewed calls for government(s) to oversee ICANN, or replace ICANN with a new or existing intergovernmental multi-party or multistakeholder organization which can protect consumers (registrants), and the global public interest.

3. ICANN’s process for gTLD registry renewals is dysfunctional. Before beginning renewal “discussions” or negotiations with any registry operator, ICANN should first solicit comments from registrants, registrars, and other interested parties about the performance of the operator and suggestions for changes in the registry agreement. Only after that initial comment period has concluded should ICANN begin discussions with the registry operator. This is a simple change that will result in ICANN staff being much better informed and prepared to represent registrants, registrars, and the global internet community in renewal discussions with the registry operator.
-- John Poole, editor, DomainMondo.com

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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-30

Tim Berners-Lee on What It Will Take To Make The Internet More Accessible

Tim Berners-Lee explains what it will take to make the internet more accessible

Video above published Apr 13, 2017: The internet is inaccessible to 60% of the world's population. Tim Berners-Lee, the web's inventor, has decided to change this.

Tim Berners-Lee on twitter: @timberners_lee

Director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) w3.org, the place to agree on web standards. Founded webfoundation.org-- let the web serve humanity --Cape Town · London · D.C.


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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-29

The Kitschy Mastery of Ronco Infomercials (video)

The Kitschy Mastery of Ronco Infomercials:

Video above published Apr 3, 2017 by WSJ.com: Ronco Brands ​infomercials for everything from the Veg-O-Matic to the Rotisserie Oven​ ​dominated late-night TV for decades​. ​Here's a look at what went into this singular art form.

Domain: ronco.com

Ronco Holdings, Inc. 
Ronco is an American company that manufactures and sells a variety of items and devices, most commonly those used in the kitchen. Ron Popeil founded the company in 1964, and commercials for the company's products soon became pervasive and memorable, in part thanks to Popeil's personal sales pitches. The names "Ronco" and "Popeil" and the suffix "-O-Matic" (used in many early product names) became icons of American popular culture and were often referred to by comedians introducing fictional gadgets.--wikipedia.org



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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-28

News Review: The WHOIS Way To Lose Domain Names | NR 2017-05-28

News Review | ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2017-05-28):

Features •  1) The WHOIS Way To Lose Domain Names, 2) a. New gTLDs Lose Over 2 Million Domain Name Registrations In Just 6 Weeks, b. Neustar Loses Again, c. Tucows' OpenSRS Drops Nine Uniregistry new gTLDs, d. MMX and Web.com for sale? e) #INTA17 disaster, pity the lawyers, 3) ICANN News: Renewal of .NET Registry Agreement Comments Close May 30, 4) ICYMI, 5) Investing, 6) Most Popular.

1) The WHOIS Way To Lose Your Domain Names--false or erroneous (including outdated) WHOIS info--check the WHOIS or contact your registrar(s) to make sure everything is correct and up-to-date. You may be surprised--I once discovered incorrect information on a transferred domain that I believe had been erroneously entered by staff at the prior registrar. Also note that any change in your registration info may invoke a 60-day lock by your registrar due to a poorly designed ICANN policy to prevent domain name theft (check with your registrar before making any change if you need to avoid the lock)--Contractual Compliance Update | GDD Summit Madrid | Presentation | ICANN.org:

2) Names, Domains & Trademarks
a. Deathwatch: ICANN's New gTLDs Still Losing Domain Name Registrations (source: ntldstats.com):
A decrease of more than 2 million new gTLD domain name registrations in just six weeks.
At this rate (a net loss of -2.1 million registrations every 6 weeks), ICANN's new gTLDs will have a total of -0- domain name registrations by Fall, 2018.

b. Neustar Loses Again, in Court: "On April 6, 2015, Neustar, Inc. (the “Company”) filed a Petition for Review asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to “hold unlawful, vacate, enjoin, and set aside” the FCC Order issued on March 27, 2015, approving a recommendation by the North American Numbering Council for a competitor to serve as the next Local Number Portability Administrator (“LNPA”) ... The Court of Appeals issued its decision on May 26, 2017. The Court of Appeals denied the Company’s Petition for Review. The Company is reviewing the decision and continuing to consider its options."--Form 8-K, May 26, 2017. The loss of the LNPA a/k/a NPAC contracts will likely have a huge negative impact on Neustar's financials. Neustar is a technology company and domain name registry services provider (.biz, .co, .us ...). As I reported May 7, 2017:
Neustar Reports Results for First Quarter 2017 | Neustar.biz: "NPAC Services contributed $128.3 million in revenue. Net income for the first quarter of 2017 totaled $45.4 million, or $0.80 per share."How much does Neustar's NPAC Services business contribute to Neustar's bottom line (net income)? 100%? See SeekingAlpha.comWhen does that very profitable NPAC Services business end? Probably 2018. • "Neustar ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $47.0 million and outstanding debt under its credit facilities and senior notes of $751.6 million ..."
c. Tucows' (NASDAQ: TCX) OpenSRS responds to Uniregistry new gTLDs' price increases:
"Uniregistry has announced a number of TLD price increases, taking effect on September 8th, 2017. Our main concern with this type of increase is that it has the potential to undermine consumer trust in the new gTLD program. Here’s everything you need to know, and what action we suggest you take ... 2. We will no longer support the TLDs with exponential price increase - The decision to discontinue support for these select TLDs was made to protect you [resellers] and your customers [domain name registrants] from unknowingly overpaying in a price range well beyond $100 per year. No longer supported as of September 8th, 2017"--
source: OpenSRS.com
Read more at: Uniregistry price increases | OpenSRS.com (emphasis added).

d) State of the Domain Name Industry:
  • New gTLDs registry operator Minds + Machines Group Limited"following a number of informal approaches from external parties, the Board has appointed US investment banking firm, Headwaters MB, to review the various strategic options open to the Company to maximise value for shareholders."

e) #INTA17 disaster, pity the lawyers:
Even the trademark lawyers are tired and bored of ICANN's new gTLDs (lone tweet below):

3) ICANN news:

Proposed Renewal of .NET Registry Agreement | ICANN.org: Comments close 30 May 2017 23:59 UTC. ICANN finally answered my questions (sort of). I plan on filing a comment and attaching ICANN's answers. Stay tuned!

Pre-ICANN59 Policy Update Webinar | ICANN.orgThe ICANN Policy Development Support Team will host a Policy Update Webinar on Thursday, 15 June 2017 at 10:00 and 19:00 UTC, in preparation for the upcoming ICANN59 Policy Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa. RSVP by 13 June 2017. You will receive remote participation details the week of 12 June 2017. More at the link above.

ICANN Hires First Consumer Safeguards Director | ICANN.org: Bryan Schilling will be joining as the ICANN's first Consumer Safeguards Director, and will address illegal, infringing, and abusive activity impacting the DNS, reporting directly to Jamie Hedlund, SVP Contractual Compliance and Consumer Safeguards.

Special Meeting of the ICANN Board | ICANN.org18 May 2017:

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 
But also note: Net Neutrality Ideals Are Already Dead | Bloomberg.com: "Netflix and other rich companies pay internet service providers to connect directly into the providers' broadband plumbing. These "paid peering" fees are perfectly legal even under the stricter regulations the FCC is seeking to unravel."
  • NSA Surveillance: U.S. Fourth Circuit decision allows Wikimedia's lawsuit against National Security Agency’s (NSA) mass interception of Americans’ international digital communications, to proceed.--TheHill.com.
  • Internet PrivacyHouse Republican unveils internet privacy bill | TheHill.com: "Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) introduced legislation on Friday that would force broadband providers and internet companies trying to collect and sell consumer’s digital data to first get their expressed consent."

5) Investing:
1. "A lot of other people are trying to be brilliant and we are just trying to stay rational. And it’s a big advantage.”– Charlie Munger
2. “People tend to act too frequently in the stock market because stocks are so liquid. There are no called strikes, so ignore people yelling at you ‘Swing you bum!’” – Warren Buffett
8. “When you go out in the world, look for the job that you would take if you didn’t need a job … You really want to think about what will make you feel good when you get older about your life, and you, at least generally, want to keep going in that direction.” – Warren Buffett

6) Most popular post (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this past week on DomainMondo.com: 

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-27

Tech Review: Massive Tech Disruption Underway (video) | TR 2017-05-27

Tech Review (TR 2017-05-27)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news:

Features • 1) Massive Tech Disruption Underway (videos), 2) WannaCry / WannaCrypt update, 3) NSA Surveillance, 4) FCC & Net Neutrality, 5) Top Smartphone Brands in China, 6) Potpourri: Amazon Global Stores Sales in China, 7) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Massive Tech Disruption Underway: AI, Robotics, Autonomous Vehicles

Sinovation Ventures CEO Says the Age of AI Is Coming

Video above published May 22, 2017: Kai-Fu Lee, Sinovation Ventures (sinovationventures.com) CEO, discusses investment opportunities in artificial intelligence (AI) with Bloomberg's Emily Chang on "Bloomberg Technology."  "Google is in the lead." "In China, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent are doing well." Lee is focused on banking, insurance and investment, optimistic about autonomous vehicles as well as robotics. See also There are bots. Look around | ribbonfarm.com.

JP Morgan's Namburi Sees Massive Tech Disruption Underway

Video above published May 22, 2017: Madhu Namburi, head of technology investment banking at JPMorgan Chase & Co., (jpmorganchase.com) discusses the role technology is playing across all industries as he sees "significant M&A" coming as companies play catch up on tech innovation. He speaks with Bloomberg's David Gura from the JPMorgan Media and Telecom conference in Boston on "Bloomberg Markets."

2) WannaCry / WannaCrypt update: 
  • Over 98% of All WannaCry Victims Were Using Windows 7 | bleepingcomputer.com (Editor's note: probably because people turned off Windows Update last year when Microsoft was hijacking Win7 computers through Windows Update and forcing them to Windows 10. Also possibly related, Windows Update has a flaw that causes it to loop and fail to update on some PCs. I suggest PC users consider upgrading to a Chromebook if they can't get their Windows Update to update their PC.)

3) NSA Surveillance: Barack Obama's team secretly disclosed years of illegal NSA searches spying on Americans | Circa.com"The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community." Editor's note: Remember when BO won the Nobel Peace Prize?

4)  FCC & Net Neutrality--FCC Notice of Proposed Rulemaking | fcc.gov: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's proposal https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-17-60A1.pdf would eliminate the FCC's legal authority to prevent internet service providers (ISPs) from blocking or throttling web content or creating "fast lanes" that websites can buy into. The 75-page proposal, "Restoring Internet Freedom," also asks the public to comment on whether rules are needed to ban those practices. How to comment: https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/how-comment#comments. Easiest way to comment is via the EFF.org's https://dearfcc.org/.

5) Top Smartphone Brands in China in April 2017, via ChinaInternetWatch.com:
  1. Huawei 22.8%
  2. Oppo 16.5%
  3. Vivo 15.9%
  4. Apple 11.6%
  5. Xiaomi 11.2%
(Samsung is 8th at 2.3%)

6) Potpourri:

7) ICYMI Tech News via mobile.reuters.com:

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-26

Brexit, City of London, and the Euro Trade (video)

London and the Euro Trade

Video above published May 16, 2017: London's euro clearing dominance has been in the spotlight since the Brexit vote, as Europe would like this returned. The FT.com's Philip Stafford and Daniel Hodson, chairman of FSNForum (domain: fsnf.uk) and Board Member of Vote Leave, discuss the merits of such a move. Slides below:



See  also: New City of London group to help government with Brexit talks | Reuters.com
Financial Services Negotiation Forum (FSNForum)

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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-25

Moody's China Downgrade, 'Day of Reckoning' Ahead? (video)

Carson Block Sees 'Day of Reckoning' Ahead for China

Video above published on May 24, 2017: Carson Block, managing member of Muddy Waters [domain: muddywatersresearch.com], explains why he will continue to wager against Hong Kong-listed companies and discusses his bearish views on China's economy. He speaks with Bloomberg.com's Erik Schatzker.

Gauging the Risk of China's Growing Leverage

Video above published May 24, 2017: John Bellows, portfolio manager at Western Asset Management (domain: westernasset.com) and Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak (domain: millertabak.com), discuss Moody's (domain: moodys.com) decision to downgrade China's rating to A1 from Aa3 and change outlook to stable from negative. They speak with Bloomberg.com's Matt Miller on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas."

China's credit rating cut over debt worries
Video above published May 24,2017, by France24.com.




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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-24

Congressional Hearing Disrupter Series: Delivering to Consumers (video)

Disrupter Series: Delivering to Consumers

Hearing (video above) begins 14:04.
Disrupter Series: Delivering to Consumers | Energy and Commerce Committee
Tuesday, May 23, 2017 - 10:15am
Location: 2322 Rayburn, Washington, D.C.
UPS tests residential drone delivery:

Video above published Feb 21, 2017: UPS tested the use of drones for residential delivery for the first time in Tampa, Florida. The company demonstrated an octocopter launching from the roof of a hybrid electric delivery van, making a delivery, then returning to re-dock on the van which had moved to a new location further down the road.


Witnesses:

Mr. Shyam Chidamber
Chief Evangelist and Senior Advisor, Flirtey [flirtey.com] Deliveries with Drones
Witness Statement: "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle or “drone” based delivery is a game-changing commercial and consumer technology that is rapidly becoming technologically and economically feasible in the United States. Flirtey Inc. is a leading drone delivery service that has created many firsts in the use of this technology ..."

Dr. Harry Holzer
Jo John LaFarge Jr. S.J. Professor of Public Policy, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University
Witness Statement: "Thank you for inviting me today to share my thoughts on how new digital technologies can affect employment in business delivery services, and on how new digital technologies can affect the labor market more broadly ..."

Mr. Bastian Lehmann
Founder and CEO, Postmates [postmates.com]
Witness Statement: "...  Postmates is described as a leader in on-demand delivery – we quite literally mean that through the tap of a button on your phone – the platform enables anyone to get anything from their neighborhoods, delivered to their doorsteps within minutes ..."

Mr. Brian Wynne
President and CEO, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International [auvsi.org]
Witness Statement: "... My comments today will focus on unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, which are increasingly being used by a range of American businesses ..."

Documents:

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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-23

SWIFT GPI Initiative: How Secure Is the Swift Network? (videos)

How Secure Is the Swift Network?

Video above published May 1, 2017, by WSJ.com: A series of recent cyberattacks targeting banks raises questions about the security of Swift, the global messaging network that is the backbone of payment services for more than 11,000 institutions worldwide, including banks and corporations.

Domain: swift.com

The Future of Cross-border Payments - SWIFT gpi

Video above published Sep 26, 2016: Banks around the world are working with SWIFT to deliver the global payments innovation (gpi) initiative and create the next era for correspondent banking. More info: http://www.swift.com/gpi



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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-22

Yoox Net-A-Porter Group Luxury Sales Tap Mobile Future (video)

Yoox luxury sales tap mobile future

Video above published May 17, 2017 by FT.com: Federico Marchetti is the founder of YOOX and CEO of YOOX NET-A-PORTER Group.

Domain Names:
Handles:  @NETAPORTER @MRPORTERLIVE @yoox @THEOUTNET @PORTERmagazine @ynap

Marchetti: "When I started out in 1999, people would ask: how can you sell fashion on line? You can’t touch things, there’s no interaction, no luxury shop to visit. One headline about me read: “Are you crazy?” But when I sold my first item on line - it was a 88,000 Italian Lira Versace mini dress - I knew that I was at the beginning of what would be a long story. Now, 18 years later, we have just sold a €133,000 watch online. This is possible because I know my customer. There are three simple points about our approach to customers that make us different and stronger.
1. The luxury shopper in now online. What is important is to have quality customers. Only 2% of our customers represent 40% of our sales. We have customers that spend more than €1 million with us a year, who spend €, 35,000 on a dress and who buy 20 bespoke suits at a time.
2. Mobile is the new luxury shopping centre. We have registered upwards of €1bn sales on mobile phones out of €2bn of total sales. By 2020, most sales will be made on mobile phones.
3. Innovation needs to benefit the customer. To be successful you have to “be the customer” so that you can fully understand their needs."

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DISCLAIMER

2017-05-21

News Review: A Red Flag in ICANN Financial Disclosures? | NR 2017-05-21

News Review | ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2017-04-30):

Features •  1) A Red Flag in ICANN Financial Disclosures? 2) Other ICANN news--New gTLDs a Legal Racket or Consumer Scam? 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: .AFRICA, 4) ICYMI: Trump's NTIA Administrator, 5) Q1 2017 Earnings Season, 6) Most Popular.

1)  A Red Flag in ICANN Financial Disclosures?
ICANN filed its Form 990 [PDF, 5.54 MB] for its FY16 fiscal year (ending 30 June 2016), with the Internal Revenue Service on 12 May 2017 in compliance with the extended due date of 15 May 2017. Form 990 is ICANN's annual disclosure (a year after) of who's been a "domain hog"-- the highest paid contractors and employees at ICANN as well as directors' compensation -- no real surprises except one potential "red flag." How much was paid by ICANN to the ICANN Chairman's corporation Shinkuro, Inc.? That amount appears to be completely missing and unreported. For example, unless you read the entire Form 990 closely (reproduced below), one would think ICANN Chairman Steve Crocker was not taking any compensation or remuneration as a Director:
Not reportableIs Shinkuro Inc., also a contractor for ICANN? How much has Shinkuro been paid each fiscal year since Crocker joined the ICANN Board in 2008?
"No part of the net earnings of the Corporation shall inure to the benefit of or be distributable to its directors, trustees, officers, or other private persons, except that the Corporation shall be authorized and empowered to pay reasonable compensation for services rendered and to make payments and distributions in furtherance of the purposes set forth in Article II hereof."--ICANN Articles of Incorporation 2. IV. d.
Is this setting a bad precedent for a corporation (ICANN) that claims to be transparent and accountable? What if every ICANN director decided to have their ICANN compensation paid to their personal corporation--would that also become unreportable? Is Shinkuro only being paid $75,000 (ICANN Chair's authorized compensation), something less, something more?  ICANN needs to disclose.

2) Other ICANN news
a. New gTLDs a Legal Racket or Consumer Scam? (see page 6 of my comment below)--CCT-RT: Comments closed Friday on Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review Team Draft Report of Recommendations for New gTLDs. I submitted a comment which you can read here (pdf) or embed below. All the other comments may be be read here. I tried to give honest feedback, incorporating quotes and links from many sources, even many of the recent prolific tweets by @DomainKing:


b.  Oops! -- 16 May 2017 Letter from Christine Willett to Shaul Jolles [Published 17 May 2017] excerpt:

c.  Clarifying the Roles of the ICANN Complaints Office and Ombudsman | ICANN.org"we have noticed some confusion about the difference between the scope of the Complaints Office and the Office of the Ombudsman"--

d.  ICANN Registration System Email Validation | ICANN.org"As part of an ongoing process to improve the security of our web applications, the ICANN Registration website will now require that all potential meeting participants verify their email address to complete the registration process ..."

e. CCWG-Accountability-WS2 Request to Chartering Organizations for an Extension of Its Work for All of FY18: ccwg-acct-ws2-chartering-org-fy18-extension-request-18may17-en.pdf (pdf) 18 May 2017.

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
  • Why .AFRICA will succeed where others [new gTLDs] have failed | Inventa.com: "It is increasingly becoming clear that many of the newTLD’s launched since 2013 are not viable as a business. While there are some notable exceptions such as .xyz, most have struggled to report positive numbers and are currently operating at a loss. A staggering 70% of all these domains don’t have any content whatsoever, which helps to explain why renewal rates for these domains also seem to be lower than the industry average. However, I am confident that .africa will succeed ..." (emphasis added)

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News Quick Takes 
  • NTIA Administrator: President Trump will nominate David Redl to be the next administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) ... He currently serves as the chief counsel at the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce and is the principal legal adviser to Chairman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Republicans on the committee regarding communications and technology matters.--TheHill.com
  • WHOIS and Free Speech, Privacy & Anonymity: "Anonymous pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and even books have played an important role in the progress of mankind." Talley v. California, 362 U.S. 60, 64 (1960) ... an author generally is free to decide whether or not to disclose her true identity. The decision in favor of anonymity may be motivated by fear of economic or official retaliation, by concern about social ostracism, or merely by a desire to preserve as much of one's privacy as possible ... the interest in having anonymous works enter the marketplace of ideas unquestionably outweighs any public interest in requiring disclosure as a condition of entry ..."--Comment #2 | circleid.com  
  • Democrats are falling for fake news about Russia | Vox.com: "... a fake news bubble for liberals, something I’ve dubbed the Russiasphere. The mirror image of Breitbart and InfoWars on the right, it focuses nearly exclusively on real and imagined connections between Trump and Russia. The tone is breathless: full of unnamed intelligence sources, certainty that Trump will soon be imprisoned, and fever dream factual assertions that no reputable media outlet has managed to confirm ..."

5) Q1 2017 Earnings Season
•  The Q1 2017 Earnings Season concluded this week on DomainMondo.com with Alibaba Group $BABA FY17 Results LIVE Webcast May 18.

•  GoDaddy Inc.  (NYSE: GDDY) To Present At The 45th Annual JP Morgan Technology Media And Telecom Conference: Scott Wagner, Chief Operating Officer, and Ray Winborne, Chief Financial Officer, will present at the 45 [th] Annual J.P Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in Boston on Tuesday, May 23, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. EDT. A live audio webcast of the event will be available on GoDaddy's investor relations website at https://investors.godaddy.net. Following the presentation an audio replay will be available on the investor relations website.

•  Rightside Group, Ltd. (NASDAQ: NAME), announced that the Company's CEO, Taryn Naidu, and CFO, Tracy Knox, are scheduled to present at the 18th Annual B. Riley Co. Investor Conference at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, Santa Monica, CA on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 at 2:30 p.m. PDT. Rightside management will also be conducting one-on-one institutional investor meetings at the conference. The presentation will be available through a live audio webcast accessible from the Investors section of Rightside's website at investors.rightside.co. An archived replay of the webcast will also be available for 90 days following the live presentation.

6) Most popular post (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this past week on DomainMondo.com: ICANN New gTLDs' Domain Name Registrations Implode | NR 2017-05-14.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


DISCLAIMER

2017-05-20

Tech Review: Amazon Echo's Free Calls and Messages | TR 2017-05-20

Tech Review (TR 2017-05-20)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech news:

Features • 1) Amazon Echo's Free Calls and Messages (video), 2) WannaCry attack risks remain (video), 3) Apple's New Headquarters, 4) The Pot-Belly of Ignorance, 5) FCC, 6) Facebook's troubles, 7) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Amazon Echo's Free Calls and Messages (video)

Amazon Rolls Out Free Calls And Messages On All Echo Devices: Amazon recently rolled out a new feature where Alexa can make free calls and messages on all Echo devices. CNBC.com put it to the test in this video (May 11, 2017). See also Why Amazon is eating the world | TechCrunch.com.

2) WannaCry attack risks remain (video)

Video above published May 15, 2017, by FT.com: Current data show more than 1.3m computer systems are still vulnerable to the WannaCry ransomware campaign, which has already seriously affected hospitals, disrupted transport networks and immobilised businesses, according to cyber security analysts. See also 'Accidental hero' who halted cyber-attack is English blogger aged 22 | Technology | TheGuardian.com.

3) Apple's New Headquarters
Apple's new headquarters opened in April but it will take six months for 12,000 employees assigned to work there, to move in.

4)  The Pot-Belly of Ignorance – Personal Growth | Medium.com: "Clickbait media is not a nutritious diet. Most people brush this off and say that it doesn’t matter … that it’s just harmless entertainment. But it’s not harmless at all. Worse, it’s like cocaine."

5) FCC: Sprint, Windstream Sue FCC Over Business Internet Deregulation | InsideSources.com  and FCC moves ahead with plan to scrap net neutrality rules: FCC Proposes Ending Utility-Style Regulation of the Internet | Federal Communications Commission | fcc.gov and How One Little Cable Company Exposed Telecom’s Achilles’ Heel | backchannel.com.

6) Facebook's troubles:  Facebook admits its 10th measurement mistake since September | marketingland.com and EU fines Facebook 110 million euros over WhatsApp deal | Reuters.com and Facebook fined 150,000 euros by French data watchdog | Reuters.com.

7) ICYMI Tech News Quick Takes:

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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