2019-06-30

News Review | ICANN65 Recap, Regulatory Capture at ICANN

graphic "News Review" ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-06-30) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN65 Recap 2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN  Update,  3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: a. Oracle Dyn, b. GoDaddy, c.Tucows, d.Fraudsters, e. Phishing, f. FUCT,  4) ICYMI: a. Google, b. Amazon, c. Privacy, d. Ethiopia, e. Ransomware,  f.DNS Attack, 5) Most Read.
”One of the advantages of leaving MMX is that I am finally done with ICANN ... one of the single worst organizations I have come across on this planet."--Fred Krueger
1) ICANN65 Recap
 ICANN65 | Marrakech
Editor's noteICANN65 was a rather more dreadful ICANN meeting than usual, perhaps due to a confluence of factors demonstrating how incompetent, corrupt, and unfit ICANN is:
Read more below at 2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN?
The truth about Kurt Pritz & ICANN? Read this.
Next EPDP Phase 2 Meeting July 11, 2019Jun 27 meeting notes & action items.
ACTO countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela.
Read last week's News Review, and News Review 2)a. 2019-06-02, and note the .AMAZON applications are "on hold" due to Colombia's Request for Reconsideration which raises the same point I raised in News Review 2)b. 2019-05-26"the .AMAZON applications now violate Specification 13 ..."
GAC Communique: "... V. Follow-up on Previous Advice - The following items reflect matters related to previous consensus advice provided to the Board. 1. .AMAZON applications: The GAC asks the Board to explain in writing whether and why it considers that its decision to proceed with the .AMAZON applications, based on a proposal [17 April 2019] that the eight Amazon countries considered did not address their concerns, complies with GAC Advice ...." See also Video of GAC - ICANN Board .AMAZON discussion (1:07:50 - 1:55:00) at ICANN65.
"This is a distraction from the EPDP Team’s work. We were informed that the TSG was a purely technical exercise. Now, we are being told this model is being taken to the DPAs. This has confirmed the fears this Team had regarding the TSG. It is not ICANN org or the TSG’s job to be developing policies - it is the ICANN community’s job."--EPDP feedback to ICANN Org
Another Reason Why ICANN's New gTLDs Program is Ill-Conceived & Corrupt.
Another Reason Why ICANN's New gTLDs Program is Ill-Conceived & Corrupt.
CCT and RPM implementation complete?--Next Round of new gTLDs in 2028?
Déjà vu: ICANN 52, Universal Acceptance, New gTLD Domain Names "break stuff"

See also  ICANN65 | Marrakesh, Morocco, 24-27 June 2019 Post-Meeting Report (when available).

2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN?
graphic "ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers"
UPDATE 3 July 2019: Letter from ICA to ICANN re: .ORG Renewed Registry Agreement (pdf), ICANN Reply (pdf) 26 July 2019.

'UPDATE 2 July 2019: Mainstream Media 'gets it' re: .ORG - ICANN Captured, Corrupt, Incompetent, Unfit: ICANN Just Threw Away the Multistakeholder Model

UPDATE 1 July 2019: CAPTURE Complete--"On 30 June 2019, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and Public Interest Registry, entered into a renewal Registry Agreement (pdf) [removing all price caps on .ORG domain names] under which Public Interest Registry operates the .org top-level domain."--ICANN.org. See also Addendum to .ORG Registry Agreement (pdf). Same result for .info, .biz and .asia.

See also ICANN Fails the Internet Community, allows an unlimited non profit tax | reviewsignal.com: "... The 96 page contract is identical from when it was proposed to [be] signed. The multi stakeholders and bottom up process that is supposed to govern ICANN policy? Ignored. The public outcry was nearly universally against this change. They weren't listened to at all. Did ICANN's board vote on the proposed contract after being briefed about the public outcry? As of [this] writing, I couldn't find any evidence in ICANN's board activity page. No agenda, no minutes, no resolutions, no briefing material, no preliminary report. Did ICANN staff simply push through this contract without a board vote? ..."
----------------
Original entry: The Case for Regulatory Capture at ICANN--https://reviewsignal.com/blog/2019/06/24/the-case-for-regulatory-capture-at-icann/  by Kevin Ohashi--excerpt (Conclusion) below, with an in-depth examination of the conflicts of interest and corruption rampant within ICANN and its processes, specifically in reference to the .ORG price cap issue, with numerous individuals and organizations cited, including Public Interest Registry (PIR), Internet Society, Verisign, Shane Tews, Steve DelBianco, Jonathan Zuck, Greg Shatan, Judith Hellerstein, Maureen Hilyard, and more.

Conclusion
"The public interest is at best being represented, in majority, by people tied up in potential conflicts of interest in the given matter. At worst, it looks like special interest groups for VeriSign and The Internet Society (ISOC) / Public Interest Registry have captured multiple groups at ICANN and are trying to use it to line their organizations' pockets.

"This appears to be a case study in regulatory capture. Beyond public outcry, there appears to be very little stopping ICANN from simply pushing through these contracts despite overwhelming evidence that the average internet user isn't in favor of these changes. There is virtually no meaningful argument in favor of removing price caps, unless you accept that it would be administratively easier for an organization with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank. There is a bizarre free market argument that falls apart when you realize the cost of lock-ins for using a domain name and creating a web presence on any domain. .ORG is a thirty million dollar subsidy to the Internet Society (via PIR) which outsources, via competitive bid, the actual registry services. And they want the ability to charge more, at the expense of every other non profit. Their interests strongly align with VeriSign, who most likely see .ORG as the last hurdle before getting .COM and .NET to have price caps removed and increase their bottom line even more in their non competitive monopoly contract.

"The only step left before these changes go into effect, that I am aware of, is board approval. I think it probably will go through unless there is a tremendous amount of attention brought to the issue. I'm not only concerned about price caps on .ORG, but structurally the only people who can invest so much time and money participating in ICANN are the organizations which stand to financially gain the most. Who is representing the public interest? Registry groups appear to have a strong voice within the ICANN community. Finally, I also worry about potential conflicts of interest at the board level, which has twenty members. Five ICANN board members were or are connected to ISOC (1,2,3,4,5). One is a former board member of PIR as well. I hope they recognize their responsibility to do what is right for everyone and not the select few registry operators in this instance." (emphasis added)

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
graphic "Names, Domains & Trademarks" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Editor's noteremember all the lies touting new gTLDs used by incompetent ICANN Org management and staff, the unethical ICANN Board of Directors, and the corrupt   "ICANN community" con artists, including their preposterous growth projections?
 Oracle Dyn Domain Registration
https://dyn.com/domain-registration/

"I can't find anything online yet and waiting for the office to open to confirm. Going to be a pain in the ass, we have over 500 domains with them and was trying to add more this morning and rejected ... Oracle Dyn is no longer offering Domain Registration, Standard DNS, and Secondary DNS. Customers with existing service should monitor the email associated with their account for further communication."--source: Reddit.com.

a. Oracle laid off sales and marketing staffs at Dyn (n/k/a Oracle Dyn / Oracle America, Inc.), a formerly independent DNS services provider and domain name registrar it acquired in 2016 for $600 million. Dyn users are getting "EOL" or end-of-life notices for products, and Oracle Dyn's landlord has put Dyn's offices in Manchester, N.H., up for lease, leading some to speculate more layoffs are to come.

b. Should I register a domain with GoDaddy?-- Benny from Pasadena. "Benny wants to create a website and wants to know if he should register a domain with GoDaddy. Leo says NO. He hates GoDaddy and their questionable business practices. And there are plenty of other domain registrars out there. Leo recommends HOVER [Tucows]" --techguylabs.com (emphasis added).

c. Tucows [NASDAQ: TCX]3 Terrible Businesses In 1 | SeekingAlpha.com"Tucows' Domains business is suffering similar stagnation. Industry-wide, growth is abysmal. GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) and VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) have been suffering low single-digit growth, while TCX's own revenue CAGR has been 1% over the last 3 years as it's been losing market share. The business is highly commoditized, with little to differentiate any individual firm other than price. TCX has been boosting prices to inflate growth metrics, but this will simply accelerate churn and share loss." (emphasis and links added).

d. Fraudsters are taking advantage of the increased number of new top level domains to register lookalike domains – for example, the letter "m" can be replaced by the letters "r" and "n" to give the appearance of "m" and it's something which many users won't notice at first glance--zdnet.com.

e. "Bargain basement gTLDs and glyph attacks using IDNs are powering phishing attacks, with fraudulent registrations on the rise. Worse yet, phishing sites are increasingly getting security certificates"--techrepublic.com.

f. FUCTLos Angeles streetwear designer Erik Brunetti, who had been turned down by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when he sought to register the brand name FUCT (domain: fuct.com) as a trademark, won in the U.S. Supreme Court--Supreme Court allows foul language trademarks in F-word case. [Editor's note: not hard to imagine what's coming next, including as trademarks and .BRAND new gTLDs -- ICANN will have completely FUCT UP the internet and global DNS.]

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 
graphic "ICYMI Internet Domain News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
a. Google: analysis of 150B+ browser-based Google searches in Q1 2019 in the U.S. indicated only 41.45% resulted in organic clicks to non-Google sites, 48.96% ended without a click. Editor's note: confirming the Google Search page is now one of the world's major content and information destinations.

b. What Happens After Amazon’s Domination Is Complete? Its Bookstore Offers Clues: The New York Times looks at some egregious cases of counterfeit books sold on Amazon.

c. Privacy: "... we have lost “ambient privacy,” i.e., daily interactions that should stay unremembered ... Confronted with the reality of a monitored world, people make the rational decision to make the best of it. That is not consent."--idlewords.com.

d. How Ethiopia Controls the Internet-- A one-week internet shutdown ends, but the government has more methods to silence online critics.

e. To pay, or not to pay: U.S. cities wrestle with ransomware | reuters.com.

f. Average Cost of a Domain Name System (DNS) Attack $1,070,000--securitymagazine.com.

5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com:
graphic "Domain Mondo" ©2017 DomainMondo.com

-- John Poole, Editor Domain Mondo 

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2019-06-29

Tech Review | US Imports From Vietnam Surge, While China Declines

graphic "Tech Review" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Tech Review (TR 2019-06-29)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news: Features • 1) Trump Effect: US Imports From Vietnam Surge, While China Declines, 2)  Facebook's Libra Could Disrupt the Remittance Industry, 3) Investing YTD & Investor Notes: China, EU, US, & Zombies,  4) ICYMI Tech News: Apple, Flipkart, iQiyi, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and more.

1) Trump Effect: US Imports From Vietnam Surge, While China Declines
And it's not just Vietnam that is a winner from the US-China Trade War:
source: statista.com
Editor's note and caveat: "Exports from China are a murky thing. To dodge tariffs, some of it gets transshipped via other countries, such as Vietnam, before the products are shipped to their destinations, such as the US or the EU ..."--Wolfstreet.com.

Nevertheless, in a note this week, Anne Stevenson-Yang, co-founder of J. Capital Research  (domain: jcapitalresearch.com), wrote that China has already entered its “Japanese phase,” marshalling financial resources exclusively to avoid crisis. China's economy is overleveraged, as demonstrated clearly by the Baoshang situation, and China may now be prey to further problems, perhaps even a perfect storm event.

China is again resorting to such tactics as gross overproduction of steel in a desperate attenpt to keep its economy humming, but even that may fail. In order of tonnage of crude steel, ArcelorMittal is first with 96.4 Mt (in 2006, India’s giant Mittal Steel acquired French giant Arcelor; and is now registered in Luxembourg as a mailbox company run from India) and the EU has had tariffs on Chinese steel for years.

Also note:
  • Vietnam economy (GDP April-June quarter) grows nearly 7% on trade war tailwinds--Manufacturing exodus from China propels one of fastest boosts in region--nikkei.com.
  • India Plans to Offer Incentives to Companies Moving From China--"aim is to become a production base for firms fleeing tariffs."
  • Vietnam's Vingroup in deal with Fujitsu unit, Qualcomm to make 5G phones to be manufactured in Hanoi and sold in the U.S. and Europe in 2020.
  • A Dark Alley in China’s Credit Market Is Getting Rough--bloomberg.com June 24, 2019.
  • As China's Banking System Freezes, SHIBOR Tumbles To Lowest In A Decade--zerohedge.com June 24, 2019.
  • Trump Pressured by Congress to Stay Tough on Huawei--bloomberg.com June 24, 2019.
  • The U.S. is now playing down expectations for progress from a Trump-Xi meeting during the G20 June 28-29, with the U.S. holding its hard line demands for meaningful Chinese economic reforms, according to Bloomberg.

2) Facebook's Libra Could Disrupt the Remittance Industry
source: statista.com
Money transfers a/ka "remittances" to low- and middle-income countries reached a record high of $529 billion in 2018, according to the World Bank and the world's total remittances in 2018 were $689 billion. “Success will mean that a person working abroad has a fast and simple way to send money to family back home,” says Libra’s white paper, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals aim to reduce the transaction costs of migrant remittances to less than 3 percent and eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5 percent by 2030. Libra could lead the way. See alsoHow Libra Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Network Will Work (video).

3) Investing
graphic: "INVESTING"  ©2017 DomainMondo.com
YTD (Year-to-date): NASDAQ Composite +21% | S&P 500 Index +17%  | DJIA +14%
The DJIA closed at 26,599 on Friday, up 73 points, its best first half since 1999 and best June since 1938. It was also the best June for the S&P 500 since 1955.
US: Economy Breaks Record on Trump’s Watch--bloomberg.com“If voters went to the ballot box today, it would be the strongest economy in U.S. election history,” said Justin Waring, an investment strategist at UBS in New York. Unemployment is close to a half-century low and inflation is so subdued that some have pronounced it dead. 
Editor's note: this is neither a Bull Market nor a Bear Market, this is Trump's Market.
Investor Notes: 
China: signs of a slowdown in China’s property market continue --office vacancies in tech-centric Shenzhen rose to more than 23% for the first half of 2019, a decade high, reported Caixin (domain: caixinglobal.com).

EU: "There is no common Fiscal Policy. Thus the Eurozone stagnates, withers and has utterly lost momentum …" The next ECB president? "Best candidate for the ECB job is going to be a secondary issue to how many other jobs France and Germany get."--Bill BlainAnd Brexit? UK looks cheap ... but we still face a few more months of fraxious uncertainty.

US: "... investors, both foreign and domestic, continue to buy Treasuries, no matter the risks associated with them. And the longer they buy Treasuries, the bigger the US debt load becomes, and — ironically — the lower the risk of default."--cfainstitute.org.

Zombies: A report from the Bank for International Settlements found 12% of publicly listed companies around the world can be described as zombie firms:
"The rising number of so-called zombie firms, defined as firms that are unable to cover debt servicing costs from current profits over an extended period, has attracted increasing attention in both academic and policy circles. Using firm-level data on listed firms in 14 advanced economies, we document a ratcheting-up in the prevalence of zombies since the late 1980s. Our analysis suggests that this increase is linked to reduced financial pressure, which in turn seems to reflect in part the effects of lower interest rates. We further find that zombies weigh on economic performance because they are less productive and because their presence lowers investment in and employment at more productive firms."--BIS report, supra.
"Policies created to pull the world out of recession are still in place, but now they are strangling the global economy ... we are in a fat and slow world," wrote Ruchir Sharma in the New York Times, June 15, 2019. What exactly is the problem?
"The trademarks of the fat and slow world: larger corporations, declining competition and fewer start-ups (all of which contribute to wage inequality), ... together undermine and slow economies already hindered by falling growth in the working-age population."--Sharma, supra.

4) ICYMI Tech News:
graphic: "ICYMI Tech News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Jony Ive Is Leaving Apple--but he's not being replaced, and the design team reporting to operations makes no sense--daringfireball.net.

Walmart Inc’s Indian unit Flipkart said late Thursday it plans to replace nearly 40% of its current fleet of delivery vans with electric vehicles (EVs) by March 2020.

iQiyi (domain: iqiyi.com) China’s version of Netflix, reportedly wants to enter overseas markets including North America and Japan after hitting a milestone of 100 million paying subscribers this month, even though the company has been in a cash-burning fight with Tencent’s video site and Alibaba-backed Youku Tudou in China. See also: China's Alibaba aims to double Tmall Global brands with English portal.

Toyota to invest $2 billion in developing electric vehicles in Indonesia.

Goodbye, Chrome? Google’s web browser has become spy software ... why Firefox is better says Washington Post (owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos).

Google Drive vs. Microsoft's OneDrive: choosing the right cloud storage and collaboration service.

Bezos Blowback? Will The AWS JEDI Scandal Upset Amazon's Omnipotence?--zerohedge.com.

The Empty Promise of Data Moats--a16z.comdata goes stale over time…

The European Digital Social Innovation Index by Nesta, published for the first time this year, found London came out on top in a ranking of 60 EU cities on indicators such as funding, skills, infrastructure and diversity. The European Digital Social Innovation Index (EDSII) is the first index ranking how different European cities support digital social innovation (DSI) and tech for good to grow and thrive. London had a significant lead over Amsterdam, which came in second place. Copenhagen, Stockholm and Paris rounded out the top five.

Personal Tech: going 'off the grid' this summer? Iridium GO!--turn any smartphone into a satellite phone--you can get access to phone calls, text, and more, 'off-grid' via the Iridium satellite network.

Parting Thoughts:
  • Tulsi Gabbard is the winner--Drudge instant poll shows Gabbard won the first Democratic debate in landslide.
  • Always "ask if the algorithm, which is a model of the world, is working the way it was designed to work. Models represent the market, and models are not reality. As Alfred Korzybski said, “The map is not the territory.”

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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2019-06-28

G20 June 28-29, Trump and Xi Meeting 'Very, Very Critical' (video)

UPDATE Trump & Xi meeting--US-China Trade Talks Resume--Trump says he will allow sales of US equipment to Huawei where there are no national security issues, for now; US will not impose new tariffs on China, for now:

President Trump Press Conference, June 29, 2019, Osaka, Japan.

Trump and Xi's G-20 meeting is 'very, very critical'

Ric Deverell, Chief Economist and Global Head of Macro Strategy at Macquarie in Sydney, Australia, says, depending on what happens at the G-20 meeting between Trump and Xi, there could be a "double dip" or a sharp pick up in global growth. CNBC International TV video above published Jun 21, 2019. Macquarie Group Limited (domain: macquarie.com) is an Australian multinational independent investment bank and financial services company.

G20 Links: 


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2019-06-27

Jumia $JMIA Beating Amazon $AMZN & Alibaba $BABA In Africa (video)

Why Jumia Is Beating Amazon And Alibaba In Africa

Jumia has been dubbed the "Amazon of Africa" as Africa's largest e-commerce operator, surpassing Amazon and China's Alibaba, and it's the first African tech start-up to go public on the New York Stock Exchange. Investors had high hopes for Jumia when it went public on April 12. Now, Jumia is adjusting to its new international status, and figuring out what that status means for the African continent.

Sacha Poignonnec and Jeremy Hodara, former McKinsey & Company employees, founded the company in 2012. Like Amazon and Alibaba, Jumia allows customers to buy products like cell phones, shoes, and groceries online. Jumia also offers bill paying, food delivery, and cellular data plans.

China Daily, a Chinese state-run news organization, says that Alibaba serviced 4.2 million African customers through its AliExpress services since it entered the continent.

Jumia serviced 4.3 million users and 81,000 active sellers in 14 countries. Amazon is available in 11 countries on the African continent, but neither Amazon nor Alibaba have had the benefit of getting their start in African countries. Jumia, for example, offers unique features like allowing customers to pay for items upon delivery. CNBC video above published Jun 25, 2019.

Jumia is an e-commerce platform for electronics, fashion, and more. It has partnered with more than 81,000 local African companies and individuals and is a direct competitor to Kilimall in Kenya and Konga in Nigeria. Started in 2012 in Lagos, the company currently has a presence across 12 African countries.

Jumia Technologies AG
  • Domain: jumia.com  / group.jumia.com
  • Founded: Nigeria
  • Traded as: NYSE: JMIA
  • Founders: Sacha Poignonnec, Raphael Kofi Afaedor, Tunde Kehinde
  • CEO: Sacha Poignonnec (2012–), Jeremy Hodara (2012–)
  • Parent organization: Rocket Internet


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2019-06-26

Dave Jaggar & The History of ARM Microprocessors (video)

Dave Jaggar: "A History of ARM Microprocessor and it's Rise and Fall"

A "Talks at Google" video published Jun 20, 2019,: Dave Jaggar discusses his inspiring career that led to the ARM architecture which effectively powers the digital world, being the reason that your phone is small and doesn't burn a hole in your pocket. Moderator: Raymond Blum. Transcript (auto-generated, unedited).

In the late 1980’s Acorn, a British one-hit-wonder computer company, faced imminent extinction, with its only assets being 18 months of life support rations and perhaps the worst microprocessor ever designed. What they did right was to hire Dave Jaggar, with the ink still wet on his master's thesis.  Over eight years Dave systematically defined the entire ARM architecture, enabling  it to be a popular embedded controller for the digital revolution, with around 100 billion units shipped.  As ARM’s Head of Architecture Design, Dave authored the ARM Architectural Reference Manual and is the Founding Director of the ARM Austin Design Center. More on ARM architecture.

ARM Holdings is a British multinational semiconductor and software design company, owned by SoftBank Group and its Vision Fund. Processors based on designs licensed from ARM, or designed by licensees of one of the ARM instruction set architectures, are used in all classes of computing devices (including in space). ARM is viewed as the most important chip design infrastructure provider in the world as its microchips go into more than 90% of world’s mobile devices.

On June 22, 2019, SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son said he wants to  re-list ARM Holdings Plc as a publicly traded company within the next five years (the British chipmaker was acquired for $32 billion in 2016):
"I don’t know which market it will be, but ARM will be preparing for IPO within the next five years. Arm management is all excited about it. We are excited"--SoftBank’s founding Chairman and CEO Son, June 22, 2019.
Arm Limited a/k/a Arm Holdings
  • Number of employees: about 6,250 (2018)
  • Owner: SoftBank Group 75%; Vision Fund 25%
  • Headquarters: Cambridge, England, UK
  • Domain: arm.com
Jaggar's book: Arm Architecture Reference Manual


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2019-06-25

Challenges Facing 'Flash Boys' IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama (video)

Challenges Facing 'Flash Boys' IEX CEO Brad Katsuyama

FT.com's Richard Henderson interview of the founder of the rival IEX exchange on why it has failed to capture much more than 3 per cent of the US equity trading market. Michael Lewis’s book 'Flash Boys' depicted Mr Katsuyama as a crusader against a market that had become 'rigged' to benefit high-speed traders. Financial Times (ft.com) video above published Jun 10, 2019.

IEX Stock Exchange is a stock exchange based in the United States. It was founded in 2012 and launched as a national securities exchange in September 2016. On October 24, 2017, IEX received regulatory approval from the SEC to list companies. IEX listed its first public company, Interactive Brokers, on October 5, 2018.
  • Domain: iextrading.com
  • Founded: 2012
  • Owner: IEX Group, Inc.
  • Key people: Brad Katsuyama (CEO); Ronan Ryan (President)


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2019-06-24

Druckenmiller on Macro Analysis of the Market, Trade, and Investing (video)

Stanley Druckenmiller: Macroeconomic Analysis of the Market, Trade and Investing 

Interview and Q&A on June 3, 2019, at the Economic Club of New York, with billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller, Chairman & CEO, Duquesne Family Office LLC. Topics covered include current macroeconomic factors and the impact of changes in interest rates, the US-China trade war, and more. Transcript (auto-generated, unedited)(pdf).

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2019-06-23

News Review | ICANN65 June 24-27: EPDP, AMAZON & ICANN

graphic "News Review" ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-06-23) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN65, Marrakech, Morocco, June 24-27: EPDP, .AMAZON & ICANN, 2) Other ICANN news: New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation Update, 3) a. Voice.com Record Sale Price, b. Website Security & Malware, 4) ICYMI: The Internet Is Changing Africa, 5) Most Read.

1) ICANN65, Marrakech, Morocco, June 24-27
 ICANN65 Marrakech ©2019 DomainMondo.com (graphic)
Date & Time (24-hour clock) in Marrakech:

The ICANN Policy Forum is the second meeting in ICANN's three-meeting annual cycle, duration is four (4) days, and format is focused on SO/AC/SG/C policy work and outreach, and therefore:  no welcome ceremony;  no public forum(s);  no public board meeting.

ICANN65 Schedule (all times local Marrakech), *Schedule Highlights below:

*GAC: New gTLDs Subsequent Procedures Discussion 15:15 - 16:15, Mon, Jun 24 [10:15am EDT in U.S.] "Assess progress of PDP WG deliberations on issues of importance to the GAC. Discuss formation and operation of the GAC Focal Group on Subsequent Rounds of gTLDs."

*GNSO-EPDP Phase 2 Meeting (1 of 2)  8:30 - 15:00, Tue, Jun 25 --Notes & Action Items

*GNSO-EPDP Phase 2 Meeting (2 of 2)  8:30 - 15:00, Thu, Jun 27 --Notes & Action Items

EPDP background: CPH comments on Purposes (pdf), SO/AC/SG/C early input, and last week's News Review 2)b. Links to the EPDP meetings' recordings and transcripts (when available) are posted on the GNSO calendarOther EPDP Links: wikipublic mail list, legal memos & mail listGNSO mail listworksheetsdefinitions. Jun 20 meeting notes / action items.

*GAC: DNS Abuse Mitigation and dot Amazon Discussions 8:30 - 10:15, Tue, Jun 25
.AMAZON gTLD vs. Amazon homeland (graphic)
Editor's note: read Amazon wins ‘.amazon’ domain name, aggravating South American region and undermining digital commons | theconversation.com, excerpt:
"... At its inception, the internet was a great equaliser. It meant large and small businesses could compete with one another on a level playing field. ICANN has been entrusted with administering the internet and protecting it. That means protecting its broader purpose in society. ICANN appears to have forgotten that part of its role. It now charges costs USD$185,000 for a top-level domain name like “.amazon”. It’s not surprising that a company whose 2018 profits were reportedly USD$11.2 billion – for which it paid no federal taxes – was able to purchase the domain before an indigenous community in Brazil. The implications for the future of the internet are troubling. What was a global commons may become an exclusive field where those who have the most can acquire more. Those who have the least meanwhile lose even the right to use the name of their homeland." (emphasis added) [See also the author's letter to ICANN Board (pdf)]
The .AMAZON issues illustrate how ill-conceived and corrupt the entire .BRAND new gTLDs program is--a "brand" a/k/a "trademark" is neither monopoly nor generic, and therefore all ".BRAND gTLDs" fail as "generic top-level domains" (gTLDs), see RFC 1591. The .BRAND new gTLDs program was a way for incompetent, corrupt, unfit ICANN, and some of its contracted parties, i.e., registry service providers, to make money by extorting trademark holders--"apply for a .BRAND new gTLD or ICANN may sell your .BRAND (trademark) gTLD to someone else"-- e.g., see .PING testimony. Most .BRAND gTLDs are primarily a costly expense in trademark defense (instead, ICANN should have given trademark holders a right to block any gTLD application that infringes a legitimate distinctive trademark, and governmental authorities the right to block any gTLD application that is for a recognized or protected geographic term under applicable law). Unsurprisingly, many .BRAND gTLDs have been abandoned and returned to ICANN, while .BRANDs like .GOOGLE (and .AMAZON), in effect, contribute to the splintering of the internet into a few monopolistic platforms, smothering all competitors, undermining the digital commons and the core internet principle that all TLDs are "global public resources"--see U.S. amicus brief in the Weinstein case.
"... ICANN is a corrupt racketeering organization. It's a crime syndicate that advances interests of a few insiders at the expense of the masses and the general good. They have abused their power and their role ..."
The GAC-ICANN Board discussion re: .AMAZON (1:07:50-1:55:00) Wednesday morning via Livestream below:

*Evolving the Effectiveness of ICANN's Multistakeholder Model  17:00 - 18:30, Tue, Jun 25  (Livestream video below)

*Impacts of EPDP Phase 1 Recommendations on Other ICANN Policies and Procedures 15:15 - 16:45, Thu, Jun 27, 2019 (10:15am EDT) slide deck, Livestrean video below:

ICANN Meeting & Media Resources:
  • "A simple way to focus your attention is to listen with the intention of summarizing the other person’s point of view. This stops you from using your mental energy to work out your reply, and helps store the other’s words in your memory as well as identify any gaps in your understanding so you can ask questions to clarify."--fs.blog.

2) Other ICANN News
graphic "ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers"
New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation Update: 
new gTLD .AFRICA (graphic)
DotConnectAfrica Trust, a Mauritius Charitable Trust, Plaintiff, v. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a California Corporation; ZA Central Registry, a South African non-profit company; and DOES 1-50, inclusive; Defendants:
new gTLD .AFRICA litigation in Los Angeles (case style)
May 21, 2019: "On the Court's own motion, the Trial Setting Conference scheduled for 05/21/2019, and NonJury Trial On Phase I (Estoppel) scheduled for 05/21/2019 are continued to 07/11/19  [July 11, 2019] at 10:00 AM in Department 53 at Stanley Mosk Courthouse ..."

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: Website Security & Malware
graphic "Names, Domains & Trademarks" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
a. Largest publicly reported all cash domain name sale in history revealed June 18, 2019, the $30 million sale of Voice.com, more than double the previous record of $13 million paid for Sex.com in 2010.

b. Website Security & Malware: More Than 150,000 Small-Business Websites in the U.S. could be infected with malware at any given moment--in one case, security firm SiteLock (sitelock.com) discovered the hackers had exploited a security hole in a Wordpress plugin--see A Cybersecurity Checklist for the Modern Small BusinessAlso: FBI warns users to be wary of phishing sites abusing HTTPS.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 
graphic "ICYMI Internet Domain News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
The Internet Is Changing Africa: cheap smartphones are flooding Africa, bringing internet access to many for the very first time, but there are problems: gambling, particularly sports betting in Africa's more developed nations, with about 60 million Nigerians aged between 18 and 40 betting daily.  China is investing in infrastructure, but with that comes Huawei equipment, e.g., China built the African Union building in Ethiopia, including installation of tapped networking equipment [the building was built in 2012 by the Chinese, the African Union's IT staff later discovered that the entire content of its servers was being transferred to China.]

WeChat Is Watching: WeChat's data centralization has inextricably linked it to all aspects of daily life in China and made it a cornerstone of the government's social-credit system.

Domain Mondo archive