News Review | Afilias vs ICANN, IRP UPDATE re: new gTLD .WEB

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-05-19) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Afilias vs ICANN, IRP UPDATE re: new gTLD .WEB,  2) a. Dying Domains - CENTRstats, b. Type-in Traffic? c.Domain Parking?  d..AMAZON, 3) ICYMI: ANTITRUST; 4) Other ICANN News: a. SSAC on WHOIS; b. ICANN GNSO EPDP meeting May 23, 14:00 UTC c. New Reg Data Policy; 5)Most Read.

UPDATE 16 Jun 2019: News Review 2)a. Afilias v. ICANN .WEB IRP Update.

1) Afilias vs ICANN, IRP UPDATE re: new gTLD .WEB 

Afilias Domains No. 3 Limited vs ICANN re: new gTLD .WEB -- Editor's note: another 'document dump' (with redactions) posted by ICANN.org:

Declaration of Procedures Officer 28 February 2019:

• Joint Notice of Errata (26 March 2019)

• ICANN's Request for Corrections to the Declaration of Procedures Officer (26 March 2019)

• Claimant's Response to ICANN's Request for Corrections to the Declaration of Procedures Officer (28 March 2019)

• Procedures Officer's Order on ICANN's Request for Corrections (31 March 2019)

Request for New Procedures Officer  8 March – 9 April 2019:

• Letter from ICANN to ICDR Regarding Procedures Officer's 28 Feb 2019 Declaration and Request for a New Procedures Officer (8 March 2019)

• Letter from Claimant to ICDR in Response to ICANN's 8 March 2019 Letter (14 March 2019)

• Letter from ICANN to ICDR in Response to Claimant's 14 March 2019 Letter (20 March 2019)

• Letter from Claimant to ICDR in Response to ICANN's 20 March 2019 Letter (25 March 2019)

• Letter from ICANN to ICDR in Response to Claimant's 25 March 2019 Letter (26 March 2019)

• Letter from Claimant to ICDR in Response to ICANN's 26 March 2019 Letter (29 March 2019)

• Letter from ICDR Denying ICANN's Request for a New Procedures Officer (9 April 2019)

Amended Request for Independent Review Process 21 March 2019--Editor's note: "DAA" refers to NDC’s Domain Acquisition Agreement with VeriSign. 

Relief requested (p.25):

• Exhibits C-69 to C-81 and Legal Authority C-11

• Expert Report by Jonathan Zittrain (Harvard Law Professor) 

• Exhibits JZ-1 to JZ-49

• Report of George Sadowsky (former ICANN Board Member 2009-2018)

• Exhibits GS-1 to GS-41

• Basis for Redactions

Editor's note: short on time? Read the Amended IRP Request, Zittrain and Sadowsky, skip the rest.

See also:

• News Review | Verisign $VRSN & New gTLD .WEB, Afilias vs ICANN 2018-12-09

• New gTLD .WEB: Afilias vs ICANN, Verisign $VRSN & Nu Dot Co? 2018-03-07

2) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. CENTRstats Global TLD Report Q1/2019: Download here; interactive online version of the report here. Highlights from the report:

• The global TLD market is estimated at around 351 million domains [domain name registrations] across 1486 recorded TLDs. Total gTLD domain name registrations are 194 million of which 71% are under .COM.
• The median domain growth of all TLDs has hit a record low of 3.4% year over year;
• Only .COM is growing among the top 4 gTLDs -- the annual rates of +growth or -decline are as follows:  .com +5.2%, .net -4.5%. .org -1.9%, .info - 24.2%.
• As noted above, 71% of all gTLDs' domain name registrations are under .COM, which is also the world's largest TLD, with a 40% market share among all top-level domains (TLDs = ccTLDs + gTLDs);
• 267 ccTLDs have a combined market share of 45% among all TLDs.
• New gTLDs, "which include well over 1000 TLDs, have a little under 10% of the market and show no immediate sign of increasing that"... "gTLDs will face challenges in the coming months given other registration trends such as a declining create ratio, an increasing delete ratio and a relatively low renewal rate median of 64%."

Editor's note: the data and statistics compiled and reported by CENTR, an association of European ccTLD registries, is vastly superior to anything ever produced by incompetent ICANN.  Unlike ICANN, CENTR properly defines "registrant" [not "Registered Name Holder"]:

Registrant – "The individual or organisation that registers a specific domain name. A registrant holds the right to use that domain name for a specified period of time."

One possible future option for the global internet community is to have the world's ccTLDs run the IANA functions in view of the dysfunction at ICANN and its continuing debasement of the world's gTLDs.

b. Type-in Traffic? Chrome browser users who type characters into the address bar may notice the Google Chrome Browser prioritizes Google's search page over the intended destination (URL or  domain name)--ghacks.net. Example below:

Note: top line above is the user's entry into the Chrome address bar

c. Domain Parking? Multi-Million Dollar Domain Portfolio Owner says “Don’t Bother”--strategicrevenue.com. Editor's note: the Google & Facebook duopoly killed the advertising model.

d. .BRAND new gTLD .AMAZON:
On 15 May 2019,  the ICANN Board took action in accordance with the process established in the ICANN Board resolution adopted 10 March 2019, and in recognition of all input received, directing ICANN org to continue processing the .AMAZON applications toward delegation. The next step in the process is publication of the Public Interest Commitments (PICs), proposed by the the applicant, for a 30-day public comment period, per the established procedures of the New gTLD program. See 17 May 2019 Letter from ICANN CEO Göran Marby to Amb. Alexandra Moreira Lopez re: new gTLD .AMAZON.

3) ICYMI Internet Domain News: Antitrust

ANTITRUST: U.S. Supreme Court dealt Apple major setback in App Store antitrust case--the iPhone users argued that Apple’s 30% commission on sales through the App Store is an unfair use of monopoly power resulting in inflated prices passed on to consumers. Apple unsuccessfully argued that only app developers, not users, should be able to bring such a lawsuit. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the 5-4 majority opinion, joined in by the high court’s liberal justices. See also:

• A New Google Antitrust Probe Could Spell Trouble for Its Auto Domination Plans--fortune.com.
• ISP Antitrust: "Don’t Let California’s Legislature Extend Broadband Monopolies for Comcast and AT&T"--eff.org.

Editor's note: ICANN and its gTLD Registry Operators Next?

4) Other ICANN News

a.  ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC)

SSAC 3 May 2019 letter to ICANN (pdf) excerpt: "WHOIS query statistics provided to ICANN by [gTLD] registry operators as part of their monthly reporting obligations are generally not reliable." (emphasis added).

b. ICANN GNSO EPDP Next Meeting May 23, 14:00 UTC (agenda, etc. at the link).

UPDATE: for the May 23rd meeting, see: Revised Draft Approach (pdf); RySG members feedback on proposed approach; comment of Alan Woods on access vs disclosure; comment of Milton Mueller on collaborating with ICANN Org, and his access/disclosure comment.

See also:

• EPDP May 16 Meeting Notes and Action items, EPDP Phase 2 action items. 

• EPDP Phase 2 Clarifying Legal Questions Table (pdf) and SG/C/SO/AC Input Template (pdf).

EPDP meeting recordings and transcripts (when available) are posted on the GNSO calendar. EPDP Links: wiki, public mail list, GNSO mail list. See last week's News Review for more info, including the ICANN Board's rejection of two EPDP Phase 1 recommendations.

c. ICANN gTLD Registries and Registrars Required to Implement New Interim Registration Data Policy by 20 May 2019--ICANN.org.

5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com: 

#1 News Review | Next ICANN EPDP Phase 2 Meeting Thursday May 16

#2 Tech Review | How Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Each Hit $1 Trillion Valuation

#3 Regulating Big Tech: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google (video)

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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DISCLAIMER

News Review: ICANN57 Hyderabad, India, the Elephant in the Room

Domain Mondo's weekly review of internet domain news [pdf]:

1. Feature: ICANN57 Hyderabad, India, the Elephant in the Room; 2. Other matters at ICANN57 (the GAC Communique); 3. CENTR Report on ICANN57; 4. Trump and ICANN, what's the connection? 5. Most popular posts.

1. Feature • ICANN57 Hyderabad, India: the Elephant in the Room

Banksy art exhibit "Barely Legal" in Los Angeles, 16 September 2006.
By Bit Boy - Flickr: The Elephant in the Room, CC BY 2.0

New gTLD .WEB

The dispute over new gTLD .WEB was the elephant in the room at ICANN57, though it was not on the agenda. Afilias, a losing applicant for .WEB in the ICANN last resort auction, raised the issue with the ICANN Board in Public Forum 1 on Saturday, November 5th, when Afilias Executive Chairman, Jonathan Robinson, spoke and reiterated his blog post in CircleID (see below). Later, at the Public Forum 2 on Tuesday, November 8th, a rebuttal was presented by Verisign's Pat Kane (starts at 51:55 in the video above) and later Verisign's Keith Drazek (starts at 1:41:00) who directed the Board to a responsive post on CircleID.com (see below), and then Afilias's Jonathan Robinson addressed the Board again (starts at 1:44:30). Articles published at CircleID.com:

• .WEB is ICANN's First Test of Accountability by Jonathan Robinson (Afilias)
•  Afilias' Cynical Attempt to Secure a Windfall at Community Expense co-authored by Paul Livesay, Verisign, and Jose Ignacio Rasco, Nu Dot Co, LLC (applicant for .WEB) 

Why Afilias would choose ICANN57 to pursue their objection publicly by lobbying the ICANN Board via ICANN Public Forums, rather than avail itself of the accountability mechanisms inherent in the new gTLD processes, including filing an IRP, is quizzical, if not troubling, particularly since Afilias Executive Chairman Jonathan Robinson, a winner of the ICANN 2016 Leadership Award at ICANN 57, also served as Chair of the ICANN GNSO (Generic Names Supporting Organization) Council for three consecutive terms until 2015, and was Co-Chair of the IANA stewardship transition's CWG-Stewardship. The dot WEB issue is also currently the subject of litigation pending between Ruby Glen (Donuts) and ICANN, and therefore the ICANN Board could not, and did not, respond in any way to the issue during either Public Forum 1 or Public Forum 2. For additional background see: Afilias Challenges New gTLD WEB Auction Results in Letter to ICANN | DomainMondo.com.

2. Other matters at ICANN57 that were on the agenda and discussed:

#ICANN57 GAC, China: welcomes #IANAsteward transition. Welcome establishment of cyberspace with peace, security, openness & cooperation.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 4, 2016

#ICANN57 GAC Chair: the 5 GAC liaisons to CCWG-Accountability WS1 will continue as liaisons to WS2:
Argentina
Brazil
Canada
Denmark
Iran

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 4, 2016

#ICANN57 GAC/@ICANN_GNSO: GAC Chair reaffirms that GAC members really, really want GAC to participate in GNSO PDPs. The “how” is a challenge

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 4, 2016

#ICANN57 GAC/@ccNSO, Iran: it’s very important that @ICANN_GNSO, ccNSO & GAC work together on issue of country/territory names in TLDs.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 6, 2016

#ICANN57 GAC, CCT Review Team: consumers feel half as comfortable giving their sensitive info to a #newgTLD as to a legacy TLD.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 6, 2016

#ICANN57 DNS & Content Regulation, @RobinGross: Chilling Effects website demonstrates how many kinds of bogus claims are made against sites.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 6, 2016

#ICANN57 GAC: GAC members agree that GAC Chair will continue to represent GAC in #ICANN Empowered Community until end of #ICANN59.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 7, 2016

#ICANN57 GAC/Board, @ahemrajani: agrees w France that there needs to be more diverse participation in CCWG-Accountability Workstream 2.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 7, 2016

#ICANN57 @mneylon: barely any demand 4 #newgTLD in developed countries. So why expect developing countries w more pressing problems 2 care?

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 7, 2016

#ICANN57 Public Forum @Jvzuck: #ICANN needs to get into the data business. Get a data scientist & collect data for use in supporting PDPs.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 8, 2016

#ICANN57 GAC Communique: discussing how to refer to .WEB auction concerns mentioned briefly (but not discussed at length) this week.

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 8, 2016

#ICANN57 GAC Communique: 2-letter CCs. GAC feels Board hasn’t followed correct procedure (didn’t respond 2 Helsinki advice b4 resolution)

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 8, 2016

#ICANN57 GAC funding shortfall for 2017. If donors for the missing funds can’t be found, GAC Secretariat activities will need to be reduced pic.twitter.com/ryrAYHKVFP

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) November 9, 2016

• GAC Communique (pdf) embedded below, highlighting added:

3.  CENTR publishes its Report on ICANN57 (pdf) (embed below) highlights include:

• Extended Process Similarity Review Panel (EPSRP) Working Group update
• Country/territory names and codes
• PDPs on the retirement of ccTLDs and the review mechanisms for decisions on the delegation, transfer, revocation and retirement of ccTLDs
• Content Control and DNS
• Auction Proceeds working group
• New gTLDs: Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice (CCT-RT)
• Mitigation of Abuse in gTLDs
• Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP)
• New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP

4. Trump and ICANN, what's the connection? Apart from supporting Ted Cruz's effort to derail the IANA transition, Donald Trump or the Trump Organization reportedly owns in excess of 3000 domain names, more info here and here. In addition, see also From Steaks to Fragrances, the Donald’s Trademarks Trump Them All - Law Blog | WSJ.com: Trump's 300+ trademarks.

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

1. News Review [6Nov] | What Is ICANN? | New ICANN Domain Name Transfer Policy
2. LIVE Breaking Video: Trump Headed to White House, Market Recovers
3. MacroView [7Nov]: It's All About The US Presidential Election on Tuesday
4. Rightside $NAME Q3 2016 Results, LIVE Webcast Nov 8, 4:30 pm ET
5. Trump Win Shocks Political & Media Establishment, Tech & Market Reaction

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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DISCLAIMER

New gTLDs Growth Rate Declining, dot COM Registrations Increasing

Source of above: CENTR (Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries) 

Above data and charts from CENTR publication Domain Wire 2015, 3rd Quarter: 

"Despite the size of the .com zone, it is still growing on average at a higher rate than its peers."--CENTR's DomainWire Global TLD Stat Report 2015/3rd Quarter (pdf) (emphasis added).

"The active zone as of 11/04/2015 contains 120,416,517 .com domain names ..." 
"The active zone as of 11/09/2015 contains 121,126,545 .com domain names ..."
(source: Verisign.com)

710,028 net additions to .COM active zone in just 5 days!--source: Zone Files For Top-Level Domains (TLDs) - Verisign--and as of November 9, 2015, there are a total of 122,034,536 dot COM domain names in the "Domain Name Base"--"The domain name base is the active zone plus the number of domain names that are registered but not configured for use in the respective Top-Level Domain zone file plus the number of domain names that are in a client or server hold status." (source: Verisign.com).

At this rate, it will take only 9 weeks for the dot COM net adds to exceed the cumulative grand total registrations of all new gTLDs combined, as pathetically trumpeted by ICANN's Global Domains Division President:

New gTLD registrations top 9M with nearly 800 gTLDs delegated! #ICANN pic.twitter.com/DBvZzQDmNV

— Akram Atallah (@AkramAtallah) November 4, 2015

(BTW, is Akram getting paid by ICANN or the new gTLDs' Lobbyists to be chief PR flack for the new gTLD registry operators?)

About CENTR: CENTR is the association of European country code top-level domain (ccTLD) registries, such as .de for Germany or .si for Slovenia. CENTR currently counts 52 full and 9 associate members – together, they are responsible for over 80% of all registered country code domain names worldwide. The objectives of CENTR are to promote and participate in the development of high standards and best practices among ccTLD registries. (source: centr.org)
Note: Domain Mondo's new CENTR page contains links and twitter feed of  CENTR: Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries

GLOSSARY OF TERMS used by CENTR:

ccTLD – a Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) is a top level domain used and reserved for a country or dependent territory. Examples include .uk for the United Kingdom or .de for Germany. Each country appoints a manager of its ccTLD and sets the rules for allocating domains. 

gTLD – a Generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) is a top level domain that is open to registrants worldwide in contrast to a Country Code Top Level Domain that are often restricted to registrants located in a particular country. The more popular gTLDs are .com, .org and .net 

ccTLD IDN – an IDN is a domain name that includes characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet (a-z). An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. A ccTLD IDN is an IDN at the top level – eg., the ccTLD IDN for the Russian Federation is .PФ which is the Cyrillic script version of .RF (Russian Federation). 

sTLD – a Sponsored Top Level Domain (sTLD) is another form of a gTLD overseen by ICANN. An example of a sTLD is .cat for the Catalonia region. 

Registrant – The individual or organisation that registers a specific domain name. They hold the right to use that domain name for a specified period of time (often one year however multi-year registrations are increasingly popular). 

Registry – An internet domain name registry receives domain name information into a centralised database and transmits the information in internet zone files on the internet so that domain names can be found by users around the world via the worldwide web and email. (source: centr.org)

Caveat Emptor!

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Multi-Stakeholder Community Losing Faith In ICANN, Beginning of the End?

The Beginning of the End for ICANN?

"Is the ICANN multi-stakeholder community losing faith in ICANN? It might be the case and someone in the cyclopean ICANN structure might have started to perceive it." -- LA Confidential – ICANN 51 meeting | CENTR (Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries) (read more at the link)

John Gilmore saw this coming over twelve years ago:

It’s time for ICANN to go - Salon.com--July 2, 2002 : "....Critics from across the political spectrum have claimed for years that ICANN is secretive, slow, inefficient and, worst of all, firmly in the pocket of special interests. But in recent weeks, the rhetoric has gone up a notch. Suddenly, ICANN is at a crossroads...."If we are lucky, the current ICANN will be scrapped as a failed experiment. Its assets and powers will be handed on to some new experiment, hopefully with transparency, openness, accountability and respect for human rights built in deeply, not only in its corporate structure but in the people who we elect and hire to run it."(John Gilmore)...." (read more at link above)

Recommended reading: CENTR report on ICANN 51: centr-report-icann51-20141017.pdf  Excerpt: "Staffan Jonson provided an update on the ITU plenipotentiary meeting in Busan. Staffan highlighted the draft resolution 102 as having the possibility to affect the naming and addressing community. Sam added that three proposals are problematic. Some proposal changed the resolutions from “ITU being an enabler to discuss naming issues” to “ITU being the platform for governments to discuss naming issues”. For an excellent update on accountability and the different groups that will be dealing with read Jordan Carter's (pdf). Martin Boyle gave a good of the work and plans of the ICG, including timelines (pdf)."

See also: The future health of the internet comes down to ONE simple question--Can ICANN be forced to agree to oversight of its decisions? by Kieren McCarthy, The Register


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