News Review: ICANN Webinars On DNS Abuse in ICANN's New gTLDs

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2017-09-10) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN Webinars On DNS Abuse in ICANN's New gTLDs, 2) Other ICANN news: a. .WEB Litigation,  b..AFRICA Litigation, c. Quote of the Week: 'no such thing as Conflict of Interest' at ICANN, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: Deadwood Trademark Registrations, 4) ICYMI Internet Domain News, 5) Most Read Posts.

1) ICANN Webinars On DNS Abuse in ICANN's New gTLDs

Webinar: "Statistical Analysis of DNS Abuse in gTLDs" (SADAG) Study | ICANN.org: Webinar dates and how to attend:

Date: 13 September 2017  |  Time: 14:00-15:30 UTC (time convert) 10am EDT (US)
Join via Adobe Connect or Dial-In  Participant Code: 1429847649

Date: 14 Sept 2017  |  Time: 04:00-05:30 UTC (time convert) Sept 13 9pm PDT (US)
Join via Adobe Connect or Dial-In  Participant Code: 1429847649

UPDATE Webinar Video Replay:

• 14:00 UTC -- Web Conference Recording

• 04:00 UTC -- Web Conference Recording

Slides (pdf) embed below:

Statistical Analysis of DNS Abuse in gTLDs (SADAG) Report | ICANN.org Public Comment period closes 19 Sep 2017 23:59 UTC extended to 22 Sep 2017 23:59 UTC 27 Sep 2017 23:59 UTC.

Recordings (in English) of the webinars are also published on New gTLD DNS Abuse Review | newgtlds.icann.org. More info here.

For background: Report: ICANN's New gTLDs As Global DNS Malware | DomainMondo.com

2) Other ICANN news

a. New gTLD .WEB Litigation

Ruby Glen, LLC [Donuts affiliate] v. ICANN | ICANN.org: Plaintiff's Opening Appellate Brief [(pdf) 30 August 2017. See also Plaintiff's Notice of Appeal Regarding Dismissal (pdf) 20 December 2016; Exhibit 1 (pdf); Exhibit 2 (pdf).

"Ruby Glen, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Covered TLD, LLC. Covered TLD, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of Donuts Inc." (Appellant's Opening Brief, p.2, emphasis added)

Editor's note: Afilias, not Ruby Glen (Donuts), was the second-highest bidder (pdf) at the .WEB auction (pdf). So what's the point of the lawsuit and appeal? Reportedly spite. Donuts (Ruby Glen) apparently was betting on getting a private auction for .WEB from which it would have received more than $22 million as a "losing" bidder under ICANN's authorized "casino-like" private auctions. (Note that the biggest, and maybe the only, profits made thus far with new gTLDs, have been in "gambling" within the private auctions and getting the winning "sucker" to bid high.)

Instead, in the case of .WEB, due solely to the insistence of the winning bidder, the ICANN "last resort" auction for .WEB produced net proceeds of over $132 million for beneficent purposes in accordance with the Applicant Guidebook, as well as ICANN's mission and status as a 501(c)(3) non-profit public benefit corporation.

UrbanDictionary.com definition of "donut"--'Top Definition'--"An individual who is extremely stupid. Lacks intelligence and common sense."

b.  New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation

Plaintiff DCA (DotConnectAfrica Trust) Survives ICANN's Motion for Summary Judgment--excerpt of Order (embed further below):

"... any claims that do not lie in fraud or willful injury are barred by the Covenant [Not to Sue]. Those that do, are not [barred][p.5] .... The Court cannot therefore, find as a matter of law that ICANN did not defraud DCA by stating on the one hand it would follow its Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation in processing DCA's application, while on the other hand giving preference to ZACR's application throughout the process. CONCLUSION: For the foregoing reasons ICANN's motion for summary judgment is denied as to the second, third, fourth, fifth, and tenth causes of action. The motion is granted as to the remaining causes of action."[p.10] [Dated Aug 9, 2017](emphasis added)

Order on ICANN's Motion for Summary Judgment (pdf)(embed below)

See also Plaintiff DCA's first amended complaint (pdf) for second, third, fourth, fifth, and tenth causes of action.

c.  Quote of the Week [CCWG-AuctionProceeds] Conflict Of Interest: "This is ICANN, where there is effectively no such thing as conflict of interest so long as you declare."--Evan Leibovitch (emphasis added)

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

•  Deadwood Trademark Registrations: Trademark Office Wants to Make It Easier to Cancel Registrations | TheIndianaLawyer.com: "Trademark practitioners will tell you the U.S. Trademark Office has a deadwood problem ... the Trademark Office’s register is full of registrations for trademarks no longer in use (or in the case of some, never used) and no longer entitled to registration, often referred to as “deadwood registrations.” Fortunately, the Trademark Office has been listening and is developing strategies to help remove deadwood."

•  Facebook Moves to Seize Russian Domain Name facebook.ru | TheMoscowTimes.com: Facebook is demanding Russian payment system Zolotaya Korona hand over the domain name facebook.ru which it has held since 2005, Kommersant.ru reported Monday.

•  Criminal Cybersquatting

SecuringIndustry.com: US man arrested for fake clothing smuggling: "... a "sophisticated scheme" to import around 200 shipping containers of fake brand-name apparel from China into the US. Su Ming Ling (50), a former resident of Queens, New York, was arrested in California ... According to legal documents, Ling allegedly used several aliases between May 2013 and January 2017 to register and create numerous internet domain names and email addresses with the intention that they resembled the internet domain names of real US businesses ..."  See also Luxury Brands Just Got One More Reason to Hate the Internet: Spoofing | Adweek.com: "New study reveals it's a bigger problem than many believed."

•  More Cybersquatting: Gucci, Hermès, Chanel, Givenchy Among Top Brands Being Targeted by Cybersquatters | TheFashionLaw.com.

•   What Is DNS Hijacking? | WIRED.com: "... A hacker who's able to corrupt a DNS lookup anywhere in that chain can send the visitor off in the wrong direction, making the site [website] appear to be offline, or even redirecting users to a website the attacker controls ..."  See also How DNS TXT records can be used against enterprises | searchsecurity.techtarget.com.

•  Chinese Brand Names, Copycats, and Soundalikes | ChinaLawBlog.com

•  Cybercrime: SEC chief says cyber crime risks are substantial, systemic | Reuters.com

•  GoDaddy Expansion: RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Mahaney says the management of the world's largest domain name registrar, GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY), sees the need to penetrate more market to expand past its current 17M customers and 465M small- to mid-sized enterprise clients outside the United States.--SeekingAlpha.com. See also MarketWatch.com Sep 6, 2017: GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) shares fall after 2nd share offering in 4 months.

•  .UK domains left at risk of theft in Enom blunder | theregister.co.uk: Registrar eNom finally plugs web address hijacking vulnerability.

•  New gTLD .CPA: Congressmen concerned about misuse of .CPA top-level domain | AccountingToday.com

•  .AU backlash: Unrest at the Australian Domain Administration shows little sign of abating | afr.com: the .AU domain name regulator "faces an intense member backlash to the new vision, style and plans of newish CEO Cameron Boardman ..."

•  Why microsites aren't always ideal for SEO | SearchEngineLand.com: "... reasons you may want to reconsider splitting your website into multiple microsites. Following are some potential SEO issues that can result from implementing microsites ..." See also Google says we don't need no stinking location modifiers... or do we? | SearchEngineLand.com.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

• We can stop hacking and trolls, but it would ruin the internet | NewScientist.com: "Right now, there’s a kind of internet-governance cold war over the handle [DOI] system. After winning the fight for UN recognition as an international standard, some Arab states, Russia and China want to start rolling it out. On the other side, Western countries are generally against the handle system, happy to stick with plain TCP/IP, whether out of precedent or principle."
• Several Reported Detained at Moscow Internet-freedom Rally | voanews.com

• Thousands Protested in Russia Against Restriction of Freedom of the Internet | Novinite.com

• TheNewDawnLiberia.com: Measuring the Internet for Freedom: "... in Ethiopia, the government blocked more than 15 media websites and the smartphone chat application WhatsApp. Sites promoting freedom of expression and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as those offering censorship-circumvention tools, such as Tor and Psiphon, were also suppressed. All of this was uncovered through the use of software called ooniprobe, which is designed to measure networks and detect Internet censorship ..."
• We can’t take internet freedom for granted | IrishExaminer.com

• Unlikely Allies Join Fight To Protect Free Speech On The Internet: All Tech Considered | NPR.org

• Do We Want Tech Giants as Internet Censors? | Newsmax.com

• Internet Firms Seek to Put Liability Shield in New NAFTA | FoxBusiness.com

• India rules in favor of 'right to privacy' in landmark case | CNN.com

• Melinda Gates: I spent my career in technology. I wasn’t prepared for its effect on my kids. | WashingtonPost.com

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

1. News Review | New gTLDs Hucksters Lose Again: ICANN Says No $$$

2. 2017 Hurricane Season, Satellite Views, Weather App MyRadar, LIVE Feeds

3. News Review | Report: ICANN's New gTLDs As Global DNS Malware

4. Making Chatbots More Human, New York Startup Init.ai (video)

5. Visualizing the Massive $15.7 Trillion Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

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News Review: New gTLD .AFRICA Plaintiff Files for New TRO vs ICANN

Domain Mondo's weekly review of internet domain news:

Feature • New gTLD .AFRICA Plaintiff Files for new TRO vs ICANN: 
UPDATE 3 Feb 2017: On Feb 3, 2016 ICANN updated its litigation page to indicate that on 4 January 2017, Court Order: Plaintiff's Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order is denied; Plaintiff's papers are deemed to be a new preliminary injunction motion; Parties are to submit supplemental briefs; and Preliminary Injunction hearing set for 31 January 2017 (which the Court later moved to 3 February 2017).  No further update as to the Feb 3rd hearing (as of Feb 4, 2017, 00:00 UTC).

Original post:
According to the website for the California State Superior Court, in the case involving new gTLD .AFRICA, Plaintiff DotConnectAfrica Trust (DCA) filed for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on January 4, 2017, to which responses were filed that same date by Defendant ICANN and Intervenor ZA Central Registry (ZACR):

• 01/04/2017 Ex-Parte Application (FOR TRO, ETC; ) Filed by Plaintiff DCA
• 01/04/2017 Declaration (OF SOPHIE BEKELE ESHETE, ETC; ) Filed by Plaintiff DCA
• 01/04/2017 Declaration (OF ETHAN J. BROWN, ETC; ) Filed by Plaintiff DCA
• 01/04/2017 Opposition Document (TO PLFF'S EXPARTE APPL, ETC; ) Filed by Intervenor ZA Central Registry (ZACR)
• 01/04/2017 Declaration (OF DAVID W. KESSELMAN, ETC; ) Filed by Intervenor ZACR
• 01/04/2017 Opposition Document (TO DCA'S EXPARTE APPL, ETC; ) Filed by Defendant ICANN

According to the California State Superior Court website, Plaintiff's application for TRO has been scheduled for a hearing on January 31, 2017, at 08:30 A.M. in department 53 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

As previously reported in an update to New gTLD AFRICA Redux: DotConnectAfrica Trust v. ICANN and ZACR | DomainMondo.com, the  California State Superior Court denied Plaintiff DCA's motion for preliminary injunction in an Order dated December 22, 2016. As of 11pm UTC, January 7, 2017, ICANN has not published on its litigation web page any of the TRO filings referenced above.

Other Internet Domain News:

•   Another flawed ICANN policy is about to take effect which could adversely impact domain name registrants--Putting your rights on the clock: The IRP supplementary rules | InternetGovernance.org: "... Each IOT [Implementation Oversight Team] member must bear responsibility ... ICANN staff also played a role in the procedural fail. ... The IRP has to protect registrants, not just contracted parties ... Send public comments to this email address: comments-irp-supp-procedures-28nov16 @ icann.org. The deadline is 25 January, 2016." More information at the link above, and here (open comment period) and here (pdf).

•  ICYMI: LogRhythm.com predicts the internet will shut down for 24 hours in 2017 | BusinessInsider.com: "If you can prove that you can take down massive sites and a large chunk of the US internet for a few hours, a 24-hour outage seems pretty easy to do."

•  Riding the ICANN gravy train:  In 2016, ICANN spent $2.5 million for a select number of people to attend 3 meetings. Details here and here.

• ICANN and NTIA on January 6, 2017, formally terminated (pdf) the Affirmation of Commitments entered into by the U.S. government and ICANN on September 30, 2009.

•  Jamie Hedlund to Take on Senior Contractual Compliance and Consumer Safeguards Role at ICANN | ICANN.org: "Duncan Burns, SVP, Global Communications, will take on Hedlund's former responsibilities overseeing U.S. government relations and management of ICANN's Washington D.C. office. As part of this change, Hedlund will become a member of the Executive Team and report to [ICANN President & CEO] Göran Marby."

•  Adding up the costs of ICANN's new gTLDs: It's Official: 2016 Was a Record Year for Domain Name Disputes | circleid.com by IP attorney Doug Isenberg.

• The Public Interest and ICANN--CCWG-ACCT WS2 Jurisdiction Subgroup Mail List--"Lets take and decide issues on merit, of public interest, of justice, equality, democracy, and the such. Let issues not get decided by which parties have the most resources, including time, to invest in these so-called 'open processes' . Obviously, the most well-resourced will have the most resources and time. Governance and policy spaces are meant more to side with those who otherwise have less means and resources, not to augment the power of who already are better off in this matter. That is the tragedy of open multistakeholder processes that are not framed within democratic principles and concepts. Public interest is not the sum of private interests that can assemble, and elbow out others, on a designated space/table, it is meant to be  a different, much higher, thing."

•  Warning Domain Name Registrants: Malware Purveyor Serving Up Ransomware Via Bogus ICANN Blacklist Removal Emails | Techdirt.com.

•  ICANN new gTLDs second round: it may be too late to "get it right this time" but some think not:

"... I’d like to think that a second time round, in whatever form the second time takes, we’re going to do a better job than the first time. We learned an awful lot in the first time round. There were a whole host of changes that were introduced really only after we saw what the applications were like. Now presumably we have an idea, you know, the balance may change but we’re not likely to see absolutely brand new types of applications. So I’m sure we’re still going to have some corrections to make along the way because we will be - almost certainly will be introducing a lot of changes, and some of those may have an issue with them as we go forward. I think we’re going to do a lot better than the last time ..."--Alan Greenberg, ALAC member, New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Working Group, Monday, 19 December 2016 transcript (pdf).

•  Internet Freedom | Free Speech Online:

• Turkey--′Worst country′ for media freedom in 2016 | DW.COM | 27.12.2016--"... According to the Turkish Journalists' Association, 148 journalists are currently imprisoned and many media outlets have been shut down ..."
• Africa--Govts Adopt Internet Shutdowns to Quell Crises in 2016 | allAfrica.com--"Governments in Africa are becoming increasingly intolerant to freedom of speech, with Internet shutdowns now a common occurrence in many countries, a new report shows."
• More African governments blocked the internet to silence dissent in 2016 | Quartz | qz.com: "For years, the internet has had a transformative effect on the economic and financial progress of the African continent. The availability of mobile broadband and fiber optic cable connections encouraged the growth of innovative industries ranging from e-commerce to education, health, insurance and beyond. But in 2016, the reverse became the reality, as government-directed internet outages became the rule rather than the exception."
• UK--This threat to Press freedom is so wrong ... | dailymail.co.uk--"... Under Section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act [UK], rushed into law after the Leveson Inquiry, any relevant newspapers or news websites - from MailOnline to The Guardian, Huffington Post and Buzzfeed - which refuse to join a regulator approved under the Government's Royal Charter for the Press, and are sued for libel, will be forced to pay the other side's legal costs — even if they win ..."

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

1. TechReview | Tech Story of the Year: Tay, Microsoft's AI Chatterbot*
2. News Review: ICANN Busy Proving IANA Transition Was A Terrible Mistake
3. Predictions for 2017: Amazon $AMZN, Google $GOOG, Facebook $FB
4. Scott Galloway: 2016 Digital Winners & Losers, 2017 Predictions (video)
5. MacroView | Market Outlook for 2017: Trump Effect, Optimism, Risks
6. TechReview | 2017 Will Be The Year Of Amazon $AMZN (video)

*"Tay" post #1 for two weeks in a row!

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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ICANN and Dot AFRICA: Dismissed Party ZACR Files Notice of Appeal

UPDATE July 18: AFRICA Appeals Consolidated--"the parties’ joint motion (Docket Entry No. 5) to consolidate Nos.16-55693 and 16-55894 and to amend the briefing schedule is granted. The opening brief in No. 16-55693 has been filed. The opening brief in No. 16-55694 is due July 22, 2016. The answering brief is due August 19, 2016. The optional reply brief is due September 9, 2016"--Order embedded below:

UPDATE June 29: ICANN filed its opening brief:

The sad saga of ICANN's bungling of the application process for new gTLD (new generic top-level domain) .AFRICA has added another chapter as dismissed party ZA Central Registry (ZACR) has filed a notice of appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, from Orders entered by the Hon. R. Gary Klausner, U.S. District Court Judge, granting DotConnectAfrica Trust's (DCA) Motion for Preliminary Injunction (enjoining ICANN from delegating .AFRICA) and denying ICANN's motion for reconsideration of the Preliminary Injunction Order. The unusual twist in this case is that the District Court had dismissed ZACR as a Defendant "thereby extinguishing ZACR's role a[s] party to the action" (see  Order of June 20 included as Exhibit 2 of the notice of appeal embedded in full below), prior to denying ICANN's reconsideration motion.

ICANN's appellant brief in its interlocutory appeal is due June 29, 2016, and the U.S. District Court has assigned the case to a 10-12 day jury trial beginning February 28, 2017.

UPDATE June 28, 2016: ICANN has amended its notice of appeal and also appeals the U.S. District Court’s Order entered on June 20, 2016 (ECF No. 113), attached to ICANN's Amended Notice of Appeal (last embed below), which denied ICANN's motion for reconsideration of the Court's Order granting the preliminary injunction.

See also on Domain Mondo:

• New gTLD AFRICA Litigation: Defendant ZACR Dismissed as a Party 16 June 2016
• News Review [May 15]: IANA, ICANN, New gTLDs .AFRICA, .AMAZON, .BLOG: ".AFRICA UPDATE: "ICANN has appealed the U.S. District Court's Order granting a Preliminary Injunction in the DCA (DotConnectAfrica) Trust vs ICANN and ZACR litigation over new gTLD.AFRICA ..."
• News Review [Apr 17]: dotAFRICA, Public Interest, Judge Holds ICANN Accountable
• Will ICANN File An Interlocutory Appeal in DCA Trust gTLD AFRICA Case? 13 April 2016
• New gTLD AFRICA: DotConnectAfrica Trust vs ICANN, End of the Line? 21 March 2016
• US Federal Court Enjoins ICANN From Delegating New gTLD dot AFRICA 5 March 2016
• DCA Trust IRP Decision: ICANN Failed the Global Internet Community 12 July 2015

ZACR's Notice of Appeal with Exhibits 1 & 2 (highlighting added):


ICANN's Amended Notice of Appeal with Exhibits (highlighting added):


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