Tucows $TCX Q3 2018 Earnings, Webcast, How To Submit Questions

$TCX

Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ: TCX, TSX: TC) reported its third quarter (Q3) 2018 financial results via news release on Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 5:05 p.m. ET: News Release and Financial Statement (pdf). See also the 10-Q (pdf).

Management’s pre-recorded remarks (webcast) discussing the quarter and outlook for the Company are posted on the Tucows web site at http://www.tucows.com/investors/financials. [Editor's note: the management remarks are mostly about Ting.] See CEO Elliot Noss on Q3 2018 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com.

In lieu of a live question and answer period, for the next five days, until Monday November 12, 2018, shareholders, analysts and prospective investors can submit questions to Tucows’ management via ir@tucows.com. 

Management will post responses to questions of general interest to the Company’s web site at http://www.tucows.com/investors/financials/ on Friday, November 16 at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET. All questions will receive a response, however, questions of a more specific may be responded to directly.

Tucows Inc. is a publicly traded internet services (eNom, OpenSRS, Hover) and telecommunications (Ting.com) company, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the second-largest domain name registrar worldwide. Its brands include Hover.com, eNom.com, and OpenSRS.com, a platform for domain resellers, as well as Ting.com, a wireless MVNO and fiber ISP.

Principal domain: tucows.com
Investor Relations: tucows.com/investors/

See also Tucows Statement, May 28, 2018, on the ICANN Legal Action filed against Tucows affiliate EPAG Domainservices, GmbH. ICANN was subsequently adjudicated to be the "losing party" in that proceeding filed in Germany, involving application of the GDPR, including at the final appellate level.

Tips for cleaning up WHOIS data | EPAG.de excerpts:

To prevent personal data in an organization contact from being displayed in a public WHOIS, we recommend taking the following measures, where allowed by the relevant registry:

• Use roles rather than personal names for Organization contact details. For example, instead of writing “John Doe” for the name ... use the role “Host Master” [or "Domain Administrator"].
• Use role email addresses rather than personal email addresses. For example, instead of using “john.doe@company.com” for the email address, use a generic company email address like “info@company.com”.
• Where possible, clean up existing contact data to remove personal data from any organization contacts.
• Remind domain registrants of their obligation to provide you with correct data and to keep that data up to date. This will ensure that the registrant is able to manage their consent preferences using the contact email provided with the domain order.
• These tips give registrants the added advantage that their organization is not reliant on a particular person (for example during a transfer), should that person be out of the office or no longer employed by the company.

source: https://www.epag.de/en/tips-for-cleaning-up-whois-data/

For an example of the above see https://www.whois.com/whois/microsoft.com.

Additional resources:

• Domain Security, Part 1: Do You Know Who’s in Your WHOIS?

• Domain Security, Part 2: You’re Only as Secure as Your Provider

• Domain Security, Part 3: Preventing Unauthorized Access and Modifications

• GDPR Resources: Basics & best practices

• How will the GDPR impact Whois?

• RFC 1591 and RFC 1032

This is not another "we've updated our privacy policy" message.
We'd rather collect too little as opposed to too much personal data. @ICANN disagrees with us on some points in #GDPR. They've filed action against EPAG, a Tucows Registrar. Our statement: https://t.co/iJiopMePWQ

— Tucows (@tucows) May 29, 2018

We've moved to a gated Whois system to extend the benefits of #GDPR to all registrants on our platform. Here's what you should know about our new Tiered Access Directory: https://t.co/wy9IaPtqxS #DomainReseller #WebHosting #TLD

— OpenSRS (@OpenSRS) June 19, 2018

Are you wondering how to launch your new website? @boldgrid and @inmotionhosting have the checklist to get you ready to go! What are you waiting for? 🚀https://t.co/Ss5cMXPuig

— Hover (@hover) July 9, 2018

Curious about our gated Whois? Understand how our new Tiered Access Directory works and why it's the best solution for our resellers and registrants. #GDPR #DomainReseller

— enom (@enom) June 19, 2018

Tweets by tingFTW

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News Review: GDPR, ICANN EPDP Dysfunction, & WHOIS Misuse

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-09-09) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) GDPR, ICANN EPDP Dysfunction, & WHOIS Misuse,  2)a. ICANN v. EPAG, b. SSR2, c. RDAP, and more, 3) a. Donuts, Domains, Fadi Chehade, Abry Partners & The Greater Fool Theory, b. Dumb Domainers, c.ICANN Survey, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read & Top Geolocations.

1) GDPR, ICANN EPDP Dysfunction, & WHOIS Misuse

Definition of "train wreck" -- a chaotic or disastrous situation that holds a peculiar fascination for observers.

ICANN EPDP Team Meetings coming up: Tuesday Sep 11, and Thursday Sep 13, 13:00 UTC, 9am EDT. Non-members of the EPDP Team can follow the EPDP meetings via Adobe Connect: https://participate.icann.org/gnso-epdp-observers, or audio cast via browser or application.

Editor's note: links to the transcripts, Adobe Connect recordings, and MP3 audio, will be posted in UPDATES below (as made available by ICANN). Note that links to EPDP meetings' transcripts are usually posted on the GNSO calendar within 24 hours). See also EPDP Team wiki, mail list, Temp Spec, EPDP Charter (pdf), GNSO's EPDP page, & weekly updates to GNSO Council.

Thursday Sep 13, 2018, EPDP Team Meeting (wiki page); Agenda in slides embed below:

Notes:
a. 9/13 Meeting transcript (pdf), Chat transcript (pdf) embed below, Adobe Recording, and MP3.

b. 9/13 Notes & Action items (embed below), Action Items; re: agenda item 4 (Introduction to Appendix A), see DSI for Appendix A here; The data matrix for item 3 can be found here (under background documents).

c. EDPB Advice (pdf)(embed below):

Tuesday Sep 11, 2018, EPDP Team Meeting (agenda in meeting slides embed below).

Notes:
a. 9/11 Meeting Transcript (pdf)  Adobe Recording, MP3, Chat transcript (pdf) embed below; notes and action items;
b. 4.4. purpose overview by Thomas Rickert here and attachment; Google Sheet EPDP Team input (last 3 columns) by 19.00 UTC on Friday 14 September to allow the leadership team to work with Thomas and Benedict to prepare the subsequent discussion on this overview.

9/11 Chat transcript (highlighting added):

c. GDPR Training--Ayden Férdeline (NCSG) Sep 10: "This training is hopelessly inadequate and intended to ‘check a box’ rather than impart in EPDP members any new knowledge. The course is intended to take 45 minutes to complete and, from what I understand, has a retail price of £20 per user. The course offers no training on the powers of supervisory authorities, on how to perform a data protection impact assessment, or on privacy by design, among other obvious deficiencies in its curriculum. I was under the impression we were looking for a course that would take at least three hours to complete, if not one day. We cannot be taught too much in one day, but we could be taught a lot more than can be learned in this 45 minute course (which can be completed a lot quicker than that actually) intended for front-line employees. This is so disappointing and really does us a great disservice. This is not the training we needed, and it should have been obvious from the price alone it was not intended to be used by those who would be tasked with designing a GDPR-compliant policy or system." 
Chris Disspain: "Do you have an example of the sort of training to which your refer?"
Ayden Férdeline: "Yes, I would be looking to the catalogue of courses offered by the [International Association of Privacy Professionals](https://iapp.org). They have a number that I think would be sufficient for our purposes (some that looked suitable to me were those at the “train”, “GDPR ready”, “engage”, and “expertise” levels, but NOT “awareness”). We need to know how to implement the GDPR in a way that meets regulatory requirements while minimising risk to ICANN and the contracted parties, which is exactly what the 45-minute £20 course ICANN has found us does not help with (and was never intended by the provider to do)."
d. Triage Report 

Triage Report to be submitted to the GNSO Council Sep 11, 2018, excerpt: "The objective of this Triage Report is to document the EPDP’s level of agreement on specific provisions within the current Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data .... essentially no section of the Temporary Specification will be adopted without modifications. " (emphasis added)

* * * * * * *

Highlights from last week's ICANN EPDP Team meetings--excerpts from EPDP meeting Sep 6, 2018, transcript (pdf), references are to the transcript page number:

Kurt Pritz (the inept EPDP Chair appointed by the GNSO Council): "the triage report, you know, to me does not constrain us in any way in our future deliberations. I’m going to go ahead and [send] this [the triage report] to the GNSO Council ..." transcript, p. 4.

Kurt Pritz: "Can somebody from staff answer that? I think I know the answer but I’ve screwed up before." p. 5.

Alan Greenberg (ALAC): "I must admit I’m somewhat confused. Milton had suggested that we put together, you know, drafting teams, I think anyway, I think what he said is to not have competing individual positions suggested. I’ve heard that we have assigned or asked specific people to try redrafting. I haven't heard about any actual multi-group, multi-person teams being put together to try to find a consensus drafting which Amr sort of implied when in his intervention, and we are clearly getting competing proposals here. So I’d like some clarity on how are we supposed to move forward? We seem to be doing – going in three different directions at once and I’m not sure that’s really helpful." p. 12.

Mark Svancarek (BC): "Sorry for piling on with complaints about us having to review the last  document submitted last night as the first document to review this morning, but I just have to pile on. I really think this conversation has been pretty ineffective ..." p. 32.

Alan Greenberg (ALAC): "I have to say I find this whole thing surreal. We’re discussing this as if these are definitive changes and should we accept them or not but James has said these were largely drafted from registrar point of view ignoring other ICANN needs, so I’m not quite sure why we're doing this but I’ll continue ..." p. 36.

Thomas Rickert (ISPCP): "So I’m struggling with this entire discussion and I think that if we ask whether this group – what people think we're trying to achieve here we will probably get as many answers as we have participants on the call ..." p. 39.

More info and updates on last week's meetings in last week's News Review. Note also:

• The EPDP Team will finally get its requested GDPR training;

• Early Input from ICANN AC/SOs to EPDP Team;
• Comment on the 20 August 2018 “Draft Framework for a Possible Unified Access Model" from RySG & RrSG (pdf);
• 4 September 2018 Letter from ICANN CEO Göran Marby to Tucows CEO Elliot Noss (pdf) re: ICANN Registration Data Privacy, in reply to 7 June 2018 Letter from Elliot Noss to Göran Marby (pdf), embed below:

• Worth Reading Again: September 25, 2017 Memo (pdf) to ICANN's failed RDS WG re: Final responses to EU data protection questions re gTLD Registration Directory data.
•  Letter from ICANN CEO Göran Marby to GAC Chair Manal Ismail 04 Sep 2018 - Request for Guidance on GDPR and Providing Access to Non-Public WHOIS Data marby-to-ismail-04sep18-en.pdf [pdf, 305 KB].
•  Letter from Independent Compliance Working Party to ICANN (Jamie Hedlund), et al. 06 Sep 2018, re: ICWP Priorities, icwp-to-hedlund-et-al-06sep18-en.pdf [pdf, 132 KB].

• WHOIS Misuse Study:

WHOIS Misuse of Registrants' Data--from the EPDP mail list (emphasis and links added): "Piscatello’s blog post is almost pure fiction. For example, he claims that there’s no evidence that Whois affects spam, when systematic research commissioned by ICANN itself concluded: “The main finding of the descriptive study is that there is a statistically significant occurrence of WHOIS misuse affecting Registrants’ email addresses, postal addresses, and phone numbers, published in WHOIS when registering domains in these gTLDs. Overall, we find that 44% of Registrants experience one or more of these types of WHOIS misuse. Other types of WHOIS misuse are reported, but at a smaller, non-significant rate. Among those, a handful of reported cases appear to be highly elaborate attempts to achieve high attack impact.”"

Editor's note: the draft study (pdf) and final study (pdf) referenced above. Comments to the final WHOIS Misuse Study commissioned by ICANN are here. Of note are the comments submitted by the At-Large Advisory Committee (pdf): "The ALAC will support any useful measure to abate misuse," and the Noncommercial Users Constituency (pdf): "measures must now be taken to protect Registrants."  Excerpt below:

See also: https://whois.icann.org/en/file/misuse-study-final-13mar14-en.

2) Other ICANN News

a. ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH--English Translation of ICANN's Response to EPAG's Comment on ICANN's Plea of Remonstrance  [PDF, 178 KB]. Original filing in German here (personal identifiable information was redacted by ICANN). More case documents here.

b. SSR2: The ICANN Security, Stability, and Resiliency of the Domain Name System Review Team (SSR2) finally re-started its work, holding an in-person meeting 22-23 Aug 2018, after being paused by the ICANN Board of Directors in October 2017. Read more here.

c. RDAP: Moving Forward with RDAP | ICANN.org (RDAP is an eventual replacement for WHOIS protocol).

d. KSK Rollover: Preparing for the KSK Rollover | verisign.com: the KSK rollover is currently scheduled for 11 Oct 2018, subject to final approval by the ICANN Board of Directors.

e. ICANN Board Genval Workshop: September 14-16, the ICANN Board will be convening in Genval, Belgium, a town just south of Brussels, to hold its fifth workshop of calendar 2018. More here. Also, the ICANN Board will be holding a public Board meeting in Genval, Belgium: 16 Sep 2018, 08:00 – 09:00 UTC / 4am-5am EDT (US), in English only, via listen-only Adobe Connect: https://participate.icann.org/opencommunity/
Participant Code: 5542211258; Additional access numbers here.

f. ICANN Global Domains Division (GDD) General Operations Handbook for Registrars in Chinese 面还提供其他语种：2018年8月21日registrar-handbook-21aug18-zh.pdf [pdf, 409 KB]

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Donuts, Domains, Fadi Chehade, Abry Partners & The Greater Fool Theory

FLASHBACK--US Senator Ted Cruz: ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade Is Misleading the United States Senate--"Chehade Should Recuse Himself From All ICANN Decisions That Could Impact The Chinese Government"--February 23, 2016.

Definition of "Donut" (American English) In informal speech the phrase is used to highlight stupidity, e.g., "You Donut"

1. An individual who is extremely stupid. Lacks intelligence and common sense.
2. An idiot. A mild insult often used in the work places of southern England.
3. Somebody who does something incredibly stupid. An idiot.

Editor's Analysis and Opinion: Fadi Strikes (Out) Again! The largest new gTLDs registry operator (more than 200 new gTLDs), Donuts Inc., announced Sep 5, 2018, that it had entered into an agreement "to be acquired by Abry Partners," a private equity firm in which former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade is now a partner. Terms and timing of the agreement were not disclosed, but Abry's investment is reportedly only for a majority stake in privately held Donuts, and does not provide any additional cash for the company, instead, it provides a way for original investors in Donuts to exit.

While still ICANN CEO, Chehade announced in May, 2015, he would leave ICANN in March 2016, long before his contract ended on June 30, 2017, and did not disclose his reasons for serving as ICANN CEO for only 3½ years, instead of his full term. In August, 2015, he announced that after leaving ICANN he would be a "Senior Advisor on Digital Strategy" at Boston-based Abry Partners, adding, "I expect to add other roles to my portfolio and will update you all as appropriate." Later in December 2015, Chehade announced from Wuzhen, China, that he would serve, after he left ICANN, as Co-Chair of an advisory committee to the government of China's World Internet Conference (WIC), described by Professor Milton Mueller as "[l]ike almost everything in China, the WIC is unabashedly state-driven ... a vehicle for the Chinese [Communist] Party-state’s policy agenda ..." 

As ICANN CEO, Chehade's pet project was the NetMundial Initiative, which "crashed and burned" when ICANN and the World Economic Forum stopped funding it in 2016. In February, 2015, at a DNA meeting during ICANN52, Chehade stated, "I need to understand it [the domain name industry] more and spend more time in it, no question."  While at ICANN, Chehade was known for hiring and promoting his cronies to management positions within ICANN. Chehade promoted, in June, 2013, his childhood friend and former co-worker, Akram Atallah, to the then second-highest paid position at ICANN, President of the Global Domains Division (GDD), which is now the highest paid position at ICANN at  $745,615.00 per the most recently available IRS 990 (pdf), p.56 of 81.

Perhaps it was for some or all of these reasons, that Abry Partners decided to venture into an industry where it has no experience--the domain name industry--despite what Abry says on its website, abry.com: "Abry invests in private equity, preferred stock and debt securities within our sectors of expertise."

The Abry-Donuts deal may be both getting out while the getting's good (for the original investors in Donuts) and an example of the greater fool theory. If so, it may be just another version of what is described in the article at the next link below, only at the TLD (top-level domain) level.

b. Domaining: The “Dumb Domainer” Industry and How it Operates | ricksblog.com.

c. Trademarks & Domain Names: Participate Now in the Sunrise and Trademark Claims Survey | ICANN.org. [Editor's note: I've already completed the survey, and I encourage all registrants to complete the survey which takes less than 15 minutes.]

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

a. Why the Whole World Should Be Up in Arms About the EU's Looming Internet Catastrophe--eff.org:

"The link tax means that only the largest, best-funded companies will be able to offer a public space where the news can be discussed and debated. The censorship machines are a gift to every petty censor and troll (just claim copyright in an embarrassing recording and watch as it disappears from the Internet!), and will add hundreds of millions to the cost of operating an online platform, guaranteeing that Big Tech's biggest winners will never face serious competition and will rule the Internet forever."

b. California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 becomes effective on January 1, 2020. It includes some aspects of the EU’s General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), such as the right to be forgotten, "but it raises the ante"--jdsupra.com.

c. New GDPR-Inspired Data Laws In Brazil And India--jdsupra.com.

d. Cyber Norms: A Farewell to Norms |  internetgovernance.org: "Exhibit A: Russian 'meddling'--The current hysteria about Russian influence operations in the U.S. is deserving of a Sherlock Holmesian title: “Russian Influence Operations and the Curious Case of the Inverted Norm."

e. Facebook: How Duterte Used Facebook To Fuel the Philippine Drug War | buzzfeednews.com: due to "heavy subsidies that keep Facebook free to use on mobile phones, Facebook has completely saturated the country. And because using other data... is precious and expensive, for most Filipinos the only way online is through Facebook ..."

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

1. News Review: 1) ICANN EPDP Struggles; 2) New gTLD .WEB Updates

2. Tech Review | Tesla $TSLA And Elon Musk's Wild August Ride (video)

3. Tech Review: 1) Apple $AAPL 9/12 Event; 2) Facebook $FB HQ Expansion

DomainMondo.com's readers by geolocation--top 3 countries--results the same for week and month:

1. United States of America (US)
2. People's Republic of China (CN)
3. Federal Republic of Germany (DE)

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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News Review: 1) ICANN EPDP & GDPR, 2) ICANN vs EPAG (Again)

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-08-19) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) ICANN EPDP & GDPR re WHOIS Data, 2)a. ICANN vs EPAG (Again), b. ICANN GDPR Update Call, c. Delaware Secretary of State, d. Registry Operators Handbook, e. .New gTLD .PHARMACY, 3) a. GoDaddy $GDDY, b. Tucows $TCX, c.Verisign $VRSN, Domain Brief Q2 2018, 4) ICYMI: When China Rules The Web, Censorship & InfoWars,  5) Most Read.

UPDATE Aug 20, 2018: Possible Unified Access Model Published for Community Input | ICANN.org

Draft Framework for a Possible Unified Access Model for Continued Access to Full WHOIS Data – For Discussion [PDF, 521 KB]

"This proposal is a working draft intended to facilitate further discussions with the EDPB [European Data Protection Board] and the ICANN community. It outlines basic parameters based on ICANN org's current understanding of the GDPR, so that we can continue to seek input from the EDPB."--ICANN CEO Goran Marby (more here).

Original Post (with additional UPDATES):
1) ICANN EPDP & GDPR re WHOIS Data

ICANN EPDP Team Meetings this week: Tuesday Aug 21, and Thursday Aug 23, 13:00 UTC, 9am EDT. Non-members of the EPDP Team can now follow the EPDP meetings via Adobe Connect: https://participate.icann.org/gnso-epdp-observers, or audio cast via browser or application (e.g., iTunes).

Each EPDP meeting's documents, including agenda, slides and chat transcript, as well as links to the MP3 audio and Adobe Connect recording, when available, will be posted on each meeting's respective wiki page (click on each respective date above). Links to EPDP meeting transcripts will be on the GNSO calendar approximately 12 hours after each meeting ends. Other useful EPDP links: EPDP Team wiki, mail list, and Temporary Specification.

Thursday, 23 August 2018 EPDP Meeting #7: Chat transcript (pdf); Recordings: Mp3 and Adobe Connect; Meeting transcript (pdf); High-level notes and action items here.
Agenda 

1. Roll Call & SOI Updates;
2. Welcome and Updates from EPDP Team Chair;
3. Preliminary input on Triage Report (deadline for input: Friday, 24 August at 19:00 UTC);
4. Proposed approach for moving forward, including review of proposed project plan;
5. Commence deliberations and review of Appendix D – Uniform Rapid Suspension (pdf) (a/k/a "scorecard");
6. Commence deliberations and review of Appendix E – Uniform Domain Name Resolution Dispute Policy (pdf);
7. If time allows, commence deliberations and review of Appendix G: Supplemental Procedures to the Transfer Policy - AppendixG-P1 (pdf) and AppendixG-P2 (pdf);

8. Wrap and confirm next meeting to be scheduled for Tuesday 28 August at 13.00 UTC.

August 23 Meeting Slides embed below:

UPDATE 21 Aug 2018--Editor's note: the EPDP Team meeting on August 21st got off to a very rough start, with the EPDP Team Chair Kurt Pritz rearranging the agenda and bringing up an administrative matter at the beginning and sidelining the meeting for over half an hour with his proposal, allowing (e.g., the IP Constituency and/or Business Constituency and/or GAC) to double-up their presence at the Face-to-Face (F2F) meeting scheduled for the last week of September in LA, by unilaterally 'changing the rules' on "balance" by permitting EPDP members and alternates who come to LA for the meeting, inside the meeting room at the same time (i.e., "tag teams")--thereby destroying the group dynamics, room dynamics, and balance of respective interests which was so laboriously dealt with by the GNSO Council in drafting the EPDP Charter. That Kurt Pritz saw nothing wrong with this, and was willing to subvert the group dynamics and process in this way, indicates how unqualified and what a poor choice he was to be EPDP Team Chair.

"I just think it's not fair what's going on here in terms of this positive attitude and somebody is causing a delay. We're not the ones proposing a rule change here, are we? We had an established set of rules regarding the participation of alternates. I was told that (unintelligible) attend the telephone meeting, I was cut off from the email list. I was not allowed to get into the meeting even though I could have attended 20 minutes of it. And now, people are proposing to change the rules in ways that are indeed wasting a lot of time. And yes, of course it's going to make a difference if people have five - people who are supposed to have three representatives at the meeting have six representatives there shuffling back and forth. It's going to make a difference in the overall tenor, and balance, and they're going to go to dinner, and they're going to lobby. So don't pretend like these concerns that we have are not real and stop putting the onus for this change on us. We didn't propose the rule change. You did. So if your proposed rule change is causing us to waste a lot of time, then own up to it. Withdraw your proposed rule change and let's get on with the business. But let's just stick to the existing rules, which is that if you can't attend, your alternate attends. End of story."--Milton Mueller (NCSG) Aug 21 transcript, pp. 10-11.

The EPDP Chair Kurt Pritz confirmed his unilateral rule change over objections, after the EPDP meeting concluded on Thursday, Aug 23, 2018. It will be interesting to see who shows up in Los Angeles for the face-to-face meeting Sept 24-26.

August 21 meeting: spreadsheet and slides (pdf) (embed below), Adobe Connect Recording, MP3 audio, chat transcript (embed below), high-level notes and action items, note on the ICANN Procedure for Handling WHOIS Conflicts with Privacy Law, meeting transcript (pdf).

Chat transcript Aug 21 2018 below:

Highlights from the EPDP Team meetings Aug 14 & 16 (emphasis added):

"Frankly, I think ICANN, the organization, is going ahead and creating an access model. So I think we want to sit with them and understand what they're doing and what we think our remit is. And so anything that's provided by ICANN to the community doesn’t land with a thud and everything we do takes advantage of the work that they’ve already done."--Kurt Pritz, EPDP Team Chair, Aug 16 transcript, pp 4-5.

Farzaneh Badii (NCSG): "... I just wanted to make a very first comment about [the] Goran [Marby, ICANN CEO] letter about the access model. I never understood what [the] ICANN plan is, ICANN Org, for providing this access model, why it's asking for comments, do they want to come up with an access model and receiving comments from us. And are they going to implement it? Is there a timeline for implementation? ..." (Aug 16 transcript, supra at p.5)

Milton Mueller (NCSG): "... I'm kind of disagreeing with what you said, Kurt, about there being this kind of coupling of the temp spec with the issues related to URS. I haven't heard any specific evidence as to how there is a problem or conflict caused by the temp spec in terms of the execution of URS ... I heard both of the registry operators saying that there is no problem and that these issues should be resolved in the RPM working group. So I'm not quite understanding. I know that certain stakeholders really want to talk about access and they want to turn this temp spec proceeding into an access proceeding but if that's the agenda, we're going to have to resist it because I don't think there is an access issue here that is not already handled by existing procedures ..." (Aug 16 transcript, supra at pp. 10-11)

Theo Geurts (RrSG): "... I guess I’m not understanding the discussion completely here. From my point of view, I think the URS and the UDRP are working out. I mean, trademark holders can file a complaint and the process is being kicked off and it’s working. So, I wouldn’t spend too much time on this on something that is working. Every contracted party has to balance the rights of the data subject compared to the interests of the trademark holders. So, I think the balancing act is there and it’s pretty much a safeguard for abuse on a couple of levels ..." (Aug 16 transcript, supra at p. 14)

Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "... I just wanted to recall Thomas Rickert’s excellent question about whether ICANN has an overall plan for compliance with GDPR because this discussion is a pretty good illustration of what we were worried about when the NCSG basically tried to limit the scope of the EPDP to a very narrow one ... I would recommend that we start a parking lot for issues that need to be resolved as a result of GDPR implementation but are not necessarily part of this particular spec. Because if we dragged everything and, unfortunately, we will have to examine all of the details surrounding all of the policies. And unfortunately, many ICANN policies will have to be rejigged as a result of GDPR compliance ... So, let’s start a parking lot, and if we have time we can fix all of these things. And if not, we leave them to the next PDP." (Aug 16 transcript, supra at pp. 14-15)

Milton Mueller (NCSG): "... So, let’s just clarify this. It’s all in writing about reasonable access. Registrars are already required to provide reasonable access under the temp spec. Now, the leap that (Alex) and (Mark) were making is that, oh, it’s part of our mandate that we have to have a policy to define what reasonable access means. That is actually not necessarily the case. If we agreed that this is going - reasonable access is going to be defined by registrar by registrar basis based on what jurisdiction they are in, what policies there are, that would be the status quo under the temp spec. Now, I know that a lot of people don’t want that ... But the question of whether we get or need a uniform access policy is not demanded by EPDP’s charter. Instead, the charter says ... we have to answer a bunch of gating questions before we decide whether and what the uniform access policy would be. So, yes, I think this issue seems to be a sticking point and it doesn’t need to be. If you want to talk, you know, what we do first is we decide what parts of the temp spec we’re going to keep and what is now a consensus policy. And then we answer the gating questions and then we get into the issue of, do we need a uniform access policy or how to redefine reasonable access. I think the sequence is very clear. And we can avoid going over this again and again if people simply recognize the sequence and the question of defining reasonable access is, indeed, an open question, not one that we must do." (Aug 16 transcript, supra at pp. 17-18)

Mark Svancarek (BC): "Well, as promised five minutes ago, if we’re going to state that access is not an appropriate topic, then I will have to, of course, intervene and say that I think it is. So, thank you to Dr. (Mueller) for clarifying his position. I have to say, I feel like this is - I’ve not really understood where he’s coming from. So my understanding is that he’s saying that there is no requirement that we will eventually end up on a particular unified access model. And I suppose that’s correct. But I think perhaps we should be very careful about the words we use when we talk about this because many of us are saying the word reasonable access and other people are perhaps making much broader, more sweeping statements that could be interpreted as we don’t have to talk about access at all. And I think those sort of disconnects are resulting in a lot of overhead in the discussions and confusion and concern." Kurt Pritz: "Thanks, (Mark) and if it’s okay with everybody, I’ll bring this part of the overhead discussion to a close." (Aug 16 meeting, supra at pp. 19-20)

The CyberSecurity Risks of an open, public WHOIS directory: 

Theo Geurts (RrSG): "... And I wanted to respond on a couple of things that are happening in the chat regarding security, transfers, domain name hijacks and I would like to point out that now that WHOIS [registrant data] by most registrars is redacted that one of the biggest attack vectors used by criminals and hacking folks is now gone because now there’s no details that give a hacker the ID on which email address or which email account he has to hack. It’s no longer visible. It makes it a lot harder for a criminal to hack such accounts because it’s no longer displayed ... we do have the feeling that domain hacks actually have gone down ... So having the email address no longer in the ... WHOIS ... is like making it 50% more secure, that I’m not sure I’m correct in the percentage but it makes it a lot more difficult to hijack or steal a domain name . . . .  we’re getting less complaints, the transfer process got easier, our resellers are more happier so that simplification in the process I was kind of amazed how that worked out on an operational level. So, so far we are pretty positive ... so for us it’s working out really, really great." (Aug 16 meeting, supra at pp. 28-30)

Editor's note: see also the note further below about the cybersecurity risks of fax numbers and fax machines.

Note also: GNSO Council meeting 16 Aug 2018, excerpts from Chat transcript (pdf) re EPDP:

Keith Drazek (RySG): Thanks for the EPDP update Rafik. On the point of the EPDP Vice Chair/Council Liaison roles, I am ok with you doing both. This is a unique situation where the size of the group is limited in size .... I think the next step in the Charter is to focus on the list of questions related to the Temp Spec and gating for the other discussions. Marika Konings: The triage is expected to help inform priorities and the detailed work plan going forward. And as Rafik mentioned, we do have a high level timeline that outlines the different milestone delivery dates ... Pam Little, RrSG: Have we seen a work plan developed by the EPDP Team? Marika Konings:@Pam - that is still in development. As said, the triage effort is expected to help inform how to tackle the Temporary Spec / Charter questions ... Ayden Férdeline: Yes, the EPDP is not making much progress, if any ... Some participants from Advisory Committees spend time on calls asking for things that could be resolved over email, i.e. please can you call out to our Observer who has poor Internet ... A lot of time is being spent relitigating what is in the charter, too, particularly as it relates to access."

More information (links to recordings, transcripts, documents) re: the Aug 14 and Aug 16 EPDP Team meetings on last week's News Review. 

Definition: "train wreck" (noun) a chaotic or disastrous situation that holds a peculiar fascination for observers.

See also:

• ICANN CEO Goran Marby (in photo above) and EPDP Chair Kurt Pritz's emails.

• EPDP & ICANN's Picket Fence (pdf): ICANN's 'Picket Fence' circumscribes ICANN's authority with regard to domain names.

• Why ICANN Should Not Require Collecting, Much Less Publishing, Registrants' Fax Numbers--FAX HAX: fax machines pose a huge vulnerability to the cybersecurity of businesses and other organizations, according to a new study. A fax number is the only thing required to carry out the attack. Many fax machines run on decades-old protocols that are easy for hackers to penetrate, says Israel-based soft­ware com­pany Check Point. Most fax lines are connected to an organization's larger IT network, so after a cyber intruder makes their way into an insecure fax machine, everything else, regardless of what other cyber protections are in place, can become easy targets--TheHill.com.

• Working Paper (pdf) on standards for data protection and personal privacy in cross-border data requests for criminal law enforcement purposes (Budapest, Hungary, 9/10 April 2018)--datenschutz-berlin.de.

• Registry Data Escrow Agreement (pdf) and Proposed EPDP Communications Plan (pdf)

2) Other ICANN News

a. ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH: ICANN's Plea of Remonstrance (in German)[pdf, 2.27 MB]. The English Translation [pdf, 276 KB] is embed below (personal identifiable information has been redacted by ICANN) 17 August 2018:

Prior filings in the case are here. See also English Translation of EPAG’s Comment on ICANN’s Submission of Letter from European Data Protection Board [pdf, 517 KB] 1 Aug 2018.

b. ICANN Community Leaders' GDPR Update Call, 13 Aug 2018 (pdf) excerpt below:

GDPR update call 13 Aug 2018 Adobe Connect recording and Audio Recording [MP3, 3.77 MB].

c. 14 Aug 2018 Letter of Delaware's Secretary of State (pdf) to ICANN re: new gTLDs that meet the definition of “company endings” including, but not limited to, .INC, .CORP, .LLP, .LTD, .COMPANY and .LLC (letter embed below):

d. ICANN Global Domains Division (GDD) 

General Operations Handbook for Registry Operators (revised) 15 Aug 2018 gdd-ops-handbook-registry-operators-15aug18-en.pdf [pdf, 429 KB].

e. New gTLD .pharmacy notice of beach of registry agreement (pdf), status as of 17 Aug 2018:

source: ICANN.org

See all ICANN Notices of Breach, Suspension, Termination and Non-Renewal.

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Domain Name Registrar GoDaddy $GDDY:

GoDaddy shares fall after pricing its secondary public offering of 10.4 million shares from selling stockholders--marketwatch.com 15 Aug 2018.

b. UPDATED: Domain Name Registrar Tucows $TCX Q2 2018:  Tucows management posted responses to questions of general interest to the Company’s web site here (pdf) on Wednesday, August 22 at 9:00 a.m. EDT.

c. Domain Name Registry Operator (.COM, .NET et al) Verisign $VRSN--Tracking Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A and NYSE:BRK.B) Portfolio - Q2 2018 Update:
VeriSign Inc. $VRSN shares were first purchased by Berkshire in Q4 2012 at prices between $34 and $49.50. The position was more than doubled in Q1 2013 at prices between $38 and $48. The following quarter saw a one-third increase at prices between $44 and $49. Q1 and Q2 2014 also saw a combined ~17% increase at prices between $47 and $63. $VRSN currently trades at ~$150 and the Berkshire position is ~0.91% of Berkshire's total portfolio, about 10% ownership interest in Verisign. Read more at SeekingAlpha.com 15 Aug 2018.

See also The Verisign Domain Name Industry Brief Q2 2018 | verisign.com:

• 10 largest top-level domains (TLDs) in the world (.png)--4 gTLDs + 6 ccTLDs--can you name in the correct order, all top-ten TLDs? 
• The second quarter of 2018 closed with approximately 339.8 million domain name registrations across all top-level domains (TLDs), an increase of approximately 7.9 million, or +2.4% year over year.
• Total new gTLDs' domain name registrations decreased by approximately 2.5 million domain name registrations, or -10.4%  year over year, ending the second quarter of 2018 with a total of only 21.8 million domain name registrations.
• Legacy gTLD .COM domain name registrations increased by 6.4 million, or +5.0% year over year.  As of June 30, 2018, the .com domain name base totaled approximately 135.6 million domain name registrations (as compared with 129.2 as of June 30, 2017).  
• Legacy gTLD .NET domain name registrations decreased by 1.0 million, or -7.0% year over year. As of June 30, 2018, the .net domain name base totaled approximately 14.1 million domain name registrations (as compared with 15.1 as of June 30, 2017). 
• Total country-code TLD (ccTLD) domain name registrations were approximately 149.7 million at the end of the second quarter of 2018, an increase of approximately 5.5 million domain name registrations, or +3.8%, year over year.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

• 
  

• China: How President Xi Jinping plans to turn China into a “cyber-superpower” that will dominate the web through domestic regulations, innovation, and foreign policy--When China Rules the Web - Technology in Service of the State | foreignaffairs.com:

"... given China’s size and technological sophistication, Beijing has a good chance of succeeding—thereby remaking cyberspace in its own image. If this happens, the Internet will be less global and less open. A major part of it will run Chinese applications over Chinese-made hardware. And Beijing will reap the economic, diplomatic, national security, and intelligence benefits ..."

• "It will be a dark day for internet freedom if Google has acquiesced to China’s extreme censorship rules to gain market access."--Patrick Poon, China Researcher at Amnesty International--amnesty.org.

• The Unlikely Activists Who Took On Silicon Valley and Won: Facebook and Google made billions mining personal data, and fought off anyone who threatened to stop them. Then came a challenge in their own backyard--NYTimes.com: 

"Political power is a malleable thing, Mactaggart had learned, an elaborate calculation of artifice and argument, votes and money. People and institutions — in politics, in Silicon Valley — can seem all-powerful right up to the moment they are not. And sometimes, Mactaggart discovered, a thing that can’t possibly happen suddenly becomes a thing that cannot be stopped."

• How to Change Your DNS Settings for Better Internet | gizmodo.com. See also "... Google Public DNS is the largest public DNS resolver. There are now about a dozen such services providing value-added features like content and malware filtering, and recent entrants Quad9 and Cloudflare also provide privacy for DNS queries over TLS or HTTPS."--Google Online Security Blog: Google Public DNS turns 8.8.8.8 years old | googleblog.com.

• Fighting Censorship: Senators Wyden (D) & Rubio (R) Ask Google and Amazon to Bring Back Domain Fronting--techdirt.com.

• Censorship & InfoWars:

Infowars Website Traffic Explodes After Silicon Valley Blacklists Alex Jones Empire | zerohedge.com. "They are using me as a test case to try to bring an EU style web censorship"--Alex Jones. InfoWars Videos, Podcasts, and Social Posts Have Disappeared. Here's Why Its Website Won't Be Next | Fortune.com: Internet infrastructure companies like web hosts, registrars, and CDNs were right to largely remain neutral in Infowars-like debates, civil rights experts say.

Alex Jones is far from the only person tech companies are silencing August 12, 2018, by David Greene, civil liberties director and senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org): "Facebook, Twitter, Apple and other companies routinely silence voices in marginalized communities around the world that struggle to be heard in the first place, replicating their offline repression."

• Internet Freedom, Free Speech & Free Press: If the US government prosecutes Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, it will mark a point of no return--zerohedge.com.

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

1. News Review: GDPR, ICANN & WHOIS Data, EPDP Dysfunction

2. Tech Review: Is Google $GOOGL Courting Trouble In China? (video)

3. Nvidia $NVDA Q2 FY19 Earnings, LIVE Webcast August 16, 5:30pm EDT

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

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