News Review | ICANN Is Unfit, The IANA Transition Should Be Unwound

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-07-22) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) Comment to NTIA: ICANN Is Unfit, The IANA Transition Should Be Unwound, 2) ICANN news: a. ICANN vs EPAG - ICANN Loses Again, b. WHOIS & GDPR: Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Team, and more, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: a. The Power of TLD .COM,  b. Verisign Q2 2018 earnings, and more, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read.

UPDATE--Should the IANA Transition Be Unwound? Read all comments submitted to NTIA here.

Original Post:
1) Comment to NTIA: ICANN Is Unfit, The IANA Transition Should Be Unwound

"ICANN is incompetent, corrupt, and unfit for the role it was given by the U.S. government in 1998 ... The IANA transition was a mistake and a fraud upon the American people and the global internet community."

Full comment with all attachments (pdf 2MB) (57 pages), also at NTIA here (pdf).

See also George Kirikos's comment here (pdf).

2) ICANN News

a. ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH

ICANN and its IP Constituency (trademark lawyers) lost Round 2 in ICANN's legal action (request for an injunction) against EPAG Domainservices, GmbH, an affiliate of Tucows, the world's second largest domain name registrar, filed in the Regional Court of Bonn, Germany. The case is now headed to the Higher Regional Court of Cologne as the court of appeal, which could refer the matter to the European Court of Justice. For more read the updates at last week's News Review.

b. WHOIS & GDPR: Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Team 

As noted in the  updates to last week's News Review, the GNSO Council approved the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Initiation Request (pdf) and Charter (pdf) at its meeting Thursday, July 19, 2018.  It is expected that the EPDP Team, chaired by Kurt Pritz, will hold its first meeting during the week of 30 July 2018. The three dissents: Ayden Fedérline (pdf), Tatiana Tropina (pdf) and Stephanie Perrin (pdf):

"Yes, and I think that Tatiana and Ayden have eloquently expressed many of my reasons. There is one issue that I would like to add to those and that is that it is plainly evident from the way that we have approached this question and the EPDP that we've not yet, as ICANN, and as the GNSO addressing the problem of GDPR, some of us don't think it’s a problem, some of us think it’s an improvement, but at any rate we have not addressed the issue with the benefit of the advice that we have received from the data commissioners, in other words, with the perspective of data protection law. And I feel that it’s long overdue to address these concerns. I don't wish to delay the progress; we have to get busy. I have a remedy and I will try and bring remedy throughout the work on the EPDP. We have a volunteer from the Council of Europe to assist us in legal interpretation, that would be Peter Kimpian, a data protection lawyer from the Hungarian Data Protection Office who has worked extensively with the Council of Europe on GDPR and on Convention 108 and the revised Convention 108. They have offered to assign him to us. I would recommend that the Council accept that offer because at the moment we have a – we have a charter that is not framed the way it should be in terms of data protection analysis and we need to remedy this. And I share with both Ayden and Tatiana the concerns that we have many members that are turning this into a cross community working group but none of them who could, are bringing a data protection expertise to the table. Thank you."--Stephanie Perrin (emphasis added).

Also note ICANN at a Crossroads: GDPR and Human Rights | circleid.com by Raphaël Beauregard-Lacroix:

"... In a 17 May letter, European commissioners asked ICANN, through its CEO, to "show leadership and demonstrate that the multi-stakeholder model actually delivers." Be it taunting or encouraging, this challenge underscores the current need for intentional, proactive leadership from both the ICANN organisation and its community ..."

See also:

• Launch of the EPDP on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data | ICANN.org (mailing list observers sign-up form). 

• EPDP Team wiki and mailing list;
• EPDP Team meetings recordings, transcripts,  scheduled conference calls on the GNSO Master Calendar; non-members can listen via audio cast.

• GNSO Active Projects List and Minutes June 27 GNSO Council meeting

c. Approved Board Resolutions | Special Meeting of the ICANN Board 18 Jul 2018--ICANN.org: Big Fat Pay Increases for ICANN's Incompetent Management Team, Extension of CEO's contract to run through through May 2022, Reconsideration requests of dotgay, Dot Music, and more at link above.

d. Famous Last Words--"ICANN org has increased confidence that the root KSK rollover planned for 11 October 2018 will have the potential to affect only a tiny fraction of DNS users"--ICANN.org 18 July 2018.

e. ICANN Board Approves Dysfunctional Implementation of At-Large Review over objections from members of the ICANN community--ICANN Board Minutes | ICANN.org 23 June 2018 meeting. The objections included comments from the Registrar Stakeholder Group,  Registries Stakeholder Group "... Structures that are intended to support user engagement in ICANN may, in fact, hinder direct user participation and discourage new voices from engaging with ICANN policy development processes ... Fifty percent of At-Large respondents and seventy-five percent of non-At-Large respondents believed that At Large Structures are not truly representative of global end user opinion ... These findings point to fundamental problems with At-Large representation" and NCSG--"... At-Large has been dominated by a few people for too long ... It is not focused enough on holding ICANN (via the Board) accountable and empowering individual Internet users ..." [Editor's note: any wonder why the ICANN Board brushed aside these valid objections? ICANN: unfit, incompetent, corrupt.]

f. CCWG-Accountability WS2 have distributed their final report for consideration to the ICANN Chartering Organizations. on The Final Report includes a summary of work completed by WS2 and a listing of recommendations, here and here (with annexes). The Chartering Organizations have been asked to complete their approval of the Final Report by the conclusion of ICANN63 October 20-25, 2018. If approved, it will then be sent to the ICANN Board for approval and implementation.

g. Methodology Review of the Domain Abuse Activity Reporting (DAAR) System | ICANN.org.

h.  Better Late Than Never--Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP)--report-comments-ncap-project-plan-13jul18-en.pdf (pdf) excerpt: "The ALAC urges the SSAC to proceed with the Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) Work Party's project plan and allocate enough time to do it right. We believe it is important to minimize the unintended consequences for end users. Name Collision occurs when a user, attempting to reach a private domain name, unintentionally reaches a public domain name and, as such, cut to the core of end user trust of the internet and could pose potential security issues."

i. ICANN Naming Services portal User Guide for Registries 19 Jul 2018: nsp-user-guide-19jul18-en.pdf [637 KB]

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a.  The Power of Top Level Domain .COM: After years of complaints from rival search engine DuckDuckGo, Google has relented--Google obtained domain name duck.com when it bought video compression startup On2 (on2.com) in 2010, and redirected duck.com to google.com, but now Google is redirecting the domain name duck.com to on2.com, a page with links to duckduckgo.com, ducks.com which redirects to basspro.com (Bass Pro Shops), and to an article on Wikipedia.org about ducks. On Friday, DuckDuckGo CEO & Founder Gabriel Weinberg tweeted "Thank you! That will clear up the consumer confusion. Would you please consider selling the domain to us?"

b. Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) Q2 2018 earnings webcast July 26, 4:30pm EDT.

$VRSN

c. ICANN's New gTLD IDNs: Cyrillic Characters Are Favorites for IDN Homograph Attacks--bleepingcomputer.com.

d. Next steps for brand protection in a post-GDPR world: trademark takeaways from ICANN 62 | worldtrademarkreview.com.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

• India: Bordering on Absurd: Rajasthan’s Obsession with Internet Shutdowns--thequint.com.

• Africa’s Attack on Internet Freedom--foreignpolicy.com.

• EU: A Key Victory Against European Copyright Filters and Link Taxes - But What's Next? | EFF.org.

• U.S. to help organizations interested in programs supporting Internet Freedom--devdiscourse.com.
• ITU and Global Cyber Alliance join forces to help countries prepare for and respond to cyber-threats: "Secured cyberspace vital for the development of the digital economy"--itu.int

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

1. News Review | ICANN GNSO Struggles to Draft EPDP Charter re GDPR

2. IBM $IBM Q2 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast, July 18, 5pm EDT

3. Caterpillar Marine Green Technology for Ocean Vessels & Watercraft (video)

4. Microsoft $MSFT Quarterly Earnings & LIVE Webcast, July 19, 5:30pm EDT

5. Netflix $NFLX Q2 2018 Earnings Interview July 16, 6pm EDT

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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News Review | ICANN GNSO Struggles to Draft EPDP Charter re GDPR

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-07-15) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN GNSO Council Struggles to Draft EPDP Charter re GDPR & ICANN Temp Spec , 2) Other ICANN news: a. EPAG Comments on ICANN Appeal b. GDPR & ICANN: no more la-la land? c. More ICANN Dysfunction? d. RSSAC Review, e. Should the IANA Transition Be Unwound? 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read.

UPDATES
20 July 2018
German Court Rules Against ICANN Again--excerpt (ICANN is the "applicant," EPAG is the "defendant") highlighting added:

More information:

• ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH | ICANN.org (Personal identifiable information has been redacted by ICANN)

• Court Order in the Preliminary Injunction Proceedings (signed 16 July 2018) [PDF, 838 KB]

• English Translation of Court Order in the Preliminary Injunction Proceedings (signed 16 July 2018) (Unofficial; provided for information purposes only) [PDF, 518 KB]

ICANN's response: "In referring the matter to the Higher Regional Court in Cologne, the Regional Court did not change its original determination not to issue an injunction against EPAG. The Regional Court also rejected the alternative claims submitted by EPAG in recent court filings. Notably, the Regional Court issued this second ruling without consideration of the additional court filings submitted earlier this week by ICANN and ICANN's Intellectual Property Constituency. Those filings will be part of the record to be transferred to the Higher Regional Court for the appeal. ICANN will continue to pursue this matter as part of its public interest role in coordinating a decentralized global WHOIS for the generic top-level domain system. ICANN awaits further direction from the Higher Regional Court on next steps, which could include referring the matter to the European Court of Justice, issuing a decision based upon the papers already submitted, requesting additional briefings or scheduling a hearing with the parties."--ICANN.org

19 July 2018
EPDP Charter (pdf) and EPDP Initiation Request (pdf) Final 19 July 2018.
GNSO Council Meeting July 19 approving:
Agenda | Chat Transcript and Mp3 and Adobe Connect Recording
1. The GNSO Council hereby approves the EPDP Initiation Request and as such initiates the EPDP.
2. The GNSO Council approves the EPDP Team Charter and appoints Rafik Dammak as the GNSO Council liaison to the EPDP Team on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data;
3. The GNSO Council hereby appoints Kurt Pritz as the Chair(s) of the EPDP Team.
4. The GNSO Council directs staff to communicate the results of this motion to the GNSO SG/Cs as well as ICANN SO/ACs and to make arrangements for the EPDP Team to commence its deliberations as soon as feasible.

Statements of abstention: Ayden Fedérline (pdf) also below, and Tatiana Tropina (pdf). Stephanie Perrin also abstained (beginning at 1:01:07 on the Adobe Recording above).

18 July 2018

The ICANN Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC), mostly trademark lawyers, apparently not satisfied with how ICANN and its law firm, Jones Day, are arguing their case in Germany, have joined the fray through their own submission (English excerpt above) to the Court in Germany. The filing is in German (pdf), with an unofficial English translation (pdf) provided by ICANN on the ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH litigation page.

The draft EPDP Charter (now includes the "scope") and the EPDP initiation request will be considered by the GNSO Council at its meeting Thursday, July 19 (12:00 UTC).

17 July 2018:
Ok, I will surrender to the will of the group (as usual). Just out of interest though, who of you who said lets all trust in good faith are planning to work on the EPDP? there is nothing like eating your own cooking to improve the drive for perfection.....  The purpose of a well scoped Charter and set of deliverables is to make the task of the working group clear and simple. I humbly submit, for the record, that we have left a number of vague terms and timing criteria in there, and it may cause problems later. A stitch in time saves nine, as the old proverb says.-Cheers Stephanie Perrin

16 July 2018--before it's even 'out the gate' (EPDP Charter not yet adopted), the dysfunctional ICANN Community's EPDP (expedited policy development process) may already be "off the rails"--

"I would just like to remark that we were plagued in the [failed] RDS PDP with a plethora of security folks...researchers, contractors, corporate types, etc. who advanced only one point of view....keep open access to WHOIS, it is a) easy for us b) free c) uncomplicated, we have already built our ML and Analytic systems around it d) we need (name a product ) from the existing value added service providers (e.g.Domain Tools), e) criminals will take over the world if you don't listen to us. These are legitimate concerns, but if we are importing a whole range of actors from several ACs (GAC, ALAC, RSSAC, SSAC c.f. recent document SSAC 101) advancing the identical security specialist's viewpoint, which we ought to recognize by now ignores DP [Data Protection] law, I think we have destroyed the GNSO balance and are likely to revisit the morass we fell into on the RDS group. Now, I don't really care if the temp spec falls away because we either can't reach consensus, or wind up with a product that will not stand up in Court. However, the GNSO and ICANN ought to care deeply. So if we accept RSSAC can we limit the influence they will have on the consensus calculus, if I am correct in my fears? it is probably too late to try to exercise any restraint on the other parties (so far over five years, my batting average on risk assessment is really pretty outstanding. Nobody is listening yet....)"--Stephanie Perrin, July 16, 2018  (emphasis and link added). [Editor's note: Stephanie Perrin is one of the few people (perhaps the only person) at ICANN (community, org, or Board) who has the requisite knowledge about data protection laws to have a competent understanding of how the GDPR applies to ICANN and its contracted parties (registry operators and registrars) re: gTLD registration data. The incompetent ICANN management team failed to educate itself or the ICANN community about GDPR law in the two-year period leading up to the enforceable date of May 25, 2018, unlike Salesforce.com Inc., and other responsible multi-national corporations with competent leadership, headquartered in California, who undertook extensive GDPR education programs for management, staff and stakeholders, during the two-year period leading up to May 25, 2018.] 

Apparently former ICANN Chief Strategy Officer Kurt Pritz, who resigned due to a never disclosed "conflict of interest" (during Fadi Chehade's term as ICANN CEO) and is known as the "architect" of ICANN's disastrous new gTLDs program, has already been selected to be the Chair of the EPDP working group (yet to be formed). DomainIncite.com broke the story based on "sources" who say the GNSO Council leadership selection committee made the decision "minus Pritz’s wife, Donna Austin," (who works for domain registry services provider Neustar a/k/a ARI Registry, and is a GNSO Vice Chair), who "recused herself." Editor's note: there's nothing quite like incestuous ICANN--selection of a conflicted problem-plagued ex-employee / ex-officer of ICANN, to be Chair of its most important ICANN community working group! What could go wrong?

The latest version of the EPDP Charter (draft) can be found here according to ICANN staff. As to the missing (and all-important) "Scope section," Keith Drazek (Verisign) reported July 16, "The scope section is now stable and will be ready for inclusion in the full charter document by COB today." Later--Monday Jul 16 22:13:44 UTC 2018--Drazek said:

"The current version of the scope document (pdf) is the result of several weeks of work and substantial compromise, and, as discussed on our Wednesday Drafting Team call, the deadline for substantive comment was Friday. I worked over the weekend to incorporate the comments I received, doing my very best to find the right balance. I believe the scope section is as close as we will get without putting our Thursday vote at serious and certain risk. We are likely all equally unhappy with various parts of it, but sometimes that’s the nature of our work. I am finished with the scope document and it is now with Council leadership and staff for adding to the master Charter document." (emphasis and link added)

Another comment: "To me, the goal of the Temp Spec and this EPDP effort is very simple: to comply with the law. 'Avoid the fragmentation of WHOIS' or the idea of harmonization as a premise or goal is fundamentally flawed. As you know, there is already fragmentation of WHOIS in the cc world. As far as I know, .JP does not even have a WHOIS service. More importantly, I would like to point out the latest guidance regarding Codes of Conduct and Accreditation in the EDPB letter (see page 6 https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/jelinek-to-marby-05jul18-en.pdf). Specifically: 1. Certification and/or accreditation are voluntary measures, not mandatory. 2. The responsibility for designing a model that will provide the assurance [of compliance with the GDPR] is, in the first instance, up to the data controllers. The previous language and your latest suggested language pre-suppose there should be a "community-wide model for access or similar framework", which in my view, is inconsistent with the above guidance."--Pam Little (emphasis added)

Desperation started to set in late Monday, comment posted by Heather Forrest, GNSO Chair: 

"... The weight of the task is pushing us to our limits, and it kills me to see the significant efforts at compromise from Panama and the two weeks since come undone in the final 3 days. We've said many times - but I'll repeat it here as now it's urgent and very real - that the community's perception of the Council's ability to deliver on its Bylaws mandate by running this EPDP is at stake on Thursday. If we are unable to agree on the charter, there is a live risk that Pandora's box opens. We had a text that was fairly stable as of Sunday, based on the timeline that we agreed in the DT call last Wednesday. We need to resist the temptation of usurping the work of the EPDP Team. If language is redundant,they will work around it. If it is not perfect, we will empower them to refine, and come back to Council with questions where necessary. Let's get this team started, and see if these last minute issues are truly obstacles to their work. If we do not get them started, we may never find out. If you are willing to work with the text we have as per Keith's Sunday email and let the Team push forward, now is the time to speak up."

Original Post:
Editor's note: ICANN is proving yet once again how incompetent and unfit it is for the role it was given by the U.S. government in 1998 and then completely unleashed in 2016 by the U.S. government to wreak even more havoc on the internet's infrastructure and the global internet community, including domain name registrants worldwide. This week's News Review gives readers updates on:

• The status of the dysfunctional ICANN community's Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) which is one of many consequences of ICANN's incompetent management team wasting 2 years and failing to properly prepare for the European Union's GDPR which became  enforceable May 25, 2018. The EPDP timeline is so short, and the process so rushed, that the GNSO Council has already issued a "Call for Volunteers" though the Council has yet to adopt a Charter for the EPDP;
• An update on ICANN's legal action in Germany against domain name registrar EPAG (affiliate of Tucows) which chose to comply with EU law (GDPR) instead of ICANN's unlawful contractual terms, temporary specification, and policies;
• There's much more illuminated in this week's News Review, including this quote, at 2)d. below:

"Root ops [root server operators] are concerned that ICANN does not have the best interests of everyone at heart. Having root servers independent is critical—ICANN is corrupt and can’t be trusted."

1)  ICANN GNSO Council Struggles to Draft EPDP Charter re GDPR & ICANN Temp Spec

No EPDP (expedited policy development process) Charter yet, but GNSO Council issued a "Call for Volunteers" 12 July 2018:

See also:

• Agenda for GNSO Council Meeting, 19 July 2018 at 12:00 UTC (pdf)

• GNSO Council mail list and calendar

• EPDP Drafting Team mail list

• 2018-07-11 meeting EPDP Charter Drafting Team (wiki page)

• EPDP Charter Drafting Team July 11 UTC Transcript - Mp3 - Adobe Connect Recording

2) Other ICANN News

a. German Registrar EPAG Comments on ICANN Appeal--English translation (pdf)--excerpt:

"Contrary to what the Applicant [ICANN] claims, the Article 29 Working Party has not issued a clean bill of health for the Applicant's modified use of data. On the contrary: the European Data Protection Board [EDPB]- the successor of the Working Group – again delivered an opinion to the Applicant in a letter dated July 5, 2018 – and also referred to the present proceeding. A copy of the letter is handed over as Appendix AG 5.

"In the letter, the Board [EDPB] rejects any attempt to misinterpret the Board's opinions on specific issues as implicit "waving through" data processing; 

"Needless to say, the issues identified here are without prejudice to additional issues, further inquiries or findings being made by the EDPB or its Members at a later date.” (Appendix AG 5, p. 1; translation by the signatories). 

"In its letter, the Board expressly points out that the Applicant [ICANN] does not sufficiently distinguish between the Applicant's own and third parties’ purposes for processing and that it is not the task of the board, but rather the Applicant is to define retention periods."

Affidavit submitted on behalf of EPAG (English translation):

The 5 July 2018 EDPB letter (pdf) was also submitted by ICANN (after EPAG's submittal referenced above), along with more ICANN counsel's commentary differing with EPAG's comments. Copies of the filed documents (in German with some translated into English) are available on the ICANN litigation page ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH.

b.  GDPR & ICANN: no more la-la land for ICANN's incompetent management team? 

"[T]he European Data Protection Board (EDPB) effectively said it [ICANN] needs to go back to the drawing board to make its rules around the collection and use of WHOIS data compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ..."--Dublin-based Karen Gallagher of Pinsent Masons, an expert in data protection and intellectual property law, more infra--

"The EDPB's letter to ICANN 5 July 2018 (8-page / 737KB PDF) sets out a clear position on a number of queries that had been raised by ICANN. The watchdog said:

• ICANN needs to define its specified purposes and lawful basis for processing personal data and should not conflate this with the legitimate interests and purposes of third parties who may subsequently seek access to the data;
• that there is no basis for ICANN to insist upon the provision of additional information on administrative and technical contacts from registrants;
• that the fact that registrants may be legal persons does not take WHOIS outside the scope of GDPR where ICANN is processing personal data relating to individuals within those organisations, and therefore the personal data of such individuals should not be made publically available by default; 
• that ICANN is required to log access to personal data, but does not necessarily need to actively communicate (push) this log information to registrants or third parties;
• that ICANN has failed to justify why it is necessary to retain personal data for two years post the expiry of the domain name registration ....

"The need for ICANN to move away from its model of unlimited publication of the contact details of domain name registrants has been in the cards for quite a while. The EDPB noted when commenting on its letter that its predecessor, the Article 29 Working Party, has been offering guidance to ICANN on how to bring the database into compliance with EU data protection law since 2003."--out-law.com 10 Jul 2018 (legal news and guidance from international law firm Pinsent Masons) (emphasis added).

c. More ICANN Dysfunction?

So, now things reveal themselves. The IGO PDP members have been duped, and the process continues to be manipulated/rigged, see:https://t.co/E8lLDIutaf

What a farce! #ICANN #accountability

— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) July 10, 2018

See also: Request 20180610-1, George Kirikos Request (10 June 2018) [PDF, 54 KB], and Response (10 July 2018) [PDF, 155 KB].

d. RSSAC Review: Interisle Consulting Group, LLC, the independent examiner performing the second Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) Review, published its final report [PDF, 2.58 MB]. The RSSAC Review Work Party (RWP) will prepare a feasibility assessment and initial implementation plan (FAIIP) based on the final report. This will include an analysis of recommendations in the final report for usability and prioritization, provisional budget implications, anticipated resources and the proposed implementation timeline. Interisle and the RWP respectively will then present the final report and the FAIIP to the ICANN Board's Organizational Effectiveness Committee (OEC). The OEC will make a recommendation to the Board on next steps.--ICANN.org.

Quotes from the report--

"Root ops [root server operators] are concerned that ICANN does not have the best interests of everyone at heart. Having root servers independent is critical—ICANN is corrupt and can’t be trusted." (page 22 of 79)(emphasis added)

"Our research did, however, reveal a high-level concern about oversight:

"The NTIA contribution to the RSSAC was not just oversight. NTIA didn’t represent
“governments”, but they were aware of the issues that concern governments, and that
perspective is no longer at the table."

"No single entity now has complete oversight of the root server system. NTIA had that role (nominally) before the transition; no one has it now. The ICANN Board should not be expected to take on that responsibility." (p. 26 of 79) (emphasis added)

e.  Should the IANA Transition Be Unwound? Editor's note: Deadline to respond to the NTIA notice of inquiry (pdf) is July 17, 2018, 5:00 pm EDT. More info here. Read the ICANN Board's weak defense of incompetent and "corrupt" ICANN here (pdf).

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Google Asks SEOs if Domain Changes Result in Loss of Traffic--"For the most part, SEOs agreed that domain [name] changes carry a lot of risk and will almost always result in a loss of traffic."--SearchEngineJournal.com (emphasis added).

b. Malformed Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Leads to Discovery of Vulnerability in IDN Libraries--farsightsecurity.com. Editor's note: more ICANN incompetence revealed.

c. Top 20 countries with highest number of internet users--internetworldstats.com: 1) China, 2) India, 3) U.S., 4) Brazil, 5) Indonesia. More analysis at DataTrekResearch.com. Editor's note:  the missing ingredients include: 1) how are users in each country accessing the internet (percentage that have mobile wireless access only) and at what speed (3G or 4G)?--here's an account of what most internet users in the world deal with; 2) What is the average user spending online in each market? The differences in markets (economic factors such as GDP per capita, online spending, etc.), demographics, internet speed availability (e.g., 4G vs 3G),  presence of censorship (lack of free speech), are some of the many variables that differentiate internet users located in different parts of the world.

d. Google's Chrome browser now runs a different browser process for each internet domain, "Site Isolation," which is now enabled by default, and provides a defense against Meltdown and Spectre attacks--bleepingcomputer.com.

e. ICYMI: Interview of Domain King Rick Schwartz (podcast) | domainnamewire.com

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

a. Cyberspace Lost: "The internet did not develop as [Perry] Barlow had hoped, as Jacob Mchangama illustrates in the latest episode of his podcast, Clear and Present Danger: A History of Free Speech. He notes that the “digital promised land turned into a dystopia of surveillance, disinformation, trolling and hate, to which governments responded with increasingly draconian measures”--Cato.org.

b. "Rampant data collection, surveillance, and censorship may have shattered idealistic notions of the internet's liberating potential. Nevertheless, the internet continues to present an ever-expanding threat surface for authoritarian regimes and information monopolists"--cfr.org.

c. Ugandan social media tax and VPN blocks represent an attack on internet freedom--bestvpn.com.

d. The Worst Aspect of India’s Internet Shutdowns Is the Official Secrecy About It | thewire.in.

e. "Being an Afghan or Pakistani woman online attracts prejudice, even danger. But for many, technology is freedom from the past"--indexoncensorship.org.

f.  Zambia is the latest African state trying to muzzle social media with arbitrary laws--qz.com.

g. U.S. intel chief warns of devastating cyber threat to U.S. infrastructure--reuters.com.

h. High-level Panel on Digital Cooperation was established by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on 12 July 2018. Editor's note: this group should be watched closely since former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehade is involved. Chehade also served as an advisor to China's Wuzhen Initiative a/k/a Wuzhen Summit a/k/a World Internet Conference. For more on Chehade's shenanigans with China read The Firewall Awakens: ICANN's exiting CEO takes internet governance to the dark side by Kieren McCarthy, The Register: "Chehade knows only too well what this initiative means and represents. Combined with the closed organizing committee, and the closed "advisory committee," the setup is little more than a Chinese-government-run effort to influence global internet governance."

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

1. News Review | Is ICANN Trying To Hijack The Global Internet DNS Root?

2. Tech Review | Reinventing Air Conditioning & Cooling (video)

3. A Surveillance Camera Can See You Sneeze at 4,000 Feet (video)

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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News Review | Should the IANA Stewardship Transition Be Unwound?

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-06-10) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) Should the IANA Stewardship Transition Be Unwound? 2) ICANN news: a. Reason #1 Why ICANN's new gTLDs are failing,  b. GDPR Effects at ICANN, c. Pre-ICANN62 Webinars & Reports and more, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read Posts.

UPDATE: Should the IANA Stewardship Transition Be Unwound?

Deadline to respond to the NTIA notice of inquiry (pdf) has been extended to July 17, 2018, 5:00 pm EDT (more information in the original post further below).

UPDATE June 14, 2018: ICANN Appeals German Court Decision on GDPR / WHOIS: ICANN statement published on its website June 14, 2018 UTC:

"LOS ANGELES – 13 June 2018 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today appealed a decision by the Regional Court in Bonn, Germany not to issue an injunction in proceedings that ICANN initiated against EPAG, a Germany-based, ICANN-accredited registrar that is part of the Tucows Group. The appeal was filed to the Higher Regional Court of Cologne, Germany. ICANN is asking the Higher Regional Court to issue an injunction that would require EPAG to reinstate the collection of all WHOIS data required under EPAG’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement with ICANN. The Regional Court in Bonn rejected ICANN’s initial application for an injunction, in which ICANN sought to require EPAG to collect administrative contact and technical contact data for new domain name registrations. If the Higher Regional Court does not agree with ICANN or is not clear about the scope of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), ICANN is also asking the Higher Regional Court to refer the issues in ICANN’s appeal to the European Court of Justice. ICANN is appealing the 30 May 2018 decision by the Regional Court in Bonn as part of ICANN’s public interest role in coordinating a decentralized global WHOIS for the generic top-level domain system. “We are continuing to seek clarity of how to maintain a global WHOIS system and still remain consistent with legal requirements under the GDPR,” said John Jeffrey, ICANN’s General Counsel and Secretary. “We hope that the Court will issue the injunction or the matter will be considered by the European Court of Justice.”..."

Background of previous proceedings and the Court ruling appealed from in this case--News Review | GDPR Effect: ICANN Sues German Domain Name Registrar.

Appeal documents filed by ICANN--ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH  [Editor's note: Personal identifiable information has been redacted by ICANN]:
English Translation of Immediate Appeal [PDF, 844 KB] (Unofficial; provided for information purposes only) embed in full below:

Other documents filed by ICANN in the appeal:

• Immediate Appeal [PDF, 5.75 MB]
• Appendix AS-9: GDPR Domain Industry Playbook [PDF, 3.7 MB]
• Appendix AS-10: Excerpts from www.bestregistrar.com; vcgcorporate.zendesk.com; and directnic.com [PDF, 266 KB]
• Appendix AS-11: Tucows Domains, Inc.'s Master Domain Registration Agreement [PDF, 599 KB]
• Appendix AS-12 (1 of 3): Endorsement by The European Data Protection Board [PDF, 198 KB]
• Appendix AS-12 (2 of 3): Opinion on the Principle of "purpose limitation" by Article 29 Data Protection Working Party [PDF, 772 KB]
• Appendix AS-12 (3 of 3): Guidelines on the Application and Setting of Administrative Fines for the Purposes of Regulation 2016/679 by Article 29 Data Protection Working Party [PDF, 616 KB]

Original Post:
1) Should the IANA Stewardship Transition Be Unwound?

Editor's note: Less than 2 years after the IANA transition was completed on October 1, 2016, the U.S. government's NTIA is asking stakeholders a number questions, including, "Should the IANA Stewardship Transition be unwound? If yes, why and how? If not, why not?" This is in stark contrast to the NTIA under Larry Strickling (Obama administration) which never solicited stakeholders' opinions before abruptly announcing its IANA transition intentions in March, 2014.

A few days before NTIA published its "notice of inquiry" above, former ICANN staff member Kieren McCarthy wrote about ICANN, the IANA transition and its aftermath (edits and emphasis added):

"... the global internet [ICANN] community did a lousy job, giving ICANN a new-found autonomy in return for a series of worthless accountability measures. Since that handover [IANA transition] on September 30, 2016, two things have become clear:

• ICANN continues to make terrible decisions, and

• European governments have decided that they will use their collective power as the EU [European Union] to force changes on how the internet functions.

"The [ICANN] organization has repeatedly been taken to task for its actions through the mechanism that was designed to keep it accountable: an "independent review panel" or IRP. Yet despite several striking decisions made against ICANN by that panel little or nothing has changed. Among the things that have come out in recent years are: that its own staff repeatedly interfered in independent processes; that it broke its own rules and bylaws to reach a pre-decided conclusion; that it secretly rewrote reports and then lied about it; that staff misled its own board and then claimed otherwise; that its board members lied about looking into allegations; that it hid millions of dollars of payment to Washington lobbyists; and many, many more. For those that have heard of it, the [ICANN] organization has become a shorthand for dysfunction and unaccountable power. It is the internet's FIFA scandal ... what will become of Whois, ICANN and the US-led internet? We should know in the next year ..." 

NTIA Looks to Stakeholders to Help Shape its International Agenda | National Telecommunications and Information Administration | ntia.doc.gov: June 04, 2018 by David J. Redl, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator--"... In a notice of inquiry, we are asking all interested stakeholders – businesses, civil society groups, the technical community, academics, and the general public to provide us with comments and recommendations. The input we receive will inform NTIA's international Internet policy priorities going forward ..."

Notice of inquiry, excerpts:
II. Multistakeholder Approach to Internet Governance
A. Does the multistakeholder approach continue to support an environment for the internet to grow and thrive? If so, why? If not, why not?
B. Are there public policy areas in which the multistakeholder approach works best? If yes, what are those areas and why? Are there areas in which the multistakeholder approach does not work effectively? If there are, what are those areas and why?
C. Are the existing accountability structures within multistakeholder internet governance sufficient? If not, why not? What improvements can be made?
D. Should the IANA Stewardship Transition be unwound? If yes, why and how? If not, why not?
E. What should be NTIA’s priorities within ICANN and the GAC?
F. Are there any other DNS related activities NTIA should pursue? If yes, please describe ...."

"Recognizing the vital importance of the Internet and digital communications to U.S. innovation, prosperity, education, and civic and cultural life, NTIA has made it a top priority to encourage growth and innovation for the Internet and Internet-enabled economy. Towards that end, NTIA is seeking comments and recommendations from all interested stakeholders on its international Internet policy priorities for 2018 and beyond. These comments will help inform NTIA to identify priority issues and help NTIA effectively leverage its resources and expertise to address those issues. Comments are due on or before 5 p.m. Eastern Time on July 2, 2018.

"Written comments may be submitted by email to iipp2018@ntia.doc.gov. Comments submitted by email should be machine-readable and should not be copy-protected. Written comments also may be submitted by mail to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, 1401 Constitution Avenue NW, Room 4725, Attn: Fiona Alexander, Washington, DC 20230." More information here (pdf) embed below:

Former NTIA administrator Larry Strickling, who pushed through the IANA stewardship transition from 2014-2016, over objections and concerns voiced by members of the global internet community, as well as members of the U.S. Congress, maintained that the transition cannot be unwound, in his response to a question asked by ICANN insider (and former ICANN Board Member) Rinalia Abdul Rahim at a sparsely attended "keynote" he gave on June 6, 2018, at EuroDIG 2018, video below:

2) ICANN news

a. Reason #1 why ICANN's new gTLDs are failing, badly:

Source: ntldstats.com

“Any endeavor has unintended consequences. Any ill-conceived endeavor has more”--The Law of Unintended Consequences | fs.blog (emphasis and link added).

Editor's note: as I have noted before: "This is what happens when you design and implement a new gTLDs program founded upon consumer fraud, a .BRAND extortion racket, exploitative pricing power and greed, and ICANN incompetence." Don't whine and complain about "internet fragmentation" if you are (or have been) in a leadership position at ICANN. The worst fragmenting of the internet in its entire history, began with ICANN's irresponsible expansion of TLDs (top-level domains)--more than 1,250 TLDs beginning in 2014, on top of the then existing 22 gTLDs and less than 300 ccTLDs (one 2-character country code for each "country" as primarily determined by ISO 3166--see RFC 1591).  Going forward, there is no way ICANN can responsibly police, by contract or otherwise, the more than 1250+ TLDs it has inflicted upon the global internet community. For a moment, forget about the EU & GDPR, NTIA, INTA and the trademark lawyers that ICANN org is in bed with, do you really think law enforcement agencies throughout the world (almost 200 nations) are going to willingly pay and pick up the costs of policing ICANN's malfeasance, without asserting their sovereign authority and imposing their own controls, jointly, or individually as China is already doing? Ask India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping of China what they think. If you think it doesn't matter what India and China (and all the other non-Western nations) think, you may be as clueless as ICANN.

b. GDPR Effects at ICANN:

GNSO "mind map" Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data - Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP)

• EPDP--Transcript (pdf) & Chat Transcript (pdf) of GNSO Council meeting June 5 with the ICANN Board to discuss next steps following the ICANN's Board adoption of the temporary specification. 

Editor's note: dysfunction. This EPDP process is "top-down," designed and engineered by ICANN org and Board members who are advancing their favored "positions" with the consent of the GNSO leadership--

Stephanie Perrin: the temp spec is an attempt to comply with law. There has been no admission that existing instruments have not complied with law for quite a few years now. I am not optimistic about our chances for clarity in scope if we cannot get a clear picture of which practices enmeshed in contract and policy are not in compliance with law.

Heather Forrest (member of the Intellectual Property Constituency and GNSO Council Chair): @Stephanie - I'm still trying to get my head around how a regional law that does not apply to all the world has this extrajudicial effect of requiring global changes. (source Chat transcript June 5, 2018)

• New gTLD Program Personal Data Privacy Statement | ICANN New gTLDs | ICANN.org

• Redline from the previous version of the New gTLD Program Personal Data Privacy Statement [PDF, 58 KB]
• 6 June 2018 Letter from Akram Atallah [ICANN] to Graeme Bunton (pdf) re ICANN Across Field Address Validation and Privacy & Proxy Services Accreditation Implementation pause.
• Data Protection/Privacy Update: ICANN’s GDPR Efforts with Temporary Specification Now in Effect | ICANN.org 05 Jun 2018.

Editor's note: if you think there was a "lack of clarity" in the German Court ruling rejecting ICANN's request for an injunction against German domain name registrar EPAG, then read what knowledgeable, competent lawyers in the subject matter are saying, see e.g., ICANN loses data-gathering court battle | out-law.com including remarks by Ann Henry, an expert in data protection and intellectual property law at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com. See also 'Data controller' concept expanded by EU court ruling | out-law.com 5 June 2018.

The best #GDPR joke we've heard so far:
He's making a list
He's checking it twice
He's gonna find out who's naughty or nice
Santa Claus is in contravention of article 4 of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU)2016/679

Santa- visit our #GDPR special: https://t.co/xL5tp9JtI7

— Pinsent Masons (@Pinsent_Masons) May 22, 2018

c. Pre-ICANN62 Webinars and Policy Reports

 ICANN62 Panama City, Panama, is June 25-28, 2018.

Pre-ICANN62 90 minute Policy Webinar 12 June 2018 | ICANN.org: Pre-ICANN62 Policy Webinar Tuesday, 12 June 2018 at 10:00 UTC and at 19:00 UTC. The webinar will run in English with simultaneous Spanish interpretation. The presentation materials will be translated into Spanish, and posted following the Webinar with the recordings of the sessions here. Register via this form by 11 June 2018.

Register for the Pre-ICANN62 GNSO Policy Webinar | Generic Names Supporting Organization: Monday, 18 June 2018, 21:00 UTC – 22:30 UTC. Pre-register here. "Remote participation details will be sent the week of 11 June 2018 upon RSVP." More info at link above.

d. ICANN Reserve Fund Replenishment Strategy Response [pdf 33.9 KB] embed below:

e. 2017 & 2018 Reconsideration Requests Status Update 6 June 2018, ICANN.org:

• reconsideration-requests-status-2017-06jun18-en.pdf [107 KB]

• reconsideration-requests-status-2018-06jun18-en.pdf [82 KB]

f.  Second Security, Stability, and Resiliency of the DNS Review (SSR2)--Official restart of the SSR2 5 June 2018--for background see News Review Dec 17, 2017: US Gov NTIA Rebukes ICANN Board of Directors over its interference with SSR2 (re: the ICANN Board's unprecedented and unilateral action of suspending the work of SSR2 Review Team on October 28, 2017).

g. More ICANN New gTLDs' Dysfunction:

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. 5 Ways to Track Down a Domain Owner After GDPR--NamePros.com. [Editor's note: there are even more ways, but this is a good start.]

b. FYI: TucowsDomains.com | Tiered Access (Gated Whois): see also tieredaccess.com.

c. Google Taking action against scammers | blog.google: "... We’ve created a new tool that lets business owners report scammy practices and policy violations, and provide the specific information needed for us to take action against these third parties ... a few things you can do immediately to protect yourself: Verify whether someone is actually reaching out from Google. Often these fraudulent callers will use language like, “Google specialist” or “calling about or on behalf of Google.” To verify whether a caller is actually calling from Google, you can ask that they send you an email from a Google email account to further verify their identity. Anyone who works for Google should be able to send you an email from an @google.com email account. The Google Safety Center outlines additional tips ... There's no way to request or pay for a better local ranking on Google. Any company that claims to be able to do so may be running a scam. If you get an unwanted robocall, hang up the phone. Do not press any key, even if the voice recording prompts you to in order to speak with a live person or to be taken off the call list. Report unwanted callers to Google, and also the FTC or the FCC.  Register your personal number with the [in the U.S.] National Do Not Call Registry (1-888-382-1222) ..."

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

a. Google is a GDPR Winner!--Google is emerging as an early winner from Europe’s new data privacy law reports WSJ.com. Early data shows the digital ad giant is gathering individuals’ consent for targeted ads at far higher rates than other competing online-ad services.

b. EU: Article 13 could "destroy the internet as we know it": What is it, why is it controversial and what will it mean for memes? | Alphr.com: "Critics of the proposed EU directive on copyright warn that it could censor internet users."

c. Iran: Telegram App on Frontline of Iran's Assault on Online Freedom | BloombergQuint.com

d. Best cheap VPNs: Nord, PIA, IPVanish, and more | mashable.com and Best VPN for India | AndroidAuthority.com.

e. IGF 2018 Call for Open Forums | Internet Governance Forum | intgovforum.org: "The IGF Secretariat is now accepting requests to hold Open Forums at the 13th IGF, until a deadline of Friday 29 June 2018, 23:59 UTC. All Governments, treaty-based international organizations, and global organizations with international scope and presence, with operations across regions, dealing with Internet governance-related issues, are invited to submit requests for an Open Forum slot through this e-form. The inclusion of a background paper with the request is strongly encouraged. Open Forums should focus on a Government or organization’s IG-pertinent activities during the past year and allow sufficient time for questions and discussions. The standard duration for the session is 60 minutes. Governments and treaty-based international organizations will be given slots on a priority basis."

5) Most read posts this past week on DomainMondo.com: 

1. News Review | Europe Tells ICANN Again, No GDPR Moratorium

2. Tech Review | Internet Trends 2018, What Mary Meeker Missed

3. Tech Review | Elon Musk Sticking To His Guns On Tesla Targets (video)

4. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google - Fifth Horseman Spotify $SPOT?

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

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