News Review | Corruption at ICANN Metastasizing the Internet?

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-06-09) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) Corruption at ICANN Metastasizing the Internet? 2) ICANN EPDP Phase 2 Meetings, 3) a. IDN Homographs, b. Michael Gleissner, c. Dark Web Domains, 4) ICYMI: a. Data Privacy & Healthcare, b. U.S. v. Assange, c. Internet Freedom? and more, 5) Most Read.

1) Corruption at ICANN Metastasizing the Internet?

a. ".... We are witnessing corruption metastasizing at the root of the Internet at a breakneck pace. ICANN's precocity and opacity with alternative revenue sources is nothing short of remarkable. The spirit of cooperation that exists between ICANN and its largest ratepayer [Verisign] is unseemly, to say the very least. The stakeholder community that was supposed to serve as the check and balance on the ICANN organization has gone AWOL — bought off by the promise of a pittance and sung to sleep by fanciful lullabies of castles in the sky."--Greg Thomas, Managing Director of The Viking Group LLC (vikinginsight.com) (emphasis added) in ICANN and Voodoo Economics in Wonderland | circleid.com.

"... ICANN itself is probably Verisign's biggest "risk factor" -- see Weinstein case ... ICANN insists it is not a "regulator" and it could [and probably will] be replaced by the "global internet community" fed up with ICANN's incompetence [corruption] and shortcomings ("ICANN multistakeholderism does not work" has already become a common refrain in some sectors). ICANN has not had any governmental mandate since the IANA transition in 2016, and Verisign's .COM Registry Agreement with ICANN may not be worth the paper it is printed on, if ICANN is replaced, or a new internet root is adopted by most of the world. That is why the U.S. government refused to sign registry agreements with ICANN for the .MIL and .GOV [g]TLDs after [during] the IANA transition in 2016 (the U.S. maintains it has governmental "sovereignty" over the .GOV and .MIL [g]TLDs due to the anomaly of its historical "stewardship" over the internet.)"--comment on SeekingAlpha.com | VeriSign For A Defensive Strategy (emphasis, link, and [notes] added).

Editor's note: excerpt from transcript of US Senate Hearing Sept 14, 2016, Larry Strickling, NTIA Administrator, testifying:

"So ... the United States does not wish to cede any sovereignty that we may have over .mil and .gov. And that is why we have done this as an exchange of letters. The United States prior to the creation of ICANN, had the complete authority and control over .mil and .gov; that condition exists today and will continue on in the future." 

Later in the same hearing, Paul Rosenzweig testifying:

"But, I am puzzled by the argument that entering into a [registry] contract [with ICANN] about these [.MIL and .GOV gTLDs] is somehow a derogation of sovereignty. I had not heard that until Assistant Secretary Strickling said that earlier today or -- and so, I haven't had the chance to think about that."

Note also this video clip about Verisign's "hostile letter threatening witnesses" delivered just prior to that same hearing. Full video of that US Senate subcommittee hearing here.

b. ICANN and PTI U.S. Tax Returns for Fiscal Year Ending 30 June 2018, excerpts:

ICANN Form 990 (pp. 53-54 of 83) 2017 Calendar Year compensation:

Who's missing? Correct answer here.

PTI FORM 990:  "PTI's vendors are paid by PTI's sole member, ICANN ... during the reportable time period of calendar year 2017, PTI had no employees. ICANN employees performing PTI activities were paid by ICANN, its sole member, and ICANN issued their form W-2. Compensation was reported under PTI as paid by a related organization (ICANN). PTI reimburses ICANN for all employee compensation related to PTI activities." [PTI Form 990 pp.29-30 of 40.]

Editor's note: ICANN spent $15 million in legal fees in connection with the IANA transition, in part to set up PTI as a separate entity apart from ICANN for the "IANA functions." To what end?

PTI FORM 990, PART III, LINE 4A (p.29 of 40):
"PTI is an affiliate of the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN"). PTI was established in August 2016 under the laws of the State of California as a non-profit public benefit corporation and ICANN is its sole member. ICANN is responsible for the performance of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority ("IANA") functions. the IANA functions include the maintenance of the registry of technical internet protocol parameters, the administration of certain responsibilities associated with internet DNS root zone and the allocation of internet numbering resources. Through contracts and subcontracts, ICANN has delegated the performance of the IANA functions to PTI effective October 1, 2016. PTI's sole purpose is the performance of the IANA functions as delegated by ICANN under a direct contract with PTI as well as three subcontracts. through this series of agreements, ICANN is obligated to provide PTI with all funding necessary for PTI to perform the agreements. PTI has no other funding source."

c. Andean Presidential Council's Special Declaration on the use of .AMAZON (pdf):

Editor's note: the above letter should never have had to be written had ICANN acted in the global public interest and done its job properly from the beginning, but as most of us know, ICANN is incompetent, corrupt and unfit. "Sovereignty" is not just a prerogative reserved for the U.S. and China. The .BRAND (i.e., trademark) new gTLDs were an ICANN corruption of the concept of "generic top-level domains" (see RFC1591). A "brand" a/k/a "trademark" is neither a monopoly nor generic. The entire ICANN new gTLDs program was, from the beginning, and still is, ill-conceived and corrupt. It is no surprise that new gTLDs are failing. A report published by afnic.fr this week indicates the future belongs to ccTLDs and .COM [at least as long as .COM is regulated by the U.S. government]:

"... main market trends in 2018: with 142 million names, the .COM remains the market heavyweight. Its market share increased by 0.5 points in 2018, rising from 42.6% to 43.1%, as a result of a growth rate that increased sharply in 2018 (5.2% vs. 2.8% in 2017) ..." --afnic.fr

ICANN has yet to be held accountable for the billions of dollars (US) in capital destruction and malinvestment it has caused through its ill-conceived and corrupt new gTLDs program. Another sad tale (among many) came to light this week: DigitalTown “clean up efforts” to avoid bankruptcy--DomainNameWire.com.

2) ICANN GNSO EPDP Phase 2 | Next EPDP Meeting June 13

Next EPDP Meeting Thursday, June 13, at 14:00 UTC (10am EDT), agenda, etc., here; observers' audiocast / phone (if needed). June 6 meeting notes and action items. Links to the EPDP meetings' recordings and transcripts (when available) are posted on the GNSO calendar. Other EPDP Links: wiki, public mail list, GNSO mail list, worksheets, purposes template (pdf, updated Jun10).

Steve Crocker presentation background document (pdf). Note also: Working Definitions draft June 5, 2019 (pdf)--'access' vs 'disclosure' for third parties-- the EPDP Team failed to come to a "consensual compromise" but the new [updated] revised "working definitions" are here.

EPDP subgroup meetings:

• Monday, 03 June - 14:00-15:30 UTC: Display of information of affiliated vs. accredited privacy / proxy providers; Legal vs natural persons.
• Wednesday, 12 June - 20:00 – 21.30 UTC: City field redaction; Data Retention.

• Monday 17 June – 13:00 – 14:30 UTC: Potential OCTO Purpose; Feasibility of unique contacts to have a uniform anonymized email address.
• TBC (post ICANN65): Accuracy and WHOIS ARS.

See also: 

• EDPS flags data protection issues on EU institutions’ websites--edps.europa.eu.

• Looker & GDPR: Google Cloud To Buy Data Analytics Startup Looker for $2.6B.

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. 10 important academic findings about trademarks from the past 12 months--#8. IDN homograph domain names are a major threat to online brands.

b.  WTR infographic about the trademark activity of Michael Gleissner: 4400 trademark applications and 5300 domain names are linked to Gleissner, who was born in Germany but reportedly now lives in the Philippines.

c. The Dark Web is tiny and unreliable: analysis of 55K onion domains on the Tor network finds only 8,400 had a live site, with many having poor uptimes--recordedfuture.com.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

a. Data Privacy & Healthcare: a primer on complying with U.S. healthcare regulations on data privacy--9 Indispensable Steps to Becoming a HIPAA Hipster | PsychologyToday.com. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act was enacted in 1996 and is applicable to the entire healthcare industry in the U.S.  The most common HIPAA violations are impermissible disclosures of protected health information.

b. U.S. v. Assange: The U.S. Government’s Indictment of Julian Assange Poses a Clear and Present Danger to Journalism, the Freedom of the Press, and Freedom of Speech | eff.org.

c. Internet Freedom?

One of the greatest & most exciting promises of the early internet was its unparalleled freedom of expression, action & exploration unconstrained by Govt & corporate control. Just 2 decades later, it's about begging a handful of tech giants about who should & shouldn't be heard.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) June 1, 2019

d. Hong Kong's Tiananmen vigil attracts record turnout--nikkei.com: "The annual candlelight vigil at Victoria Park drew over 180,000 people this year, according to the organizer, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China. This number ties with the peak year of 2014."

e. Russia: the Russian plan for a “sovereign internet” will use deep packet inspection for censorship and a backup domain name system--FT.com.
•
5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com: 

#1 News Review | ICANN GNSO EPDP Phase 2 Battle Over Definitions

#2 Looker & GDPR | Google Cloud To Buy Data Analytics Startup for $2.6B

#3 Amazon re:MARS Global AI Event, Las Vegas, June 4-7, 2019

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

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News Review | GDPR & ICANN EPDP Phase 2, The Facebook Effect?

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-04-14) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) GDPR & ICANN EPDP Phase 2, The Facebook Effect? 2) ICANN Org & CCWG-IG WSIS Forum 2019 Session re: EPDP, 3) a. ICANN 4.0? ICANN's Broken Model, b. IDN Variant TLDs, c. .AMAZON Redux, d.Read this, 4)a.Trademark FUCT? b. Trademark Basics, c. Jones Day,  d. Legal Fakes & Trademark Squatting, e. Smart Regulation, 5)ICYMI: GDPR & Microsoft, EU Digital Tax, Antitrust & Privacy, 6) Most Read.

1)  GDPR & ICANN EPDP Phase 2, The Facebook Effect?

From the EPDP Mail List (emphasis and link added):
"On geographic differentiation, and on the subject of GDPR compliance generally, I was pleased to see the CEO of Facebook come out in favor of global, non-differentiated privacy protection. In his widely-read blog, Mark Zuckerberg said:

'... effective privacy and data protection needs a globally harmonized framework. People around the world have called for comprehensive privacy regulation in line with the  European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, and I agree. I believe it would be good for the internet if more countries adopted regulation such as GDPR as a common framework.'

"I look forward to seeing Margie [Milam][BC EPDP member] and other FB employees join us in support for a globally harmonized application of GDPR as we enter Phase 2"--Milton Mueller, Professor, Georgia Tech (NCSG EPDP member).

2) ICANN EPDP, GDPR & WHOIS--WSIS Forum 2019 Session 11 Apr 2019

ICANN Org & CCWG IG briefing presented by CCWG IG Chair Olivier Crepin-Leblond, former EPDP Chair Kurt Pritz (remotely), and GNSO Chair Keith Drazek (remotely). Slides from presentation embed below:

Public comment period closes 17 Apr 2019 23:59 UTC on the EPDP (Phase 1) Final Report's recommendations.

See also briefing note (pdf) on the session prepared by Nigel Hickson.

Postscript from the CCWG IG mail list re: organization of an IGF Workshop:

"... EPDP is a piece of ex post facto internal ICANN-esque housekeeping. The time to have had an IGF session on WHOIS Privacy was about two years ago when we all knew about GDPR, except, apparently, GNSO. As of today, We don't know whether the ICANN Board will adopt EDPR, we don’t know whether the outcome will be compatible with GDPR, even if to goes up to the ECJ. For my part I haven’t the faintest idea what to expect from ‘Phase 2’ of EPDP, so I say no more."--Christopher Wilkinson

"I have concerns about the CCWG IG and ICANN Org proposing an IGF workshop on SSR (or on any subject) without adequate coordination and vetting of the proposal, panelists, subject matter, and messaging. I was happy to have been able to jump in and help with today’s WSIS Forum session on the EPDP, but I think we need to be more deliberate in our planning and decision-making around externally-facing engagements. I am not comfortable with proposing this session without sufficient preparation and agreement, neither of which I’ve seen. We’re probably better off not proposing a session at all, rather than scrambling to fit something in at the 11th hour."--Keith Drazek, GNSO Chair

3) Other ICANN News

a. ICANN 4.0? ICANN's Broken Model

ICANN is a boken model I vote for ICANN 4.0. No ICANN.

— J. Scott Evans (@_jscottevans) April 6, 2019

"ICANN is a b[r]oken model, I vote for ICANN 4.0. No ICANN"--J. Scott Evans is a "Trademark Titan and Adobe Rockstar" and past president of INTA, the International Trademark Association.

Editor's note: I agree, "ICANN is a broken model"--

b. Managing IDN Variant TLDs: Letter (pdf) of 08 April 2019 from ICANN GDD Sr. VP Cyrus Namazi to ccNSO Chair Kartina Sataki and GNSO Chair Keith Drazek, excerpt:

"... the ICANN Board approved a set of Recommendations for Managing Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Variant Top-Level Domains (TLDs) on 14 March 2019 and requested that the ccNSO  and GNSO take these recommendations into account while developing their respective policies to define and manage IDN variant labels for current and future TLDs. The ICANN Board has also requested that the ccNSO and GNSO keep each other informed of their progress in developing the relevant details of their policies and procedures to ensure that a consistent solution, based on these IDN variant TLD recommendations, is developed for IDN variant ccTLDs and gTLDs ..."

c. .AMAZON Redux

08 April 2019 Letter from ICANN Board Chair Cherine Chalaby to Amb. Alexandra Moreira Lopez (pdf) re: new gTLD applications for .AMAZON, excerpt:

"... the 7 April 2019 deadline has now passed, and the ICANN Board has not received either a mutually agreed-upon proposal for a solution or a joint request for an extension of the 7 April 2019 deadline. Therefore, the Board will proceed with next steps, as laid out in the resolution quoted below, which calls on the Amazon corporation to submit by 21 April 2019 a proposal for how it will address the ACTO member states’ concerns regarding the .AMAZON applications ..."

UPDATE: ICANN Letter 15 April 2019 re Proposed Extension of Time to 7 June 2019.

As I said last week:
Editor's note: the idea of having private .BRAND gTLDs was a mistake from the beginning, a corruption of the concept of generic top-level domains (gTLDs) as set forth in RFC 1591 written by Jon Postel, which predates the formation of ICANN and its "Californication" of the internet and global DNS. I'm with the South American countries. ICANN should do the "right thing" for once and end the .BRAND gTLD program, refund the application fees, and "undelegate" all .BRAND gTLDs from the internet "root," while allowing every owner of a distinctive trademark to block use of that mark as a gTLD in the future. [End the ICANN extortion racket -- see .PING testimony.]

d. Read this ICANN Org: Working together when we’re not together | blog.google--We were happy to find no difference in the effectiveness, performance ratings, or promotions for individuals and teams whose work requires collaboration with colleagues around the world versus Googlers who spend most of their day to day working with colleagues in the same office. See also Google's Distributed Work Playbooks (pdf).

4) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Trademark FUCT? (domain: fuct.com): U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari January 4, 2019, and will hear oral arguments April 15, 2019, and decide whether "Section 1052(a)'s prohibition on the federal registration of "immoral" or "scandalous" marks is facially invalid under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment." U.S. Supreme Court Case: 18-302 IANCU V. BRUNETTI.

b. Don’t Ignore Trademark Basics--finnegan.com: "... Trademark registrations protect your name, or logo, or in some cases the shape of your product ... A trademark registration can also be a useful tool in takedown procedures on social media, recovering a domain name, and preventing import of counterfeit products ..."

c. ICANN's outside legal counsel, Jones Day (jonesday.com), has been named the strongest law firm brand in the United States for the third year in a row per this year’s Acritas US Law Firm Brand Index, with Skadden (skadden.com) gaining to a close second. All top U.S. law firm brands listed in the Acritas Index use a .COM domain name exclusively as their primary domain.

d. Trademarks & 'Legal Fakes'--how to steal a brand by trademarking it in other jurisdictions--Trademark Squatting: 

• Foreign Trademarks, Legal Feuds and Fake News: Supreme v. Supreme Italia--thefashionlaw.com. 

• Bird & Bird | The Phenomenon of "Legal Fakes": A Supreme Contradiction? (pdf): "... One of the more common ways in which a brand might be regarded as a "legal fake" is when the "fake" brand obtains a trade mark registration in a market where the original has yet to expand into, or obtain trade mark registrations in. Intellectual property rights are territorial in nature, and registering a trademark in a country typically does not automatically grant one a global monopoly to use that trademark – the protection does not extend beyond the border of the country where it was granted. Many jurisdictions, including Singapore, adopt the first-to-file system, instead of the first-to-use system. This means that, generally speaking, an applicant who registers the trademark first would obtain an earlier, and therefore better, right on the trade mark register ..."

e. Smart regulation for combating illegal content--blog.google: "... we support refinement of notice-and-takedown regimes, but we have significant concerns about laws that would mandate proactively monitoring or filtering content, impose overly rigid timelines for content removal, or otherwise impose harsh penalties even on those acting in good faith. These types of laws create a risk that platforms won’t take a balanced approach to content removals, but instead take a “better safe than sorry” approach—blocking content at upload or implementing a “take down first, ask questions later (or never)” approach. We regularly receive overly broad removal requests, and analyses of cease-and-desist and takedown letters have found that many seek to remove potentially legitimate or protected speech ..."

See also:

• European Union plans to fine Facebook, Google, Twitter and other online platforms if they fail to remove extremist content within one hour.

• Official EU Agencies Falsely Reported Terrorist Content on more than 550 archive.org URLs--blog.archive.org.

5) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

GDPR: EU Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) announces investigation of Microsoft products:

"... The EDPS investigation will therefore assess which Microsoft products and services are currently being used by the EU institutions, and whether the contractual arrangements concluded between Microsoft and the EU institutions are fully compliant with data protection rules. Regulation 2018/1725 brings the data protection rules applicable to the EU institutions in line with the rules for other organisations and businesses operating in the EU, set out in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). As the data protection supervisory authority for the EU institutions, the EDPS is not only responsible for monitoring their compliance, but also for ensuring public awareness of any possible risks to individual and societal rights and freedoms in relation to the processing of personal data, and for working in close cooperation with national data protection authorities and other relevant national bodies to mitigate these risks. It is in this spirit of cooperation that the EDPS takes note of the Data Protection Impact Assessment Report on diagnostic data in Microsoft Office ProPlus of 5 November 2018, commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. Any EU institutions using the Microsoft applications investigated in this report are likely to face similar issues to those encountered by national public authorities, including increased risks to the rights and freedoms of individuals ..."

EU Digital Tax: EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager: Europe must lead the way with a digital tax if there is insufficient consensus globally.

EU Antitrust: Google and Facebook’s Next Big Fight--the EU regulator nicknamed “Mr. GDPR” wants to go way beyond privacy and into antitrust. "The linking of these two things should worry the tech giants."--bloomberg.com.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urged by Senators. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) to "take action" against Facebook and Google over possible antitrust and data privacy violations.--thehill.com. See also The Privacy Project | nytimes.com.

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

1. News Review 1) ICANN GNSO EPDP for gTLD Registration Data UPDATES

2. Tech Review | Crypto & Blockchain Investing: 'Don't Buy Bitcoin, Do This'

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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News Review | EPDP (Draft) Final Report to ICANN GNSO Council Feb 11

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-02-10 with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) EPDP (Draft) Final Report to ICANN GNSO Council Feb 11, 2) Other ICANN news: IDN Variants, gTLD Security Threats, TSG, Board Report, 3) Verisign $VRSN, Tucows $TCX, and more, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read.

1) EPDP Final Report (latest version) to ICANN GNSO Council Feb 11  

Click on the graphic above to read or download the EPDP Final Report (latest version)

UPDATES Feb 14: GNSO Council Extraordinary meeting 21:00 UTC (4pm EST in US). 
Item 3: COUNCIL DISCUSSION – Final Report of the Expedited Policy Development Process on the ICANN Board Temporary Specification on gTLD Registration Data (50 minutes).

"... we will receive an update from the EPDP WG Leadership and have an opportunity as Council to ask questions, discuss the report, next steps, etc. We will then plan to vote on the Final Report on 21 February, or during another special Council meeting scheduled for 4 March, if needed. Voting before ICANN65 will allow the GAC to consider an approved Final Report during its face-to-face meetings in Kobe, allow for a 40-day public comment period, and give the ICANN Board sufficient time to consider the report and public comments before approving in advance of the May 25 expiration of the Temp Spec. Accordingly, there is no room for a deferral beyond the 4 March meeting."--GNSO Chair Keith Drazek (RySG - Verisign)

GNSO Council Meeting Audio Cast via browser or app. Transcripts and recordings on GNSO Calendar. February 14 Meeting Agenda embed below:

• Margie Milam (EPDP member, BC - Facebook) email Feb 14: "... Since there was consensus to publish the Initial Report, the Council should have simply notified the EPDP Team in November that it had no objection to proceeding to Phase 2.  Indeed, this reference to the Initial Report confirms that there was no intent to wait until consensus for the Final Report. In our view,  it is problematic to change the interpretation of the Charter midstream during the EPDP’s deliberations for those stakeholder groups and constituencies that relied on this interpretation of the Charter ... Per the charter, work on an access model should have begun late last year.  Instead this work has been deferred to Phase 2 of the team’s work.  What is unclear is when the EPDP team will take up its remaining responsibilities under the charter and produce an actual “final” report - – which must occur prior to the expiration of the Temp Spec on May 25, 2019. We hope this helps clarify our thoughts as the Council considers these procedural issues in its call later today.  We’d like to encourage the Council to ask the EDPD Leadership to create a timeline for producing the Final Report -Part II that brings the work to a close in an expedited manner."
• Response to Milam's email above from Milton Mueller (EPDP member, NCSG - Georgia Tech).
• Response to Milam's email above from GNSO Chair Keith Drazek.

UPDATES Feb 12:

• Margie Milam (EPDP member, BC - Facebook) email Feb 12: "... I am genuinely confused about the directions given to the GNSO Council since this report – although it is misnamed a “Final Report” is really only an “Phase 1 Interim Report” since the PDP has not concluded, and the charter questions have not been answered.  As a result, is seems that the voting thresholds to create a consensus policy and the vote required under the Bylaws do not yet apply until the Phase 2 work is complete. I understand the desire to call this a Final Report, but  there is a significant amount of work that has not been done yet, as outlined in the draft report being circulated, with key areas missing ..." (emphasis added)
• Response to the above from GNSO Chair Keith Drazek via EPDP email Feb 12.
• ICANN staff email to EPDP: "... any statements that your group want to see accompany the Final Report need to be submitted by Friday at the latest. As a reminder, even if your group supports the recommendations and consensus designations, groups have the ability to submit statements that are to accompany the Final Report ..."
• EPDP Consensus Call - Bundle #3 (pdf) embed below: "... Bundle 3 of the consensus designations. As some items are still in discussion or newly minted, I have held off assigning a designation to those. To make it clear, I have created two separate tables (3A and 3B). I have taken a conservative approach in holding back a final designation where we have not received feedback on final wording. However, I do think we have agreement on nearly all of these and look forward to closing them out by the end of this week. Please comment on Table 3A by the end of this week if you disagree or wish to discuss the level of consensus indicated. Please use Table 3B  to consider your response so that we can request a rapid turnaround on that table when it is issued."--Kurt Pritz, EPDP Chair Feb 12, 2018 (EPDP Mail List). 

EPDP Consensus Call Bundle #3:

Original Post:
As indicated in an update in last week's News Review, the EPDP 'drop dead date' was extended to  Feb 25. The EPDP working group is now scheduled to submit a "draft" (latest version) of its "Final Report" (Phase 1) to the GNSO Council on Monday, February 11, after one last EPDP plenary meeting that same day (details further below, including revised timeline).

"... it was completely unrealistic to think that under the current pressure we would come up with something. Some of us said that from the get-go. Turns out we were right even if we worked in good faith. So we should consider anything we get in an interim policy as success. We've got a lot more mapping done. We've got a lot more of the issues out. This is a slow process, correcting 20 years of inattention. And I think one of the most important products that we can include in that interim policy is a list of things that we've already identified as needing revision to be compliant with GDPR."--Stephanie Perrin, EPDP member and NCSG Chair, Toronto EPDP F2F, Jan 18, 2019, transcript (pdf), p.58.

EPDP Plenary Meeting Monday Feb 11, 2019 at 14:00 UTC (9am EST). Updates: Chat transcript  (pdf), and action items from Monday's meeting,

Observers use Adobe Connect, or audiocast via browser / app. No other EPDP plenary meetings are currently scheduled for this coming week (see EPDP Revised Timeline below). Updates: Adobe recording and MP3.

Links: EPDP Draft Final Report, the EPDP Initial Report (pdf) and public comments to the Initial Report; PCRT Public Comment Review Tool; GNSO Council EPDP page and updates; links to EPDP meeting transcripts and recordings are on the GNSO calendar. Other EPDP links: wiki; mail list; action items; Temp Spec; EPDP Charter (pdf); Data Elements Workbooks (pdf), packet (pdf) small team agreements, ICANN's legal memo on Controllership (pdf), Bird & Bird legal memos are here. EPDP legal mail list (latest Bird & Bird advice on data 'accuracy').

EPDP Team Proposed Timeline (Feb 11-March 4) updated Feb 4:

EPDP recap for week ending Feb 9: EPDP plenary meetings Feb 5, Feb 6, Feb 7, Data Elements group Feb 5. [Editor's note: Legal committee Feb 6 cancelled.]  Highlights:

EPDP Mail List Feb 5, 2019: Proposed Revised "Registration Data" Definition
"... The Temp Spec  contains this definition:  "Registration Data" means data collected from a natural and legal person in connection with a domain name registration." The "in connection with" language is so broad and vague that it could be interpreted to data that registrars and registries would not consider to be registration data such as billing data, account creation data, and the like. RySG [gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group] proposes to revise the definition to reference the relevant data elements:  "Registration Data" means the data elements identified in Annex [X], collected from a natural and legal person in connection with a domain name registration."  (Annex [X] would then identify the relevant data elements, as carried over from the whatever becomes the final version of Recommendation 4) ... "--Kristina Rosette, Senior Corporate Counsel, IP - Domains, Amazon.com, Inc. (RySG).

Feb 5: Kurt Pritz, EPDP Chair (appointed by GNSO Council): "... And question two will demonstrate how far out of my depth I am but you know ..."

Feb 5: Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): " ... any reference to contracts and Bylaws, needs a thorough review, as some policies/contracts/ and even the Bylaws could use an assessment under the GDPR ..."

Feb 5: Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "As I have said over and over and over again.....we need to have a very clear understanding of who is the controller, and what data processing activities are under whose control. If we have that clear understanding, it has somehow escaped me."

Feb 5: Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "'Abandon all hope ye who enter here' ought to have been inscribed over the top of our charter ..."

Feb 6: Alan Woods (RySG - Donuts): "To channel Stephanie Perrin .... Thick WHOIS is dead ..... The Minimum data set is the new normal."

For more on last week's meetings see last week's News Review.

Related: To counter the GDPR (European Union's General Data Protection Regulation), Coalition for a Secure and Transparent Internet (CSTI), a coalition that includes DomainTools.com, CINTOC.org, MPAA.org, and others, is reportedly meeting with lawmakers in Washington, D.C., in an effort to pass a U.S. law requiring public WHOIS data for all websites 'designed to interact with U.S. citizens.'

2) Other ICANN News

a. Recommendations for Managing Internationalized Domain Name [IDN] Variant Top-Level Domains Published--ICANN.org 05 Feb 2019.

b. ICANN Publishes the First Monthly Report on Generic Top-Level Domain SecurityThreats--ICANN.org 04 Feb 2019.

c. Technical Study Group [TSG] Makes Progress at First Face-to-Face Meeting | ICANN.org 04 Feb 2019: "... the ICANN organization [would] serve as the sole entity receiving authorized queries for non-public registration data, obtaining such data from generic top-level domain (gTLD) registries and registrars, and then passing that data to the third-party requestor. The TSG's aim is to develop a technical design and specification that could be used by implementors to determine whether a unified access model would be possible under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation  [GDPR] ... The group also agreed on several assumptions, detailed in our updated charter. We confirmed that the group's work will be built upon the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) and will utilize the gTLD RDAP profile currently under discussion; that gaining access to non-public registration data would be centralized within the ICANN org ... We will explain all these in detail when we produce our final technical model ... We are all coming to the ICANN64 meeting in Kobe, where we plan to hold a community workshop to present our work and solicit your feedback ,,."  See ICANN's Technical Study Group on Access to Non-Public Registration Data | ICANN.org.

d. ICANN Org Report to the ICANN Board of Directors, Jan 2019 (pdf)

 Office of the CEO: "The ICANN org Executive Team is working diligently and making progress on a variety of key projects, including the Information Transparency Initiative (ITI), Open Data Initiative, development of the FY21-25 Operating Plan, creation of a unified access model for non-public registration data that is compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ... Since the October resignation of Akram Atallah, President of the Global Domains Division (GDD), I’ve been working with the Executive Team to determine how to handle his responsibilities going forward ... I continue to keep a close eye on the development of a proposed governance model for the Domain Name System (DNS) root server system."

[Editor's note: 2 letters of correspondence to ICANN included under 3) below.]

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

• Verisign $VRSN Q4 2018 Earnings: "In the fourth quarter, Verisign processed 9.5 million new domain name registrations for .com and .net, as compared to 9.0 million for the same quarter in 2017." More at the link above.

• Tucows $TCX Q4 2018 Financial Results and Recorded Call: Wednesday, February 13, 2019 at 5:05 P.M. EST--tucows.com. "In lieu of a live question and answer period, for the next five days (until Monday, February 18), shareholders, analysts and prospective investors can submit questions to Tucows’ management at 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 Tuesday, February 26 at approximately 4:00 p.m. ET. All questions will receive a response, however, questions of a more specific nature may be responded to directly." News Release | KPI Summary 2018 (pdf) | Financial Statement (pdf). Editor's note: the KPI Summary indicates Tucows' "Domain Services" business is declining. Earnings Call transcript.

• 04 Feb 2019 Letter from TUCOWS Reg Levy to ICANN Maguy Serad re: Tucows' Change of Registrant (COR) Process, excerpt: "... We respectfully submit that we have attempted to work with ICANN Contractual Compliance regarding our implementation of our contractual duties to no avail. We ask that you close this ticket, accepting that we are at an impasse and that there is no breach, merely a difference of opinion about how to best protect registrants and a divergence of opinion regarding contractual requirements that are vague."

• GoDaddy & Spammers: thousands of dormant domains hijacked for spam simply by registering free accounts at GoDaddy and telling the company’s automated DNS service to allow sending of email with those domains from a spammer's internet address--krebsonsecurity.com.

• Chrome browser lookalike detection feature battles URL imposters--nakedsecurity.sophos.com.

• 01 Feb 2019 Letter from MARQUES Nick Wood to ICANN Cherine Chalaby (pdf) re ICANN's Review of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), excerpt: "We believe that there should be no changes to the UDRP ...."

• Exec sacked after changing domain name from .org to .com without boss's permission--dailymail.co.uk: "We set up the website eight years earlier, and over that time we worked to make sure our website was at the top of search engines. If we changed the website domain it would be like starting at zero again ..."

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

• That German-French Deal to "Rescue" the EU Copyright Directive? Everyone Hates It. EVERYONE--eff.org.

• Google  censoring its search results in Russia--themoscowtimes.com.

• Tech lobby takes India to task over plans to police online content--reuters.com.

• Internet shutdowns violate human rights--mg.co.za.

• Blocking of VPNs in India and China spells trouble for our internet freedom--techradar.com.

• Why your online privacy matters, even if you have nothing to hide--techly.com.au.

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

1. News Review | ICANN EPDP Dysfunction & Burnout, Report Delayed

2. Tech Review | Analysts Giving Up On Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency

3. Alphabet $GOOG $GOOGL Q4 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast REPLAY

4. Fintech Startup BABB Peer-to-Peer Banking Services (video)

5. Two Internets, One For Chinese Apps and One for U.S. Apps? (video)

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

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