News Review: GDPR, EPDP Dysfunction, ICANN's Flawed Temp Spec

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-09-16) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) GDPR, EPDP Dysfunction, ICANN's Flawed Temp Spec, 2) Other ICANN news: a.GDPR Webinar, b. BAMC, c. .PHARMACY breach, 3) Names, Domains & TMs: a) PIR Registry, b.Namecheap, 4) ICYMI: China, EU, Google, Blockchain & Internet Freedom, 5) Most Read.

UPDATE Sep 17, 2018: ICANN Loses Again in Appellate Court in Germany

ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH (EPAG is a Tucows affiliate)--Appellate Court of Cologne: "The plea of remonstrance of 17 August 2018 filed by the Applicant [ICANN] concerning the order of the Senate of 1 August 2018 (19 W 32/18) is rejected with costs." (English translation)
Full Order in German here (pdf), full English translation here (pdf). ICANN's comment following the Court's Order: "ICANN is continuing to evaluate its next steps in light of this ruling, including possible additional filings before the German courts ..."

1) GDPR, EPDP Dysfunction, ICANN's Flawed Temp Spec 

ICANN EPDP Team Meetings coming up: Tuesday Sep 18, and Thursday Sep 20, 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.

>EPDP Team Meeting Thursday Sep 20, 2018 (link to meeting wiki page, slides (embed below), agenda, and documents), Adobe Connect recording, MP3, meeting transcript (pdf), notes and action items, chat transcript (pdf) embed below.

Chat transcript 9/20:

>GDPR Q&A session with Becky Burr for EPDP Team, Wednesday, 19 Sep 2018, 13:00 UTC  9:00am EDT: Q&A Google doc, Adobe Connect recording, MP3, transcript, chat transcript (pdf), Burr's slides (pdf).

>EPDP Team Meeting Tuesday Sep 18, 2018 (link to meeting wiki page, slides, agenda, and documents). Adobe Connect recording, MP3, transcript (pdf), Chat transcript (pdf) embed below, and Sep 18 meeting notes and action items.

UPDATES Sep 17, 2018: 
a. Sep 17 CBI and EPDP Team Meeting: chat transcript (pdf), Adobe Recording, MP3, transcript  (pdf). Editor's note: Let's all take a deep breath and kumbaya together next week in LA!

Thomas Rickert: "We are trying to fix a document (Temp Spec) that can hardly be fixed."

b. EPDP Team weekly update to GNSO Council (pdf) filed Sep 17, excerpts:

"In response to the question regarding how the EPDP Team’s work plan corresponds with the charter questions, the EPDP Team agendas will now include the corresponding charter questions."

"The EPDP Leadership elected to retain CBI to provide mediation and facilitation services. Mediators from CBI, who specialize in multi-stakeholder negotiation and mediation, will attend the F2F session in Los Angeles to assist the EPDP Team in making progress."

"Risk: Due the expedited timeline and associated workload, EPDP team members are struggling to provide requested input within the requested timeframe. The work plan assigns topics for each scheduled EPDP call, but the time allocated is not enough, as more discussions are needed per EPDP team members requests. This is impacting the current work plan as we have delays regarding sections, e.g., section 4.4. Attempts are made to have follow-up deliberations in mailing lists and via homework too. F2F in LA is also aimed for making more steady progress on several areas/sections and the end of it we will have a better idea if we are are able to deliver following the timeline." 

"The Team will meet with the CBI mediators on Monday, 17 September to provide input on structure and agenda for the F2F meeting in Los Angeles. On Wednesday, 19 September, Becky Burr will lead a GDPR Q&A session; accordingly, EPDP Team Members were asked to complete the IT Governance training in advance of the session with Becky Burr. The Team will continue deliberating on § 4.4 (Legitimate Purposes for Processing), review an updated data element matrix provided by Thomas Rickert and the Support Team, and begin deliberating on Appendix A (Registration Data Directory Services)." 

EPDP Highlights from last week:

EPDP Team Timeline

Kurt Pritz (the inept EPDP Chair appointed by the GNSO Council): "So here’s you know, a timeline [see above] – this is the timeline that wakes me up at three o’clock in the morning every day and so we’ll target, we’ll – for the LA meeting [Sep 24-27] we’ll target certain items that will require closure or close to closure by the end of the LA meeting so we’d meet our timeframes."--9/13 meeting transcript (pdf), p. 4. [Editor's note: Kurt Pritz has been 'out of his depth' from day one as EPDP Chair. My impression is that Pritz has largely deferred to ICANN staff in determining EPDP meeting agendas and the path of the EPDP Team thus far. Indicative of his "leadership style" is the fact that Pritz thinks he can watch TV shows and chair EPDP Team meetings at the same time! 8/30 meeting transcript, p.2]

"Yes, there is a plan to have a facilitator [mediator] attending the F2F [face-to-face] meeting in LA  and helping us there."--Rafik Dammak, GNSO Council Liaison. [Editor's note: Dammak and Pritz,  are the dynamic duo known as the "Leadership Team" of the EPDP Team or working group (WG). My impression is that, in actuality, Dammak exercises "no leadership," deferring instead to Pritz, who is deferring to ICANN staff, who most likely are deferring to ICANN's incompetent management team. This is just one more example of how dysfunctional, ICANN, and its policy processes, really are.]

"The EPDP Team should have been consulted before this [GDPR training] course was selected. We need training that addresses the very real skills gap that has delayed our work over the past few weeks; the 45-minute course that has been made available to us is too generic to be useful, and this should have been obvious to Leadership."--Ayden Férdeline (NCSG) member of both the GNSO Council and the EPDP Team. [Editor's note: nothing is "obvious" to inept "Leadership." ]

"... the inadequacy of the [GDPR] training provided [by ICANN] will contribute to the overall failure of this EPDP. It will not be the only factor, but it will be one that was within our control to correct."--Ayden Férdeline (NCSG). [Editor's note: When you have a GNSO Council member and EPDP Team member talking in early September about why this EPDP will fail, it's an obvious sign that "something is wrong."]

Keith Drazek (RySG Council Member) on the GNSO Council mail list Sep 11:

"I have joined a couple of the recent EPDP WG calls as an observer, and I have a few observations and questions we should consider. From a Council “process management” perspective, these are intended to be constructive in the hopes of ensuring success of the EPDP:

"Following the Triage exercise, the EPDP working group does not appear to be working toward answering the [gating] questions contained in the Charter in a systematic way. What was the decision process behind not following the Charter questions? When will the group return to the Charter questions? What does the WG leadership see as the ultimate outcome of this EPDP, and what do we as [GNSO] Council expect the deliverable to be? Rather than focusing on the gating questions enumerated in the Charter, the WG has been engaged in a Temp Spec red-lining exercise.  Is our expected deliverable a list of policy recommendations or a revised version of the Temporary Specification? Or both?  We should all be clear on the expected deliverable. After 12 meetings and the Triage process, there doesn’t appear to be much progress toward consensus. It seems that different groups keep restating their positions with little variation when it comes to discussing purposes. Does leadership have a plan for breaking through this and moving the ball forward? Do we as Council need to provide additional guidance or clarification? Noting that the discussion on many calls seems to meander, it might be helpful for leadership and staff to identify a goal or goals that the day’s discussion is meant to achieve, and to communicate such goal(s) to the WG prior to the call along with the agenda. Have leadership and staff developed a plan for how to structure the face-to-face meeting in Los Angeles later this month? ..."

Editor's note: the only response to Keith Drazek's cogent comments above, posted on the GNSO Council mail list, was this by Rafik Dammak, to which Keith Drazek responded Friday:

“… In creating the charter, the drafting team recognized the complexity of what the working group was being asked to do and the tight timeframe involved, and so deliberately laid out the charter questions in the mission and scope section to guide the working group through the questions it would need to answer and the steps it would need to follow to develop consensus policy recommendations to address the temporary specification.

“Am I correct in understanding your response that the [EPDP] leadership team and support staff have made the decision not to follow the path laid out in the charter? It appears, instead, that the working group is going through and deliberating on each section of the temporary specification which, as you put it, is likely to produce both redlines and policy recommendations.

“You referenced the “Discussion Summary Index” found on the working group wiki page.  While these documents contain the temporary specification language, relevant advice from DPA/EDPB correspondence, input from the triage exercise and a mapping to related charter question(s), it is not clear how those summaries are being used to help guide the group toward consensus.

“Noting the work and project plan on the working group wiki page, I’d like to understand the rationale behind deliberating section by section through the temporary specification instead of following the charter questions.

“Finally, I am concerned with the part of your response where you say the working group still needs to figure out what the outcome of the EPDP should be.  How can the group organize its work if they do not know what they are working towards as a deliverable?  I’d appreciate an update to Council from you or Kurt [Pritz] on this matter specifically.” (emphasis added)

[Editor's note: Keith Drazek is VP of Policy & Government Relations at VeriSign, which is the world's largest domain name registry operator (.COM, .NET, etc.), manager of 2 of the world's 13 "root servers" and Root Zone Maintainer. Any response to Drazek from the EPDP "leadership team" posted on the GNSO Council mail list in the next few days, will be linked or added here as an update [see Sep 17 UPDATE above]. I am surprised that neither Rafik Dammak nor Kurt Pritz have shared Drazek's emails with the EPDP Team (EPDP working group), since both emails raise fundamental questions about the EPDP Team's work plan and processes to date, and also question the judgment of EPDP leadership and ICANN staff in not following the Charter (gating questions). There are only 2 EPDP meetings left before the Los Angeles F2F meeting Sep 24-27. A professional facilitator will be of little help if the EPDP Team's fundamental processes and work plan are unsound or "off the rails."]

Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "I would like to reiterate my request to have Peter Kimpian from the COE [Council of Europe] join this group as an independent expert. We are discussing purpose without the benefit of how the DPAs view purpose. It would be helpful to have that perspective." 

Ayden Férdeline (NCSG):+1 Stephanie - the input of the COE would be invaluable. 

Benedict Addis (SSAC):+1 Stephanie, was at COE last week and they are very sensible and knowledgeable. Chat transcript 9/11 meeting, p.6. [Editor's note: it appears that neither EPDP leadership nor ICANN management and staff want any expert guidance from Dr. Peter Kimpian or any other European GDPR expert, since Ms. Perrin's repeated requests have been repeatedly rebuffed and ignored.]

Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "I thought the Charter was pretty clear on this. We have not answered the gating questions." Chat transcript 9/11, supra. [Editor's note: Ms. Perrin raises the same issue as Keith Drazek above--the dysfunctional and inept EPDP leadership not following the EPDP Charter--the "gating questions" are threshold questions.]

Thomas Rickert (ISPCP): "The root cause of this discussion is that we have a document (Temp Spec) that is badly written and structured as a basis for our discussion. The more I listen to these discussions (that do not take us anywhere) the more I think we need to divorce our discussions from the Temp Spec. We need to discuss a lot of points in the right sequence and I am sure that a legal and analytical approach will make even those happy that want Appendix C included."

farzaneh badii (NCSG):Totally Agree Thomas. 

Amr Elsadr (NCSG):@Thomas: +1.

Chat transcript 9/ll, supra. [Editor's note: Thomas Rickert is a German lawyer and lead counsel for Tucows affiliate, EPAG, in litigation filed by ICANN in Germany, in which ICANN has been the losing party, at every level, thus far.]

Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "I have my hand up. The points I want to make are: 1) I do not recall agreeing to a framework for disclosure. We are not there yet. 2) Whatever happened to answering the gating questions before we get to Appendix C?" Chat transcript 9/11, supra.

Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "... by starting with what I would argue is a fundamentally flawed temporary spec, we are trying to fix things that do not approach the problem of data protection as it applies to registrant data in the logical way that a data controller – a data supervisor is going to look at this ..." 9/13 meeting transcript, p. 21 of 44 (pdf).

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

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

Note also:
a. ccTLD .nz Regulator Obtains Preliminary Injunction Against Domain Tools (pdf):

"Plaintiff is a New Zealand non-profit corporation that regulates the use of the .nz top level domain, including registering new domain names and responding to inquiries regarding registrants. Defendant collects domain and registrant information from around the world, stores the information, and uses its current and historic databases to sell monitoring and investigative services and products to the public. Plaintiff alleges that the way defendant accessed, stores, and/or uses .nz domain and registrant information constitutes a breach of contract and violates the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and the Washington Consumer Protection Act. It seeks a preliminary injunction precluding defendant from accessing the .nz register, downloading .nz data into its own database, and publishing certain .nz data (including all historical information). Defendant
opposes the motion and seeks discovery it deems critical to its ability to respond to the request for preliminary relief ....

"... plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction (Dkt. # 2) is GRANTED and defendant’s motion for expedited discovery (Dkt. # 9) is DENIED. Defendant DomainTools, LLC, and its officers, agents, servants, employees, and all others acting in active concert with them who receive actual notice of this order are hereby enjoined from accessing the .nz register while DomainTools’ limited license remains revoked and/or publishing any .nz register data DomainTools had stored or compiled in its own databases while this action remains pending or until further order of the Court."

• ICANN Acronyms and Terms | ICANN.org: Registrant: "an individual or entity who registers a domain name. Upon registration of a domain name, a registrant enters into a contract with a registrar. The contract describes the terms under which the registrar agrees to register and maintain the requested name. After registration, registrants manage their domain name settings through their registrar. To modify a setting, a registrant submits the changes to the registrar, and the registrar sends the change to the registry."

• Google, Apple, Amazon execs to testify before the US Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Sep 26, 2018, on  consumer data privacy, scheduled witnesses (subject to change):

Mr. Len Cali, Senior Vice President—Global Public Policy, AT&T Inc.
Mr. Andrew DeVore, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Amazon.com, Inc.
Mr. Keith Enright, Chief Privacy Officer, Google LLC
Mr. Damian Kieran, Global Data Protection Officer and Associate Legal Director, Twitter, Inc.
Mr. Guy (Bud) Tribble, Vice President for Software Technology, Apple Inc.
Ms. Rachel Welch, Senior Vice President, Policy & External Affairs, Charter Communications, Inc.

"The time is right to modernize our federal rules and develop a national framework for consumer privacy."--Internet Association, which represents more than 40 major internet and technology firms including Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft. Michael Beckerman, president and chief executive officer of the Internet Association, said “we definitely want to get this in place [and preempt state laws] prior to California [new Consumer Privacy law effective Jan 1, 2020] because California got it wrong.”

• BSA, the Software Alliance releases its privacy framework. (pdf).

• Google Knows Where You’ve Been, but Does It Know Who You Are? | NYTimes.com.
• Mozilla co-founder's Brave files complaint against Google--Petitioners "want to trigger an article in the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requiring an EU-wide investigation, making it a test case for a new European Data Protection Board."--reuters.com.

2) Other ICANN News

a. ICANN will hold a webinar on 26 September 2018 from 15:00 to 16:00 UTC to provide an update on recent ICANN data protection/privacy activities related to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Join via Adobe Connect (dial-in info). More information here.

b. Minutes of the ICANN Board Accountability Mechanisms Committee (BAMC) Meeting 04 Sep 2018: new gTLDs .MERCK, .HALAL, .ISLAM, .PERSIANGULF; and litigation update.

c. New gTLD .PHARMACY--ICANN Notice of Breach status:

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

Editor's note: 2 recent announcements I couldn't wedge into last week's News Review:

a. PIR Registry (pir.org), registry operator of .org .ngo .ong: Big Changes Coming Up To Our Registrar Products: "... we won’t be offering any further volume discounts when the current agreements expire. While volume discounts are a long established product offered by many registries, they clearly favor larger registrars as only the larger registrars can reach the volumes necessary to qualify for the discount. We don’t think this is fair and we want all our products in the future to be equally accessible to registrars of all sizes. The second change is that we’re going to measure the success of our products on more key performance indicators than just the number of creates they produce ... we’re going to look at the quality of the new registrations generated – do they have a higher incidence of technical abuse such as malware or phishing? We’re also going to look at whether there is a positive impact on our brand attributes and how registrars and registrants perceive us ..."

b. Namecheap (domain: namecheap.com), a privately held, ICANN-accredited domain registrar and technology company, founded in 2000 by CEO Richard Kirkendall, recently announced it now has 10 million registered domain names under management and "is the second biggest retail domain registrar in the world." The press release also noted Namecheap's unique culture and long history of fighting for internet freedom and Net Neutrality. To date, Namecheap has raised almost $500,000 to support internet freedom causes with its annual Move Your Domain Day. [Editor's note: Tucows, with its affiliates, collectively, is the world's second largest domain name registrar, GoDaddy is the largest.]

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

a.  China: China’s tech giants are Balkanizing the Chinese internet--"Most people believe the Chinese internet is one world unto itself, but few realize there are multiple separate, loosely connected ecosystems in China’s cyberspace. Competition in China’s internet world is not about individual tech companies anymore, it’s increasingly a contest among ecosystems."--technode.com.

China launches platform 'Piyao' to stamp out 'online rumors'--reuters.com. President Xi Jinping said in 2017: "China will build a 'clean and clear' internet space."

Google Is Handing the Future of the Internet to China: The company has been quietly collaborating with the Chinese government on a new, censored search engine—and abandoning its own ideals in the process--ForeignPolicy.com.

Senior Google Scientist Resigns Over “Forfeiture of Our Values” in China--he told The Intercept in an interview that he believes he is one of about five of the company’s employees to resign over Dragonfly.--TheIntercept.com. See also TheIntercept.com: Google's prototype of a censored search engine for China links users’ searches to their personal phone numbers, making it easier for the Chinese government to monitor people’s queries.

b.  EU: Controversial internet copyright law, including Articles 11 and 13, a/k/a the “link tax” and “upload filter” approved for final vote in Jan. 2019--TheVerge.com: "it will have a huge, disruptive impact on the internet, both in the European Union and around the world. Exactly how the legislation will be interpreted will be up to individual nations, but the shift in the balance of power is clear: the web’s biggest tech companies are losing their grip on the internet."

Today, Europe Lost The Internet. Now, We Fight Back by Cory Doctorow, Sep 12, 2018 | EFF.org.

Google: Can Europe Export Privacy Rules World-Wide? Google argues against expanding ‘right to be forgotten’ in the highest-profile case yet on who regulates data world-wide--wsj.com.

c.  Google & Bias: "Trump is right: More than Facebook & Twitter, Google threatens democracy, online freedom"--Brad Parscale, campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President Campaign 2020, Op-ed in USAToday.com. See also: "Google Was "Working To Get Hillary Clinton Elected" With "Silent Donation" According To Leaked Internal Email"--ZeroHedge.com.

d.  Can Blockchain Restore Internet Freedom? Decentraland blends VR with blockchain technology, removing the potential for government interference--marketwatch.com.

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

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

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

3. Tech Review: Amazon $AMZN Platform Power, Startup Role Model?

4. 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook & Updates

5. Swift Business Forum New York 2018, Sep 12 (video)

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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News Review | ICANN61, ICANN's FY19 Budget, Extortion Racket, Fraud

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-03-11) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN61, March 10-15, San Juan, Puerto Rico,  2)Other ICANN news a. .WEB & Afilias, b. ICANN's FY19 Budget, Reserve Fund, Extortion Racket & Consumer Fraud, and more, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks, 4) ICYMI Internet Domain News: Censorship, Privacy, 5) Most Read.

UPDATE March 15: ICANN61 San Juan, Puerto Rico: GAC Communique & ICANN61 Tweets

UPDATE from ICANN March 14, 2018:

* ALERT: ADOBE CONNECT SERVICE *

"Yesterday we were notified by a member of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee of what appears to be a potentially serious security issue affecting our use of Adobe Connect. In order to protect the members of the multistakeholder community, and out of an abundance of caution, we have suspended our Adobe Connect services. This means that Adobe Connect services will not be available for the rest of ICANN61. Some remote participation will continue to be available this week including Livestream video [see below], multilingual audio, and live scribe feeds will be available in the main meeting rooms. Other rooms will be limited to listen-only audio streams ... Questions and comments from remote participants will also be accommodated via email as best as possible." (emphasis added)

1)  ICANN61 | San Juan | Community Forum 10-15 Mar 2018 San Juan, Puerto Rico

#ICANN61 | Local Time San Juan 

ICANN61 Meeting & Media Resources:

• ICANN61 meeting schedule 

Highlighted sessions Thursday March 15:

• ICANN GDD: Registry Operator Roundtable  8:30 - 9:45

• Q&A with ICANN Organization Executive Team 9:00 - 10:15 video below

• ICANN GDD: Registrants: Understanding the issues facing them and helping them navigate ICANN’s policies  9:15 - 10:15
• GNSO Council Wrap-Up  10:30 - 12:00

• Joint Meeting: ICANN Board and RSSAC 10:30 - 11:30

• ICANN GDD: Registry & Registrar GDPR Compliance Model 12:30-13:30 video below

• Public Forum 2 13:30 - 16:45 video below

• ICANN Board Meeting 17:00 - 18:00 video below

Q&A with ICANN Organization Executive Team 9:00 - 10:15 am EDT, Thu, Mar 15, 2018 

ICANN GDD: Registry & Registrar GDPR Compliance Model Thursday 12:30-1:30 pm EDT

Public Forum 2  13:30 - 16:45, Thu, Mar 15, 2018 1:30 - 4:45 pm EDT

ICANN Board Meeting  17:00 - 18:00 Thu, Mar 15, 2018 5:00-6:00 pm EDT

Public Forum 1 17:00 - 18:30, Monday, Mar 12, 2018

• Remote Participation info

• ICANN61 GNSO Remote Participation Details Open and Public Meetings

• Pre-ICANN61 Policy Report | ICANN.org 26 February 2018

• GNSO Policy Briefing ICANN61 Edition (pdf)

• Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO)--icann.org: Pre-ICANN61 Policy Open House Presentation | 1900 UTC (pdf)

• Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Advice Consideration Process (pdf) [GAC HANDBOOK English_FEB2018].
• Report to the ICANN & UASG (Universal Acceptance Steering Group) Community on Recent Activities (pdf).

• On Twitter: Samantha Dickinson @sgdickinson 

#ICANN61 GAC PSWG lists the many sessions that will discuss ICANN’s compliance with #GDPR this week. It’s a very full dance card, with many GDPR-related sessions by specific communities happening in parallel. pic.twitter.com/56jYeHqTvf

— Samantha Dickinson (@sgdickinson) March 11, 2018

• ICANN Live Event Stream on Livestream.com

• ICANNnews | YouTube.com

See also on Domain Mondo: 

• News Review | ICANN61 & Puerto Crypto [n/k/a Blockchain Unbound], San Juan, Puerto Rico
• Hearing Update on the Restoration of Puerto Rico’s Electric Infrastructure

And also: 

• FCC proposes nearly $1 billion toward recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands | TheHill.com Mar 6, 2018: "The proposal would allocate $64 million immediately to efforts to restore the existing networks in the territories. The rest of the $954 million would go toward medium- and long-term projects to expand mobile and fixed broadband networks."

2) Other ICANN news

a. New gTLD .WEB: Afilias vs ICANN, Verisign $VRSN & Nu Dot Co? | DomainMondo.com: New gTLD .WEB Applicant (and second-highest bidder) Afilias (domain: afilias.info) Requests Update on ICANN’s Investigation of .WEB Contention Set, and Further, Requests Documents under ICANN’s Documentary Information Disclosure Policy.

b. ICANN's FY19 Budget, Reserve Fund, Extortion Racket & Consumer Fraud--Read the Comments submitted on ICANN Draft FY19 Operating Plan and Budget and Five-Year Operating Plan Update | ICANN.org (Close Date 8 Mar 2018) and ICANN Reserve Fund: Proposed Replenishment Strategy | ICANN.org: (Close Date 25 Apr 2018 23:59 UTC). Editor's note: my comments are here (pdf) and here (pdf), and embedded below.

ICANN FY19 Budget -- ICANN's Extortion Racket & Consumer Fraud:

Editor's note: re ICANN's "extortion racket" .BRAND new gTLDs -- see testimony of Dawn Grove (pdf), Corporate Counsel for Karsten Manufacturing (.PING), September 14, 2016 hearing before the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts.

ICANN Reserve Fund:

c. GDPR & WHOIS | ICANN.org updates here and here. See also: Interim Model for Compliance with ICANN Agreements and Policies in Relation to the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation–Working Draft for Continued Discussion--ICANN.org: 08 Mar 2018 gdpr-compliance-interim-model-08mar18-en.pdf [922 KB]

d. ICANN Correspondence | ICANN.org:

• 21 February 2018 Letter from Mike Rodenbaugh of Rodenbaugh Law, to ICANN Board Chair Cherine Chalaby [Published 6 March 2018] re: Asia Green IT Systems’ applications to operate the .Islam and .halal new gTLDs.
• Letter from Giacomo Mazzone to Jamie Baxter | ICANN.org: European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Issue: European Broadcasting Union Analysis of .radio CPE Process & FTI Reports--excerpt:

"We find it shocking that the FTI Consulting investigation has ignored these inconsistencies and incoherencies, in spite of ICANN’s responsibility as an organization to adhere to its nondiscriminatory commitments in carrying out CPE and to ensure that all community applicants are treated equally and fairly. We hope that the ICANN Board will achieve enough clarity to set aside the FTI reports when addressing the case of DOT.gay."

• 7 March 2018 Letter from Arif Ali to Kate Wallace[Published 9 March 2018] Dechert LLP counsel for new gTLD .GAY applicant re CPE Review and .MUSIC applicant letter embedded below, replying to Kate Wallace's (lawyer with Jones Day) previous letters [here (pdf) and here (pdf)] sent on behalf of ICANN Board:

e. Internet Root Name Servers: RSSAC FAQ | ICANN.org excerpt: 7. "In 2016 there was a large attack on Dyn. Could the same thing happen to all the root server Anycast instances?" Answer: "Yes, at least in theory. That is one of the reasons that the Root Server System (RSS) has many operators and many root server instances. The large number of Anycast instances increases the capacity of the RSS and certainly helps in attack situations." ....14. "Can DNSSEC protect us from fast flux and super fast flux attacks?" Answer: "No, not really. DNSSEC is designed to protect against data tampering, but not fast-flux attacks."

f. ICANN Complaints Office Semi-Annual Report--ICANN.org: 07 Mar 2018 complaints-office-semi-annual-report-07mar18-en.pdf [317 KB].

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Move Your Domain Day - Transfer Issues With GoDaddy | Namecheap.com: "... GoDaddy appears to be returning incomplete WHOIS information to Namecheap, delaying the transfer process. This is not the first time something like this has happened. First and foremost this practice is against ICANN rules and regulations. Secondly, we believe it violates “unfair competition” laws."..."

b. Evidence of Decreasing Internet Entropy: The Lack of Redundancy in DNS Resolution by Major Websites and Services | Harvard Business School | hbs.edu: "Stabilizing the domain name resolution (DNS) infrastructure is critical to the operation of the internet. Single points of failure become more consequential as a larger proportion of the internet's biggest sites are managed by a small number of externally hosted DNS providers. Providers could encourage diversification by requiring domain owners to select a secondary DNS provider."

c. What’s In a Name? | Burns & Levinson LLP | JDSupra.com

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

Censorship:

China Presses Its Internet Censorship Efforts Across the Globe | NYTimes.com

What’s Going Down in China is Very Dangerous – Part 1 | washingtonsblog.com

China’s Internet Underground Fights for Its Life | Bloomberg.com: "The government wants to shut down private operators that offer access to Facebook, YouTube, and other services." 

Conservatives to Facebook, Google and Twitter: Stop censoring our posts | tennessean.com 

New Foils for the Right: Google and Facebook | NYTimes.com: journalist Peter Schweizer plans to release a documentary on tech companies' role in filtering the news, casting them as censorious and oppressive. See also: Should Facebook, Google and Twitter Be Public Utilities? | blogspot.com .

Privacy: Your Location Data Is Being Sold—Often Without Your Knowledge | WSJ.com: "Location-based ads are growing, which means the industry has more ways than ever to track you"

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

1, News Review | Privacy & Cyber Sovereignty: US vs. Microsoft (video)

2. $SBUX Starbucks Reserve First Store, Could Expand to 1000 Locations

3. New gTLD .WEB: Afilias vs ICANN, Verisign $VRSN & Nu Dot Co?

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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News Review | New gTLD .WEB, ICANN & Verisign, What's Next?

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-01-14) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) New gTLD .WEB, ICANN & Verisign, What's Next? 2)Other ICANN news: a. GDPR & WHOIS - Data Protection & Privacy,
b. ICANN Board, c. Public Comment, d. ICANN disintermediation, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: a. Namecheap and eNom / Tucows $TCX, b. Afilias & ccTLD .PR, c. New China Law, 4) ICYMI Internet Domain News, 5) Most Read.

1) New gTLD .WEB, ICANN & Verisign, What's Next?

 .WEB has a long and troubled history (pdf) at ICANN as a proposed new generic top-level domain (new gTLD), and long before ICANN even came into existence in 1998, the term "web" was used by Tim Berners-Lee:

"In March 1989 Berners-Lee issued a proposal to the management at CERN for a system called "Mesh" that referenced ENQUIRE, a database and software project he had built in 1980, which used the term "web" and described a more elaborate information management system based on links embedded in readable text ..."--World Wide Web | Wikipedia.org. 

Verisign, Inc., is a publicly-held  (NASDAQ: VRSN market capitalization US$11.2 billion), U.S.-based back-end registry services provider (including two of the original seven gTLDs .EDU and the U.S. government's .GOV), as well as a registry operator, including two of the original seven legacy gTLDs .NET and the globally market dominant (pdf) .COM.

Verisign, legal successor to the original  Network Solutions, Inc., also operates 2 of the world's 13 authoritative name servers that serve the DNS root zone, and acts as Root Zone Maintainer pursuant to a contract with ICANN--previously by the terms of Verisign's Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. government (NTIA), which Cooperative Agreement continues in effect to control pricing of .COM domain names, Amendment 32 (pdf) and Amendment 34 (pdf), through Nov 30, 2018, and may be extended at NTIA's sole discretion. The dominance of .COM can be seen in this chart drawn from data in Verisign's latest Domain Name Brief:

World's 10 Largest Top-Level Domains (domain name registrations)

This week we received the answer to Question #10 on my 12 Questions for 2018: "What will the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division do about .WEB, Verisign and ICANN?" 

Answer: nothing.  Future new gTLD .WEB registry operator Verisign $VRSN disclosed in a SEC filing, January 9, 2018, that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division's new gTLD .WEB investigation had closed (no action):

Verisign, Inc. Form 8-K, Jan 9, 2018, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission: "Item 7.01. Regulation FD Disclosure. As the Company [Verisign, Inc.] previously disclosed, on January 18, 2017, the Company received a Civil Investigative Demand from the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) requesting certain material related to the Company becoming the registry operator for the .web gTLD. On January 9, 2018, the DOJ notified the Company that this investigation was closed. Verisign previously announced on August 1, 2016, that it had provided funds for Nu Dot Co’s successful bid for the .web gTLD and the Company anticipates that Nu Dot Co will now seek to execute the .web Registry Agreement with ICANN and thereafter assign it to Verisign upon consent from ICANN." (emphasis and link added)

ICANN did not make any announcement this week about the DOJ investigation (nor new gTLD .WEB), but in its June, 2017, Executive Reports (p.11) (pdf), ICANN disclosed it had "produced an initial set of over 7000 pages" in response to the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division Civil Investigative Demand.

Question: Will ICANN and Verisign's .WEB assignor, Nu Dot Co, now proceed to execute the Registry Agreement for new gTLD .WEB?  

Answer: Not yet--as of Friday (Jan 12, 2018), ICANN is reporting for Nu Dot Co's application for .WEB:

• Application Status: In Contracting
• Evaluation Result: Pass IE (IE Report)
• Contention Resolution Result: Prevailed Contention (Auction Report pdf)

• Contention Resolution Status: On Hold  [pending accountability mechanism (pdf)]. The "accountability mechanism" is 2-Aug-2016 Donuts Inc. and Ruby Glen, LLC re:.WEB (pdf) a CEP (Cooperative Engagement Process Proceeding). 

Ruby Glen LLC (a Donuts Inc. affiliate) also has a pending appeal before the Ninth Circuit as a result of the District Court's dismissal of its lawsuit which had unsuccessfully sought an "injunction requiring ICANN to refrain from entering into a Registry Agreement with any party for the .WEB gTLD." The appeal will not stop ICANN from entering into a registry agreement with Nu Dot Co, consenting to the assignment to Verisign, and delegating .WEB.

Once the Contention Resolution "On Hold" Status noted above has been removed, expect things to move relatively quickly, unless an interested party takes further action to stop the process.

Afilias, the second-highest bidder for .WEB at the last resort ICANN auction, wrote two letters to ICANN in August (pdf) and September (pdf), 2016, to which ICANN responded (pdf), but Afilias has taken no further action publicly, except to voice its objections at two public forums at ICANN57 in November, 2016, to which Verisign responded at Public Forum 2--ICANN57 | Hyderabad – Public Forum 2 transcript, pp. 32-33 of 93 (pdf) Nov 8, 2016--

PAT KANE: "Good morning. Pat Kane with VeriSign. At the open forum on Saturday afternoon, Jonathan Robinson came to the mic and on behalf of Afilias leadership wanted to talk about the .WEB allocation. Jonathan's comments were a summarized statement based upon a blog that he had produced  earlier and a two-page document being circulated here at ICANN57 entitled ".WEB, ICANN's first test of accountability." The leadership of Afilias does a disservice to this board and the community by making this issue a referendum on the community, on the board, on ICANN, and the empowered -- and the people that made that happen to include Jonathan's award recognized efforts. Afilias -- while Afilias frames its false allegations against Nu Dot Co and VeriSign as a test of ICANN's new role as an independent manager of the Internet's addressing system. It is nothing more than a tactic to attempt to overturn legitimate auction results and be awarded the right to operate a public asset at less than market value or worse, pushing ICANN auction proceeds now earmarked for the public benefit into their own pockets or the other applicants through a new private auction. We are all self-interested businesses, Nu Dot Co, VeriSign, Donuts, Afilias, and the other applicants for .WEB. We've all taken different approaches. And from what I can tell, we believe that we have followed the guidelines set forth in the applicant guidebook. But this is not a test for the board. This issue is not a test for the newly empowered community. It is a test of our ability to utilize the processes and the tools that we've developed over the past 20 years for dispute resolution. The facts are the facts, and the validity of those facts will be determined by courts of law and through IRPs. What I ask you, the board and the community, is to allow the processes that we have in place to work through to their natural conclusion without undue lobbying or interference from any self-interested party. Thank you." (emphasis and link added)

Stay tuned!

2) Other ICANN News:

a. GDPR & WHOIS: Data Protection and Privacy Update: Seeking Community Feedback on Proposed Compliance Models | ICANN.org: "provide your feedback by 29 January 2018. Please send your feedback to gdpr @ icann.org."

We are seeking community feedback by 29 January 2018 on proposed compliance models regarding the layered access data protection/privacy approach. Read my #ICANN blog here: https://t.co/gttkPHO3Oa & visit the data protection/privacy page to learn more: https://t.co/Kelc3D6uUV pic.twitter.com/tnWtJ2h8dZ

— ICANN President (@icann_president) January 13, 2018

See also: Potential Data Exposure in ICANN RFP System Resolved | ICANN.org and Letter from Manal Ismail to Göran Marby | ICANN.org: Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) Chair's letter to ICANN President & CEO Göran Marby. Issue: WHOIS compliance with GDPR. Letter: ismail-to-marby-17dec17-en.pdf [78.6 KB].

b. ICANN Board: Nominating Committee Review: Assessment Report Released and Forthcoming Webinar Jan 18 | ICANN.org. See also "The four questions to ask when serving on a nonprofit board: 'Question 1: Are we succumbing to mission creep?'"--McKinsey.com.

c. Public Comment Period Extended: Operating Standards for ICANN's Specific Reviews | ICANN.org: deadline to submit comments extended until Friday 2 February 23:59 UTC. Also note this does not affect the comment periods ending January 14-15.

d. ICANN and 'contracted parties' disintermediated? See Tech Review | Ethereum Co-Founder: The Future Decentralized Web (video).

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Namecheap and eNom / Tucows: ICANN-accredited registrar Namecheap.com (which formerly was a reseller of registrar eNom), successfully migrated millions of its registrants' .COM & .NET domain names this past week from Enom (enom.com), a subsidiary of Tucows $TCX (tucows.com), to Namecheap: "This is a goal that we’ve been working towards for many years, and we’re delighted to finally be able to achieve this"--Namecheap.com.

Namecheap not only had to resort to legal action to get this done, but now this: Tucows (TCX) Alert: Johnson Fistel Announces Investigation of Tucows Inc.; Encourages Investors to Contact the Firm for Additional Information | prnewswire.com: "On January 8, 2018, Copperfield Research issued a report stating that Tucows failed to disclose a lawsuit "that should imminently result in the loss of 11% of the Company's revenue producing domains; nine insiders who sold $21 million of stock while hiding the fact its eNom subsidiary was being sued by its largest partner for breach of contract; and a laundry list of accounting shenanigans and financial irregularities." (emphasis added) Read more at the link above.

The above allegations might explain why Tucows $TCX shares are down over 24% (updated Jan 16):

See also:

• Tucows Inc. (TCX) ... | Copperfield Research | SeekingAlpha.com Jan 8, 2018

• Copperfield sees 70% downside in 'broken' firm  Tucows Inc  | SeekingAlpha.com Jan 8, 2018

• SEC Filings:  8-K/A and 8-K

b. Just in Time for ICANN61 in San Juan, Puerto Rico: 

Afilias selected to provide Registry Services for .PR ccTLD | Afilias.info: ".PR is unrestricted, so it’s a natural address for Public Relations agencies and practitioners worldwide. Of course, it’s also great for those doing business in Puerto Rico." [Editor's note: Afilias is "on a roll" after being selected as registry services provider for Australia's ccTLD .au (replacing .au's former service provider, Neustar subsidiary AusRegistry)].

c. China’s new Anti-unfair Competition Law | Lexology.com: "affords protection to ...  domain names, website names and web pages."

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

Internet Freedom and Free Speech:

•  2017 was the worst year ever for internet freedom in India | qz.com: "The world’s largest democracy has shut down the internet 124 times since 2012—over half of them in 2017 alone."

•  Iran's Women Need The Internet Right Now,  And You Can (Really) Help | forbes.com: via nonprofit NetFreedomPioneers.org (NFP) and Toosheh.org, a free program that lets users download resources via satellite.

•  Top-selling German newspaper says new online hate speech law must be scrapped | Reuters.com

•  Governments and Corporations Escalate Internet Censorship and Attacks on Free Speech | GlobalResearch.ca

• Net Neutrality: FCC Releases 'Restoring Internet Freedom' Order | Federal Communications Commission | fcc.gov  and The Internet Association, a trade group which represents Silicon Valley tech companies, including Google parent Alphabet Inc., and Facebook Inc., will join an expected lawsuit against a decision to roll back net neutrality rules.--Reuters.com

• Data Sovereignty: The PRC Cybersecurity Law and its impact on the insurance sector | Lexology.com: "Currently, there are draft regulations dealing with the data sovereignty requirement that are expected to come into force in 2018."

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

1. News Review | Reply Brief: Ruby Glen vs ICANN (new gTLD .WEB)

2. 2018 Forecasts: From US-China Trade War to Chaos in the Mideast (video)

3. How C3 IoT Capitalizes on AI & IoT Enterprise Digital Transformation (video)

4. Tech Review | Ethereum Co-Founder: The Future Decentralized Web (video)

5. Brexit Impact: London IPO Market Attractive & Amplitude Capital Staying 

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

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