News Review | GDPR & Antitrust: Europe Is The World's Tech Regulator

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-05-06) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) GDPR & Antitrust: Europe Is The World's Tech Regulator, 2)  Other ICANN News: ICANN's Response to My Complaint, and more, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: France.com, ccTLD .au, $MMX, and more, 4) ICYMI: China & Multilateralism, and more, 5) Most Read.

UPDATE May 10, 2018: ICANN CEO's Desperate 6-page Letter to WP29 Chair, embed below:

Original Post:
"The EU is fast becoming the world's de facto technology regulator. Without much in the way of home-grown global tech, they can act where the U.S. and China cannot"--DataTrekResearch.com.

1) GDPR & Antitrust: Europe Is The World's Tech Regulator

ICANN's GDPR Train Wreck: How Many Days Until May 25? 

Data Protection/Privacy Update: Meeting with Contracted Parties on Apr 27 re GDPR Compliance  | ICANN.org: "We aim to have a draft temporary specification to share with the community in the next few days."--Akram Atallah, ICANN Global Domains Division President, May 1, 2018 [Editor's note: no more delusional talk at ICANN about a fantasy "GDPR enforcement moratorium." ].

Letter from Graeme Bunton, Registrar Stakeholder Group Chair, to ICANN GDD's Akram Atallah 4 May 2018: "... Because of the uncertainty posed by GDPR and any Temporary Policy established by ICANN, including the immediate incorporation of such Temporary Policy into the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, the RrSG formally requests that the language of the Temporary Policy specifically include a statement that immediately pauses the work of the AFAV WG (Across-field Address Validation Working Group) and PPSAI IRT (Privacy/Proxy Services Accreditation Implementation Review Team) and keeps it paused until the announcement of the permanent policy that results from the EPDP."

Behind the EU's record $2.7B fine for Google

Few realized it at the time, but this was just the beginning: CBS News video above published Jun 27, 2017: The EU says search giant Google must pay for antitrust violations.

'Accept and continue': billions are clocking into digital sweat factories without realising it | European Data Protection Supervisor | edps.europa.eu 20 Apr 2018: "... lawyers will always be able to fashion ingenious arguments to justify almost any practice. But with personal data processing we need to move to a different model. The old approach is broken and unsustainable ... We must all be vigilant about attempts to game the system ..."--Giovanni Buttarelli, European Data Protection Supervisor (appointed by a joint decision of the European Parliament and the Council on 4 December 2014 for a term of five years).

"... The EU must use all tools, in particular antitrust ..."--Buttarelli speech 24 April 2018 embed below (highlighting added):

2) Other ICANN News

a. ICANN published its Response (pdf) (dated March 30, 2018), to my Complaint (pdf) of Feb 22, 2018--Editor's note: for whatever it's worth, you can read ICANN's response at the link above, but the true backstory, with apologies to ICANN's Brad White, is here:

My conclusion: After spending a year trying to get honest and straight answers from ICANN management about its filed IRS Form 990 (pdf), including about Sr. VP Sally Costerton's Secret Contract $$$, I have decided to refer the ICANN IRS Form 990 / Sally Costerton Secret Contract $$$ matters (along with other info), to the IRS, U.S. Department of the Treasury, and other governmental authorities. As for future ICANN Quarterly Stakeholder calls, I would advise others  "don't waste your time" trying to get honest answers from ICANN's management. For more on this, read News Review | ICANN Pays Senior VP Sally Costerton Secret Contract $$$ Oct 15, 2017.

b. How are gTLD Policies Implemented? | ICANN.org: 01 May 2018 how-gtld-policies-implemented-01may18-en.pdf [555 KB] embed below [Editor's note: LOL]:

c.  ICANN Board to Hold Three Public Sessions ["listen-only"] and Board Meeting ["listen-only"] During Vancouver Workshop | ICANN.org 11-13 May 2018.

d. ICANN New gTLDs Consumer Fraud and .BRAND Extortion Racket Next Round(s): 

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a.  Former registrant of France.com files legal action in U.S. District Court--France seized the domain name France.com following entry of a French judgment in its favor (see notice below). On March 12, 2018, the registrar Web.com transferred the domain name registration to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The former registrant reportedly had held the domain name registration of France.com continuously since 1994--ArsTechnica.com.  More info: Complaint filed in U.S. District Court (pdf) and Notice of French Judgment (pdf).

b. Australia's ccTLD .au: In-fighting continues at domain name authority auDA | afr.com 1 May 2018.

c. $MMX: new gTLDs registry operator Minds + Machines Group Limited (AIM: MMX) (LON: MMX) (domain: MMX.co) announced on Friday morning its agreement to acquire ICM Registry LLC (operator of 4 gTLDs: .XXX, .ADULT, .PORN, .SEX), more info here and here. MMX shares closed Friday down 11.19% at 8.97 GBX −1.13. MMX discussion board here.

d. Google Product Forums: "Did I make the wrong decision to change Domain Name ..."--[Editor's note: short answer may be "YES" if you have been publishing for some time, unless you are willing to lose traffic (at least short term), and do ALL the work (or spend the money to have someone else do it for you) to correctly set up redirects (in the case at the link above there are 39,000+ redirects needed).]

e. Etsy Adds Another Basic Feature to Pattern Stores: Reviews | EcommerceBytes.com: "Pattern launched with limited features – Pattern stores were basically just mirrors of sellers’ existing Etsy shops but with the ability to have a unique domain name ..."

f. 20,000 [new gTLD .XYZ] domains registered and not 1 sale | TheDomains.com: the story of a registrant (domainer) who bought the hype and drank the Kool-Aid, but fortunately, only lost $200 (each domain had been registered for $0.01 each), plus 'his time' and now, hopefully, is a little wiser.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

a. China: Xi outlines blueprint to develop China's strength in cyberspace | xinhuanet.com: "a model of cyberspace governance with Chinese characteristics ... Cyberspace governance under the framework of the United Nations should be advanced and non-state entities should play a better role ..." and Axios.com: "... Xi also reiterated China’s goal of reforming global internet governance to better accommodate China’s approach: Xi said it is a general trend and common aspiration of the people to promote the reform of the global cyberspace governance system by sticking to a multilateral approach with multi-party participation from the government, international organizations, internet enterprises, technology communities, non-governmental institutions, and individuals." (emphasis added)

b. Chinese media giants hit snag with piracy block | ZDNet.com: "Cut the cord, the communication -- the domain name, that is -- between the application and the target application market, and that will prevent the infringement," counsel for TVB said in court."

c. Russia: Assault on Internet Freedom, Cybersecurity | Human Rights Watch | hrw.org.

d. IFF2018: Experts assess state of internet freedom in Africa | guardian.ng.

e. Amazon threatens to suspend Signal's AWS account over censorship circumvention | signal.org: "With Google Cloud and AWS out of the picture, it seems that domain fronting as a censorship circumvention technique is now largely non-viable ..."

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

1. News Review | GDPR Moratorium Just Another ICANN 'Fantasy'

2. Tesla $TSLA Q1 2018 Results, LIVE Webcast May 2, 5:30pm EDT

3. DocuSign $DOCU IPO, Electronic Signatures & EU GDPR (video)

4. Fintech Startup Revolut CEO on Expansion Plans, Hiring Strategy

5. Tech Review | Big Tech's First Quarter 2018: $AMZN $FB $GOOG $AAPL

6. Tech Review | Tech Regulation and Volatility in the VC Landscape (video)

7 Apple $AAPL Q2 FY18 Results LIVE Webcast May 1, 5pm EDT

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

News Review | ICANN's GDPR Train Wreck, A Day Late And A Dollar Short

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-04-01) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN's GDPR Train Wreck, A Day Late And A Dollar Short, 2) Other ICANN news: a. New gTLD .WEB: ICANN & Afilias, b. New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation Update, c. ICANN Senior VP Sally Costerton's Secret Contract, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: a. Verisign $VRSN, b. GoDaddy $GDDY, c. .EU & Brexit, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read.

ICANN's GDPR Train Wreck UPDATE April 4, 2018:
a) ICANN's Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services to Replace WHOIS Working Group SUSPENDS All Working Group Meetings until further notice:

[gnso-rds-pdp-wg] WG Meeting Suspension | icann.org: "The RDS PDP WG leadership team has decided to suspend WG meetings until further notice while we await guidance from the [ICANN] Board regarding how this WG will be affected by the GDPR compliance efforts."

b) The world's second-largest TLD (Top-Level Domain) registry operator, Afilias, has reportedly given notice to its registrars that effective May 25, 2018, it will no longer show WHOIS registrant contact data on millions of domain names.

Original Post:
1) ICANN's GDPR Train Wreck, A Day Late And A Dollar Short

EU GDPR & ICANN WHOIS--ICANN a day late and a dollar short, now in full panic, pleading for help from the European Data Protection Authorities (DPAs)--ICANN Correspondence | ICANN.org 26 Mar 2018: 29 letters sent by Goran Marby, ICANN President & CEO, to European authorities requesting "Guidance: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Impact on the Domain Name System and WHOIS"--excerpts:

"We request you to help ICANN and the domain name registries and registrars to maintain the global WHOIS in its current form, through either clarification of the GDPR, a moratorium on enforcement or other relevant actions, until a revised WHOIS policy that balances these critical public interest perspectives may be developed and implemented." [p.2] (emphasis added)

"Guidance from DPAs on ICANN’s plan of action as presented in the Cookbook, and in particular, the areas where there are competing views, is critical as soon as possible, but particularly during the next few weeks. We understand from comments from some DPAs that there is an opportunity for DPAs to continue to provide support to companies along the path to compliance beyond the GDPR effective date if the company has an established plan of action. In addition to the information in the Cookbook, we stand ready to provide any additional information about our plan of action (e.g. timelines, milestones, etc.) that you may need to facilitate your consideration of our requests."[p.5]

One of the 29 letters (which all appear to be alike)--embedded below:

Hope Is Not A Strategy:

Data Protection/Privacy Issues Update: Discussion with Article 29 Working Party | ICANN.org 29 Mar 2018, Goran Maby: "...We heard clearly from the representatives that they understood the issues relating to the ICANN/WHOIS space and are evaluating how to provide advice from the Article 29 Working Party ... we anticipate that ICANN and the WHOIS system will be on the upcoming Article 29 plenary's agenda for 10-11 April 2018. ... We look forward to receiving advice following the plenary, which we may rely on to complete the [ICANN] model [pdf], and are hopeful that we will also be provided with a moratorium on enforcement that would allow sufficient time to implement the model and build the appropriate accreditation system ..." [emphasis and links added].

Editor's note: It is now abundantly clear that ICANN's overpaid and incompetent management team completely bungled GDPR preparations. ICANN has had two years to get ready for the GDPR effective date of May 25, 2018, but did not even start serious preparatory work beyond "discussions," until late in 2017, and by that time had already driven the ICANN train "off the track" as duly noted by Professor Milton Mueller.

How long has #ICANN had a Brussels office? The delay on #GDPR is on staff as much as anyone. Can't fire the community but....

— thereforeICANN (@thereforeICANN) March 15, 2018

ICANN's "contracted parties" (registrars and registry operators) weighed in 26 Mar 2018 on ICANN's Timeline for ICANN-Proposed Compliance Models--ICANN.org: gdpr-comments-contracted-parties-cph-timeline-icann-proposed-compliance-models-26mar18-en.pdf [46.6 KB]--refusing to be the fall guys for ICANN's ineptitude, excerpt below (full embed follows):

Meanwhile trademark interests have been beside themselves, submitting multiple proposals for "accreditation" to gain access to WHOIS data after May 25, 2018, see: Sound the alarm bells: WHOIS blackout “likely” following GDPR enforcement date in May | WorldTrademarkReview.com:

"... Substantial gaps in ICANN’s legal rationale for proposed interim model ... contracted parties and third-party WHOIS users, including brand owners, both levied criticisms against ICANN’s ‘cookbook’ intended to provide its legal rationale for the elements of its proposed interim GDPR compliance model. Contracted parties’ primary criticism is that the cookbook contains too many gaps, failing to give registries and registrars sufficient comfort that the interim model is justifiable in the eyes of European data protection authorities (DPAs) ..."

And Article 19 (domain: article19.org), a British human rights organization with a focus on the defense and promotion of freedom of expression has entered the fray:

Editor's note: This "train wreck" brought to you by ICANN, is just beginning, follow updates at ICANN.org, and meanwhile, send in the clowns:

"I think if we get rid of that [IANA] contract we will be free of the pressures."--ICANN President and CEO Fadi Chehade, February 10, 2015.

Dawn of a New Internet Era | ICANN.org: "... we welcome your participation in this next era of the Internet ..."--Akram Atallah, ICANN Global Domains Division President.

Why I Love the International Office Strategy | ICANN.org: "I think this strategy will take ICANN to the next level. We are stable and mature. We have global standards and processes in place."--Goran Marby, ICANN President and CEO, 13 Mar 2018. 

Judy Collins - Send In The Clowns - Album: Judith (1975) (domain: judycollins.com)

2) Other ICANN news

a. New gTLD .WEB: Afilias vs ICANN, Verisign $VRSN & Nu Dot Co? UPDATE: See the March 24, 2018, response from ICANN to Afilias's request for documents at the link above.

b. New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation Update:  

FUTURE HEARINGS:

• April 17, 2018 at 08:30 am in Department 53 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Oral Argument
• August 14, 2018 at 08:30 am in Department 53 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Final Status Conference (PHASE II)
• August 22, 2018 at 09:30 am in Department 53 at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012 Trial (PHASE II: ON REMAINING ISSUES).

See also DotConnectAfrica Trust v. ICANN (Trial Court Proceeding) | ICANN.org:

• ICANN's Judicial Estoppel Trial Brief [PDF, 1.42 MB] 9 February 2018

• Plaintiff's Judicial Estoppel Trial Brief [PDF, 113 KB] 9 February 2018

c. ICANN Senior VP Sally Costerton's Secret Contract: 23 March 2018 Letter from ICANN Chief Financial Officer Xavier Calvez to John Poole [Published 27 March 2018] re ICANN FY16 IRS Form 990. [Editor's note: I will have more to say on this after ICANN responds to the pending Complaint against ICANN, ICANN CEO Goran Marby and ICANN CFO Xavier Calvez (pdf)].

For more background information, see on DomainMondo.com: News Review | ICANN Pays Senior VP Sally Costerton Secret Contract $$$ Oct 15, 2017.

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Verisign, Inc. (verisign.com): Wall Street analysts are sour on telecoms and utilities, and 33% say sell VeriSign (NASDAQ: VRSN). See those recommendations here.

b. GoDaddy Inc. (godaddy.com): Goldman Sachs initiated coverage in March on domain name registrar GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) with a Buy rating and $81 price target. Analyst Mark Grant favors GoDaddy over peers due to brand strength, scale, cash flow generation, and financial flexibility. See also GoDaddy migrates to Amazon Web Services in multiyear partnership | SeekingAlpha.com: As part of the deal, AWS will sell some GoDaddy products like Managed WordPress and GoCentral for domain and website management. GoDaddy will not migrate the 75 million domain names it manages to AWS. For more information see GoDaddy 2018 Investor Day presentation (pdf).

c.  .EU & Brexit Headlines This Week:

• UK companies and residents will be stripped of .EU domains after Brexit | TheVerge.com

• Europe dumps 300,000 UK-owned .EU domains into the Brexit bin | theregister.co.uk

The EU notice (pdf): "... the following persons are eligible to register .eu domain names: (i) undertakings having their registered office, central administration or principal place of business within the EU; (ii) organisations established within the EU (without prejudice to the application of national law); and (iii) natural persons resident within the EU ..." See Article 4 Obligations of the Registry.

Reality check: (1) Registering .EU Domain Names Article | networksolutions.com--a 3rd party (e.g., in Dublin, Ireland) can serve as "registrant of record"; (2) the United Kingdom (UK) doesn't leave the European Union (EU) until March 29, 2019. The EU and UK are still negotiating several issues including how EU members and the UK can continue to have access to each other's markets (free trade), as well as continue to have an open border between Ireland (a member of the EU) and Northern Ireland (part of the UK).

Editor's note: likely impact of EU notice: (1) a drop in .EU registrations (currently 3,815,055); (2) an increase in .UK registrations (currently 10,457,0140). The ccTLDs .UK (United Kingdom), .DE (Germany) and .NL (Netherlands) have always been more popular than .EU. But the EU notice reminded everyone once again of the arrogant EU bureaucracy in Brussels which was a factor in the "Leave" victory on 23 June 2016.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

• Privacy: Apple CEO Tim Cook slams Facebook: Privacy 'is a human right, it's a civil liberty' | nbcnews.com: "Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday slammed Facebook for profiting from its users' data — and called for the social media giant to be more tightly regulated. Such detailed profiles of people, with "incredibly deep personal information that is patched together from several sources" like Facebook has compiled, shouldn't be allowed to exist, Cook said."

• “Fake News” Offers Latin American Consolidated Powers An Opportunity to Censor Opponents | Electronic Frontier Foundation | eff.org: "Fake News” as a pretext for curbing free expression in Latin America.

• Turkey: New Internet censorship legislation passed in Turkish Parliament | Stockholm Center for Freedom | stockholmcf.org

• Internet censorship in Kazakhstan: more pervasive than you may think | openDemocracy.net.

• Unexplained internet blackout in Ethiopia's Oromia region | Africanews.com

• China: China’s Cyberspace Authorities Set to Gain Clout in Reorganization | newamerica.org

• U.S. Section 230: A Key Legal Shield For Facebook, Google Is About To Change : All Tech Considered : NPR.org

• U.S. The Roots of Section 230 Show Why We Shouldn’t Abandon Intermediary Liability Protection | R Street Institute | RStreet.org

• U.S. Senate Passes SESTA, Controversial 'Anti-Sex Trafficking' Bill That Could Ruin the Internet and Harm Sex Workers | gizmodo.com

• Misleading headline: Google defeats lawsuit claiming YouTube censors conservatives | Reuters.com,  Prager University v Google LLC et al, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, No. 17-06064. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh granted Plaintiff leave to amend its complaint, but also dismissed various claims of the Plaintiff, holding that Google and YouTube are not “state actors” subject to the First Amendment by creating a “public forum” for speech, further stating, “Defendants are private entities who created their own video-sharing social media website and make decisions about whether and how to regulate content that has been uploaded on that website.”

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

1. News Review | EU's GDPR Causing Slower Growth at Facebook $FB

2. Tech Review | Nvidia CEO On The Future of Autonomous Vehicles (video)

3. Qualcomm $QCOM, NXP, Apple $AAPL, Trump & China: The Path Forward

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

News Review | ICANN Pays Senior VP Sally Costerton Secret Contract $$$

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2017-10-15) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN Pays Senior VP Sally Costerton Secret Contract $$$, 2) Other ICANN news, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: Universal Acceptance & IDNs, 4) ICYMI Internet Domain News, 5) Most Read Posts.

1) ICANN Pays Senior Vice President Sally Costerton Secret Contract $$$

California Corporations Code - Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporations: "6813 ... (b) Every director, officer, agent or member of any corporation who, with intent to defraud, destroys, alters, mutilates or falsifies any of the books, papers, writings or securities belonging to the corporation or makes or concurs in omitting to make any material entry in any book of accounts or other record or document kept by the corporation is guilty of a crime. (c) Each crime specified in this section is punishable by imprisonment in state prison ..." (emphasis added)

Should ICANN be run like a "chummy private club" or a nonprofit public benefit corporation with international scope and responsibilities, including duties to be accountable and transparent to the global internet community, meeting at least the baseline minimums required of all nonprofits jurisdictionally situated in California (US), and preferably far more than those minimums, since "Public-benefit nonprofit corporations are ... organized for the general public benefit, rather than for the interest of its members." 

In pursuit of answers to those questions and more, as most readers know, I first questioned on May 28, 2017, ICANN's Form 990 filing (FY16 ending June 30, 2016) published by ICANN on May 15, 2017, for review by the global internet community as required by the U.S. Department of Treasury's IRS (ICANN has IRC 501(c)(3) tax status).

My May 28th inquiry generated a partial answer from ICANN on July 13, 2017, disclosing a total of $114,203.24 paid in FY16 to ICANN Chairman Steve Crocker's personal corporation, Shinkuro, Inc., not disclosed on ICANN's filed FY16 Form 990. 

I responded on July 17, 2017, asking again for full disclosure of all amounts paid to all ICANN directors and officers, directly and indirectly, noting specifically:

"... completely missing from ICANN’s [Form 990] list of 39 “Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, and Highest Compensated Employees,” is Sally Costerton, Sr. Advisor To President & Senior Vice President, Global Stakeholder Engagement, who is also an “Executive Team Member” according to ICANN’s organization management chart (pdf) and has been employed as a “Vice President” of ICANN since 2012 according to her profile at icannwiki.org."

ICANN CFO Xavier Calvez replied on July 18, 2017, as I disclosed in News Review: ICANN Accountability, FY16 IRS Form 990 Redux | DomainMondo.com:

"Thank you for your note below [July 17 email]. I acknowledge and agree that the document posted on 13 July in response to your questions left unanswered the specific question that you highlighted in the paragraph referenced below in quotes. This question is perfectly relevant to the topic of disclosures of information on compensation of directors, officers, key employees, etc… and answering it will help providing clarity and transparency on this matter which is technically complex and subject to legitimate and useful public scrutiny. The discussion you offered to explain further the quoted paragraph will be quite helpful to ensure we address fully your question, and I thank you for it. I suggest that we publish your email below and the response that I will provide in accordance with our Correspondence process. Thank you."--Xavier Calvez, ICANN CFO

ICANN finally responded October 9, 2017 (pdf):

 "... Part VII, Section A. Officers, Directors, Trustees, Key Employees, and Highest Compensated Employees” as reported by ICANN in the 2015 form 990, fully complies with the IRS requirements. For example, Sally Costerton is contracted via her company Sally Costerton Advisory Limited. Accordingly, under IRS instructions for the form 990, the compensation paid to Ms. Costerton’s company for her services is appropriately not included in the Part VII ..." 

Sally Costerton Advisory Limited website: sallycosterton.com

I responded to ICANN on October 13, 2017 (pdf)(embed below):

"Assuming arguendo, that what you have revealed and asserted (for the first time), in your correspondence of 09 October 2017, is true and correct, ICANN should have answered “Yes” to Form 990 Part IV 28(a), 28(b), and/or 28(c), instead of “No” ... And therefore ICANN should have completed and attached Schedule L (Part IV) to the Form 990 [disclosing amount paid to Sally Costerton Advisory Limited] .... there is no reference whatsoever in the Form 990 as filed, or on the public ICANN.org website, indicating the heretofore undisclosed “arrangement” between ICANN and its “Senior Vice President of Global Stakeholder Engagement” who is also “Senior Advisor To the President of ICANN” and an “ICANN Executive Team Member,” according to the ICANN Management Organization Chart (pdf) ....

"... such an arrangement with ICANN, which raises all kinds of questions about conflicts of interest, appearances of impropriety, organizational loyalty, etc., since Costerton has, apparently, since 2012, with the blessing of ICANN’s Board of Directors and top management, been simultaneously serving as ICANN Senior Vice President while also actively soliciting and servicing unknown clients and customers of her corporation “Sally Costerton Advisory Limited” ... your recent revelation indicates how much ICANN is still run like a “chummy private club” instead of a non-profit public benefit corporation with international scope and responsibilities ..." 

Full embed of my October 13, 2017 letter:

I heard back (via email) from ICANN CFO Xavier Calvez on October 13: "I am acknowledging receipt of the below email and its attachment. We will address as per our established Correspondence process."

2) Other ICANN news

a. ICANN Board Report September 2017 (pdf) - Covering 30 May 2017 – 28 August 2017.  "As of the end of July 2017, ICANN org has 397 people, which is 24 people less than the FY18 year-end budget projection of 421. Over the last three months, 15 joined and another 9 left."

b. ICANN GNSO Policy Briefing (pdf) for ICANN60 meeting in Abu Dhabi, 28 Oct - 3 Nov 2017.

c. ICANN Releases Findings from a Community-Wide Survey on Gender Diversity and Participation | ICANN.org

d. ICANN Webinar on Review Operating Standards | ICANN.org: Webinar Details and How to Attend Date: 19 October 2017 Time: 21:00 UTC To participate, RSVP to: mssi-secretariat @ icann.org to receive the dial-in information. More info at link above.

e. Request 17-4: DotMusic Limited and dotgay LLC | BAMC Recommendation on Reconsideration Request | ICANN.org: ".... The BAMC has considered the merits of Request 17-4, and, based on the foregoing, concludes that ICANN organization did not violate ICANN’s Mission, Commitments and Core Values or established ICANN policy(ies) in the Response to Joint DIDP Request. Accordingly, the BAMC recommends that the Board deny Request 17-4 ..."

f. New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP - October 2017 Newsletter | gnso.icann.org (pdf): ".... The co-chairs are forming a fifth Work Track in the PDP devoted solely to the issue of geographic names at the top level. Work Track 5 will have a shared leadership model between the GAC, ALAC, ccNSO, and GNSO. The co-chairs have asked the GAC, ALAC, ccNSO, and GNSO to each identify a co-leader for this effort. To date, the following people have been nominated: Annabeth Lange (ccNSO), Christopher Wilkinson (ALAC), and Martin Sutton (GNSO). The GAC has not yet released the name of its appointee. The Working Group is hoping to issue a formal call for volunteers prior to ICANN60 ...."

g. ICANN Management Organization Chart 06 Oct 2017 management-org-06oct17-en.pdf (pdf)

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

•  Universal Acceptance | IDN World Report | idnworldreport.eu: "an uncomfortable fact: many of the fundamental systems and applications that make the Internet useful still do not support IDNs. Progress in this area will seem glacial to regular readers of this report. The fact that the progress is so slow is a reflection of both the complexity of the problem and the sporadic uptake of IDNs which is documented elsewhere in this report." (emphasis and link added)

•  50% of the domaining industry about to be washed away? Probably--OnlineDomain.com

•   ICANN.org: Do You Have a Domain Name? Here's What You Need to Know; and ICANN's Transfer Policy: 5 Things Every Domain Name Registrant Should Know--ICANN.org

•  Trademark Rights Paramount to Contract Rights for Domain Names | IPLegalCorner.com

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

• Digital Trade Agreements Failing to Reflect Internet Community Input: UNCTAD | Electronic Frontier Foundation | eff.org: "... the need for aligning trade processes with multi-stakeholder values such as transparency, openness, and inclusive peer-to-peer participation by any interested party on an equal-footing ..."
• DNS a 'Victim of its Own Success' | darkreading.com: "..."The cheaper the device, the more you can fear it," [Dr. Paul] Vixie says. "I expect more Mirais" to emerge, he adds, because locking down IoT devices is a major cost that doesn't jive economically with low-cost consumer devices." [link added]
• Internet freedom in Africa matters | sabc.co.za:
• Iran's New Internet Minister Isn’t Delivering on Internet Freedom Promises: "Rouhani administration seemed to be expanding internet access, but the threat of censorship remains strong."--Motherboard.vice.com
• Internet Freedom Festival, 5-9 March 2018, Valencia, Spain--InternetFreedomFestival.org 

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

1. News Review | RySG Requests $$$ and "Detailed Accounting" From ICANN

2. News Review | Esther Dyson Interview, ICANN Founding Board Chair

3. Knotel CEO Says Company Plans to Expand Internationally (video)

4. Hearing on 21st Century Trade Barriers & Cross Border Data Flow Policies 

5. A Map of Internet Censorship Around the World (infographic) 

6. Hackers Will Pose A Greater Cybersecurity Threat In 2018 (video)

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER