Showing posts with label capture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label capture. Show all posts

2019-06-30

News Review | ICANN65 Recap, Regulatory Capture at ICANN

graphic "News Review" ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-06-30) with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN65 Recap,  2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN  Update,  3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: a. Oracle Dyn, b. GoDaddy, c.Tucows, d.Fraudsters, e. Phishing, f. FUCT,  4) ICYMI: a. Google, b. Amazon, c. Privacy, d. Ethiopia, e. Ransomware,  f.DNS Attack, 5) Most Read.
”One of the advantages of leaving MMX is that I am finally done with ICANN ... one of the single worst organizations I have come across on this planet."--Fred Krueger
1) ICANN65 Recap
ICANN65 | Marrakech
Editor's note: ICANN65 was a rather more dreadful ICANN meeting than usual, perhaps due to a confluence of factors demonstrating how incompetent, corrupt, and unfit ICANN is:
Read more below at 2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN?
The truth about Kurt Pritz & ICANN? Read this.
Next EPDP Phase 2 Meeting July 11, 2019. Jun 27 meeting notes & action items.
ACTO countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela.
Read last week's News Review, and News Review 2)a. 2019-06-02, and note the .AMAZON applications are "on hold" due to Colombia's Request for Reconsideration which raises the same point I raised in News Review 2)b. 2019-05-26: "the .AMAZON applications now violate Specification 13 ..."
GAC Communique: "... V. Follow-up on Previous Advice - The following items reflect matters related to previous consensus advice provided to the Board. 1. .AMAZON applications: The GAC asks the Board to explain in writing whether and why it considers that its decision to proceed with the .AMAZON applications, based on a proposal [17 April 2019] that the eight Amazon countries considered did not address their concerns, complies with GAC Advice ...." See also Video of GAC - ICANN Board .AMAZON discussion (1:07:50 - 1:55:00) at ICANN65.
"This is a distraction from the EPDP Team’s work. We were informed that the TSG was a purely technical exercise. Now, we are being told this model is being taken to the DPAs. This has confirmed the fears this Team had regarding the TSG. It is not ICANN org or the TSG’s job to be developing policies - it is the ICANN community’s job."--EPDP feedback to ICANN Org
Another Reason Why ICANN's New gTLDs Program is Ill-Conceived & Corrupt.
Another Reason Why ICANN's New gTLDs Program is Ill-Conceived & Corrupt.
CCT and RPM implementation complete?--Next Round of new gTLDs in 2028?
Déjà vu: ICANN 52, Universal Acceptance, New gTLD Domain Names "break stuff"

 See also  ICANN65 | Marrakesh, Morocco, 24-27 June 2019 Post-Meeting Report (when available).

 2) Regulatory Capture at ICANN?
graphic "ICANN | Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers"
UPDATE 3 July 2019: Letter from ICA to ICANN re: .ORG Renewed Registry Agreement (pdf), ICANN Reply (pdf) 26 July 2019.

 'UPDATE 2 July 2019: Mainstream Media 'gets it' re: .ORG - ICANN Captured, Corrupt, Incompetent, Unfit: ICANN Just Threw Away the Multistakeholder Model

 UPDATE 1 July 2019: CAPTURE Complete--"On 30 June 2019, ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and Public Interest Registry, entered into a renewal Registry Agreement (pdf) [removing all price caps on .ORG domain names] under which Public Interest Registry operates the .org top-level domain."--ICANN.org. See also Addendum to .ORG Registry Agreement (pdf). Same result for .info, .biz and .asia.

See also ICANN Fails the Internet Community, allows an unlimited non profit tax | reviewsignal.com: "... The 96 page contract is identical from when it was proposed to [be] signed. The multi stakeholders and bottom up process that is supposed to govern ICANN policy? Ignored. The public outcry was nearly universally against this change. They weren't listened to at all. Did ICANN's board vote on the proposed contract after being briefed about the public outcry? As of [this] writing, I couldn't find any evidence in ICANN's board activity page. No agenda, no minutes, no resolutions, no briefing material, no preliminary report. Did ICANN staff simply push through this contract without a board vote? ..."
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Original entry: The Case for Regulatory Capture at ICANN--https://reviewsignal.com/blog/2019/06/24/the-case-for-regulatory-capture-at-icann/  by Kevin Ohashi--excerpt (Conclusion) below, with an in-depth examination of the conflicts of interest and corruption rampant within ICANN and its processes, specifically in reference to the .ORG price cap issue, with numerous individuals and organizations cited, including Public Interest Registry (PIR), Internet Society, Verisign, Shane Tews, Steve DelBianco, Jonathan Zuck, Greg Shatan, Judith Hellerstein, Maureen Hilyard, and more.

Conclusion
"The public interest is at best being represented, in majority, by people tied up in potential conflicts of interest in the given matter. At worst, it looks like special interest groups for VeriSign and The Internet Society (ISOC) / Public Interest Registry have captured multiple groups at ICANN and are trying to use it to line their organizations' pockets.

"This appears to be a case study in regulatory capture. Beyond public outcry, there appears to be very little stopping ICANN from simply pushing through these contracts despite overwhelming evidence that the average internet user isn't in favor of these changes. There is virtually no meaningful argument in favor of removing price caps, unless you accept that it would be administratively easier for an organization with hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank. There is a bizarre free market argument that falls apart when you realize the cost of lock-ins for using a domain name and creating a web presence on any domain. .ORG is a thirty million dollar subsidy to the Internet Society (via PIR) which outsources, via competitive bid, the actual registry services. And they want the ability to charge more, at the expense of every other non profit. Their interests strongly align with VeriSign, who most likely see .ORG as the last hurdle before getting .COM and .NET to have price caps removed and increase their bottom line even more in their non competitive monopoly contract.

"The only step left before these changes go into effect, that I am aware of, is board approval. I think it probably will go through unless there is a tremendous amount of attention brought to the issue. I'm not only concerned about price caps on .ORG, but structurally the only people who can invest so much time and money participating in ICANN are the organizations which stand to financially gain the most. Who is representing the public interest? Registry groups appear to have a strong voice within the ICANN community. Finally, I also worry about potential conflicts of interest at the board level, which has twenty members. Five ICANN board members were or are connected to ISOC (1,2,3,4,5). One is a former board member of PIR as well. I hope they recognize their responsibility to do what is right for everyone and not the select few registry operators in this instance." (emphasis added)

 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
graphic "Names, Domains & Trademarks" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
Editor's note: remember all the lies touting new gTLDs used by incompetent ICANN Org management and staff, the unethical ICANN Board of Directors, and the corrupt   "ICANN community" con artists, including their preposterous growth projections?
Oracle Dyn Domain Registration
https://dyn.com/domain-registration/

 "I can't find anything online yet and waiting for the office to open to confirm. Going to be a pain in the ass, we have over 500 domains with them and was trying to add more this morning and rejected ... Oracle Dyn is no longer offering Domain Registration, Standard DNS, and Secondary DNS. Customers with existing service should monitor the email associated with their account for further communication."--source: Reddit.com.

a. Oracle laid off sales and marketing staffs at Dyn (n/k/a Oracle Dyn / Oracle America, Inc.), a formerly independent DNS services provider and domain name registrar it acquired in 2016 for $600 million. Dyn users are getting "EOL" or end-of-life notices for products, and Oracle Dyn's landlord has put Dyn's offices in Manchester, N.H., up for lease, leading some to speculate more layoffs are to come.

b. Should I register a domain with GoDaddy?-- Benny from Pasadena. "Benny wants to create a website and wants to know if he should register a domain with GoDaddy. Leo says NO. He hates GoDaddy and their questionable business practices. And there are plenty of other domain registrars out there. Leo recommends HOVER [Tucows]" --techguylabs.com (emphasis added).

c. Tucows [NASDAQ: TCX]: 3 Terrible Businesses In 1 | SeekingAlpha.com: "Tucows' Domains business is suffering similar stagnation. Industry-wide, growth is abysmal. GoDaddy (NYSE:GDDY) and VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) have been suffering low single-digit growth, while TCX's own revenue CAGR has been 1% over the last 3 years as it's been losing market share. The business is highly commoditized, with little to differentiate any individual firm other than price. TCX has been boosting prices to inflate growth metrics, but this will simply accelerate churn and share loss." (emphasis and links added).

d. Fraudsters are taking advantage of the increased number of new top level domains to register lookalike domains – for example, the letter "m" can be replaced by the letters "r" and "n" to give the appearance of "m" and it's something which many users won't notice at first glance--zdnet.com.

e. "Bargain basement gTLDs and glyph attacks using IDNs are powering phishing attacks, with fraudulent registrations on the rise. Worse yet, phishing sites are increasingly getting security certificates"--techrepublic.com.

f. FUCT: Los Angeles streetwear designer Erik Brunetti, who had been turned down by U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when he sought to register the brand name FUCT (domain: fuct.com) as a trademark, won in the U.S. Supreme Court--Supreme Court allows foul language trademarks in F-word case. [Editor's note: not hard to imagine what's coming next, including as trademarks and .BRAND new gTLDs -- ICANN will have completely FUCT UP the internet and global DNS.]

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 
graphic "ICYMI Internet Domain News" ©2017 DomainMondo.com
a. Google: analysis of 150B+ browser-based Google searches in Q1 2019 in the U.S. indicated only 41.45% resulted in organic clicks to non-Google sites, 48.96% ended without a click. Editor's note: confirming the Google Search page is now one of the world's major content and information destinations.

b. What Happens After Amazon’s Domination Is Complete? Its Bookstore Offers Clues: The New York Times looks at some egregious cases of counterfeit books sold on Amazon.

c. Privacy: "... we have lost “ambient privacy,” i.e., daily interactions that should stay unremembered ... Confronted with the reality of a monitored world, people make the rational decision to make the best of it. That is not consent."--idlewords.com.

d. How Ethiopia Controls the Internet-- A one-week internet shutdown ends, but the government has more methods to silence online critics.

e. To pay, or not to pay: U.S. cities wrestle with ransomware | reuters.com.

f. Average Cost of a Domain Name System (DNS) Attack $1,070,000--securitymagazine.com.

5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com:
graphic "Domain Mondo" ©2017 DomainMondo.com

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

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2018-06-26

CrowdEmotion, an Emotion-Inspired Artificial Intelligence Company

Interview of Jing-Han Ong, CrowdEmotion

The Banker video above published Jun 18, 2018: Jing-Han Ong, commercial lead, CrowdEmotion, an emotion-inspired artificial intelligence (AI) company, explains how the start-up is using smart devices to capture and index engagement, emotions and body language.

Domain: crowdemotion.co.uk



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2016-12-29

Caveat Emptor Domain Name Registrants re: ICANN Base New gTLD RA

There is now no question that ICANN, post-IANA transition, is a domain name industry-captured organization and does not operate in the global public interest, but completely disregards the interests of domain name registrants. Ted Cruz may have been right, the IANA transition may have been a terrible mistake, premature at best. Maybe Trump can do something.
Caveat Emptor new gTLD domain name registrants: ICANN intends to eliminate price increase transparency for new gTLD domain names in its ICANN base new gTLD Registry Agreement (RA):
"Comments on the proposed amendments. A number of comments relate to the proposed amendments to Sections 2.9 and 2.10. The proposed amendment removes the requirement that a Registry Operator notify ICANN (in addition to its contracted ICANN accredited registrar partners) of increases in the price charged by a Registry Operator to register a domain name in the TLD. ICANN and the Working Group agreed to this modification for several reasons. First, it should be noted that a Registry Operator is not required to provide ICANN with the registration pricing initially charged to ICANN accredited registrars to register names in a TLD. Second, the price charged by Registry Operators is viewed as the “wholesale” price for registering a domain name in a TLD and is not necessarily the price ultimately charged to registrants by ICANN accredited registrars. As such, Registry Operator’s pricing is only one data point that leads to the price charged to registrants, and the disclosure and analysis of this data may be misleading to registrants. Third, it is not necessary for ICANN to be notified of price increases in order to ensure Registry Operator’s compliance with the substantive requirements of Section 2.10 as ICANN’s compliance department is entitled to request this information as part of its normal compliance process. Fourth, ICANN is concerned that collecting, retaining and analyzing this information could be seen as ICANN playing a role in the pricing policies and decision-making of Registry Operators, which historically ICANN has not done."--Updated ICANN Staff Report on Proposed Amendments to Base New gTLD Registry Agreement (pdf) at page 9 (emphasis added).
What's wrong with removing price increase transparency? Healthy competition in a free market is destroyed when price transparency is removed:
A 'free market' in healthcare is doomed | LATimes.com: Unleashing the power of choice and competition is the best way to lower healthcare costs and improve quality,” declares House Speaker Paul Ryan in his conservative manifesto “A Better Way.” The problem with that, however, is that the healthcare industry — hospitals, drug companies, insurers — have worked tirelessly to prevent the medical marketplace from functioning with sufficient transparency and efficiency to allow consumers to benefit from classic supply-and-demand economics. Instead, the opaque and frequently unfathomable healthcare market promotes runaway corporate greed that often can be countered only by shaming businesses into behaving fairly and responsibly.
And that Fourth reason for not even collecting and publishing pricing information:
Fourth, ICANN is concerned that [merely] collecting, retaining and analyzing this information could be seen as ICANN playing a role in the pricing policies and decision-making of Registry Operators, which historically ICANN has not done."
"ICANN is concerned"? Really? How so? Sounds like ICANN can not handle the responsibility of being a responsible steward acting in the global public interest--pricing information should be transparent to everyone in a free competitive market--but ICANN shirks its responsibilities to the global internet community, which includes domain name registrants!

ICANN obviously never really wanted "competition" in the domain name marketplace, instead ICANN prefers crony capitalism and monopolistic franchises exploiting domain name registrants, enabling opaque pricing that encourages the 'runaway greed' of ICANN's "partners," the gTLD domain name registry operators. Likewise the ICANN fee waivers enabled by the amendments will encourage gTLD registry operators' dependency upon ICANN for favoritism, and will ultimately lead to corruption between ICANN management/staff and the gTLD registry operators.

ICANN Publishes Updated Staff Report on Proposed Amendments to Base New gTLD Registry Agreement | ICANN.org: 
Los Angeles – 22 December 2016 – "ICANN today published a revised Staff Report of Public Comment Proceeding regarding Proposed Amendments to Base New gTLD Registry Agreement. Read the Reissued Report [PDF, 544 KB]. The reissued report supplements the staff report published on 17 August 2016 and includes additional explanatory text in Section I and a revised Section IV to reflect an analysis of the public comments by ICANN and the Working Group. More Information: Public Comment: Proposed Amendments to Base New gTLD Registry Agreement." Updated as of 22 December 2016:
"This Staff Report (see Reissued Report below) supplements the Staff Report published on 17 August 2016 to include additional explanatory text in Section I and a revised Section IV to reflect discussions between ICANN and the Working Group in response to the public comments. On 17 August 2016, ICANN published a summary report outlining comments received and committed to later publish an updated Report of Public Comment Proceeding to include analysis of the public comments, once considered with the Working Group as provided for in the Registry Agreement. For convenience, Sections I, II, and III have been reproduced from the 17 August 2016 Staff Report below for reference. As a result of the analysis, a few minor adjustments were made to the originally posted amendment. The updated version is reflected in the clean and redlined documents below:
Background:

Clean version of amended base New gTLD Registry Agreement as of December 2016:



Redlines from previous version of the amended base New gTLD Registry Agreement as of December 2016:



Updated Next Steps according to ICANN: "According to Section 7.7(c) of the Registry Agreement, the Proposed Revisions shall be submitted for Registry Operator Approval (as defined in Section 7.6) and approval by the ICANN Board of Directors. If such approvals are obtained, the Proposed Revisions shall be deemed an Approved Amendment (as defined in Section 7.6) by the Applicable Registry Operators and ICANN, and shall be effected and deemed an amendment to this Agreement upon sixty (60) calendar days notice from ICANN to Registry Operator."


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2016-09-10

ICANN Answers Questions About The IANA Stewardship Transition

Timely and informative, ICANN has posted a Q&A about the IANA Stewardship Transition, full version at the ICANN.org link further below, excerpts follow after the following DomainMondo.com introductory note:

[Note--In answering Question 7 below, ICANN failed to pose and answer the real underlying Question: Under what circumstances, and how, could ICANN decide to relocate outside the United States and/or change its principal legal jurisdiction or place of incorporation in the future? In 2014, ICANN's then President and CEO Fadi Chehadé told a panel of the French Senate that the ICANN Board of Directors had given a "green light" to possibly creating a "parallel ICANN international structure, likely based in Geneva ..." See Will ICANN Board Disclose New Swiss Legal Structure at ICANN 50? | DomainMondo.com citing Will ICANN Be The Next International Organisation In Geneva? | ip-watch.org and the actual video (in French)--note Chehade's reference to "green light" @2:35 and what he says at that point (English translation here). See also: Why ICANN CEO Chehade quit early | IoN magazine: "... he [Chehade] told a panel in the French Senate that ICANN’s new European office could lead to moving ICANN’s headquarters outside the United States; only to say the exact opposite when in Washington DC just a few weeks later." 

Chehadé, who for unknown reasons resigned effective March 12, 2016, after serving only 3½ years as ICANN President & CEO (14 Sep 2012-12 Mar 2016), announced at ICANN's NCPH Intersessional session, January 29, 2013:
",,, welcome to LA, welcome to ICANN. This is the last time you'll come to the ICANN headquarters because soon we will no longer have one headquarters, we'll have three headquarters around the world ..."
--end of Note.]

Answering some of your questions on the stewardship transition  ICANN.org: "... Some questions remain about the nature of the IANA functions, ICANN, and the likely impacts of the transition and we [ICANN] wanted to answer them for you in one place.

1. Does the transition threaten Internet freedom?

No. The United States Government's contract with ICANN does not give the U.S. any power to regulate or protect speech on the Internet. The IANA functions are technical – not content – based ... 

2. Will countries be able to censor speech on the Internet after the transition?

No more so than they can today. Right now, there is nothing about ICANN or its contract with the U.S. Government that prevents a country from censoring or blocking content within its own borders. ICANN is a technical organization and does not have the remit or ability to regulate content on the Internet ... 

3. Will ICANN be more susceptible to capture by a single entity after the transition?

No. ICANN's multistakeholder model is designed to ensure that no single entity, whether country, business or interest group, can capture ICANN or exclude other parties from decision-making processes. Features of this model include open processes where anyone can participate, decisions made by consensus, established appeals mechanisms, and transparent and public meetings. These elements are all reinforced in the community transition proposal and have been building blocks for the free and open Internet we see today ... 

4. Will ICANN seek oversight by the U.N. to maintain its antitrust exemption after the transition?

No. ICANN is not, and never has been exempted from antitrust laws. ICANN has not been granted an antitrust exemption through any of its contracts with NTIA or the U.S. Department of Commerce. No court ruling in favor of ICANN has ever cited an antitrust exemption to support its ruling. This past July,NTIA Administrator Larry Strickling addressed the concerns about the possible antitrust liability of a post-transition ICANN and reaffirmed that "ICANN always has and will continue to be subject to antitrust laws." After the transition, ICANN will have no mandate, need or reason to seek to be overseen by another governmental or inter-governmental group for protection ... 

5. Will governments have more control over the Internet after the transition?

No. The transition proposal does not increase the role of governments over the Internet or ICANN as an organization. The multistakeholder model appropriately limits the influence of governments and intergovernmental organizations to an advisory role in policy development. More than 160 governments actively participate as a single committee and must come to a consensus before policy advice can be issued. After the transition, there will be times where the ICANN Board must give special consideration to the public policy advice of governments. However, this will only happen when there is no objection from any government in the committee – which includes the United States. This is a stricter requirement than is currently in place for government advice.

6. Does delaying the transition by one or two years have any negative consequences?

Yes, any delay of the transition could have significant global consequences. The Internet is a voluntary, trust-based system. A delay would introduce uncertainty, for businesses and other stakeholders, which could have long-term business, social, cultural, political and economic impacts. This past March, U.S. Ambassador David Gross testified that, "the clearest impact [of a delay] is on the broader, global community. It will signal that the U.S. has changed its position and no longer believes in a private-sector led internet and that governments will play a primary role in making the final decision. Russia, China, and others will welcome such a decision."...

7. Will ICANN relocate its headquarters outside of the United States after the transition?

No. ICANN will not relocate its corporate headquarters location after the transition. The transition proposal clearly states [PDF, 2.32 MB] that "the legal jurisdiction in which ICANN resides is to remain unchanged." California law is the basis for the new mechanisms created to empower the ICANN community and hold ICANN the organization, Board and community, accountable. In addition, ICANN's Articles of Incorporation are filed under California law, and its Bylaws state that ICANN's headquarters are in California.

8. Is it illegal to allow the transition to move forward without congressional approval because it is a transfer of U.S. property?

No. ICANN is not aware of any U.S. Government property that would be transferred as a result of the transition. In a letter to Chairman Grassley and Chairman Goodlatte [PDF, 1.25 MB] last month, NTIA stated that the Department of Commerce Office of General Counsel conducted a legal review of this issue and advised NTIA that transition would not result in the transfer of U.S. Government property, and that, in the view of the Department, the authoritative root zone file is not U.S. Government property.

9. Will the U.S. lose exclusive rights to the .mil and .gov top-level domains as a result of the transition?

The operation of and responsibility for .mil and .gov are not impacted by this transition. .mil and .gov cannot be reassigned without express approval from the U.S. Government. To formally reaffirm this,NTIA and ICANN exchanged a series of letters in June 2016, which establish the U.S. Government as the administrative authority over the .mil, .gov, .us, and .edu top-level domains. This means that any changes made to these top-level domains can only be made with the express written approval of the U.S. Government.

10. Will Verisign have the ability to raise prices of .com domain names on 1 October 2016 as a result of the transition?

No. The cost of .com domains is capped at $7.85 until 30 November 2018. The current pricing of the .com registry is defined by two separate contracts (1) the .com Registry Agreement between Verisign and ICANN; and (2) the Cooperative Agreement between Verisign and the Department of Commerce. After 2018, Verisign and NTIA will have to negotiate to change the terms for the Cooperative Agreement or agree to end the Cooperative Agreement before discussing new pricing of the .com domain with ICANN. In letters [PDF, 851 KB] to Chairman Cruz, Chairman Lee, and Chairman Duffy last week, the Assistant Attorney General stated that, consistent with past practices, it is expected that NTIA will seek the advice of the U.S. Department of Justice on any competition issues implicated by the extension of these two contracts.

11. Do the recent independent review process (IRP) decisions regarding applications for new generic top level domains prove that ICANN is not sufficiently transparent or accountable enough for the transition?

No. An IRP is an accountability mechanism used to review and resolve a concern raised by the community over a policy decision made by ICANN. Any result from an IRP, whether positive or negative, demonstrates that the system of checks and balances built into the ICANN multistakeholder model works. The IRP has been enhanced to strengthen ICANN's commitment to employ open, transparent, bottom-up, multistakeholder processes after the transition.

12. Does ICANN have an operational relationship with the Chinese government?

No. ICANN does not have any operational relationship with the Chinese Government. ICANN's engagement center in China is one of seven around the world. The presence of an ICANN engagement center or operational hub within a country does not imply any level of support for the nation's government or its policies.

See also on Domain Mondo:
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2016-07-24

News Review: IANA Transition & ICANN Corruption, Capture, and Control

"If one wanted to capture ICANN on a single issue, or a group of interrelated issues, the most practical tactic might be bribery"--John C. Coffee Jr., Columbia University Professor of Law, see this week's FEATURE further below.

DomainMondoShiningLight ©2013domainmondo.com All Rights Reserved
Domain Mondo's review and look ahead [pdf], starting first with the macro view, the big picture, after cutting through all the noise: 

 •  GOP nominates Trump: Peter Thiel at the 2016 RNC: "... Across the country, wages are flat. Americans get paid less today than 10 years ago ... Our economy is broken ... our government is broken ... We don't need to see Hillary Clinton's deleted emails; her incompetence is in plain sight. She pushed for a war in Libya, and today it's a training ground for ISIS. On this most important issue, Donald Trump is right, it's time to end the era of stupid wars and rebuild our country ... Of course, every American has a unique identity. I am proud to be gay. I am proud to be a Republican. But most of all, I am proud to be an American! I don't pretend to agree with every plank in our party's platform, but fake culture wars only distract us from our economic decline. And nobody in this race is being honest about it except Donald Trump ... Tonight, I urge all of my fellow Americans to stand up and vote for Donald Trump." See also Ivanka Trump's speech (video) that set social media abuzz. More at: LIVE Video: Tech Entrepreneur & VC Peter Thiel Speaks at #RNCinCLE. A Reuters/Ipsos poll of likely U.S. voters shows Clinton and Trump virtually tied (within margin of error).

•   Hillary chooses Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va) as her Vice Presidential nominee but VP pick greeted by blowback from progressive groups | WashingtonPost.com: "... several organizations, including some with ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the runner-up in the Democratic primaries, sharply questioned Kaine’s liberal bona fides, pointing to Kaine’s support of trade deals and regulations favorable to big banks. Stephanie Taylor, the co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, worried that Kaine’s support of a pending trade deal known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP] could allow Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to “outflank” Clinton on trade." See also: New Leak: Top DNC Official Wanted to Use Bernie Sanders’s Religious Beliefs Against Him | TheIntercept.com: "Among the nearly 20,000 internal emails from the Democratic National Committee, released Friday by Wikileaks and presumably provided by the hacker “Guccifer 2.0,” is a May 2016 message from DNC CFO Brad Marshall. In it, he suggested that the party should “get someone to ask” Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders about his religious beliefs." The Democratic National Coronation Convention is in Philadelphia this coming week, July 25-28. UPDATE: #DNCleak #DNCleaks LIVE twitter feed

•  Turkey is in turmoil: "Turkey’s president is destroying the democracy that Turks risked their lives to defend."--Erdogan’s revenge | Economist.com.

•  Ireland Hits Brexit Alarm in Biggest Foreign Crisis in 50 Years | Bloomberg.com: "The prime minister is under pressure, economists are slashing growth forecasts and companies are warning of Brexit’s dire consequences. London? No, Dublin. The intertwining of trade and finance means no other country is feeling the fallout from the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union more than Ireland." See also: Europe’s hedge-fund industry contracted for a sixth straight quarter "shrinking the industry to fewer than 4,000 funds."  As noted before on Domain Mondo, the EU actually needs the UK more than the UK needs the EU (which is why the UK, instead of EU-dependent Greece, will be the first member state to leave the EU): see UK Property Market Proves Resilient post-Brexit and One month after Brexit: what we know about the UK economy | FT.com: "little Brexit effect on [UK] retail sales growth" and ecommerce transactions "showing similar growth rates to those before the referendum." Markets in Europe since the June 23rd Brexit vote: UK's FTSE100 UP +6.19%; Germany's DAX DOWN -1.07%, France's CAC40 DOWN -1.90%, as of Friday, July 22.

•  FEATURE: IANA Transition & ICANN Corruption, Capture, and Control
"Any waiver of registry operator fees in the arbitrary and sole discretion of ICANN management and staff is an open invitation to graft, corruption, and kick-back schemes reminiscent of the FIFA scandals. ICANN lacks a comprehensive and effective conflicts of interest and code of conduct applicable to every ICANN employee, and ICANN may have already engaged in questionable, if not illegal, behavior."--John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo, Comments to ICANN Proposed Amendments to Base New gTLD RA (emphasis added).
John C. Coffee Jr., Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School and Director of its Center on Corporate Governance, has written an interesting article, Adventures in Corporate Governance: Guarding the Internet | NewYorkLawJournal.com, July 20, 2016, about his serving as an advisor for the last two years to the U.S. Department of Commerce (NTIA) in connection with the "Obama Administration's efforts to 'privatize' the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)" or what is commonly called the IANA transition. Among his observations:
  • "[W]ho is this "global multistakeholder community"? Ultimately, it is a strange collection of supporting organizations and advisory committees, populated by dreamers, cultists, ideologues, geeks and the Internet's largest commercial users (e.g., Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, etc.)."
  • "The CCWG [Accountability] proposals largely dispensed with the business judgment rule and made everything appealable to a broad community of stakeholders. The key CCWG "reform" was the creation of a new body, literally called the "Empowered Community" ... Nothing in this structure strikes this author as optimal, and the efficiency loss for ICANN could be considerable."
  • "Capture Through Corruption. If one wanted to capture ICANN on a single issue, or a group of interrelated issues, the most practical tactic might be bribery." [See also #4 Other Reading Recommendations (further below)--"spreading the cash" a/k/a "soft lobbying."]
  • "Ironically, the one prospect that does seem unlikely under this new structure is ICANN's capture by a single government or a narrow interest group ... ICANN has been given so many checks and balances that it is difficult to imagine a hostile takeover. Nonetheless, symptomatic of the dysfunction in our political process, it is this least likely scenario that Congress may choose to debate."
  • "If the question were whether ICANN's proposed multistakeholder governance structure is the best way to run a railroad, I would have grave doubts ... but it will be a fascinating test of "bottoms up" corporate governance. More importantly, [U.S. Department of] Commerce was probably correct in its key judgment: The proposed structure seems superior to U.N. control—and real hardball politics." (emphasis added)

•  Unwanted & Unneeded New gTLDs: WorldTrademarkReview.com on ICANN's Phase 2 Global Consumer Research Survey conducted by Nielsen: "... the real measure of how relevant new gTLDs are is surely the level to which people actually use them, rather than simply the level to which they are aware of their existence. And on this point, the findings look less positive for ICANN ... In total, reported visits to new gTLDs have decreased year-on-year ... people are visiting new gTLDs less than they were one year ago ...  By contrast, visits to legacy TLDs  [e.g., .COM, .NET, .ORG] were up across the board ..." 

 •  Reconsideration Request to delay .WEB auction DENIED (pdf): Requesters, Ruby Glen, LLC and Radix FZC, submitted a reconsideration request seeking urgent reconsideration of ICANN’s decision not to delay the .WEB/.WEBS auction (scheduled for 27 July 2016) following ICANN’s investigation into alleged material changes in Nu Dot Co LLC’s (Nu Dot’s) application for .WEB. More information: Auction for 1 Contention Set [.WEB/.WEBS] Slated for 27 July 2016 | ICANN.org. UPDATE: see New gTLD WEB, Ruby Glen, LLC v. ICANN, Complaint & TRO Request | DomainMondo.com and New gTLD dot WEB 'Last Resort' ICANN Auction: and the Winner Is? | DomainMondo.com.

•  Dot AFRICA: ICANN and ZACR Appeals Consolidated "the parties’ joint motion (Docket Entry No. 5) to consolidate Nos.16-55693 and 16-55894 and to amend the briefing schedule is granted. The opening brief in No. 16-55693 has been filed. The opening brief in No. 16-55694 is due July 22, 2016. The answering brief is due August 19, 2016. The optional reply brief is due September 9, 2016."

•  Comments close this coming week at ICANN on:

•  ICANN Call for Expressions of Interest to Host ICANN Meetings in 2019 and 2020 | ICANN.org: "ICANN is actively seeking hosts for its public meetings to be held in 2019 and 2020 in Europe, Africa, Asia/Australia/Pacific, North America and Latin America/Caribbean. Those in the geographic regions are invited to submit expressions of interest for specific locations to hold the events." More information at the link above.

•  Q2 2016 Earnings Releases & Webcasts with coverage on Domain Mondo this coming week:
  • Apple AAPL July 26
  • Twitter TWTR July 26
  • Facebook FB July 27
  • Alphabet GOOG July 28
  • Amazon AMZN July 28
  • Neustar NSR July 28
  • Verisign VRSN July 28

•  Five most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this week on DomainMondo.com:
  1. News Review [17Jul]: ICANN Secretly Colludes With New gTLD Registry Operators
  2. YAHOO $YHOO Q2 2016 Earnings, Webcast Monday July 18, 5:30pm ET
  3. Burberry: British Luxury Fashion Retail, $BRBY UP 16% Since Brexit (video)
  4. FTSE100 Hits New High on SoftBank & UK’s ARM Holdings $32 Billion Deal
  5. LIVE Video: Tech Entrepreneur & VC Peter Thiel Speaks at #RNCinCLE
Most Domain Mondo readers this past week (top 3 countries): U.S., Russia, Germany

• 5 Other Reading Recommendations:
  1. EFF Files Lawsuit Challenging DMCA's Restrictions Security Researchers | Threatpost.com:“... Section 2101 doesn’t make us safer. It impinges on researchers’ First Amendment rights to share vital research that could save lives and keep us safe in a world increasingly reliant on computer code ... If future generations are going to be able to understand and control their own machines, and to participate fully in making rather than simply consuming culture, Section 1201 has to go.”
  2. Attackers launch multi-vector DDoS attacks that use DNSSEC amplification | CIO.com: "The domain owners themselves are not at fault and don't feel the effects of these attacks ... Attackers abuse open resolvers by sending a barrage of spoofed DNS queries where the IP source is set to be the MIT target IP. Most of these servers will cache the initial response so multiple queries are not made to the authoritative name servers."
  3. Roger Ailes Resigns as Chairman and CEO of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, and Chairman Fox Television Stations | 21cf.com: "... It is always difficult to create a channel or a publication from the ground up and against seemingly entrenched monopolies.  To lead a flourishing news channel, and to build Fox Business, Roger has defied the odds. His grasp of policy and his ability to make profoundly important issues accessible to a broader audience stand in stark contrast to the self-serving elitism that characterizes far too much of the media. I am personally committed to ensuring that Fox News remains a distinctive, powerful voice ..."--Rupert Murdoch
  4. Google, Trying to Endear Itself to Europe, Spreads Cash Around | NYTimes.com: "... Google has been staging a full-court press in Europe to finance everything from start-up offices to YouTube-sponsored music concerts, trying to remake its image in the region as it battles a mounting list of [EU antitrust claims] regulatory woes. Those efforts represent a campaign of “soft lobbying” where instead of, or alongside, paying registered lobbyists to advocate its case in the corridors of power, a company looks to change the minds of the public at large ... the company has ramped up its campaign in recent years, earmarking about $450 million from 2015 to 2017 ..."
  5. Verizon is close to buying Yahoo for $5 billion as a ‘safe bet’ | Recode.net: "The plan is to combine it with AOL" but investors should read SeekingAlpha.com: "The telecom sector remains a defensive industry with muted growth prospects. The largest players in the industry, T [AT&T]and VZ [Verizon], return a significant portion of their free cash flow to investors via a quarterly dividend. The industry requires a consistent outlay of Capex to upgrade and maintain their networks often requiring copious amounts of debt."
Keep up with the Democratic Convention in Philadelphia this coming week, on Domain Mondo's election page.

 -- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2016-04-24

News Review: ICANN Bylaws, Comments, ICANN Chairman's Op-ed Flops

DomainMondoShiningLight ©2013domainmondo.com All Rights Reserved
Domain Mondo's review of the past week and look ahead [pdf of this post here]:

The implentation phase of the IANA Stewardship Transition Plan (including WS1 of Enhancing ICANN Accountability) is proceeding in accord with the tentative timeline:

IANA Stewardship Transition Tentative Timeline
IANA Stewardship Transition Tentative Timeline
• ICANN's new proposed bylaws in connection with the IANA transition and ICANN accountability proposal, have been posted for public comment through May 21, 2016. Read more at: ICANN Posts Draft of New Bylaws For Public Comment Until May 21 | DomainMondo.com.

•  On April 19, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by ICANN Board Chairman Steve Crocker, warning of terrible consequences if the U.S. government (NTIA) does not end its oversight of the IANA functions:
Broadening the Oversight of a Free and Open Internet - WSJ: "... If the U.S. does not transition its stewardship role to the global Internet community, then other governments may try to move control to organizations like the United Nations. There is also a risk that some governments may form their own national or regional networks. This disruptive splintering would damage the economy and weaken personal Internet use ..." (emphasis added)
Crocker, like others involved in the IANA transition process from the beginning, including NTIA's Larry Strickling on March 14, 2014, is being disingenuous by using the phrase "global internet community" when he really means ICANN, the California corporation. The IANA stewardship transition is only about transitioning, or privatizing, the U.S. government's stewardship role from the U.S. to ICANN, not the global Internet community. The global Internet community is hardly the same as ICANN or even ICANN's "community," a fact acknowledged by ICANN and the "ICANN community" in setting up the ground rules for participation in the CCWG-Accountability (Cross Community Working Group to Enhance ICANN Accountability):
Members & Participants - Enhancing ICANN Accountability: "Anyone interested can volunteer to join the CCWG as a "participant," regardless of whether they are members of the ICANN community." (emphasis added)
Unlike the global Internet community, ICANN has largely been captured by domain name industry and other special interests. As far as Crocker's comment about "splintering" [or fragmentation] of the internet is concerned, that is already happening, due, in large part, to distrust of ICANN, its programs, policies, processes, structures, and leadership, by the global Internet community.

Crocker apparently forgot he was addressing readers of the Wall Street Journal, not a gathering of the UN's Internet Governance Forum or WSIS. His message would have been much better received had he simply been honest about the IANA transition, rather than using the false narrative of a transition to the "global Internet community." In fact, the Wall Street crowd would have probably warmly embraced the idea of a transition from 'U.S. government control' to 'control by ICANN,' a California corporation, which functions largely as a captured agency controlled by lobbyists and lawyers representing special interests, known as 'stakeholders' in the institutional jargon of ICANN, with the U.S. government retaining veto power over interference by foreign governments.

But Crocker followed the script he had been given, false narratives and institutional secrets are inculcated in ICANN's sick organizational culture. Besides being a misleading reference, the phrase "global Internet community" sounds to denizens of Wall Street like a rallying cry of the Trotskyite wing of #FeelTheBern. The Wall Street Journal readers' comments to Crocker's op-ed (more than 70 at last count), confirm this. While interesting and entertaining to read, particularly if one wants to know what that part of the global Internet community--the part that comprises the affluent demographic that subscribes to the Wall Street Journal--thinks about the IANA stewardship transition, there is a jarring brutal honesty in the comments for those accustomed to the rarefied air of the "ICANN bubble"--here are a few excerpts--
This is a typical political sales pitch; it tells us nothing about the features that supposedly will produce the claimed benefits, ignores legitimate concerns and glosses over all problem areas. Mr. Crocker missed his calling as a telemarketer ...
This is a totally misguided transformation. Mr. Crocker's last sentence to "assure that the Internet of tomorrow is as free, open and resilient as the Internet of today" should give us all pause about even contemplating the changes he and others propose. His proposal reminds me of a mentally ill patient, who, after using medication to restore his mental health, goes off his meds because "he is cured". As soon as the Commerce Department steps away, it will be open season on that openness and freedom by some of the darkest elements around the world, both corporate and governmental. The only reason the internet is free, open and resilient is that the US Government stands behind it. 
This article does not include a single supported assertion. Speaking on behalf of "the Internet community—along with businesses, civil society and other interest groups," I voice my dissent.
Mr. Crocker's column is a nice example of a buffoon using all the right words (diverse, accountable, community) to blow smoke up our 4th point of contact. When you want a technical activity managed properly, you don't care about diversity - that is for non-technical people looking to grab control of something. Then there are the questions Mr. Crocker doesn't answer: Example: accountable to whom? He never says specifically, just yada yada yada about an international community. Been there; done that. It's called the UN. Letting Russia, China or the UN anywhere near controlling anything about the internet guarantees only censorship. Even the Europe Union, with its silly "right to be forgotten" can't be trusted ... 
... I have to ask who elects people to the Board of ICANN? This guy [Crocker] is really an embarrassment, and should be removed forthwith ...
Not exactly the reaction and response Crocker was looking for, I'm sure. I'll leave the rest of the comments for your reading enjoyment. [Note: if you're like one member of the ICANN Board of Directors and don't know how to access WSJ articles without a subscription, just click the WSJ  story link on this Google search results page.]

• Draft ICANN FY17 Operating Plan & Budget and Five-Year Operating Plan Update: Open for Public Comments--Close Date 30 Apr 2016 23:59 UTC.

•  ICANN FY16 Q3 (Quarter ending 31 March 2016) Stakeholder Call - 27 April 1500 UTC:  Pre-register online here to join the Quarterly Stakeholder Call online. The call will take place 27 April at 1500 UTC time converter. Joining instructions will be sent to those who register in advance of the call. A recording will be made available after the call here: https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/quarterly-reports-2014-11-13-en.

• New gTLD? Use It OR Lose It: New gTLD Program Delegation Deadlines - ICANN: "... To date, registry agreements are in place for more than 1,230 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), and more than 950 of these new gTLDs have been delegated into the root zone ...  The New gTLD Registry Agreement defines a 12-month period after contract execution during which the registry operator must delegate its TLD. ICANN expects registry operators to honor this commitment, and most do. However, we've recently seen an uptick in registry operators who either haven't met their deadline or aren't on track to do so. There are about 200 TLDs with approaching delegation deadlines between now and the end of August 2016 ... If a registry operator does not meet its delegation deadline, ICANN has the option to terminate the registry agreement, as per Section 4.3(b) of the agreement ..."

 • DotConnectAfrica Trust vs ICANN and ZACR: ICANN's motion to dismiss scheduled for hearing April 25, in Los Angeles.

• Earnings Season schedule this week on Domain Mondo's Earnings Calendar:
  • Twitter TWTR April 26
  • Apple AAPL April 26
  • Facebook FB April 27
  • Verisign VRSN April 28, 4:30 p.m. ET
  • Neustar NSR April 28
  • Amazon AMZN April 28 5pm ET

• This past week's five most popular posts on Domain Mondo (# of pageviews Sun-Sat):
Honorable mention: Jack Bogle, Founder of Vanguard Group, Creator of Index Funds, Interview | DomainMondo.com

New This Week: Other Reading Recommendations (with a little taste of the article or a little of my own commentary):

Have a great week!

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo



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