News Review | Greed is Good? ICANN Auctions & The Big 'Money Grab'

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-12-23 with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) Greed is Good? ICANN Auctions & The Big 'Money Grab,' 2) Other ICANN news: a. EPDP Meetings, b. New gTLD .AMAZON,  c..WEB IRP, d. New gTLDs Next Round; 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks:  VeriSign $VRSN in NASDAQ 100, 4) ICYMI, 5) Most Read.

1) Greed is Good? ICANN New gTLD Auctions & The Big 'Money Grab' 

"... 2. Auctions (both "private" and "ICANN last resort") have corrupted ICANN and the processes for developing new gTLDs--"it's all about the money"--and increase costs that new gTLD registry operators can only recoup by charging registrants far more money for new gTLD domain name registrations and renewals than necessary had ICANN followed RFC1591 and the advice of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division cited above. In effect, consumers (domain name registrants) are bearing, directly and indirectly, the entire costs of ICANN's ill-conceived, horribly implemented, and corrupt program for new gTLDs .... 5. In lieu of the contracted parties' proposed "money grab" above and all other third parties' already proposed, or yet to come, "money grabs," ICANN should instead end this entire repulsive and tawdry "money grab" stampede, and announce it will set aside ALL of the auction proceeds for the benefit of domain name registrants who have, indirectly, provided these funds ..." (emphasis added)

Editor's note: excerpts above from my comment to ICANN's Initial Report of the New gTLD Auction Proceeds Cross-Community Working Group, my comment is embed in full below:

See all the comments to ICANN's Big "Money Grab" here.

2) ICANN News

a. GDPR & ICANN WHOIS: Next meeting of the EPDP working group is Jan 3, 2019. For information on last week's meetings (info, transcripts, recordings, etc.) see last week's News Review. All comments to the EPDP Initial Report (pdf) can be reviewed here.

Editor's note: for more on the EPDP Initial Report comment process (including an "easy to read" copy of the comment I submitted), go to last week's News Review.

Related:

• Purpose O and ICANN org questions (Dec 22, 2018).

• Technical Study Group on Access to Non-Public Registration Data Charter (pdf) and blog post.

b. New gTLD .AMAZON: 

18 Dec 2018 Letter (pdf) (content below) from ICANN Board Chair Cherine Chalaby to HE Jacqueline Mendoza:

Background: 7 Dec 2018 Letter from HE Jacqualine Mendoza to ICANN Board (pdf);

See also: (1) .AMAZON new gTLD application (pdf): "Geographic Names 21(a). Is the application for a geographic name? No." (2) 18 Dec 2018 Letter from ICANN CEO Göran Marby to GAC Chair Manal Ismail (pdf).

c. New gTLD .WEB IRP: 

ICANN’s Opposition To  Afilias Domains No. 3 Ltd.’S Request For Emergency Panelist And Interim Measures Of Protection (pdf) embed below:

Remaining items on the .WEB IRP schedule:

7 January 2019 Afilias Reply on Its Request for Interim Measures of Protection
9 January 2019 I CANN Sur-Reply (if any)
14 January 2019 Video Hearing on Afilias Interim Request
28 January 2019 Emergency Panelist Decision on Interim Request

More info here.

d. New gTLDs Next Round: 18 Dec 2018 Letter from ICANN Board Chair Cherine Chalaby to Cheryl Langdon-Orr and Jeff Neuman (pdf) re: new gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDPWG Supplemental Initial Report:

"We believe that any new recommendations should guard against bad faith applications to the extent possible. These concerns mostly center on the issues of auctions of last resort and on private auctions. We take special note of the possible practice of participating in private auctions for the sole purpose of being paid to drop out. We also take note of the abuse that becomes possible in alterations to the change request mechanisms. The Board has concerns about whether, and in what ways, the availability of private auctions incentivizes applications for purposes other than actually using the string; and we are interested in how these incentives for abuse might be minimized."

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3) Names, Domains & Trademarks:  Verisign $VRSN

.COM Registry Operator VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) is one of the six companies joining the NASDAQ-100 index coincident with its annual re-ranking, effective prior to market open on December 24, 2018. Source: Bloomberg First Word.

NASDAQ-100 Index

UPDATE: Dec 27, 2018: $VRSN UP 4% Since Added to the NASDAQ-100

Editor's note: The NASDAQ-100 Index is composed of the 100 largest non-financial companies listed on The NASDAQ Stock Market®, and was launched in January 1985.  

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

The EFF Gift Guide: What’s Creeping Us Out | EFF.org: 

• Facebook’s Portal
• Smart Home Hubs From Google, Amazon and Others
• Verizon Phones with AppFlash Spyware
• The Elf on the Shelf & the Mensch on a Bench

Editor's note: consider making a donation to EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) before 2018 ends.

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

1. News Review | GDPR & WHOIS EPDP Initial Report Comments Due Dec 21

2. Tech Review | Semiconductor Chip Wars: China vs U.S. (video)

3. Technology & Innovation: What's Next in Consumer Startups?

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

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DISCLAIMER

All the things ICANN failed to think about before launching new gTLDs

When ICANN decided to do internet domain name public policy based primarily on the competing private, profit-making motives of  registry applicants who could "pay to play" at the rate of $185,000 per new gTLD, with limited input from mostly self-selected so-called multi-stakeholders who collectively form the "junket culture" within ICANN, or as some call it, the "gravy train," as ICANN has done with its new gTLDs domain names program, and in the process completely disregard the public interest -- ignoring objections and warnings from governments, businesses, trademark holders, and others -- ICANN should at least have thought through all of the ramifications, pitfalls, conflicts, and other problems now resulting. Instead, thanks to ICANN, we now have a multi-million-dollar boondoggle and corruption of the internet domain name space. Here's just one example, of many, of the disaster ICANN has created as a result of its new gTLDs process --

https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/roussos-to-crocker-et-al-01jul14-en.pdf (pdf)

240 pages all about just one new gTLD! Multiply that times 1300+ (the total number of new gTLDs to be launched in the "first phase") and you begin to get an idea of the magnitude of chaos and confusion ICANN has irresponsibly unleashed on the global Internet community. There was a better way and there is no excuse nor justification for what ICANN has done. ICANN, its Board of Directors, staff, and all others responsible, should be held accountable. But ICANN is "a monopolistic, hardly accountable private organisation that exercises public authority and power," with no membership and controlled by an "unelected, self-interested, self-legitimised corporate board, answerable, when it really comes down to it, only to itself." The remedy therefore is to replace ICANN.


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