GoDaddy $GDDY Q4 FY2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast Feb 20, 5pm EST

GoDaddy $GDDY Q4 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast Feb 20, 5pm EST
Financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2018, will be released on Wednesday, February 20, 2019, after the stock market closes, followed by a LIVE webcast and conference call 5:00 p.m. EST. To hear the call, dial (833) 286-5800 in the United States or (647) 689-4445 from international locations, with passcode 6529529. The webcast replay of the call will also be available on GoDaddy's investor relations website at investors.godaddy.net.

GoDaddy Inc. (GDDY) CEO Scott Wagner on Q4 2018 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com: "On the top-level domains, are there any trends you can point to far as a domain buyers bundling multiple TLDs?" Answer: "On the first question, honestly there is no trends that are big enough to mention on this call." 

UPDATE Feb 20: Presentation (pdf) and Press Release of Financial Results, excerpt:

• Total revenue of $695.8 million, up 15.5% year over year, or 16.0% on a constant currency basis.
• Total bookings of $732.4 million, up 11.3% year over year, or 12.5% on a constant currency basis.
• Net cash provided by operating activities of $128.5 million, up 23.2% year over year.
• Unlevered free cash flow of $126.8 million, up 16.1% year over year.
• Customers of 18.5 million at December 31, 2018, up 6.8% year over year.
• Average revenue per user (ARPU) of $148, up 6.6% year over year.
• Domains revenue of $314.3 million, up 11.6% year over year.
• Hosting and Presence revenue of $270.0 million, up 18.0% year over year.
• Business Applications revenue of $111.5 million, up 21.5% year over year.
• International revenue of $240.3 million, up 15.9% year over year.

Operating Highlights

• GoCentral, GoDaddy's website builder, had a year of strong feature expansion, evolving from an easy-to-use website builder to a syndication platform managing customers' presence across the social, reputation and e-commerce landscape.
• GoCentral saw robust subscription growth in 2018, driven by improvements in conversion, retention and awareness. Engagement with features such as appointments, online store, and integrations with third-party platforms rose dramatically throughout 2018.
• GoDaddy became the largest global host of paid WordPress instances and continues to invest in making WordPress simple, secure, and accessible to entrepreneurs and Web Pros alike.
• GoDaddy continues to invest in the WordPress ecosystem through its products and contributions to the open source WordPress framework.
• GoDaddy launched a partnership with Open-Xchange for a new branded email offering focused on emerging markets, complementing its partnership with Microsoft O365 in mature markets.
• Improvements in conversational marketing continue to drive new and expanding campaigns to reach existing customers, enabling GoDaddy to better identify and serve the need states in its customer base.
• GoDaddy announced Fara Howard as Chief Marketing Officer. Ms. Howard will lead all aspects of marketing strategy and execution, including brand and performance marketing, community engagement, and customer lifecycle management.

$GDDY

GoDaddy Inc. (godaddy.com) also announced that Ray Winborne, GoDaddy Chief Financial Officer, and Andrew Low Ah Kee, GoDaddy Chief Revenue Officer, will present at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference in San Francisco on Monday, February 25, 2019 at 12:00 pm PST. (3:00 pm EST). The live audio webcast will also be available on GoDaddy investor relations website investors.godaddy.net. Following the presentation an audio replay will also be available on the investor relations website.

GoDaddy, the world's largest domain name registrar, has over 18 million customers worldwide and more than 77 million domain names under management. To learn more, go to GoDaddy.com.Tweets by GoDaddy

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News Review | ICANN EPDP Dysfunction & Burnout, Report Delayed

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-02-03 with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN EPDP Dysfunction & Burnout, Report Delayed, 2) EPDP Meetings, 3) ICANN & Belgium's DPA, 4) ACTO, ICANN & .AMAZON, 5) Dot COM Dominates Aftermarket, 6) ICYMI: Internet Freedom, Data Protection, Internet Shutdowns, Google Public Policy Fellowships, 7) Most Read.

UPDATE FEB 5: EPDP Schedule changes a) Final Report 'drop dead date' now Feb 25 (revised timeline embed below). b) EPDP Plenary Meetings this week changed to Tuesday Feb 5, Wednesday Feb 6, Thursday Feb 7, starting at 14:00 UTC (9am EST). Observers: Adobe Connect. More info at 2) below.

4 Feb 2019 Letter (pdf) from ICANN CEO Goran Marby to GNSO Council Chair Keith Drazek:

UPDATES Feb 3-4, 2019: 
EPDP Consensus Call #1 email from EPDP Chair Kurt Pritz with attachment embed below:

EPDP Consensus Call #2 email from EPDP Chair Kurt Pritz with attachment embed below:  

Original Post:
1. EPDP Dysfunction & Burnout, Final Report (Phase I) Delayed:
[GNSO-EPDP-Team mail list] "Extreme workload warning!"

"While I understand that we have a deadline to meet, and we do not wish to push any more work than absolutely necessary to the next phase of our WHOIS policy development, I would like to push back on the amount of activity that we are now expected to join over the next couple of weeks in order to push the EPDP final report over the finish line. Many of us have busy lives beyond ICANN, and cannot drop everything to attend 4 three hour plenary meetings a week, let alone the other small team meetings (and respond to the list). Given that we have achieved really only a modest level of consensus on our policy recommendations to date, I would like to register a very strong warning that we will not accept changes to the text that have not been agreed in full committee with full attendance. This appears to be a golden opportunity for those who are being paid to work full time on lobbying for certain outcomes, to insert or reinsert their favorite language into the text. In the name of maintaining the integrity of the multi-stakeholder process, flawed as it undoubtedly is, let us resist this and accept the fact that we cannot fix in our last couple of weeks what we lingered over for months."--Stephanie Perrin, EPDP member and NCSG Chair, EPDP Mail List, Jan 28, 2019.

"I’d like to echo Stephanie’s concerns ... After two weeks of being AWOL (ePDP Toronto and GNSO Los Angeles), my employer is anxious for me to turn my attention to my real job.  I will not be joining the additional sessions next week, nor do I recall our discussing or agreeing to this ask."--James Bladel, EPDP member (GoDaddy, RrSG), EPDP Mail List, Jan 28, 2019.

Hi James and everyone: I got it. I am at NamesCon and spent the ride to the airport this morning on a EPDP staff call and have been holed up in my room typing up legal issues since I arrived. I haven’t sold (or bought) a domain name yet. The additional sessions are not a requirement; invitations were sent as placeholders as a heads up, but there is no confirmation yet on whether we go ahead with these or whether they are needed. Let’s discuss the go-forward plan on the call tomorrow - although we might not have a Plan B in place by then - we can at least generate a joint understanding of status and final objective. Thanks (Stephanie and James) for this interjection. Best regards, Kurt [Pritz, EPDP Chair (appointed by the GNSO Council)] EPDP Mail List Jan 28, 2019.

EPDP Timeline as of Jan 28, 2019 (pdf) now REVISED as of Feb 4, embed below:

Updated Editor's note: the EPDP's "drop dead date" is Feb 11 25, 2019, for submission of the final report to the GNSO Council.

2) ICANN EPDP Meetings for Week Ending Feb 9, and Weekly Recap

Updated: EPDP Plenary Meetings are now scheduled for Tuesday Feb 5, Wednesday Feb 6, Thursday Feb 7,  Friday Feb 8, at 14:00 UTC (9am EST) (schedule subject to change).

Notes and action items from the Thursday, Feb 7, 2019, EPDP meeting here.

Observers may use Adobe Connect, or audiocast via browser / app. Links: Draft Final Report info, EPDP Initial Report (pdf) and public comments to the Initial Report; PCRT Public Comment Review Tool; GNSO Council EPDP page and updates; links to EPDP meeting transcripts and recordings are on the GNSO calendar. Other EPDP links: wiki; mail list; action items; Temp Spec; EPDP Charter (pdf); Data Elements Workbooks (pdf), packet (pdf) small team agreements, ICANN's legal memo on Controllership (pdf), Bird & Bird legal memos are here.

EPDP recap for week ending Feb 2: Jan 29 EPDP meeting wiki page and Jan 31 EPDP meeting wiki page, notes and action items here; Legal committee Jan 30, and Data Elements group Jan 29 (5 EPDP team members + Pritz) and Jan 31 (4 EPDP team members + Pritz).

The Most Important EPDP development has been the legal advice provided by Ruth Boardman, Bird & Bird, to the select few members of the EPDP "legal committee" but finally made available to the full EPDP working group on Friday, Feb 1, 2019, here and here (note: more legal advice may be forthcoming). So far, the EPDP team has been advised:

• relevant parties could be subject to liability if a registrant wrongly self-identifies as a legal person (and not a natural person) and the registrant's data is disclosed in reliance on this self-identification;
• where the RNH [registrant] and the technical contact are not the same person, relying on the RNH to provide notice on the registrar's behalf will not meet GDPR's notice requirements if the RNH fails to provide the notice;
• it is not clear if the contractual necessity condition [GDPR Article 6(1)(b)] can only apply where there is a contract between data controller and data subject;
• "What is 'necessary' is interpreted strictly. We do not think that the EPDP could successfully argue that preventing DNS abuses is 'necessary' for the contract with the RNH" [registrant]. 

More info on Jan 29 and 31 EPDP meetings on last week's News Review, but the following from the Jan 29 transcript (pp. 54-57)  gives an indication of what's going on:

Milton Mueller: "As I said, I think we need to clarify with the legal counsel whether ICANN can, as controller, and ICANN needs to decide whether it’s a controller here of course, but assuming it is, then the fact that it doesn’t have the data doesn’t necessarily mean that it can request it if [it] is the controller, so we need legal advice on that and whether that’s actually – needs a distinctive purpose. But, you know, that’s not a third party access issue under any construction, that’s ICANN getting data about its own system and doing research on it, which we support but we don't want it in Purpose 2."

Kurt Pritz: Thanks, Milton. Alan, go ahead – Alan Greenberg. 

Alan Greenberg: "Yes, thank you. I misspoke before when I said it could go into Purpose 2; I’d forgotten that Purpose 2 is third parties right now so it cannot be Purpose 2. ICANN under no conditions is a third party. We can fix it, however, either by adding a new purpose or simply modifying Purpose 2 to say to third parties for legitimate lawful purposes, or to ICANN, and then add a processing activity for it. So we could make Purpose 2 apply to ICANN as well if people – if that’s offensive to people then it probably has to be a new purpose not because we need a purpose for ICANN doing the processing of the data but to ensure that it can be sent to ICANN. So it’s not the processing that’s the purpose, it’s the transmission to ICANN that we have to ensure is enshrined in some purpose. So we can fix 2 by adding ICANN as an Other recipient in addition to third parties. I can't see anywhere else it fits. I wouldn’t want to put it into 5 because 5 is very much a compliance one and this is not a compliance issue. Thank you."
Kurt Pritz: Thanks, Alan. ....

Farzaneh Badii: "Thank you, Kurt. Farzaneh speaking. So I think that we are really getting confused because we keep repeating and digging up issues that – and questions that we have responded to multiple times ..." [Editor's note: and so it goes.]

3) Status of ICANN’s exchanges with Belgium's Data Protection Authority (DPA)

Excerpt from 27 Jan 2019 Letter from ICANN GDD Cyrus Namazi (pdf)  

• 27 Jan 2019 Letter from ICANN GDD Cyrus Namazi to  RrSG Graeme Bunton re: ICANN Contractual Compliance Data Processing Activities and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), excerpt above.

• 25 Jan. 2019 Letter from ICANN Göran Marby to Belgium DPA Willem Debeuckelaere  [Editor's note: Marby misspells Willem Debeuckelaere's first name as "William"]

• 15 Jan. 2019 Letter from Belgium DPA Willem Debeuckelaere to ICANN Göran Marby

• 06 Dec. 2018 Letter from ICANN Göran Marby to Ireland DPA Helen Dixon and Belgium DPA Willem Debeuckelaere 

Video interview with Willem Debeuckelaere, President of Belgium's DPA, at European Data Protection Days in Berlin in May 2018:

More info at: edpd-conference.com. Editor's note: ICANN has its sole EU office in Brussels, Belgium, and therefore Belgium's Data Protection Authority (DPA).is the "lead supervisory authority" over ICANN, stated Mr. Debeuckelaere in his letter, adding: 

"Finally, I wish to note that the GDPR places responsibility for compliance with the provisions of the GDPR upon the (joint) controller(s). It does not provide for a system of prior consultation, except in the case of article 36. It also does not foresee the possibility of prior approval, except in the cases mentioned by articles 40 (codes of conduct) and 47 (binding corporate rules)." 

See also:

• RySG comments (pdf) on ICANN org's DAAR Methodology Paper and Methodology Reviews

"Use of WHOIS Data .... We also have some concerns about whether the practice of having the DAAR collection system query registration data is compliant with GDPR and other privacy regulations. Such queries would require a disclosure of personal data that has not previously been contemplated and could have significant repercussions for both registry operators and ICANN."--gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG) comments (link above) (emphasis added).

• ICANN's third report on global legislative and regulatory developments (pdf), "highlighting a limited list of recent and pending legislative and regulatory initiatives on privacy/data protection and cybersecurity across the world."

4) Other ICANN News: ACTO, ICANN & .AMAZON

28 January 2019 Letter (pdf) from Alexandra Moreira Lopez, Secretary General, Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO), to GAC Chair Manal Ismail re: New gTLD Applications for .AMAZON:

5) Names, Domains & Trademarks: Dot COM Dominates Aftermarket

GoDaddy 2019 aftermarket domain trends and NamesCon keynote | slideshare.net excerpt:

6) ICYMI Internet Domain News: Internet Freedom, Data Protection, Internet Shutdowns and Google Public Policy Fellowships

Has the internet afforded humans more freedom, or less?--Social-Media Outrage Is Collapsing Our Worlds--The internet once made it easier to slip from one domain to another. Is there a way to preserve that vital freedom?--theatlantic.com.

Google and IAB ad category lists show ‘massive leakage of highly intimate data,’ GDPR complaint claims--techcrunch.com.

Ireland questions Facebook’s plan to merge Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp--previous data-sharing proposals have ‘given rise to significant data protection concerns’--theverge.com.

Dr Paul Vixie, Farsight Security, on pushing back against cyber criminals--Tech Radio via Soundcloud.com.

African governments use internet shutdowns to silence opposition more and more--what can people do?--euronews.com. See also Zimbabwe President Mnangagwa Justifies Internet Shut Down, Although “He Deeply Believes In Freedom Of Speech And Expression”--techzim.co.zw.

Venezuela: The Committee to Protect Journalists have called on Venezuelan authorities to stop blocking news outlets and to ensure that access to the internet is available amid the country's political crisis and widespread protests--cpj.org.

Applications are open for the Google North America Public Policy Fellowship--all applications must be received by 12:00 p.m. EST, Friday, February, 15th. More information about Google Public Policy Fellowships, including in Latin America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa, here.

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

1. News Review | IGF2019 Open Consultations & MAG Meeting Jan 28-30

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

3. Tech Review:1) Breakup Amazon? Google? 2) China's Growth Rate Slows

4. Apple $AAPL FY19 Q1 Earnings LIVE Webcast Jan 29, 5pm EST

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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News Review | IGF2019 Open Consultations & MAG Meeting Jan 28-30

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-01-27 with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) IGF2019 Open Consultations & MAG Meeting Jan 28-30,  2) ICANN news: EPDP Meetings Jan 29 & 31, EPDP Recap, TSG and more, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: Expired Domains, and more, 4) ICYMI: China Blocks Bing, Google Struggles in Russia, 5) Most Read.

1) IGF2019 Open Consultations & MAG Meeting Jan 28-30

In preparation for the fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) which will be hosted by the Government of Germany in Berlin from 25 to 29 Nov 2019, the first face-to-face 2019 Open Consultations and MAG meeting will take place on 28-30 January 2019 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. A Call for Issues has been published and all submissions were due by Thursday 24 January 2019--among the proposed issues submitted in the Category: "Evolution of Internet Governance"--#37 "A middle ground between the vested-interest capture of multi-stakeholderism and government capture of multi-lateralism is badly needed. How can IGF stimulate such innovation?" with the following comment:

Agenda of the IGF 2019 First Open Consultations and MAG Meeting​--Register (open thru Jan 30) for online participation.

Geneva date and time: 

Additional issues may also include:

• How could the IGF respond to the recommendations made by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres during his speech at the IGF 2018 Opening Ceremony? 
• How could the IGF respond to French President Macron’s “call for action” made during his speech at the IGF 2018 Opening Ceremony?

2) ICANN News

a. EPDP Meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, 29 Jan 2019, and Thursday, 31 Jan 2019, at 14:00 UTC (9am EST) for 3 hours each. The EPDP Final Report (Phase 1) is due Feb 1, 2019, but EPDP Chair Kurt Pritz indicated on Jan 24, 2019 (transcript pp. 51-52), that the final report may actually be submitted sometime after February 1:

"... the [ICANN EPDP] support team is figuring out sort of a drop dead date for putting a version – or the final report version in front of the GNSO Council ..." 

UPDATE: Jan 29 chat transcript (pdf) and Jan 31 chat transcript (pdf).

Observers may use Adobe Connect, or audiocast via browser / app. Links: Draft Final Report info,  EPDP Initial Report (pdf) and public comments to the Initial Report; PCRT Public Comment Review Tool; GNSO Council EPDP page and updates; links to EPDP meeting transcripts and recordings are on the GNSO calendar. Other EPDP links: wiki; mail list; action items; Temp Spec; EPDP Charter (pdf); Data Elements Workbooks (pdf), packet (pdf) of small team agreements. ICANN Controllership Memo (pdf).

b. EPDP recap for week ending Jan 26 [Editor's note: the dysfunctional EPDP rolls on]:

Jan 22 EPDP meeting wiki page and Jan 24 EPDP meeting wiki page (with action items); Legal committee Jan 23, and Data Elements Jan 22 and Jan 24.

Jan 22 chat (pdf): Milton Mueller (NCSG): (08:16) Will [Attorney] Ruth [Boardman] (Bird & Bird) be on these calls? Kurt Pritz: (08:17) @Milton - generally no but can be called in as required ... and we will refer questions that come out of each meeting to her.

Jan 22 transcript (pdf) p.35: Diane Plaut (IPC): "... I think that it really – a starting point that’s an absolute necessity is to get ICANN to define its role. We all have been presented with the ICANN Legal memo [pdf] with regard to the roles (unintelligible) or position on joint controllership relationship or a sole controllership ..." [link added]

Email to EPDP Mail List Jan 23, 2019: "I am really mystified, having taken the time to examine the records and mailing list of the TSG-Access-RD which Benedict mentioned, that we were not briefed on the meetings, the group, and the questions they are settling, many of which depend on policy decisions. I am also mystified as to why this appointed group of technical experts has funding to their Washington meetings and to Kobe [ICANN64}, and our group does not have funding for Kobe. Further, it looks as if they need some legal advice. I recommend they consider adding Ruth [Boardman, Bird & Bird] as an independent outside counsel, and add a policy person to think up the questions to ask her."--Stephanie Perrin, EPDP member & NCSG Chair (links and emphasis added).

Revised draft charter (pdf) of ICANN's TSG-Access-RD (Technical Study Group on Access to Non-Public Registration Data).

GNSO Council Chat Transcript Jan 24, 2019  Rubens Kuhl (RySG): "TSG will be yet another dead body in the decades of failed WHOIS-related projects, like EWG." 

25 January 2019 Letter from ICANN CEO Göran Marby to Willem Debeuckelaere, President, Belgium DPA, re: ICANN Contractual Compliance Data Processing Activities and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). See 15 Jan. 2019 Letter from Willem Debeuckelaere to Göran Marby (pdf) excerpt: "In your letter of 9 August 2018, you indicate that ICANN has only a single regional office on EU territory, namely in Brussels."

Excerpt from EU GDPR January 2019 Fact sheet (pdf)

"The [ICANN Technical Study] group will base its work on the following assumptions ... 3. ICANN is the sole party that authorizes access to non-public registration data in the gTLD space."--TSG revised draft charter, supra. 

TSG mail list: "... As noted on Tuesday's call, I think it's important to remember that ICANN org's understanding is that whatever solution ICANN proposes for third-party access to redacted registration data is unlikely to eliminate liability for the contracted parties. ICANN org's goal is to explore ways to diminish that liability to the extent possible. To that end, the TSG is tasked with developing a technical solution that ICANN org may test against the law to determine if a unified access model is possible. The memo on independent controllership was drafted by ICANN org as part of the EPDP's discussion on processing activities. The EPDP has not yet tackled third-party access to gTLD registration data. They anticipate discussing that during Phase II ..."--Eleeza Agopian, ICANN Strategic Planning and Initiatives Sr. Manager. [link added]

Editor's note: it appears ICANN org has a competing ongoing top-down policy-making and implementation process (TSG-Unified Access model) moving simultaneously in parallel to the GNSO's EPDP process.

More info on Jan 22-24 EPDP meetings on last week's News Review.

GDPR Related:

• More than 95,000 complaints have been filed with EU Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) took effect May 25, 2018, the European Commission said Friday.

• Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Spotify, and YouTube, are among eight tech firms (pdf) named in a complaint filed in Austria by non-profit organization noyb (noyb.eu), based upon failure to comply with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

• Google to appeal €50 million GDPR fine imposed by France's Data Protection Authority (DPA) CNIL (cnil.fr),  which "observed two types of breaches of the GDPR"--violation of the obligations of transparency and information and violation of the obligation to have a legal basis for ads personalization processing.

• Ireland's Data Protection Commission (DPC) is "currently investigating Twitter’s compliance with its obligations under the GDPR to implement technical and organisational measures to ensure the safety and safeguarding of the personal data it processes. This investigation commenced in November 2018 following receipt of a number of breach notifications from the company since the introduction of the GDPR. The DPC has this week opened a new statutory inquiry into the latest data breach it received from Twitter on 8 January, 2019. This inquiry will examine a discreet issue relating to Twitter’s compliance with Article 33 of the GDPR"--dataprotection.ie.

• Businesses that invest in data privacy see benefits when they do experience a breach--a new Cisco study (pdf) of 3,200 security professionals in 18 countries found that preparing for the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) lessened the impact of data breaches.

c. ICANN New gTLDs .GCC, .PERSIANGULF, .MUSIC, .GAY, .HOTEL, .HALAL, .ISLAM,  and .WEB

ICANN CEP and IRP Status Update – 11 January 2019 (pdf) excerpts:

One Active Independent Review Process (IRP) Proceeding: .WEB

• Date ICANN Received Notice of IRP: 14-Nov-2018
• Date IRP Commenced by ICDR: 26-Nov-2018
• Requestor: Afilias Domains No. 3 Limited
• Status: Panel Selection: IRP commenced on 26 November 2018; one panelist has been appointed; awaiting appointment of remaining two panelists.
• Materials: Written submissions, Declaration(s), and Scheduling Order(s) are here.
• Hearing(s): No hearings are currently scheduled.

d. ICANN Open Public Comment periods closing in February, 2019

at 23:59 UTC on the days indicated below (subject to change by ICANN org):

• Work Track 5 on Geographic Names at the Top Level - Supplemental Initial Report of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process 1 Feb 2019

• Proposed Changes to The Registrar Stakeholder Group (RrSG) Charter 5 Feb 2019 

• ICANN Draft FY20 Operating Plan and Budget and 5-Year Op. Plan Update 8 Feb 2019

• Updated Operating Standards for Specific Reviews 11 Feb 2019 

• ICANN Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021 – 2025 11 Feb 2019 

• Amendment to the IANA Naming Functions Contract, Annex A 18 Feb 2019

• First Consultation on a 2-Year Planning Process 20 Feb 2019 

• Initial Report on CSC Effectiveness 25 Feb 2019 

e. Implementation of the Procedure for Release of Two-Character Labels | icann.org. Documents also available on the Two-Character ASCII Labels information page. See also the 22 January 2019 Letter (pdf) from ICANN CEO Göran Marby to GAC Chair Manal Ismail.

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Expired domains do not help for rankings: "Google understands when domains change ownership so it won't necessarily rank for the queries it used to rank pre change of ownership. So if the sole purpose of buying a domain is to get search traffic from the old domain, I would suggest against doing so since there's no benefit."--Aaseesh from the Google Webmaster Trends Analysts team.

b. EFF Client Responds to Ludicrous “Collusion” Trademark Threat--eff.org.

c. Yes, domain names are covered by the USMCA (successor to NAFTA)--Lexology.com.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

China blocks Microsoft's search engine Bing (domain: cn.bing.com):

"The situation appears to be a DNS (domain name system) corruption, one method for China to block websites through its intricate censoring system called the Great Firewall. When a user enters a domain name associated with a banned IP address, the Firewall will corrupt the connection to stop the page from loading."--techcrunch.com.

UPDATE: according to a report in reuters.com, the Bing outage in China was due to a technical error, not censors' block.

As of December, 2019, Bing only had a 2% share of China’s search market compared with 70% share for Baidu. The Chinese version of Bing had been the only major foreign search engine accessible from within China, and Microsoft had censored its search results in accordance with Chinese government policy.

Google is blocked in China, but nevertheless still has about 90% global market share for internet search. Google lags behind in Russia, where homegrown competitor Yandex has 55% of the market due to superior Russian language search capabilities and willingness to comply with Russia's restrictive laws. See Why Is Google Struggling In Russia? Yandex | YouTube.com.

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

1. News Review 1) EPDP Meetings After Toronto F2F, 2) .WEB UPDATE

2. Tech Review:1) Breakup Amazon? Google? 2) China's Growth Rate Slows

3. Tech Review | Why Communist China Has So Many Tech Billionaires

4. IBM $IBM Q4 2018 Earnings LIVE Webcast Jan 22, 5pm EST

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
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News Review 1) EPDP Meetings After Toronto F2F, 2) .WEB UPDATE

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2019-01-20) with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) EPDP Meetings After Toronto F2F, 2) .WEB IRP UPDATE, 3) ICANN & Its Failing New gTLDs, 4) Names, Domains & Trademarks: f. is for FUCT, and more, 5) ICYMI: Europe, China, India, Facebook et al, 6) Most Read.

1) EPDP Meetings After Toronto F2F

EPDP Meetings are scheduled on Tuesday, 22 Jan 2019, and Thursday, 24 Jan 2019, at 14:00 UTC (9am EST) for 3 hours each.

Observers may use Adobe Connect, or audiocast via browser / app. Links: EPDP Initial Report  (pdf); comments to the Initial Report; PCRT Public Comment Review Tool; GNSO Council EPDP page and updates; links to EPDP meeting transcripts and recordings are on the GNSO calendar. Other EPDP links: wiki; mail list; action items; Temp Spec; EPDP Charter (pdf); Data Elements Workbooks (pdf), packet (pdf) of small team agreements.

UPDATES: 
• 20 Jan 2019 email from ICANN Staff Support Team who prepared a first draft (pdf) of the Final Report for the EPDP working group to review.
• 21 Jan 2019 email from EPDP Chair: "Attached is a status of our work. The first is an overall status outline all issues [embed below]; the second is a tabular listing of the status of each Purpose and Recommendation [embed below]. Please read both docs to get a complete picture. We will follow up with guides for each of the upcoming meetings."

Overall status :

Tabular listing:

Highlights of the EPDP Toronto F2F:
1. First Day (Wednesday, 16 Jan 2019, transcript pp. 22-23)  What Are We Doing? (Stephanie Perrin is NCSG Chair):

2. First Day (Wednesday, 16 Jan 2019, transcript pp. 37-38) : Whose Purposes?

3. Second Day (Thursday, 17 Jan 2019, transcript (pdf) pp. 2-20): discussion late Thursday afternoon (starts at 1:48:00 on the Adobe recording) involving counsel for ICANN and EPDP members about ICANN's memo (pdf) re: independent controller versus joint controller. Related: Belgium's Data Protection Authority (DPA) published guidance on issues of "controller" and "processor"--Lexology.com: "despite the DPA’s guidelines, there is no simple answer as to who qualifies as controller or processor and in many instances it will be hard to make that call."

Editor's note: Why is this EPDP so dysfunctional? In part, the answer lies in the same seven factors that lead to stupidity: 

"People think stupidity is the opposite of intelligence. In fact, stupidity is the cost of intelligence operating in a complex environment. It’s almost inevitable ... seven factors that lead to stupidity ... being outside of your circle of competence, stress, rushing or urgency, fixation on an outcome, information overload, being in a group where social cohesion comes into play, and being in the presence of an 'authority.'"--Farnam Street | fs.blog.

Unfortunately, all seven factors were present in Toronto at the EPDP F2F.

More about the Toronto EPDP F2F on last week's News Review.

2) .WEB IRP UPDATE

Afilias Domains No. 3 Limited v. ICANN re: new gTLD .WEB (IRP proceeding)

Editor's note UPDATE 24 Jan 2019: ICANN appears to be in violation of the ICANN Bylaws by not publishing any of the documents filed by Afilias in the IRP:since 27 November 2018 without any notice of what documents are being wholly redacted:

(u) All IRP Panel proceedings shall be conducted on the record, and documents filed in connection with IRP Panel proceedings shall be posted on the Website, except for settlement negotiation or other proceedings that could materially and unduly harm participants if conducted publicly. The Rules of Procedure, and all Claims, petitions, and decisions shall promptly be posted on the Website when they become available. Each IRP Panel may, in its discretion, grant a party's request to keep certain information confidential, such as trade secrets, but only if such confidentiality does not materially interfere with the transparency of the IRP proceeding.--ICANN Bylaws Art. 4, Section 4.3(u).

• Procedures Officer's Memorandum of 4 January 2019 Conference Call No. 1 (pdf) 5 Jan 2019 embed above (reformatted from the original).
• ICANN's Submission Regarding the Requests by Verisign and Nu Dotco to Participate as Amicus Curiae (pdf) 16 Jan 2019, excerpt (p.1): "ICANN supports Verisign’s and NDC’s requests to participate as amicus curiae in this IRP." 
• Declaration of Samantha Eisner (pdf) 16 Jan 2019.

• Exhibits 1 to 7 (pdf) 16 Jan 2019.

• ICANN's Response to Procedures Officer's Questions Concerning Drafting History of the Supplementary Procedures (pdf) 16 Jan 2019.

For background and more info: News Review | Verisign $VRSN & New gTLD .WEB, Afilias vs ICANN.

3. ICANN & Its Failing New gTLDs:

ICANN Sends Notice of Breach to new gTLD .WHOSWHO Registry (pdf) 11 Jan 2019--excerpt below:

4) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Gibraltar issues .eu domain guidance--chronicle.gi: "In the scenario that we exit the EU without a deal, you should check whether you continue to meet the eligibility criteria set out in Article 4(2)(b) of Regulation (EC) No 733/2002 to hold a .eu Top Level Domain."

b. Domain names' prices beginning to be abusive?--lowendtalk.com.
See also productforums.google.com: "I want to stop paying for a custom domain name. What will happen to my blog if I do that?" Answer: go back to the free blogspot domain, also you can disconnect the custom domain at any time.

c.  How to Protect Yourself From Email Tracking--eff.org.

d. IP address location "we know it’s junk"--gizmodo.com: "the proper approach is to go to the internet service provider that operates the IP address and get it to tell you who was using it at the time it did the bad thing. This usually requires a subpoena or court order ..."

e. Delete All Your Apps: Los Angeles accuses Weather Channel app of deceptive data collection-- thehill.com  4 Jan 2019. [Editor's note: many mobile phone native apps have data and security issues. What we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg.] "Every moment of every day, mobile phone apps collect detailed location data. And it's for sale"--nytimes.com.

f. is for FUCT brand name trademark--U.S. Supreme Court to hear case on ban of profane trademarks.  See USPTO suspension letter and fuct.com.

5) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

a. Europe votes 2019: How to unmask and fight online manipulation--11 Feb 2019 (9:30-17:15) Résidence Palace, Rue de la Loi 175, Brussels, Belgium--edps.europa.eu.

b. China's internet censor approves new regulations for blockchain startups, requiring registration of users' real names, censoring posts, more, in effect Feb 15, 2019--coindesk.com.

c. India's top court seeks government response on plans to snoop on citizens' computers--reuters.com.

d. Why Facebook, Google, et al, Wanted To Kill Off RSS--corporate control and "ownership" of all "news" and "information"--own "everything"--

Google Reader is just the latest casualty of the war that Facebook started, seemingly accidentally: the battle to own everything. While Google did technically “own” Reader and could make some use of the huge amount of news and attention data flowing through it, it conflicted with their far more important Google+ strategy: they need everyone reading and sharing everything through Google+ so they can compete with Facebook for ad-targeting data, ad dollars, growth, and relevance.--Marco Ament, 2013 as quoted in  motherboard.vice.com.

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

#1 News Review | ICANN EPDP Face-to-Face Meeting Jan 16-18 Toronto

#2 Amazon $AMZN Playbook's Strategy for Alexa & Alexa Skills (video)

#3 The Declining Fortunes of China’s Tech Giants Tencent & Alibaba $BABA

#4 How Fintech Startup Robinhood Makes Money (video)

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

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