Showing posts with label incompetence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label incompetence. Show all posts

2017-03-26

News Review: 1) .AFRICA Case Update; 2) ICANN Dysfunction Alive & Well

News Review | ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly review of internet domain news:

 Features • 1) .AFRICA Case Update, 2) Tweet of the Week: ICANN Dysfunction Alive & Well, 3) ICANN Board Report, 4) Names, Domains & Trademarks: Google & googlee, 5) ICANN's Remit & Human Rights, 6) New gTLD .FEEDBACK, 7)ICYMI, 8) Neustar $NSR merger, 9) ICANN Public Comment Periods, 10) Most Popular.

1) New gTLD .AFRICA Litigation Case Update: "It ain't over till it's over"--Yogi Berra
Excerpt from Court's Order of March 21, 2017
For more: DotConnectAfrica Trust v. ICANN (Trial Court Proceeding) | ICANN.org: Order Approving Stipulation Staying Discovery and Continuing the Trial Date [PDF, 681 KB] 21 March 2017.

2) Tweet of the Week: ICANN Dysfunction Alive & Well (transcript of ICANN58 interaction):
Background: News Review: ICANN Secretly Colludes With New gTLD Registry Operators 17 Jul 2016

3) ICANN Board Report March 2017 (pdf)
Excerpt: As of the end of January 2017, ICANN org has 367 people, which is 19 people less than the FY17 year end budget projection of 386. Over the last three months, 13 joined and another 8 left. ICANN Organization by Locations: As of January 31 2016 [sic], North America Offices & Remote consists of 218 people (79%) in Los Angeles office, 29 in Washington DC office, 28 work remotely in US, 1 works remotely in Canada, totaling 275 (75% of the total organization).
source: ICANN.org
4) Names, Domains & Trademarks:
•  Google's 'googlee' infringement case | barandbench.com:
“Is a “Googlee” a “wrong one”? A cricket enthusiast will say, “Yes of course.” In the virtual world too, the answer is well, yes, as the Petitioner, Mr. Gulshan Khatri found to his consternation, when he used it as a domain name: ‘googlee.in’.”--Delhi High Court’s Justice S Muralidhar in his domain name infringement decision in favor of Google.
•  Rebranding Your Law Firm: How a 150-Year-Old Firm Gave Itself a Makeover | JDSupra.com: "To have a successful website, we felt we must first have the appropriate domain ... We were successful in acquiring www.bradley.com even though it was originally registered with a foreign corporation."
•  End of the road for UDRP for copyright? | Lexology.com
•  China's Chery files trademark complaint against Mercedes over green car brand | Reuters.com--Mercedes-Benz is using the "EQ" name for a line of green-energy vehicles while Chery has used the name "eQ" for its two-door battery electric car for two years. Editor's Note: EQ.com is registered via GoDaddy to an individual in China but does not resolve.
•   Amazon Chime team responds to trademark suit, claims it wasn't aware of competing Chime service | GeekWire.com: "An Amazon Web Services employee claims the company had never heard of CafeX Communications and its competing Chime service when it decided to christen its new set of conferencing and collaboration tools Amazon Chime." Editor's note: neither Amazon nor CafeX are the registrant of chime.com (Chime Interactive).
•  That Taylor Swift Spotify-Rival Rumor, Explained by a Trademark Lawyer | VanityFair.com: "But if the filing that you may or may not use is likely to go public and possibly get misconstrued, why trademark at all?
“She needs that [trademark] registration for enhanced policing,” explained Schwimmer. “And there’s another thing, which is: you need registrations to get intermediaries to pay attention to you. So if you go to Amazon and want to take down stuff; you go to a domain name company or eBay, and you want them to take down the infringing stuff, [the companies] don't want to have to evaluate whether you are the real whatever. The easiest thing is to say, ‘Here is my trademark registration.’ ”" (emphasis added)

 5) ICANN's Remit & Human Rights:
"... ICANN’s remit is limited to coordinating the allocation and assignment of Domain names, Internet Protocol(IP) addresses, Autonomous System (AS) numbers, and protocol port and parameter numbers. [See ICANN Bylaws] The SSAC believes that assessments based on content accessed through these unique identifiers should not be in scope for discussions regarding Human Rights for the ICANN organization. This may be different from the interests or remits of some stakeholder groups and their members. The SSAC believes strongly that any binding language that holds ICANN accountable to Human Rights values should fall within the scope of ICANN’s limited remit, and implemented via a Human Rights Impact Assessment followed by the development of a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy for ICANN. This CSR policy should cover the processes governing ICANN community participation, as well as the ICANN corporation itself ..."--ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committtee--SAC092: SSAC Input to the Cross Community Working Group onAccountability Work Stream 2, Human Rights (pdf) (emphasis added)

7)  ICYMI Internet Domain News Quick Takes--
8) Neustar $NSR merger: Stockholders of Neustar, a domain registry and technology services company, voted to approve the previously announced definitive merger agreement, dated as of December 14, 2016, by the terms of which a private investment group led by Golden Gate Capital will acquire Neustar. At the special meeting held on March 14, 2017, approximately 82% of Neustar shares outstanding and entitled to vote at the meeting were voted in favor of the adoption of the merger agreement. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Neustar’s stockholders will be entitled to receive $33.50 per share upon the closing of the proposed merger. The merger is expected to close no later than the end of the third quarter of 2017, subject to the receipt of required regulatory approvals and the satisfaction or waiver of other customary closing conditions.--Neustar.biz

9) ICANN Public Comment Periods that close 30 Mar - 1 May 2017 (subject to change):

10)  Most popular post (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this past week on DomainMondo.com: News Review: New gTLDs Failing, ICANN58 Ends, ICANN in La La Land

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2017-03-19

News Review: New gTLDs Failing, ICANN58 Ends, ICANN in La La Land

News Review | ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly review of internet domain news:

 Features •  1. New gTLDs Failing, 2. ICANN58 ends, 3. Important Skills for ICANN Board Members, 4. ICANN CEO Goran Marby re: ICANN data, 5. More ICANN Dysfunction & Incompetence,  6. New gTLDs .CORP, .HOME and .MAIL, 7. LAC DNS Marketplace Study, 8. Amazon.com in Spanish, 9. ICANN in La La Land, 10. Internet Domain News Quick Takes, 11. Three most popular posts, 12. One Last Thing.

1. New gTLDs Failing (new generic top-level domains)--nTLD extensions are already failing | reddit.com--one comment out of many: "nTLD extensions are already failing ... Everyone said the new TLDs were nothing but a money grabbing scheme by the ICANN ... It seems now, some nTLDs seem to be already failing with less than 5,000 active domains and dropping, barely to keep the costs active and they are increasing renewal prices to keep the boat afloat"--For background see last week's 4. Uniregistry plans to hike prices up to 3000% for some new gTLDs.

ICANN's "Grand" Millstone
Graphic: Uniregistry plans to hike prices up to 3000% for some new gTLDs
Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth.--Mike Tyson
Follow-up:
Excerpt from 2008 Letter from U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division
See also: News Review: ICANN Used 'Junk Science' Firm to Justify New gTLDs
One thing is now clear, all of the problems related to, or caused by new gTLDs, are increasingly consuming ICANN's time and resources--from policy-making and reviews, to disputes, IRPs, and litigation, to a myriad of other issues that ICANN failed to "think through" before rolling out its ill-conceived and misbegotten new gTLDs program--and most stakeholders who had objections or serious reservations about the new gTLDs program all along, have since left ICANN, including its "ICANN community," leaving mostly just a gaggle of special interest lawyers and lobbyists, domain name industry "professionals" and a cadre of professional "volunteers"--ICANN pays airfare, hotel, and per diem expenses for an unbelievable number of people to show up at ICANN junkets a/k/a "meetings" (example: ICANN57 (pdf) "travel support"=$918,292.60)  to fill seats, and make it look like ICANN multistakeholderism "works." From appearances at any ICANN gathering, one might think the domain name industry supports new gTLDs unreservedly, the reality is very, very different: There’s no way to sugar-coat it, today we are an industry divided | MorganLinton.com. It's just that ICANN has muffled and driven away the dissenting voices. That's the way "ICANN consensus" in reality works. For those of us "observing" ICANN, it's like watching a slow-motion train wreck. Tip to the wise: watch China's moves between now and the 2018 ITU Plenipotentiary Conference.

2. ICANN58--something is rotten in the state of Denmark--ended Thursday in Copenhagen:

 ICANN58 highlights:

 a. The failing new gTLD Registry Operators are now seeking financial support from ICANN in the form of reduced fees, and a marketing "awareness" program (which would likely violate ICANN's 501(c)(3) status and other legal prohibitions)--"only 63 new gTLDs have registered in excess of 50,000 names ... literally many hundreds with fewer than 10,000 registrations" (highlighting added):

b. ICANN Dysfunction is Alive and Well: ICANN CEO Goran Marby and ICANN GDD President Akram Atallah blow off ICANN stakeholder Denise Michel's comments and questions about dysfunctional processes of ICANN's Global Domains Division (GDD), ICANN staff ignoring and bypassing ICANN Community and others' objections to amendments to the new gTLD base Registry Agreement:
Source of above: ICANN Copenhagen GNSO Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG) Meeting Tuesday, 14 March 2017 at 9:00 CET transcript (pdf) pp,18-20.

c. New gTLD .WEB:
d. GAC:  CENTR Report on ICANN58 (updated pdf download at link)(excerpt below):
CENTR Report on ICANN58 p. 4
The ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) has 171 members, and 35 observers but only 59 GAC members (35% participation rate with half or more of those receiving ICANN "travel support" (airfare, hotel, per diem stipend) based on ICANN57 data) and only 9 observers (26% participation rate) attended ICANN58--source: GAC Communique (pdf). Accordingly, it appears most governments are not actively participating in the GAC, and, not surprisingly, the GAC secretariat lacks sufficient financial funding. Wither ICANN?

e. Best Quote of ICANN58: ICANN is a prison--
More ICANN58 info, including the GAC Communique, here.

3.  Important Skills for ICANN Board Members--guidance from the ICANN Board to the Nominating Committee (highlighting added)--apparently past and present ICANN Board members lack some or all of these skills. Surprised?

4. Letter from ICANN CEO Goran Marby re: ICANN data (highlighting added):

5.  More ICANN Dysfunction & Incompetence: 

6.  New gTLDs .CORP, .HOME and .MAIL--comment excerpt on circleid.com: I don't see why marking those domains as "toxic, reserved forever" isn't a valid response. Dumping the contaminated material into a shipping container and tossing it down a black hole's an efficient way of cleaning up the [new gTLDs] mess (emphasis added).--Background: 6 March 2017 Letter to the New gTLD Applicants for .HOME, .CORP, and .MAIL  from Akram Atallah, President, Global Domains Division ICANN re: new gTLD applications for .HOME, .CORP, and .MAIL, in response to Letter from .HOME Registry Inc. et al. to the ICANN Board [Published 26 August 2016].

 7.  Publication of the LAC (Latin America & Caribbean) DNS Marketplace Study | ICANN.org: A consortium led by Oxford Information Labs, LACTLD, EURid and InterConnect Communications conducted the final "LAC DNS Study" (pdf, 3.9 MB), study for ICANN. The report identifies seven key drivers of domain name growth for the region:
  • Defining and refining the sales channel and reversing the trend of falling numbers of ICANN accredited registrars since 2013;
  • Building user awareness of domain names;
  • Making registration policies open and simple;
  • Providing online payment facilities;
  • Ensuring fast activation of new registrations;
  • Reasonable and competitive fees; and
  • Promotions, marketing, and campaigns.
Unfortunately, this "hit and miss" list just skims the surface, and is misleading because it fails to address some core problems in the region.

 8. Amazon.com adding Spanish--the first new language on Amazon.com since the website's creation over 20 years ago--"Customers will be able to shop, browse and search for millions of products, view their shopping cart, and place orders in Spanish on Amazon.com and through the Amazon Mobile Shopping app," an Amazon.com Inc. spokeswoman told CNET.com. The U.S. now has more than 40 million native Spanish speakers and over 10 million bilingual Spanish speakers, making it the second-largest Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico. Amazon, the world's largest e-retailer, is seeking to not only attract the growing Spanish-speaking population in the U.S., but also Mexico, where Amazon recently launched its Prime subscription service for about $46 a year.

9. If you're returning to, or visiting, ‘La La Land’ a/k/a ICANN headquarters anytime soon--
La La Land: gold marker pin shows ICANN headquarters location (click on map or link for larger map)
Fairmont Miramar Hotel & Bungalows, Santa Monica, offers “Escape to La La Land” package thru March 31, which includes accommodations in a bungalow, a picnic lunch and a dinner for two, a map of Los Angeles marked with locations where the movie is set and two tickets to a show at the popular jazz club Herb Alpert’s Vibrato Grill & Jazz. From $1,900 a night.--NYTimes.com

10.  Other Internet Domain News Quick Takes:

11.  Three most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this past week on DomainMondo.com:
  1. News Review: 1. Trademark Squatters; 2. ICANN "Highly Political, Toxic"
  2. TechReview | WikiLeaks Takes A Big Dump On The CIA (video)
  3. LIVE Video Replay: March 15 Federal Reserve FOMC Press Conference
12. One last thing:
"The changing face of the Internet is no longer a matter of public communications, but a matter of public services. And with this observation, we are back to a more basic theme. The essential topic of the conversation is how to strike a sustainable balance between a rapacious private sector that has amassed overarching control of the digital service and content space, and the needs of the larger society in which we all would like some equity of opportunity to thrive and benefit from the outcomes of this new digital age."--Geoff Huston, Chief Scientist at APNIC (emphasis added)

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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2017-02-05

News Review: .AFRICA Update, ICANN Annual Report, ICANN.org 404

News Review | ©2016 DomainMondo.com
Domain Mondo's weekly review of internet domain news:

 Features •  1. .AFRICA Update; 2. ICANN Annual Report 1 July 2015– 30 June 2016, follow the money; 3. ICANN.org 404; and 4. .SPORT, .MUSIC, .GAY--more ICANN incompetence:

1.  New gTLD .AFRICA litigation update: DotConnectAfrica Trust vs ICANN and ZA Central Registry, pending in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles, Central District:

UPDATE Feb 9, 2017: ICANN [Finally] Free to Proceed with the Delegation of .AFRICA Following Court Decision | ICANN.org: "LOS ANGELES – 9 February 2017 – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced that a California Superior Court has denied DotConnectAfrica’s (DCA’s) second Motion for Preliminary Injunction to stop the delegation of the .AFRICA generic top-level domain (gTLD) to ZA Central Registry (ZACR). DCA’s first Motion for Preliminary Injunction was denied by the Superior Court in December 2016. Among other things, the Judge found that it appears the "Covenant Not to Sue" found in the New gTLDApplicant Guidebook is enforceable, citing to the recent Federal District Court Order in the Ruby Glen, LLC v ICANN matter, wherein the Court held that the “covenant not to sue” in the Guidebook is enforceable. Accordingly, the Superior Court Judge ruled that “DCA's claims against ICANN for fraud and unfair business practices are likely to be barred. As a result, DCA cannot establish that it is likely to succeed on the merits.” View the Court Order here [embedded below]. In accordance with the terms of its Registry Agreement with ZACR for .AFRICA, ICANN will now follow its normal processes towards delegation." (emphasis added)

--End of update--original text below:

On Feb 3, 2016 ICANN updated its litigation page to indicate that on 4 January 2017, Court Order: Plaintiff's Ex Parte Application for Temporary Restraining Order is denied; Plaintiff's papers are deemed to be a new preliminary injunction motion; Parties are to submit supplemental briefs; and Preliminary Injunction hearing set for 31 January 2017 (which the Court later moved to 3 February 2017).  No further update as to the Feb 3rd hearing (as of Feb 5, 2017, 00:00 UTC).

2.  Want to know where the money is going at ICANN from all those domain name fees paid by registrants despite the fact that most domain name registrants have no representation within ICANN's so-called multistakeholder community?  Follow the money:

ICANN Annual Report: 1 July 2015– 30 June 2016 (pdf) excerpt below:

Advice equally applicable to the stakeholders of ICANN and its Global Domains Division (GDD): When shareholders aren’t watching, managers misbehave | ChicagoBooth.edu: "Perhaps the best advice to a distracted shareholder is to assume that management is misbehaving when no one is looking."

3.  ICANN.org 404 | The page you were looking for doesn't exist (404)

Above is the result if you go to https://www.icann.org/resources/board-material/minutes-brc-2017-02-01-en cited by ICANN as the proper link for Board Risk Committee (BRC) Meeting – Minutes 4 November 2016 --[published] Wednesday, February 01 2017 11:45 PM--BRC Attendees:  Rafael Lito Ibarra, Ram Mohan (Co-Chair), George Sadowsky, Mike Silber (Co-Chair), Jonne Soininen, Kuo-Wei Wu, and Suzanne Woolf Other Board Member Attendees: Asha Hemrajani Board Member Elect Observing: Maartern Botterman, Akinori Maemura, ICANN Organization Attendees:  S...  --Oh well, so much for ICANN transparency and accountability! 

 4.  .SPORT, .MUSIC, .GAY--more ICANN incompetence:

a)  New gTLD .SPORT--ICANN loses, yet again, another IRP (pdf)--ICANN also ordered to pay (i) fees and expenses of the Panel and (ii) fees and expenses of the ICDR acting as administrator of the proceedings in the sum of US$152,673.26.
"7.90. Accordingly, the IRP Panel is of the view that in order to have upheld the integrity of the system, in accordance with its Core Values, the ICANN Board was required properly to consider whether allegations of apparent bias in fact gave rise to a basis for reconsideration of an Expert Determination.  It failed to do so and, consequently, is in breach of its governing documents."--IRP Final Declaration, p.43 (pdf)(emphasis added) 
b)  Letter 30 Jan 2017 (pdf) from Arif H. Ali, Partner, Dechert LLP, to Göran Marby and Members of the ICANN BGC re: New gTLD Application for .MUSIC:
"We are writing on behalf of our client, DotMusic Limited (“DotMusic”), to remind ICANN about the Board Governance Committee’s (the “BGC”) delay in making a final recommendation to the ICANN Board (the “Board”) regarding DotMusic’s Reconsideration Request 16-5 (“Reconsideration Request”). Over 11 months have passed since DotMusic submitted the Reconsideration Request to the BGC, however, the BGC has not made a final recommendation to the Board with respect to DotMusic’s Reconsideration Request. This is inconsistent with the BGC’s obligation under ICANN’s Bylaws to review a reconsideration request on a timely basis ...." (emphasis added)
c) Letter 30 Jan 2017 (pdf) from Arif H. Ali, Partner, Dechert LLP, to Göran Marby and Members of the ICANN Board re: New gTLD Application for .GAY:
"... We are writing on behalf of our client, dotgay LLC (“dotgay”), to complain about ICANN Board’s (the “Board”) failure to issue its final decision on the Board Governance Committee’s (“BGC”) 26 June 2016 Recommendation on Reconsideration Request 16-3 (“Reconsideration Request”). Pursuant to Section 4.2(r) of ICANN’s Bylaws (October 1, 2016): The Board shall issue its decision on the recommendation of the Board Governance Committee within 45 days of receipt of the Board Governance Committee's recommendation or as soon thereafter as feasible ... Here, seven months have passed since the Board received the BGC’s final recommendation on Dotgay’s Reconsideration Request, yet the Board has failed to make a final decision on dotgay’s Reconsideration Request ..."

Other Internet Domain News

•  Does the U.S. have new clout over the global internet? | FCW.com--John Kneuer, former head of the NTIA at a Feb. 2 U.S. House hearing--"Kneuer told the [House Energy and Commerce] committee [video here] that it would be "absolutely" appropriate for President Donald Trump or other U.S. official to back Amazon's effort to obtain a dot-Amazon top level domain name. "With the conclusion of the transition of the IANA contracts … the U.S  government can take, counterintuitively perhaps, a more proactive role for domestic companies…" Kneuer said. "When the U.S. government had its exclusive contractual relationship with ICANN, there was some hesitancy to be perceived as abusing that authority or overplaying that role." Some Republican lawmakers were highly critical of the [IANA transition] transfer and sought to block it, calling it essentially a giveaway of U.S. power ..." (emphasis added)

•  Special-Use Names Problem Statement (Jan 31 update) | ietf.org: 4.3 Summary: "... The assignment of Internet Names is not under the sole control of any one organization. IETF has authority in some cases, but only with respect to "technical uses." ICANN at present is the designated administrator of the root zone, but generally not of zones other than the root zone. And neither of these authorities can in any practical sense exclude the practice of ad-hoc use of names. This can be done by any entity that has control over one or more name servers or resolvers, in the context of any hosts and services that that entity operates. It can also be done by authors of software who decide that a special-use name is the right way to indicate the use of an alternate resolution mechanism."  See also Domain Name System Operations (dnsop) WG Virtual Meeting: 2017-02-16.

•  Quick Takes:
•  Q4 2016 Financial Results & Webcasts this coming week:
  • Tucows (TO:TC) (NASDAQ:TCX) Feb 7
  • Twitter TWTR Feb 9 before market open
  • Verisign VRSN Feb 9 after market close
•  Domain registry and technology services provider Neustar NYSE: NSR--Neustar: Investor Relations - News Release Feb 2, 2017: "On December 14, 2016, Neustar announced that it had entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by a private investment group led by Golden Gate Capital. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Neustar’s stockholders will be entitled to receive $33.50 per share following the closing of the proposed merger. The merger, which is expected to close no later than the end of the third quarter of 2017, is subject to approval by Neustar’s stockholders, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. In light of the proposed merger, Neustar will not be providing guidance for 2017 and will not hold a conference call to discuss its results for full-year and fourth quarter 2016."--NeuStar (NYSE:NSR) Q4 2016 Results: EPS of $1.38 (missed estimates by $0.01); revenue $324.9M (+16.0% Y/Y) (miss by $1.08M).

 •  4 most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this past week on DomainMondo.com:
  1. NewsReview: Ruby Glen Appeals .WEB ICANN Case to Ninth Circuit
  2. Apple $AAPL Q1 2017FY Earnings, LIVE Stream Jan 31st Replay
  3. Amazon $AMZN Q4 2016 Earnings LIVE Webcast Feb 2, 5:30pm ET
  4. Facebook $FB Q4 2016 Results, LIVE Webcast Feb 1, 5pm ET

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo


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