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 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

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

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-12-16 with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) GDPR & ICANN WHOIS Data: EPDP Initial Report Comments Due Dec 21, 2) Other ICANN news: ICANN's Lyin' CEO? and more,  3) Names, Domains & Trademarks: Tesla.com Redux, 4) ICYMI Internet Domain News, 5) Most Read & Next Week.

1) GDPR & ICANN WHOIS Data: EPDP Initial Report Comments Due Dec 21

EPDP meetings Tuesday Dec 18 and Thursday Dec 20 starting 14:00 UTC (9am EST). Observers use Adobe Connect, or audio cast (browser or app).

Thursday Dec 20  EPDP meeting transcript (pdf), Adobe replay, Chat transcript (pdf), MP3 audio, notes and action items here.

Tuesday Dec 18 EPDP meeting transcript (pdf): Adobe Replay (video), MP3 (audio) Chat transcript (pdf), Notes and action items here.

See also GNSO Council EPDP page and updates. Links to all EPDP meetings' 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), EPDP Initial Report (pdf).

All comments to the EPDP Initial Report are due by Dec 21, 2018, 23:59. UTC:

"... If you want to see the privacy rights of domain name registrants respected, you need to weigh in. And if you don’t weigh in, you can be sure that Facebook, the MPAA, the trademark interests, cybersecurity firms who monetize Whois data, and other anti-privacy rights interests will be out in force ..."--InternetGovernance.org

Editor's note: I have finished my comment to the EPDP Initial Report (comment embed and link below). Here's the essence of my comment to simplify, clarify, minimize WHOIS Registrant's Data Fields (Data Elements) to be GDPR-compliant:

See the "old way" WHOIS raw data here: https://www.whois.com/whois/facebook.com. The "new way" minimizes over 30 data elements (data fields) to just 8 necessary data fields for a WHOIS in compliance with GDPR (the other WHOIS data elements automatically generated by Registry and Registrar processes, except Registry IDs, are not affected by GDPR). It would be hard for an honest registrant to fail to accurately fill in the registrant's data fields in this revised WHOIS "new way."

Another excerpt from my comment:

"What James Bladel (GoDaddy, RrSG) told the EPDP working group more than once, including Aug 7, 2018 (transcript), is VERY IMPORTANT: "We’re talking about collection of data for the purposes of publication in an RDS system or an online directory and that is, again, not something that we [registrars] need in order to serve our customer, our registrant customers ... we have our own internal communications with those customers" [e.g., additional contact information, banking and credit card info, etc.] This is the time to cleanup the WHOIS registrant data fields, simplify, clarify, and minimize, in compliance with GDPR and other data privacy laws." 

I also agree with the GNSO's Contracted Parties House (Registrars and gTLD Registry Operators):

"The initial report does not present for review any concrete policy. Instead it is a discordant document filled with tentative suggestions and polarised arguments."

The EPDP's Google Form for submitting comments was a poor method for commenting on this Initial Report, specifically limiting how much "comment" one could submit: "Your response is too large. Try shortening some answers" (see message in "red" below).

My comment is here (pdf) embed below beginning with page 4 of the Google form:

Aids to complete a Comment to the ICANN EPDP Initial Report:

• EPDP Initial Report (pdf)

• Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data

• Registrar Accreditation Agreement

• Input from ICANN Org to EPDP Team

• https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/jelinek-to-marby-05jul18-en.pdf

• Whois-Privacy Reform Hits its First Milestone | internetgovernance.org 

• Tucows Statement on ICANN Legal Action | epag.de

• Example of WHOIS data: facebook.com

• https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/rdds-labeling-policy-2017-02-01-en
• Summary of ICANN Organization's Contractual Compliance Team Data Processing Activities 07 Dec 2018: summary-compliance-data-processing-activities-07dec18-en.pdf (pdf)

• Two Decades of WHOIS (a/k/a RDS) Reform Failure at ICANN: Letter dated 14 Nov 2018 (pdf) from GNSO Council Chair Keith Drazek and Vice Chairs Pam Little and Rafik Dammak, to ICANN Board of Directors, published by ICANN 26 Nov 2018, re: Termination of the Next-Generation Registration Directory Services (RDS) Policy Development Process Working Group. ICANN Board of Directors response (pdf).

• Summary of ICANN Organization’s Contractual Compliance Team Data Processing Activities (pdf)
• Guidelines 3/2018 on the territorial scope of the GDPR (Article 3) (pdf) - version for public consultation--edpb.europa.eu.

Note also:

11 Dec 2018 Letter from Göran Marby to Dave Jevans and Jerry Upton re: Joint APWG/M3AAWG GDPR and WHOIS User Survey Results marby-to-jevans-upton-11dec18-en.pdf [128 KB] excerpt:

"... at this time, the ICANN Board does not intend to issue another Temporary Specification or amend the current one absent a compelling legal reason, consistent with ICANN’s current contracts with registries and registrars, for it to do so; for example, to maintain the security or stability of registry services, registrar services, or the Domain Name System ..."

11 Dec 2018 Letter from ICANN GDD VP Cyrus Namazi to Intellectual Property Constituency re:  Privacy and Proxy Service Provider Accreditation Policy Implementation namazi-to-ipc-11dec18-en.pdf [128 KB].

11 Dec 2018 Letter from ICANN CEO Göran Marby to Graeme Bunton and Donna Austin
re: 3rd Party Access to Data Models marby-to-bunton-austin-11dec18-en.pdf [127 KB]

SAC 101v2 | SSAC Advisory Regarding Access to Domain NameRegistration Data version 2
12 Dec 2018 sac-101-v2-en.pdf [324 KB] and SAC 101v2 | SSAC Advisory Regarding Access to Domain NameRegistration Data version 2 | Addendum 12 Dec 2018 sac-101-v2-addendum-en.pdf [66.9 KB]

ICANN org's Technical Study Group on Access to Non-Public Registration Data - background info - the TSG-Access-RD mail list. See also this on DomainIncite.com.

2) Other ICANN News

a. ICANN's Lyin' CEO?

7 December 2018 Letter from HE Jacqualine Mendoza to ICANN Board (pdf) excerpt above, full embed below, published by ICANN on 12 Dec 2018. Mendoza is Secretary General | Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). Letter is re: new gTLD .AMAZON:

b.  More ICANN news:

• UPDATE: Verisign and Nu Dotco, LLC request to intervene in Afilias vs ICANN IRP  re: new gTLD .WEB.

• ICANN Holiday Break: ICANN offices (and GNSO staff support services) will close at the end of business on Friday, 21 December 2018, and reopen Wednesday, 2 January 2019.

• Webinar on Draft ICANN FY20 Operating Plan and Budget, Tuesday, 18 December 2018, 17:00 UTC (12 noon EST). Join here: https://participate.icann.org/planning. A recording will be posted on the Community Wiki here.

• 12 Dec 2018 Letter from ALAC's Maureen Hilyard to ICANN Board Chair Cherine Chalaby re Enabling Inclusive, Informed and Meaningful Participation at ICANN--hilyard-to-chalaby-12dec18-en.pdf (pdf). 

• Improving Access to ICANN org Content

• GNSO PDP 3.0 Implementation Plan (version 10 December 2018): gnso.icann.org (pdf)

• ICANN SSAC Appointments to the ICANN Root ZoneEvolution Review Committee 11 Dec 2018: ssac2018-28-11dec18-en.pdf [58.8 KB]

• ICANN GNSO Project List (pdf) 10 Dec 2018.

• Another Example of the Unknown, Undisclosed Conflicts of Interest by members of the ICANN Board of Directors, in this case Ram Mohan (Afilias) who was on the ICANN Board for 10 years (as SSAC liaison):

Nothing in his SOIs from the 10 years he was on the #ICANN Board of Directors. Surely that relationship with the Indian Government should have been disclosed. https://t.co/FZizelgMjA https://t.co/ymHFRPhvDr

— Eye On ICANN (@EyeOnICANN) December 12, 2018

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

Tesla.com Redux:

Buying https://t.co/46TXqRrsdr took over a decade, $11M & amazing amount of effort. Didn’t like https://t.co/BsRfMrY9Gm even when we were only making 🚘.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2018

See also: Musk Gets Tesla.com Domain Name After Waiting a Decade | bloomberg.com 19 Feb 2016.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

a. Internet censorship in Turkey--journo.com.tr: Since 2014, many websites and social media platforms have been periodically censored by Turkish authorities. Wikipedia has been completely blocked by the Turkish government since April 2017. See also Things Were Supposed to Be Different in Hungary--slate.com.

b. Soros vs Facebook: George Soros, the hedge-fund billionaire, gave money to one of the ten organizations that support Freedom from Facebook (domain: freedomfromfb.com), an activist group that wants to see the company broken up by spinning off its various business units--foxnews.com.

c. Young Arabs now get their news first on social media, not television. A recent survey revealed almost two-thirds (63%) of young Arabs report looking first to Facebook and Twitter for news. Three years ago, that was just a quarter.--zdnet.com.

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

1. News Review | Verisign $VRSN & New gTLD .WEB, Afilias vs ICANN

2. Tech Review: 1) Huawei CFO Arrested (video), 2) U.S. Oilfield Technology

3. UK Brexit Agreement Vote Dead? Now A Hard Brexit or Capitulation to EU?

Next week on News Review: Greed is Good? ICANN's Big 'Money Grab' 

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

News Review | Another ICANN New gTLD Disaster: .AMAZON

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-12-02 with analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Another ICANN New gTLD Disaster: .AMAZON,  2) ICANN news: EPDP Team Meetings Dec 4 & 6, and the EPDP Initial Report, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks,  4) ICYMI: a. China & WTO, b. US vs Assange, c. France vs Google, d. Russia vs Google, e. Dragonfly, 5) Most Read.

1) Another ICANN New gTLD Disaster: .AMAZON  

Trouble in the .AMAZON: ICANN's ill-conceived, 'horribly implemented' new gTLDs program, including its "extortion racket .BRAND new gTLDs" [a "privatizing" of global public resources and a corruption of the principles set forth in RFC1591 by Jon Postel] is suffering another controversy and series of embarrassing events, this time in regard to new gTLD .AMAZON:

28 Nov 2018 Letter from ICANN CEO Göran Marby to GAC Chair Manal Ismail: 

"I am writing to you as ICANN’s CEO and President, to inform you of some issues and facts related to the facilitation process associated with the application for a .AMAZON top-level domain. As you are aware, ICANN has been conducting this facilitation process consistent with and according to the ICANN60 Government Advisory Committee (GAC) communiqué advice with the participation of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) and Amazon, the corporation (Amazon Corporation [sic]) and the applicant for .AMAZON. I will refer to myself throughout the letter as ICANN’s CEO. 

"Unfortunately, at this time, we regret to inform you that this facilitation process has been unsuccessful. The facilitation has not been able to reach its desired conclusion. I was hoping to meet with the ACTO countries in Bolivia following an invitation from ACTO’s Secretary General. This visit and meeting were scheduled for 29 November 2018. I was hoping to be able to explain any misunderstandings and or statements made by ICANN which might have been misinterpreted, during that meeting, however, we have received a letter dated 22 November indicating that the ACTO Member Countries requested that this scheduled meeting be postponed ...."

26 Nov 2018 Letter from *HE Jacqueline Mendoza to ICANN Board Chair Cherine Chalaby [Published by ICANN 28 Nov 2018] *Mendoza is Secretary General | Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO). Letter embed below:

UPDATES: Dec 7. 2018 Letter from HE Mendoza with official note (pdf) adopted by the Member States of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) at the XXI Ordinary Meeting of the Amazon Cooperation Council, held in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, on November 28-29, 2018. (pdf);
and Dec 3, 2018, letter from ICANN Board Chair to HE Jacqueline Mendoza (pdf).

Related previous correspondence:

• 22 Nov 2018 Letter from HE Jacqueline Mendoza to Göran Marby [Published 28 Nov 2018]

• 20 Nov 2018 Letter from Göran Marby to HE Jacqueline Mendoza [Published 28 Nov 2018]

• 5 Nov 2018 Letter from HE Jacqueline Mendoza to Cherine Chalaby and Göran Marby [Published 28 Nov 2018]

Among the other disasters in ICANN's .BRAND new gTLDs:

 Zombie .BRAND TLDs--DOHA and ZIPPO Make Forty Five--"... it does make me wonder how much other destroyed value is hiding in new TLDs. The zone files for over 500 active new [.BRAND] TLDs contain less than 10 names each, even though each is paying the ICANN fixed fee of $25,000/yr. That's $12.5 million of ICANN's budget from zombie TLDs. No doubt a few of those still have plans to do something, but even so, we're looking at a lot of failures."--John Levine.

Remember the IGF 2018 Speech by French President Emmanuel Macron just a few weeks ago:

"... That is also why I believe we need to move away from the false possibilities we are currently offered, whereby only two models would exist: that, on the one hand, of complete self-management, without governance, and that of a compartmented Internet, entirely monitored by strong and authoritarian states. To be very politically incorrect, we are seeing two types of Internet emerge: as I said earlier, there is a Californian form of Internet, and a Chinese Internet. The first is the dominant possibility, that of an Internet driven by strong, dominant, global private players, that have been impressive stakeholders in this development, that have great qualities and with which we work, but which at the end of the day are not democratically elected. Personally, I don’t want to hand over all my decisions to them, and that is not my contract with France’s citizens. That is the self-management model, but it doesn’t really have any governance and it is not democratic. On the other side, there is a system where governments have a strong role, but this is the Chinese-style Internet: an Internet where the government drives innovations and control, where the major players in artificial intelligence are held by the government ... We do a lot with China, but we do not have the same democratic preferences, we do not have the same cultural references on all subjects, we do not have the same relationship with individual freedoms – that is a reality. And so in that Internet, the state has found its place, but it is hegemonic. We therefore need, through regulation, to build this new path where governments, along with Internet players, civil societies and all actors are able to regulate properly ... What we need to do is learn to regulate together, on the basis that all Internet players, including civil societies, private actors, NGOs, intellectuals, journalists and governments, are co-guarantors of this common interest that should drive us precisely to work in cooperation. And it is no coincidence that the notion of “commons” has seen such success in the digital era. The Internet, the depth of data and knowledge hosted by it, and the essential services it gives access to, are collective treasures that we need to manage together in order precisely to pass them on to future generations. And so it is here that we need to invent a new multilateralism both suited to the reality of cyber space and effective. That is why I am here today to propose a new collegial method ..."

Editor's note: indeed, there has to be a better way than "the ICANN way."

2) Other ICANN News: EPDP Team Meetings and the EPDP Initial Report

EPDP meetings Tuesday Dec 4 and Thursday Dec 6 starting 14:00 UTC (9am EST). Observers use Adobe Connect, or audio cast (browser or app).

Thursday's Agenda wiki page includes Purpose O, draft letter to European Data Protection Board (EDPB), WHOIS accuracy. Adobe replay, and meeting chat transcript (pdf) embed below. Meeting transcript (pdf), high level notes and action items--summary:

• Action Item #1: EPDP Chair Kurt Pritz to edit the latest version of the EDPB (European Data Protection Board) letter and notify the GNSO Council that the EPDP Team will not send a communication to the EDPB at this time.
• Action Item #2: EPDP Team to provide any proposed updates to the draft Statement of Work to obtain independent legal advice on GDPR issues by the end of the week.
• Action Item #3: EPDP Support Team to send an email to the Team with a list of additional topics for discussion, and EPDP Team members who suggested or who would like to discuss the topics to provide the objective for the discussion in writing to the Team.
• Action Item #4: EPDP leadership to contact ICANN org or facilitate contact with ICANN org to gain their participation in the “Purpose O” discussion regarding processing data for ICANN research purposes.

Chat Transcript 6 Dec 2018:

Tuesday's Agenda wiki page has links to the Meeting's Adobe Recordings. Meeting items included a proposed  "Letter to the EDPB" (European Data Protection Board), review of topics #3, #4, #5 #6 (pdf) embed below, and Phase 2 work items (pdf).  Chat Transcript (pdf). Dec 4th Meeting transcript here (pdf), high level notes and action items here.

See also GNSO Council EPDP page and updates. Links to all EPDP meetings' 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).

Editor's note: I have started working on a comment to the EPDP Initial Report and hope to have more to say in next week's News Review including tips for anyone wishing to submit their own comment by December 21, 2018.

Schedule of next EPDP meetings and topics (updated as of Dec 3):

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Over a million website domains seized in global operation | ICE.gov Nov 26, 2018: "More than 1 million copyright-infringing website domain names selling counterfeit automotive parts, electrical components, personal care items and other fake goods were criminally and civilly seized in the past year through the combined efforts of law-enforcement agencies across the world, high-profile industry representatives and anti-counterfeiting associations. The ongoing intellectual property enforcement initiative targeting fake websites, dubbed Operation In Our Sites, was facilitated by the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPR Center), a joint-task force agency led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The IPR Center, which stands at the forefront of the U.S. government’s response to IP theft, worked directly with key international law-enforcement authorities and industry organizations representing the electronics sector, luxury brand-name designers, film and entertainment and several entities specializing in apparel and accessories through the major enforcement effort ..."

b.  HTTPS & Phishing Scams: half of all phishing scams are now hosted on Web sites whose internet address includes the padlock and begins with “https://”.--krebsonsecurity.com.

c.  New Zealand Domain Name Suspension 19 Nov 2018 | dnc.org.nz: "On 21 November 2018 the following domain names were suspended: wex.nz; wexbet.nz; wexcash.nz; wexcoin.nz; wxcash.nz; wxcoin.nz.

"wex.nz and the associated domain names above, were displaying a cryptocurrency website.  The names were suspended following the Domain Name Commission’s enquiries in to the accuracy of the registration details for each of these domains. The Commission initiated an investigation following complaints made to it. The Domain Name Commission has suspended the domain names for fake registration details in accordance with enforcing data validation measures under the .nz Principles and Responsibilities policy. The Commission wants .nz to be a safe, trusted and secure domain name space which is supported by its data validation process. The individual who registered the domain names was not able to verify their contact details - and having valid contact details is a prerequisite for any .nz domain name holder. If you are New Zealand based and have been affected by the cancellation of wex.nz and associated domain names - and have reason to suspect any fraudulent or criminal activity - we urge you to immediately contact your local Police station and report a crime or make a report via Netsafe https://www.netsafe.org.nz/report/ ."

d. Does ICANN registrar accreditation protect registrants?--consumeraffairs.com.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

China opposes global e-commerce rules--China closer to India’s stance on developing global trade rules for e-commerce, opposing binding provisions for cross-border data flow, preventing data localization, and protection of source code. The US, Japan, Australia and Singapore, proponents of ambitious rules for global e-commerce, suffered the setback at the World Trade Organization (WTO) after China issued a strong statement--livemint.com.

US vs Assange: Why You Should Care About the Julian Assange Case | RollingStone.com

France Says Goodbye Google: Both the French National Assembly and the French Army Ministry have said their digital devices will stop using the Google search engine, but instead will use French search engine Qwant.com: Qwant is a search engine that respects your privacy and eases discovering and sharing via a social approach. But also see Breaking ground for Google’s first data center in Denmark | blog.google.

Russia opens civil case against Google over search results--reuters.com.

90+ Google employees join Amnesty International in calling on Google to cancel Project Dragonfly, its censored search engine for China--medium.com.

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

1. News Review | Internet Governance: Macron's Call for a New Multilateralism

2. Tech Review: 1) Apple's Core Problems, 2) High Tech Wars of the Future

3. AWS re:Invent Conference, Las Vegas, Nov 26-30, LIVE Feed

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER

News Review: ICANN63 Meeting Oct 20-25, ICANN's Tipping Point?

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-10-21 with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN63 Meeting, Barcelona, Spain, 20-25 Oct 2018,  2) Other ICANN news, 3) Names, Domains & Trademarks, 4) ICYMI Internet Domain News: GDPR & Internet Freedom, 5) Most Read.

ICANN63 UPDATES

EPDP Team Meeting Thursday 25 Oct 2018 8:30 - 10:15 CEST agenda:

1. Data redaction (pdf)
2. Review updated timeline (pdf) to produce Initial Report 
3. Review Working methods going forward
4. Outstanding action items / charter questions

Public Forum 2 Thursday, Oct 25 13:30 - 16:45 CEST (starts 7:30am EDT)

EPDP Team Meeting Wednesday 24 October 2018 17.00 – 18.30 CEST agenda:
1. Small team #1 output – Review proposed responses to charter questions and preliminary recommendations (15 min)--see small team outputs #1, #2, #3 (pdf)
2. Small team #2 output – Review proposed responses to charter questions (15 min)
3. Small team #3 output – Review proposed preliminary recommendations (15 min)
4. Review updated timeline to produce Initial Report (pdf) (15 min)
5. Review working methods going forward (15 min)
6. AOB

Cross-Community Session: GDPR 9:45 - 12:00 CEST, Wed, Oct 24, 2018

Monday Oct 22: An Internet Root With One Million TLDs? Paul Foody at Public Forum I--see transcript (pdf), pp.50-54. Replay the Public Forum video further below.

ICANN CEO Goran Marby calls everyone "Brian" at the Public Forum I on Monday, attributes the "condition" to having "ICANN brain":

ICANN CEO Goran Marby at ICANN63 Public Forum I on Oct 22.

Sunday Oct 21: NCSG tells GAC it has been misled by ICANN org's UAM (Unified Access Model)--livestream 2:50:06 -- 3:15:27 video (video lacks 'voice sync' but is listenable).

Letter to ICANN from Registrar Tucows 21 Oct 2018 (pdf) strongly disputes AppDetex's claims (pdf), excerpt (highlighting added):

Also a similar letter from Registrar Blacknight (pdf): "... We believe, therefore, that the requests for data are not sincere but are designed to create a particular narrative to reinforce AppDetex and Facebook’s particular views ..." (emphasis added)

Original Post:
“Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not. With the slightest push, in just the right place, it can be tipped.”--Malcolm Gladwell.

"... [EPDP] working group was due to make its interim recommendations by an ICANN meeting [ICANN63] in Barcelona in October, but the meeting approaches, there is no sign of consensus ... The current temporary policy was only possible because the ICANN board imposed it, in an unprecedented break from tradition. So, what will happen next? As is often the case with ICANN, the organization and its multi-stakeholder process is facing an existential crisis. Unable to solve this thorny policy issue for 20 years, ICANN’s latest group is unlikely to find consensus in the following days. ICANN has lost in the German courts and the European Data Protection Board (pdf) views with skepticism ICANN's claims that the interest of 'third parties' can justify continued collection and publication of WHOIS data ..."--Emily Taylor (EPDP RrSG member), ChathamHouse.org (emphasis added).

"... ICANN has consistently asserted that it is not a government regulator and it is readily apparent that it cannot be relied upon to fill that role. To the extent that ICANN has historically involved itself in pricing, it has been to increase pricing for the mutual benefit of itself and Verisign, at the expense of the American consumer [domain name registrants] ..."-- 18 Oct 2018 Letter (pdf) from Internet Commerce Association (ICA) to David Redl, NTIA, US Dept of Commerce re: Expiry of NTIA-Verisign Cooperative Agreement Nov 30, 2018 (pdf) (emphasis added).

Civil society groups blast ICANN Org’s push for a “Unified Access Model”--internetgovernance.org Oct 19, 2018: "... some participants in the [EPDP] group are becoming uneasy about ICANN CEO Goran Marby’s relentless promotion of a “Unified Access Model” [UAM]. They fear that the CEO’s “discussion papers” and calls for public comment are turning into a parallel policy development process that will pre-empt or circumvent the decisions made by the EPDP and other normal ICANN processes. Yesterday the Noncommercial Stakeholders Group (NCSG) published a blistering set of comments (pdf) on Marby’s UAM ..."

Editor's note: for further background read last week's News Review | Fadi, Akram & Donuts, ICANN Conflicts of Interest and "ICANN: incompetent, corrupt, unfit."

1) ICANN63 | Barcelona | 20th Annual General Meeting  20-25 Oct 2018.

• #ICANN63  |  Time in Barcelona: 

• ICANN63 Full Schedule [times shown are local Barcelona CEST (UTC+2)]

ICANN63 Highlights:
Saturday Oct 20

• GNSO - EPDP Team F2F Meeting (1 of 4)  8:30 - 18:30, Sat, Oct 20

Sunday Oct 21

• GAC: WHOIS & GDPR & Report of EPDP Progress 10:45 - 11:30, Sun, Oct 21

• GAC: WHOIS & GDPR with IPC and NCSG  11:30 - 12:15, Sun, Oct 21

Editor's note: GNSO Council meeting agenda for Sunday, October 21, at 13:55 to 14:10 contains the following item: Update on RPM PDP Complaint/RPM Co-Chairs--link is to GNSO mail list item from RPM co-chairs Phil Corwin and Kathy Kleiman--the other RPM co-chair is Brian Beckham:

"... as members of the ICANN community are not presently aware that this situation exists, and as a 15-minute session cannot be expected to lay out the facts in a completely clear and comprehensive fashion, we wonder what follow-up explanation will be provided to the community as well as interested media if follow-up questions are subsequently raised. We look forward to Sunday’s discussion so that the Council and community can start to learn as much as possible from this situation and take responsive steps ..."

• GNSO - EPDP Team F2F Meeting (2 of 4)  17:00 - 18:30, Sun, Oct 21

Monday Oct 22

• GNSO - new gTLD Auction Proceeds - Initial Report 13:30 - 15:00, Mon, Oct 22

• High-Interest Topic: EPDP Draft Report 15:15 - 16:45, Mon, Oct 22 [slides (pdf) and
  Purpose "A" Workbook (pdf)].

• Public Forum 1 17:00 - 18:30, Mon, Oct 22

Tuesday Oct 23

• Joint Meeting: ICANN Board and NCSG 9:45 - 10:45, Tue, Oct 23, 2018

• UASG Report to the ICANN Community 13:30 - 15:00, Tue, Oct 23

• GNSO - NCSG Open Meeting (1/2) 15:15 - 16:45, Tue, Oct 23

• GNSO - NCSG Open Meeting (2/2) 17:00 - 18:30, Tue, Oct 23

Wednesday Oct 24

• Cross-Community Session: GDPR 9:45 - 12:00, Wed, Oct 24

• ICANN GDD: RDS/WHOIS Update 13:30 - 15:00, Wed, Oct 24

• Name Collision Analysis Project (NCAP) 15:15 - 16:45, Wed, Oct 24

• GNSO - EPDP Team F2F Meeting (3 of 4) 17:00 - 18:30, Wed, Oct 24

Thursday Oct 25

• GNSO - EPDP Team F2F Meeting (4 of 4) 8:30 - 10:15, Thu, Oct 25

• Public Forum 2 13:30 - 16:45, Thu, Oct 25

• GNSO Council Wrap-Up 17:00 - 18:30, Thu, Oct 25

Editor's note: readers will note I have made no other mention of the RPM working group (RPM WG) other than the Sunday GNSO agenda item above. The RPM WG has been working on the URS (UDRP to come in a later phase), which only applies to new gTLDs and a few other gTLDs but not .COM. Registrants are fortunate that among the active members of the RPM working group are  EFF's Mitch Stoltz, as well as Harvard Law Professor Rebecca Tushnet who posted to the RPM mail list Oct 19:

"URS levels of support for public comments ... I don't think the staff categorizations have worked. If the ultimate point is to get feedback on potential fixes that have been raised, and we don't want to spend a lot more time on this, then I would say we may need to pass on the proposals as non-consensus proposals for community feedback. As Greg Shatan [IPC] did, I supported proposals for comment that I am presently unlikely to support for adoption; based on other comments, I suspect many of us did so--which means that any staff-prepared summary of objections received is also going to be unrepresentative of the full range of arguments against a particular proposal unless we spend a lot more time on it. One specific thing: the charter asks if the URS is fit for purpose. If you agree that the charge allows the answer "no," then one recommendation for a fix is "make it the UDRP," if you think the game isn't worth the candle. That proposal is thus clearly within scope."

ICANN Meeting & Media Resources:

• Remote Participation (Adobe Connect links on each scheduled session's webpage, e.g., at links above.)

• High-Level Government Meeting at ICANN63 Oct 22

• ICANN pre- and post-meeting reports | ICANN.org

• GNSO Policy Briefing ICANN63 Edition (pdf) and here.

• On Twitter: Samantha Dickinson @sgdickinson 

• ICANN Meeting Sessions on Livestream.com

• ICANNnews | YouTube.com

• GAC Advice Process (pdf) [Feb2018].

2) Other ICANN News

a. The ICANN GNSO EPDP Working Group has a busy week at ICANN63 with four face-to-face (F2F) meetings and a special high interest topic Monday session (links to all above). Links to all EPDP meetings' transcripts and recordings are on the GNSO calendar. Other EPDP links: wiki, mail list, action items, Temp Spec, EPDP Charter (pdf), GNSO's EPDP page and updates. Info on last week's Oct 16 meeting on last week's News Review. 

GDPR & EPDP related:

• Comments of the NCSG (pdf) (Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group) re: ICANN org's Unified Access Model.
• 17 Oct 2018 Letter (pdf) embed below, from NCSG (Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group), Dr. Farzaneh Badiei, and Dr. Stephanie Perrin to ICANN Board of Directors re: "ICANN org violates data protection laws and principles to advance the interests of certain parts of the community"  [Domain Name Registrants Data Protection (GDPR)]:

• ICANN Board's response 20 Oct 2018 (pdf) to the above embed letter from NCSG re: "ICANN org violates data protection laws and principles to advance the interests of certain parts of the community." 
• Governmental Advisory Committee’s (GAC) Initial Comments (pdf) on the Draft Framework for a Possible Unified Access Model (UAM) for Continued Access to Full WHOIS Data.
• 16 Oct 2018 Letter from ICANN Compliance (pdf) to "Independent Compliance Working Party" re: GDPR etc.
• ICANN Registry Request Service | Proposal 2018067 | .cloud | Complying with Local Law (Domain Name Registration Validation) 18 Oct 2018 rsep-2018067-cloud-request-18oct18-en.pdf (pdf).
• First Semiannual Report To Congress (pdf) on NTIA’s ICANN Activities (FY2018) excerpt: "... In addition to the EPDP, NTIA is also pursuing avenues for specifically addressing the development and implementation of a unified access mechanism to permit access to non-public WHOIS information ..."
• The FY19 ICANN Board Activities & Priorities: ".... European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ... Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) - We are closely monitoring these discussions, with two Board members serving as liaisons to the EPDP. We acknowledge the progress that has been made so far and look forward to the group reaching timely consensus on a new policy to replace the Temporary Specification ..."

b. EBERO: Request for Proposal: EBERO Services | ICANN.org--EBERO in ICANNspeak is "Emergency Back-End Registry Operator" services--"For a complete overview and timeline for the RFP, please click here (pdf) ... Indications of interest must be emailed to: EBEROServices-rfp @ icann.org by 23:59 UTC on 05 November 2018. Complete proposals must be electronically submitted by 16:00 UTC on 3 December 2018 using the ICANN org sourcing (RFP) tool, access to which will be granted after receipt of an indication of interest to the email address above." More info at link above.

c. ICANN Revised Community Travel Support Guidelines--Travel the World on "ICANN's dime."

d. New gTLD .AMAZON: objecting correspondence (pdf), more info here (pdf).

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. New Domains: A Wide-Open Playing Field for Cybercrime--DarkReading.com.

b. Intellectual Property And Public Disclosure--jdsupra.com: all companies, particularly startups, should adequately protect any IP before there are any public disclosures.

c. Google's Google+ Branding and Domain Name #FAIL--MorganLinton.com.

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

• GDPR: GDPR DPAs have been deluged with complaints about violations and queries. European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) Giovanni Buttarelli: "I expect first GDPR fines for some cases by the end of the year."

At the crossroads: China, Europe & the US offer different 'internet freedom' models | TheDrum.com: "Europe, the crucible for democracy and capitalism, seems more aware than the US and China of the need to set the boundaries for how institutions and businesses can use the data of its citizens. With GDPR, there is an explicit recognition that power needs to be given back to the citizen to offer checks and balances against a non-transparent world of internet disruption that has recently shown the limitations of self-regulation."

• US: Telling Congress How to Protect Consumer Data Privacy--eff.org.

• EGYPT: Facebook drove Egypt's revolution. Now it's being used as a weapon to oppress women--wired.co.uk: Egyptian law enforcement is using the country's new law against “fake news” to imprison women who share their sexual harassment experiences on social platforms.

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

1. News Review | Fadi, Akram & Donuts, ICANN Conflicts of Interest

2. BlackRock’s Rick Rieder: Technology Stocks Are Not Overvalued (video)

3. Tech Review: When Amazon $AMZN Comes For Your Startup (video)

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo 

feedback & comments via twitter @DomainMondo
Follow @DomainMondo

DISCLAIMER