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1:28
French Company Found Guilty of Reverse Domain Hijacking Attempt Against American Serviceman
» Domain Name JournalWhen it comes to domain arbitration cases, domainers usually get the short end of the stick - even when decisions should go in their favor. So it was refreshing to hear about a decision that came down a few days ago busting a French company for trying to hijack a one-word generic domain from its rightful owner.
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0:07
Chinese Internationalized Domain Names Approved by ICANN
» CircleIDICANN's Board of Directors on Friday approved a set of Chinese language internationalized domain names which will allow millions of Chinese language users to access the internet using their native script. The new Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) country code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs) and the associated organizations approved by the ICANN board include three different organizations: CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center), HKIRC (Hong Kong Internet Registration Corporation Limited), and TWNIC (Taiwan Network Information Center).
Related Links:
Making Chinese Internet History Tina Dam, ICANN, Jun.28.2010Follow CircleID on Twitter
More under: Domain Names, ICANN, Internet Governance, Multilinguism, Top-Level Domains
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Former Justice Department Chief Blasts ICANN Decision on .XXX
» Domain Name WireTrueman says decision was “foolish and unnecessary”.
Pat Trueman, former Chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, called ICANN’s decision on .xxx today “foolish and unnecessary” in an interview with Domain Name Wire. Trueman served in the Justice Department starting with Ronald Reagan in 1988 to the end of the administration of George H. W. Bush.
Trueman said ICANN’s board appears to be caught up with process in making its decision.
“They seem to be caught up in process rather than need,” he explained. “They had a non-binding ruling against them saying they didn’t follow their process. It was not binding that they change their position [on .xxx].”
He said the .xxx domain name will make pornography even more available to children than it is now. Although he admitted that pornography is easy to find now, this will make it even easier: children will just have to type .xxx after a domain name to be guaranteed of finding adult content. Furthermore, he said no existing .com porn site would switch to a .xxx and leave the .com behind.
Using internet filters to block .xxx won’t be much of a help, claimed Trueman. “Filtering companies will all tell you filtering isn’t the problem, it’s that so few families use filters,” said Trueman. He said only about 20% of families use an internet filter.
Trueman thinks the only group that wanted .xxx approved was ICM Registry, which will operate .xxx.
“So what is the point?” he asked. “The pornographers didn’t want it. The people who want to protected children and others from internet porn didn’t want it. The only people who want it is ICM Registry, who will make money.”
Porn sites will feel compelled to register their .xxx equivalent to prevent competition. But ICM registry will make money from more than just adult entertainment sites, Trueman explained.
“There will be a britneyspears.xxx,” he gave as an example. “People have to buy up the .xxx domain to protect their own good name, and they will pay a higher price than .com”.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
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22:53
ICANN Begins Negotiations for the Approval of dot-XXX Domain
» CircleIDICANN board on Friday gave initial approval for the addition of .xxx Top-Level Domain. Dot-XXX domains won't start appearing right away. ICANN must first conduct a "due diligence" study of ICM's business plan for the domain, and then the board will review the contract proposed for the operation of the domain. That may involve referring the matter to ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee, which is next scheduled to meet in December in Colombia, said board member Bruce Tonkin. "There is a potential that this is a prolonged process,"…
Related Links:
ICANN Board Approves Dot-XXX Top-level Domain for Porn PCWorld, Jun.25.2010
Official announcement from ICANN (PDF) ICANN, Jun.25.2010
ICANN does the right thing on .xxx - but will the GAC? IPG, Jun.25.2010
.XXX Resolution Approved, But Red Tape Could Slow Down Introduction Domain Name Wire, Jun.25.2010
Governments mull net censorship grab The Register, Jun.25.2010
Former Justice Department Chief Blasts ICANN Decision on .XXX Domain Name Wire, Jun.25.2010
The .XXX Fiasco is Almost Over John Levin, Jun.26.2010
The Man Who Would Be the Dot-XXX King BusinessWeek, Jul.2.2010Follow CircleID on Twitter
More under: Domain Names, Domain Registries, ICANN, Internet Governance, Top-Level Domains
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22:14
Always Have a Back-Up Plan
» Elliot's BlogI learned a valuable lesson this past week and want to share some advice with you based on what I learned. Everything worked out for the best, but it’s a good lesson in preparation.
For those of you who use the services of an accountant at tax time, you probably have been asked a lot of questions about your business. I gave my accountant the Domainer Tax Guide, and he found it very helpful since my business is not the traJditional bricks and mortar business that he usually represents.
Last week, I had a meeting with a company about one of my domain names, and because of the nature of the proposal, i needed some tax advice before doing anything. Unfortunately, my accountant was nowhere to be found. His voicemail box was full and i couldn’t get in touch. I was a bit panicked because this proposal was unlike anything I had ever done, so his opinion was essential. I had no back up accountant to ask, and still don’t know of any accountants that would be able to jump in and advise.
Long story short, after a few days of trying to get in touch, I was finally able to reach him. He was taking the continuing education classes that are required annually and wasn’t checking messages regularly. Fortunately we connected, because he advised me that the proposed deal wouldn’t be as beneficial as I anticipated, so his advice was certainly appreciated.
For legal issues or questions, there are several great domain lawyers I trust in the event my attorney is out of reach, but I didn’t have an accounting backup plan. If you take domain investing seriously, you should have a legal and accounting backup plan in the event that you have a pressing situation. It would be smart to have a back up programmer and designer, too, but those probably aren’t as critical when a situation necessitates a professional opinion.
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I’m posting this from my iPad in Cape Cod so my apologies for any typos. I love this business!
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- Domain Tax Tip I should preface this post by saying I am not...
- Creating a Succession Plan I spent much of yesterday afternoon at a chemotherapy center...
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21:57
.XXX Closer, Chinese IDNs Approved Amid Cybersecurity Concerns and gTLD Delays at Brussels ICANN Meeting
» DomainNews
In a week where domain name security, the possibility of blocking
certain domain name character strings due to their use in cybercrime and
no set date for the taking of applications for new Generic Top Level
Domains, there was some good news at the 38th ICANN meeting held in
Brussels this week that concluded Friday. ICANN's board voted to enter
negotiations with a view to approving the controversial .XXX Top Level
Domain while Chinese internationalised domain names approved for China,
Taiwan and Hong Kong in the usual board meeting that concludes each
meeting.
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21:09
Terrorism, New gTLDs, DAG4, and ICANN's Continued US and Western Centric Bias
» CircleIDThose who have been involved in the ICANN process as long as I have naturally become accustomed to ICANN controversies at all levels. But the latest is a "wrong" of international ramifications.
The four (4) versions of the Guidebook for the new generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs) have been hundreds of pages long with a lot of The Good, The Bad, and to some, The Ugly. However, something new has appeared in the 4th and latest version called DAG4 can be called: "The Disturbing".
It seems ICANN now has ventured itself into the field of Global Terrorism Verification.
In DAG4, Section 1.2.1 Eligibility and 2.1 Background Check it states and I quote:
Background checks at both the entity level and the individual level will be conducted for all applications, to confirm eligibility. The background check may include, but is not limited to any of the following areas:
• Corruption and bribery
• Terrorism
• Serious and organized crime
• Money laundering
• Corporate fraud and financial regulatory breaches
• Arms trafficking and war crimes
• Intellectual property violationsWhat is alarming to me is no where does the DAG4 contain any definitions or standards upon which these checks on terrorism will be conducted.
ICANN's invoking the term "Terrorism" in this arbitrary manner threatens ICANN's ability to effectively undertake its mandate of being the global technical coordinator of the Internet. Also, it would challenge its legitimacy as a Global Public Service Provider in the eyes of the international community and per the new Affirmation of Commitments Agreement (AOC) with The United States Government if it continues in this path. Most importantly it will alienate many in the international community who will choose not to take part in future ICANN processes including its New gTLDs. More over it raises more concerns as to whether ICANN is succeeding at truly and functionally internationalizing itself.
So who's standard is ICANN planning at adopting, The US State department's definition on terrorism, or the UNs resolutions on terrorism? The international community wants and needs clarity.
Evidently, I was deemed worthy and in good standing of being invited to serve on the ICANN President Advisory Committee on IDNs since 2005, invited by former ICANN President and CEO Paul Towmey, but as a Syrian born Arab American would I pass the ICANN terrorism verification check as they are? After all Syria, my country of birth, is on the US list of states sponsor of terrorism? So would I pass or fail this check?
Would Nelson Mandela pass or fail such check as they stand? After all he did serve time in prison, making him a convicted felon.
Haven't ICANN drafters, senior staff, and especially the supposed consulted experts who have worked on this DAG4 and/or board members who may have reviewed it prior to it being posted on the ICANN website for comments not realized this possible offensive consequence?
Also, will ICANN's non existent measuring standard in DAG4 verify for "allegations" of terrorism or "convictions" of terrorism? And, based on whose jurisdiction? USA's?, Europe's ? Whose?
And which terrorism is ICANN preoccupying itself with?
• Islamic terrorism,
• Cyber terrorism,
• State sponsored terrorism?
• or is there any other I missed?The arbitrary inclusion of terrorism as a measuring stick without any internationally recognized law or standard is wrong and offensive to many around the world, and if acted upon it can be understood or seen by millions of Muslims and Arabs as racist, prejudicial and profiling. If ICANN continues in this arbitrary Terrorism checks direction it would have gone far beyond its mandate of being a global technical coordinator.
The Affirmation of Commitments (AOC) Supposedly freed ICANN from the U.S. control, yet this ICANN's arbitrary inclusion of terrorism in its DAG4 alerts us all once again that the ICANN's US and western centric bias that was hoped to have been of the past seems to continue to live and prosper regardless of direct day to day U.S. control.
Many in the IDN regions and the religious, cultural communities all over the world would be as seriously alarmed as I am at this new direction.
I close by requesting ICANN to undertake the following:
Either,
A- Retract "Terrorism" as an area of checks of verification of applicants in the guidebook.
Or
B- If "Terrorism" as an area of checks is to remain, ICANN must provide clear definitions of what type of terrorism, i.e. Cyber Terrorism, Islamic or state Terrorism, etc…
C- Adopt definitions that are congruent with international, local community, and local jurisdiction laws and accepted standards on terrorism upon which fair and unbiased measurements of applicants can be conducted.
D- And if ICANN staff or the experts it consulted with cannot come up with appropriate definitions that meet the above criteria I articulated above, ICANN would be better served to post a 30 or 45 day period Request for Comment for feedback from the community for definitions, as it does on other issues.
E- An explanation by ICANN detailing how the Term "Terrorism" ended up being added in the DAG4 in this arbitrary manner. Better still, an apology for this offense if it was an unintended, inadvertent consequence.
Written by Khaled Fattal, Chairman and CEO, The Multilingual Internet Group.
Follow CircleID on Twitter
More under: Censorship, Cyberattack, Cybercrime, DNS, Domain Names, ICANN, Internet Governance, Multilinguism, Policy & Regulation, Security, Top-Level Domains, Web
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.XXX Resolution Approved, But Red Tape Could Slow Down Introduction
» Domain Name Wire.XXX still has hurdles before it becomes a top level domain name.
As expected, ICANN’s board approved a resolution today that allows ICM Registry’s .xxx application to move forward. But there are hurdles, or at least red tape, between now and the introduction of the top level domain name.
Reading the resolution aloud during ICANN’s board meeting today, board chairman Peter Dengate Thrush noted several steps that remain:
-The staff must conduct expedited due diligence to ensure that the ICM application is still current and that there have been no changes in ICM’s qualifications.
-If the expedited due diligence results are successful, then the ICANN staff will proceed with draft contract negotiations with ICM, taking into account the GAC advice received to date.
-Upon the staff finalizing a draft contract with ICM, the board will determine whether the proposed
contract is consistent with GAC advice and, if not, will enter into GAC consultation in accordance with the bylaws.-After the GAC consultation is completed, the board will decide whether to approve the contract and will
declare whether its action is in accordance with GAC advice or not.The step that could slow the process down the most is if the board determines it needs to go back to the GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee). We’ll also have to have another formal vote at a board meeting to “approve” the contract before .xxx gets the official green light.
It will be interesting to see if ICANN tries to delay the introduction until closer to the launch of the proposed round of new TLD applications.
Interestingly, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom didn’t approve the resolution. He abstained, noting:
While I accept the contribution to ICANN’s accountability and transparency provided by the existence and the use of the independent panel review process, I am nonetheless concerned about the determination by two of the three panelists that the ICANN board should not use business judgment in the conduct of its affairs.
In my view as CEO, the board must be able to use business judgment in order to protect the global public interest in the coordination of the root of the Internet and the domain name system.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
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China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan Get IDN Country Code Top Level Domain Names
» Domain Name WireAsian language top level domains coming to the internet.
The Board of ICANN has approved the delegation of two Chinese-character country code top level domain names to China, two to Taiwan, and one to Hong Kong.
During ICANN’s board meeting today in Brussels, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom called it a historic moment:
Just one brief remark and that is to say this is a truly historic moment. More than one out of five people who walk on this planet speak Chinese as a first language. In addition to all the incredible engineering work that’s gone on for many years, the policy work, the work by linguists and the work in the last six months by the operators in China of this proposed IDN ccTLD and the intense work of the board of ICANN and staff and the community have been remarkable. And it’s exciting for all of us, I think, to be here and to see the root truly embrace the world.
The board’s vote on the IDNs was followed by not just applause, but standing ovations according to the transcript of the meeting.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.
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Red Bull, burning money
» Domisfera
It is somewhat curious modus operandi has been to date the multinational Austrian Red Bull in UDRP proceedings opened by his lawyers to retrieve and remove domains that infringed its trademark.
And it turns out that lawyers from the brand, of the 41 procedures that have opened as plaintiffs to recover 105 domains, have opted for the cancellation of 73 of them at the end of it, instead of transmission as often as usual. In contrast, in 29 of the UDRP domain opted recovered by the transmission.
The result is the obvious and unsuccessful work carried out by lawyers, given that most of the domains that were canceled and transferred under the request of Red Bull again have been recorded by others outside the company, remain in the hands of the multinational just a few. Having also turn a few free days.
These actions leave the light that big companies often have more than a blight within their own organization on the Web, where cybersquatters register a few domains of no value and impact for a brand of this type. Being such that this duty lawyers who seem to seek and justify their fees and services major, leaving huge show their work in the form of piles and piles pages presenting his client at the end of each year, regardless of the outcome of work. Lamentable.
Domains panelist canceled by the request of Red Bull
Read the rest of this article ...
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14:05
Member States Discuss Key Copyright Issues
» WIPO Press ReleasesWIPO’s top copyright negotiating body this week discussed better access to copyright-protected works for the blind, visually impaired (VIP) and other reading-disabled persons, as well as updating the rights of broadcasting organizations. The Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), meeting from June 21-24, also reviewed the status of discussions on updating the rights of performers in their audiovisual performances, calling for concrete proposals to advance negotiations.
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12:51
ICANN does the right thing on .xxx - but will the GAC?
» IGP BlogIt still isn't over.At its public forum Thursday, the ICANN Board indicated its willingness to accept and act in accordance with the findings of an Independent Review Panel that ruled it had treated the .xxx top level domain application unfairly. In a presentation from its General Counsel, ICANN bowed to justice and issued two important declarations.
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9:18
Panel Allows Woman to Keep Domain Name That Is Her First Name
» CircleIDDomain Name: grazia.us; Case: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore S.p.A. v. Grazia Solazzi, No. FA 1323771 (Nat'l. Arb. Forum June 23, 2010).
In this action under the usTLD Dispute Resolution Policy (which mirrors the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy), Complainant sought transfer of the Domain Name grazia.us. Complainant, an Italian company, has used the mark GRAZIA for many years in several markets around the world in connection with its fashion magazine.
Respondent registered the Domain Name in 2008, but as of the time of the dispute, had not established a website there. Importantly, though, Respondent's first name is Grazia. And she was able to demonstrate that she had plans to start a food blog at the domain.
So the Panel denied the complaint. It found that Respondent had rights or legitimate interests in the Domain Name because through the use of her name in reference to her journalistic activities and projects, she had become commonly known by the Domain Name.
The Panel also found that Respondent had made demonstrable preparations to use the Domain Name prior to receiving notice of the dispute, and that such preparations were to use the Domain Name in connection with a bona fide offering of goods or services.
Because Respondent had rights and legitimate interests in the Domain Name, the Panel concluded that she did not register or use it in bad faith. On this point the Panel cited Lockheed Martin Corp. v. The Skunkworx Custom Cycle, D2004-0824 (WIPO Jan. 18, 2005) (finding that the issue of bad faith registration and use was moot once the panel found the respondent had rights or legitimate interests in the disputed domain name) and Vanguard Group Inc. v. Investors Fast Track, FA 863257 (Nat. Arb. Forum Jan. 18, 2007) ("Because Respondent has rights and legitimate interests in the disputed domain name, his registrations is not in bad faith.").
Written by Evan D. Brown, Attorney
Follow CircleID on Twitter
More under: Cybersquatting, Domain Names, Law
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8:47
.XXX to be approved today
» DomainNews
ICANN's general counsel decided to take into consideration the Internet extensions .XXX .According to Kieren McCarthy,the counsel read a statement in which they said that the .XXX extension will be approved today .
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8:45
Vermietung.de sells for 23,000 EUR
» DomainNews
Vermietung.de domain name was recently sold through Sedo for 23,000 EUR ,meaning $28,250 .
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8:44
VeriSign and SSL247 Enable SEGA Europe to Tell Gamers: 'Green Means Go'
» DomainNews
VeriSign, the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world, today announced that through its partnership with SSL247, the UK's leading SSL Certificate reseller, SEGA Europe, the UK-based arm of one of the world's largest video game publishers will be deploying VeriSign® Extended Validation (EV) Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protection.
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8:29
Chanel's Message On Fakes: We Take It Seriously and So Should You
» CircleIDChanel's warning to counterfeiters: "we are watching and we are taking action." That's the literal message you will see when visiting around 40 websites that used to sell counterfeit goods (such as mychanelshop.com) that now redirect to the Chanel-owned website chanelreplica.com. These domains were transferred to Chanel as a result of a favorable decision rendered in May 2010 against two counterfeiters. Chanel has since leveraged these past infringing domain names to send a clear message to fraudsters: that stopping counterfeits is a top priority and that it will take legal action when necessary. At the bottom of chanelreplica.com, Chanel provides links to examples of past judgments against online counterfeit operators, letting them know that it will follow through on its promise to aggressively defend its brand.
Chanel also takes the opportunity to warn current and would-be counterfeiters by posting a copy of a lawsuit in progress on the websites named in the lawsuit. The lawsuit against Liu Zhixian and other unidentified defendants filed on April 10, 2010, for example, is posted on 11 websites, including chanel2u.com. Chanel has provided updates on subsequent orders and injunctions on these sites to let fraudsters know that Chanel is indeed serious about identifying these individuals and making them accountable while simultaneously sending a signal to other counterfeiters not to hijack its brand.
On the consumer front, Chanel creatively uses the recovered domains that now point to chanelreplica.com to educate consumers on why buying fakes is harmful to society as a whole (i.e., by supporting criminal and terrorist activity) and what risks they take on themselves (i.e., receiving poor quality goods with no chance of a refund or repair services). As a result, any consumer who may have visited these sites in the past now knows without any uncertainty that the products were fake, and will maybe even rethink buying fakes in the future. Chanel also takes aim at warning consumers about the downside of buying fakes online at fakechanel.com.
While its fight against counterfeiters is not yet over, Chanel is taking an innovative approach of leveraging past infringing websites to fight the fight. What impact this will eventually have is still to be determined, but if all fake counterfeit sites contained similar messages, counterfeit buyers and sellers alike would likely think twice about engaging in this illegal trade.
Written by Mary Roach, Director of Product Marketing, MarkMonitor
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More under: Cybercrime, Cybersquatting, Domain Names, Law, Web
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Domain Parking Scammers Get Aggressive
» Domain Name WireAs parking companies get more sophisticated, scammers get creative.
Ask any domain name parking company what their number one nuisance is and they’ll say fraud. Click fraud is big, but it all starts with trying to get an account at the parking companies.
One large parking company told me it approves fewer than 1% of the applications it gets. They’re not trying to be selective; it’s just that 99% of the applicants are trying to set up accounts to perpetrate fraud.
It used to be that these scammers would just submit bogus applications with the hopes of slipping one by. Desperate ones would try to buy parking accounts from legitimate users. But as parking companies clamp down the scammers are getting more aggressive.
Consider the guy who set up an email account at Hotmail with my name as the email address, and then sent emails to a parking company “vouching” for a particular applicant in order to get the account approved. (The parking company smelled something fishy and called me to verify.)
But that’s small potatoes these days. One scam artist sent an email to a parking company stating they worked for a particular large portfolio holder. They asked for a teleconference to discuss using the parking service, and even got on the phone with the parking company. But the person didn’t work for the portfolio holder. They just wanted to try to get an account.
There also might be a security breach adding to the scammer’s arsenal. One of the checks a parking company runs is verifying the social security number or tax ID of the applicant. Someone has managed to get this information for at least one well known domainer, and is using it to apply for accounts.
What can the individual domainer do to help stomp out fraud? Not much. But if someone emails you asking for a referral to a parking company, don’t do it unless you know them. And if someone posts in a forum asking to buy a parking account, immediately report it to a moderator.
© DomainNameWire.com 2010.
Review and rate domain name parking companies at Parking Judge.
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3:54
Phish Hosted for Free
» Brand Protection BlogSince March 2010, and especially this month, the MarkMonitor Security Operations Center (SOC) has noticed a significant increase in the use of free web hosting services for phishing and malware attacks. Cybercriminals are using free hosting services to either host the phishing and malware sites themselves or redirect to fast-flux malicious sites.
Here is how this new attack method works: Emails with links, obfuscated by the use of HTML or a URL shortening service, direct victims to a free-hosted web page. In some cases, this page would be a phishing or malware site. In other cases, the landing page would have Javascript which would seamlessly redirect users to a malicious site hosted on a fast-flux botnet.
The free hosting-fast-flux combination is particularly interesting because it indicates cybercriminals have added another, front-end layer to their fraud infrastructure for greater stealth and resilience:
- Layer 1: Free-hosted webpages with Javascript redirectors
- Layer 2: Constantly changing compromised PCs that serve as proxy redirectors
- Layer 3: Phish or malware domains
The SOC believes free hosting services are becoming popular with cybercriminals because these services give cybercriminals unlimited free resources to launch their attacks and to protect their expensive fast-flux infrastructures.
In addition, cybercriminals are able to set up malicious sites on free hosting services much more easily than registering malicious sites with ISPs or registrars. Typically, cybercriminals would register their malicious sites using stolen credentials. With free hosting services, cybercriminals may now open accounts and set up their malicious sites by simply using email addresses created on free email services.
MarkMonitor’s SOC believes that this new development of free hosting combined with fast-flux, especially as seen this month, suggests the tell-tale signs that something on a larger scale may occur this summer. The emergence of free hosting front-ends to fast-flux botnets may indicate that cybercriminals have been beta-testing their new attack infrastructure in recent months before a general release in August, the historical high point of phishing each year. Stay tuned …
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2:40
Name Tip: Better SEO with WordPress Permalinks
» The Official Name.com Blog
We’ve seen quite a few blogs recently that are running WordPress and using the default setting for permalinks. It’s unfortunate that this is the default, because it really does nothing for you in the way of SEO. However, there’s a quick fix for this that should help your blog posts get a little more notice.If you log in to your WordPress blog and scroll down, you will see a “Settings” section on the left hand side. Clicking the arrow will drop down a menu and one of the options will be “Permalinks.” Clicking that will take you to the Permalinks page where you will see the different options you can choose.
The default looks something like http://blog.name.com/?p=167 and that doesn’t really tell readers or search engines anything about your post.
This can be easily changed on the Permalinks page by selecting either the Day or Month options, or even adding your own custom structure using the syntax that WordPress provides. You probably want to stay away from the Numeric option, as that won’t do much for your SEO either.
After saving your changes, your blog URL will look like http://blog.name.com/2010/06/name-tip-better-seo-with-wordpress-permalinks/, which is not only better for SEO, but now your readers have information like subject and date just by looking at your URL.
We hope that helps some of you out there that may not have even known this setting existed. Cheers and happy blogging!
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