2011 articles

The chair of the US Senate Commerce Committee, John Rockefeller, has joined the list of US institutions putting pressure on ICANN to limit its new gTLD program to a "pilot program".

In a letter sent to Commerce Secretary John Bryson and Assistant Commerce Secretary Larry Strickling - the two US government officials with most influence over ICANN - Rockefeller repeats many of the concerns that have been raised by others in the past month and highlights the same remedy - a limited rollout of the program.

"If [the program] proceeds as planned," he writes, "it will have adverse consequences for the millions of American consumers, companies, and non-profit organizations."

The following letter was sent on 28 December by the chair of the Senate Commerce Committee to the Department of Commerce and NTIA over the new gTLD program.

The letter follows a hearing by the Committee over the program held on 8 December, as well as number of other formal letters, including: one from two Congressmen, also to the DoC; a letter to ICANN from the Federal Trade Commission; and one from a majority of the members of the House's Commerce committee.

All ask for broadly the same response: a limited rollout of new Internet extensions.

United States Senate

Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation

December 28, 2011

To:

The Honorable John Bryson
Secretary, Department of Commerce
1401 Constitution Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20230

Reading "The 11 Biggest PR Disasters Of 2011" by Business Insider this week led me to reflect on similar foul-ups in the domain name industry.

We’re still quite a small industry (albeit one that will rapidly expand with new gTLDs next year), so you don’t get quite the range and variety as Netflix and its decision to alienate its entire customer base with one email, or Anthony Weiner’s political suicide thanks to snapshots of his, um, namesake posted unwittingly on Twitter.

But even so, 2011 has produced some DNS gems. Here is our top five…

5. PIR and the drunk leprechaun

When ICANN met in San Francisco in March, music night sponsor PIR decided the proximity of St Patrick’s Night was too good an opportunity to miss and knocked up a poster featuring an Irishman in good cheer to advertise the event.

Below are the recommendations of the Whois Review Team in December 2011. View the full report.

Chapter 8: Recommendations

1. Single WHOIS Policy

   ICANN's WHOIS policy is poorly defined and decentralized The ICANN Board should oversee the creation of a single WHOIS policy document, and reference it in subsequent versions of agreements with Contracted Parties. In doing so, ICANN should clearly document the current gTLD WHOIS policy as set out in the gTLD Registry and Registrar contracts and GNSO Consensus Policies and Procedure.

2. Policy review – WHOIS Data Reminder Policy

The New York Times has joined the long list of institutions urging ICANN to reconsider a full-scale rollout of new Internet extensions, arguing in an editorial earlier today for a "pilot program" to be considered instead.

In the piece, which mirrors one from the Washington Post a fortnight ago, the esteemed paper argues that "a plethora of new suffixes" will "cause confusion for consumers and enable malefactors to use the new arenas for deception". ICANN, it says, "needs to slow down and put in place better safeguards".

The editorial refers to the other concerns that have been aired this month. They include: the need for "defensive registrations" - something that has been pushed heavily for large corporations and was repeatedly aired during two Congressional hearings; and problems with the Whois - raised in a damning letter by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The following editorial was published in the New York Times on 26 December 2011. It follows a similar editorial in the Washington Post a week earlier.

Expanding Internet Domains

Come January, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers plans to allow businesses, nonprofits and others to apply for their own “top-level domain” with their own online suffix, like the familiar .com and .org suffixes that now rule the Internet.

Icann, the nonprofit that manages the Internet’s address system, says increasing the number of top-level domains will ease crowding and create opportunities for businesses to connect with consumers. For instance, Canon plans to buy .canon to put its Web sites in one spot and the American Bankers Association is reportedly considering .bank, where banks could offer secure online banking

ICANN has entered crisis talks over the new gTLD program following a month of heavy criticism and yet another letter from the US government asking it to delay things.

Following a barrage of criticism and a number of formal requests that the organization hold off on its 12 January launch date, we understand that ICANN's Board has started asking serious questions of its CEO and staff and has asked them to justify the decision to move ahead regardless of the increasing number of warnings.

The Board reportedly plans to hold a special meeting in the New Year, prior to the launch, to seek guarantees from the staff that the issues and concerns raised have been adequately dealt with and do not put the organization itself at risk. More details below.

To: The Honorable John D. Rockefeller, Chairman, Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee; The Honorable Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Ranking Member, Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee

Dear Chairman Rockefeller and Ranking Member Hutchinson:

In response to the December 8 hearing regarding new generic top-level domains (gTLDs), we write to register our concern with the mischaracterization of elements of the gTLD program, and to communicate our support for new gTLDs.

The organizations signing this letter believe the introduction of new gTLDs will be innovative and economically beneficial, that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has conducted an inclusive and well-handled review of the program, and that preparations for gTLD introduction are sufficient to ensure Internet security and stability and to protect rights holders.