Following up on its critical statement delivered to the ICANN Board at the recent Hyderabad public meeting, ICA submitted a Thanksgiving Day comment letter decrying the insertion of URS into the .XXX Registry Agreement (RA) via contract negotiation and declaring— “GDD staff should demonstrate their clear commitment to ICANN’s bottom-up policymaking process by ceasing and desisting from seeking top-down imposition …
ICA on the Record at ICANN 57 Hyderabad
At the recent ICANN 57 meeting held in Hyderabad, India a full Public Forum session was held on Tuesday, November 8th. Utilizing the open mike, ICA Counsel Philip Corwin addressed the ICANN Board regarding the recent announcement that ICM Registry had agreed to adopt the new gTLD rights protection mechanism (RPM) of Uniform rapid Suspension (URS) at the .xxx adult …
Dirty Deed: URS Coming to .XXX
ICANN Global Domain Division (GDD) staff are at it again, engaging in top down policy decision-making through contract negotiations with older registries that pre-date the new gTLD program. The latest example is the announcement of a “Proposed Amendment to .XXX Registry Agreement to Transition to New Fee Structure and to Adopt Additional Safeguards” that would provide the adult content gTLD …
NTIA Approves .Com RA Extension
Verisign has just filed a Form 8-K with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealing that the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has approved the extension of the .Com registry Agreement through November 30, 2024. We previously reported that, on September 15th, ICANN’s Board approved the .Com RA extension’ and simultaneously approved an extension of the existing $7.85 …
In Extending .Com RA, ICANN Board also Extended Price Freeze Through 2024
We have previously reported that, at is September 15th meeting, ICANN’s Board approved the proposed extension of the .Com registry Agreement (RA). What we did not know at the time was that the Board simultaneously approved an extension of the existing $7.85 ceiling on .Com wholesale prices through 2024. That additional information recently became available when ICANN published its …
ICANN Board Approves .Com RA Extension
ICANN has just released the Approved Board Resolutions from its meeting of Thursday, September 15th, and one of its major actions was to approve the proposed extension of the .Com registry Agreement (RA) through November 2024. The complete text of the Resolution and the rationale for its adoption can be found at the end of this post. Wholesale prices of …
.Com RA Extension on ICANN Board’s 9/15 Agenda
The “.COM Registry Agreement Amendment” is on the Main Agenda for this Thursday’s Regular Meeting of the ICANN Board. The proposed extension of the RA was announced and put out for public comment on June 30th. The public comment period closed on August 12th and ICANN staff’s Report of Public Comments was due on September 15th, coincident with the …
DOJ to Cruz: .Com Price Freeze can be Extended to 2024
On August 31st the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent a response to the August 12th letter from Senator Ted Cruz and some Congressional colleagues to the head of the Antitrust Division. In that letter Cruz et al asserted that if the pending extension of the .Com registry Agreement (RA) was granted in combination with the consummation of the IANA transition, …
Court of Appeals Avoids “Doomsday Effect” in Iran ccTLD Decision
Earlier today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit issued its decision in Weinstein vs. Iran, a case in which families of terror victims sought to have ICANN turn over control of Iran’s .IR ccTLD to plaintiffs. In a unanimous decision the three judge panel stated, “On ICANN’s motion, the district court quashed the writs, finding the data …
TMCH Review Recommends Status Quo
On July 25th ICANN announced the publication of the Draft Report of the Independent Review of the Trademark Clearinghouse (TMCH). This study was coordinated for ICANN by the Analysis Group, in conjunction with researchers from the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford as well the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. The Report’s Executive Summary provides a background on its …