The Internet Commerce Association and the Domain Name Association will be represented together at a Breakout Panel Session during the NamesCon domain industry conference slated to take place next week in Las Vegas. ICA Counsel Philip Corwin and DNA Executive Director Kurt Pritz will be the two speakers at “Your Voice in the New Marketplace: TheDNA.org and ICA — Promoting the adoption of domain names and being heard in Domain Name rules, policy, standards and governance” taking place at 11:05 – 11:50 am on Wednesday, January 15th in Room C at the Tropicana Hotel. We congratulate the NamesCon organizers for hosting a sold-out event that has reached full capacity of 450 attendees. And, after seven years as the sole trade association dedicated to DNS issues, we welcome the DNA to the fray – while we expect some overlap in membership, the two organizations are more complimentary than competitive although there may well be issues on which we can work cooperatively.
ICA marked its seventh anniversary in fall 2013 and has long been focused on protecting and enhancing the rights of domain name registrants. We’ve worked to improve the UDRP and assure that the additional rights protection mechanisms for new gTLDs preserve essential due process rights; have become a prominent voice within ICANN and its Business Constituency; worked in Washington against the Snowe bill and the PIPA/SOPA domain suspension proposals; and have attended to the tedious but important technical details of ICANN policy changes that affect registrant rights. Looking ahead to the rest of 2014, we’re gearing up to deal with the unpredictable but inevitable consequences of more than one thousand new gTLDs entering the marketplace – and to react to any legislative proposals to amend the Anticybersquatting Act in a way that would place domain owners at an unfair disadvantage.
Having attended the DNA’s launch event at the ICANN Buenos Aires meeting it’s clear that, while likewise dedicated to the domain name industry, it has a different focus. DNA seeks to represent those organizations involved in the provision, support and sale of domain names such as registry operators, registrars, and resellers – but views registrants as consumers of its members’ services, while professional registrants are the core of ICA’s membership. And, while DNA may seek to influence ICANN policies, it has no plans to lobby in Washington or anywhere else. What DNA does plan to focus on is product promotion advocacy of the use of domain names as the primary means for Internet.
We look forward to our session and hope that it assists NamesCon attendees in better understanding the separate roles and missions of the two industry trade associations.
Shortly after that panel discussion, ICA will be hosting a meet-up in room C from 12:40 – 2 pm so that current ICA members and those interested in learning more about our work can get together and network. We hope to see you there!