ICANN 51 taking place in Los Angeles this week may not have its customary evening Gala, but it opened with rousing remarks by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker in the first-ever ICANN appearance of the head of the Cabinet agency from which it was born and which has exercised continuous oversight of its key IANA functions. The themes of …
ICA ADOPTS RESOLUTION CHANGING MEMBERSHIP STRUCTURE, ADDING NEW BOARD MEMBER FOR JUNIOR MEMBERSHIP CLASSES AND ESTABLISHING VOTING PROCEDURES
The attached resolution was unanimously adopted by the ICA board on October 3rd. The following email to ICA members accompanied the announcement of the resolution. Dear ICA Members, The board has adopted the attached resolution to implement the addition of a new board position and the changes to the membership levels that we announced previously. In summary, the resolution- 1. Creates a new board …
Undue Process: Nearly Five Thousand Domains Transferred Under Sealed Court Order
Noted domain investor, industry advisor, blogger, and ICA member Mike Berkens has alerted us to a very disturbing occurrence. Unfortunately for Mike, he has been directly impacted by it. According to an October 2nd blog post at The Domains, “As Many As 5K .Com’s Taken Away By Sealed Court Order By Verisign Including Some Of Mine”— Overnight I received a …
ICA Exploring Domain Theft Project to Counter a Growing Abuse
There has been a lot of domain industry press attention lately to domain thefts. We don’t know for sure if this problem is becoming more acute or is just being reported on more often. But, regardless of the level of activity, we know that there are inadequate recovery and punitive remedies available at present for domain owners who experience theft …
ICANN Staff provides Update on First Round of New gTLDs and the Path Forward to a Second Round
In late August the GNSO Council received an ICANN staff response to a Resolution on subsequent rounds of new gTLDs passed during its June meeting in London. At the time the response was issued only 373 gTLDs had been delegated out of the 1321 total applications being processed. So the first round of the program still has a long way …
ICANN’s Comment Period on Accountability Process Seeks Scope Limitations
Bowing to unprecedented community pressure in the form of a unanimous letter questioning its staff-developed Accountability Process, as well as a reconsideration request filed with the Board, on September 5th ICANN issued a notice titled “Public Comment Invited: Enhancing ICANN Accountability Process”. The notice opens a 21-day public comment period on that staff proposal. However, ICANN staff apparently cannot resist …
ICA Counsel To Co-Chair IGO/INGO Working Group
On September 4th ICANN’s GNSO Council confirmed the appointment of ICA Counsel Philip Corwin as Co-Chairman of the IGO-INGO Access to Curative Rights Protection Mechanisms Working Group. This WG will have to consider a broad array of issues that are relevant not only to its own work but to the broader upcoming review of the rights protection measures (RPMs) created …
ICA Tells ICANN: Withdraw Bylaws Proposal to Give Governments More Power
On September 3rd the ICA filed a comment letter with ICANN opposing a Bylaws amendment proposal to raise the threshold for Board rejection of Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) “advice” from a simple majority to a two-thirds vote. The GAC presently submits advice to ICANN based on “consensus”, which is general agreement without objection. But, in the wake of the U.S. …
ICA-Endorsed Session on ICANN Accountability Scheduled for September Third at IGF Istanbul
Although ICA is not in attendance at the Internet Governance Forum meeting currently taking place in Istanbul, Turkey an ICA-endorsed session on “Accountability in Multistakeholder Governance Regime ICANN” will be taking place on the morning of September 3rd. ICA was one of several host organizations that endorsed the proposal for this session, along with CGI.BR of Brazil, the Public Interest …
Stress Test: Reconsideration Request on Accountability Process Filed with ICANN Board
In a rapid follow-up to the unprecedented joint letter sent on August 26th by all members of the ICANN community questioning the proposed Accountability Process imposed by ICANN staff, three of the groups that signed that letter have now submitted a formal Reconsideration Request (RR) to the ICANN Board. The August 29th RR – submitted jointly by the Business Constituency …