Guest post by Greg Thomas The shot clock is ticking towards expiration of the NTIA-Verisign Cooperative Agreement — yet stakeholders are AWOL on completing accountability safeguards at root of the Internet. It is remarkable — for all the wrong reasons — that only two months remain before the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) must make a fateful decision on how it will address its’ long-standing …
ICA to NTIA: 1. Lower .com Prices; 2. Do Something About GDPR and Whois
On July 17, 2018, the Internet Commerce Association (ICA) submitted its feedback to the United States’ Department of Commerce in connection with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Notice of Inquiry on International Internet Policy Priorities. The message was clear. Two major issues need immediate attention; 1. Root Zone Management and ICANN’s Inherent Conflict of Interest with the Verisign monopoly …
ICA Member Profile: Slade Michalec
Slade got his start in internet marketing, working on the affiliate marketing side of things where focus was on website optimization and user retention/recovery. After hearing Hobi speak of the domain industry for several years, Slade became more fascinated with domains. He eventually made the career jump and began brokering premium domain names at Domain Holdings. Since the beginning to …
ICA Member Profile: Hobi Michalec
Hobi Michalec graduated college at FAU with a Bachelor’s in Business Management and a focus on entrepreneurship. He discovered domaining by chance after meeting John Ferber and joining Domain Holdings for a number of years. He left the company after its acquisition to help Co-found Lumis.
ICA Letter to ICANN on Proposed Release for Registration of O .COM
On June 20th, the ICA has submitted a letter to ICANN stating its concern over the proposed approach on the Proposed Amendment to implement the request from Verisign to release the single letter domain, O.com. The letter can be view here: ICA Comment Re O.com Release Proposal – June 20 2018
A Re-Examination of the Defense of Laches After 18 Years of the UDRP
Can the UDRP be used to take away a Domain Name after 20 years? Complainants can certainly try, as we recently saw with the Queen.com case. Nevertheless, after 20 years of the UDRP it is high time for panelists to start seriously considering how severe delays in bringing a UDRP Complaint should no longer be tolerated. Many of our members have owned …
ICA Letter to ICANN Regarding the release of single-character domain for .COM
In its letter sent to ICANN before the Holidays, the ICA is asking for confirmation of a public comment period for Verisign RSEP (Registry Service Evaluation Process) for .com single character domain. The letter can be view here: Letter to ICANN re Release of single-character domain for .COM – December 22, 2017
ICA at MERGE!
The ICA is excited to be participating in THE Domain Conference, one of the sub-events at MERGE!, this October 14-18th in Orlando, Florida. The ICA will host a 45-minute session presenting an overview of our work with plenty of time for an audience Q&A. MERGE! conference is organized by industry veterans and ICA members Jothan Frakes and Howard Neu along …
Report on ICANN 59 Johannesburg
By Philip S. Corwin, ICA Counsel The 59th ICANN meeting was held in Johannesburg, South Africa from June 25th to 29th. Under ICANN’s new meeting schedule this mid-year gathering is the somewhat shorter “B” session devoted to intensive policy development work. This report details my engagement as ICA Counsel on your behalf and current and expected benefits to ICA members. …
URS is MIA in .Net Renewal RA
The Proposed Renewal of the .Net Registry Agreement (RA) was published for public comment by ICANN on April 20th. The biggest surprise about the proposed contract is how little it differs from the current one between ICANN and Verisign. Conspicuously absent from the agreement is the new gTLD rights protection mechanism (RPM) of Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS). For the past …