The .TRAVEL registry is currently deciding a process for releasing the domain names that conform to the proposal submitted to ICANN with a likely release in September 2010.

Registrars and registrants will have ample opportunity to review the terms of the program before the first names are available for registration.

There will also be two new policy changes to go into effect on 20 September 2010 following a 30-day notice period.

The first of these changes adds an industry sector to the list of those travel industry participants who are eligible to register a .travel domain name. This sector is “Creators and providers of travel and tourism products, services and content” This sector definition makes it easier to determine eligibility since it does not require that an applicant fit within named types, but rather identifies them by their travel-related activities.

The second change allows the Registry to provide incentives for use of .TRAVEL domain names. The Registry has not put in place a program of incentives, but while such a program is developed the Registry has suspended the requirement that .travel domain names must be used within 12 months of registration.

During a meeting of ICANN’s vertical integration working group on 30 August Nokia working group representative Tero Mustala said, “our company is considering the possibilities to apply for a new gTLD” according to the report.

To read the Domain Incite report in full, see:
domainincite.com/nokia-considers-new-tld-application/

Olive writes that “Public Comment periods are vital in satisfying ICANN’s goal to be a bottom-up multi-stakeholder policy making body and to provide openness and transparency in its policy development processes.”

“An ICANN policy development process takes time to gather all viewpoints. Imagine how long it would take ICANN to address your particular policy issue if there were an arbitrary limit. If the ICANN community only handles seven or ten issues at once, that means all other issues remain parked indefinitely, probably for months.” Olive notes that there have been notable achievements in 2010, and if it was not for having so many policies being considered, issues “such as IDNs and DNSSEC going into the root might still be waiting to happen”.

To read the full posting by David Olive from ICANN on the ICANN Blog, see:
blog.icann.org/2010/08/is-icann-handling-too-many-policy-issues/

Prior to general availability, ISOC-IL is launching a Sunrise process. There will be four phases in the lead up to making Hebrew .IL domain names available to the general public. The dates for the different phases are:
Phase 1: 30 August 2010 - 30 October 2010.
Phase 2: 31 October 2010 - 20 November 2010.
Phase 3: 21 November - 4 December 2010.
Phase 4: Public Registration.

The Sunrise is intended for owners of certain Israeli trademarks, and for incorporated legal entities, such as companies and associations, whose registration is officially handled by the State of Israel. The Sunrise allows such entities to secure the registration of well-defined Domain Names which reflect their trademarks or registered names.

This process for making .IL domain names in Hebrew comes about as ISOC-IL is in the process of consulting on a Top Level Domain in Hebrew. However when the Hebrew TLD is introduced, registrants with existing .IL domain names will automatically get their domain name in the Hebrew TLD with no additional cost.

For more information on the introduction of Hebrew .IL domain names and the introduction of a Hebrew internationalised top level domain, see:
www.isoc.org.il/domains/idn_eng/

To register your .IL domain name, check out Europe Registry here.

The request was sent by White House Senior Adviser for Intellectual Property Enforcement Andrew J. Klein reports Krebs on Security, and “urges select recipients to attend a meeting on Sept. 29 with senior White House and cabinet officials, including Victoria Espinel, the Obama administration’s intellectual property enforcement coordinator.”

“According to the World Health Organization, approximately 8 percent of the bulk drugs imported into the United States are counterfeit, unapproved, or substandard, and 10 percent of global pharmaceutical commerce — or $21 billion — involves counterfeit drugs,” says the Krebs on Security report with more than 45,000 rogue online pharmacies.

To read the Krebs on Security report in full, see:
krebsonsecurity.com/2010/08/white-house-calls-meeting-on-rogue-online-pharmacies/

ICANN’s Chief gTLD Registry Liaison, Craig Schwartz, delivered a great presentation on the progress being made behind the scenes at ICANN and provided the attendees with an insight into a couple of key changes that are likely to be seen in the Final Applicant Guidebook. As many of our readers would be aware, we have been waiting in anticipation for the new gTLD Final Applicant Guidebook to be approved at a previously unconfirmed meeting of the ICANN Board. The date for is meeting was today announced as 23rd-24th September.

Like many others in the industry, we’ll be actively watching for the outcomes of this Board retreat where the focus will be on the new gTLD program’s remaining unresolved issues. In particular, the Board’s willingness to address the complicated Vertical Integration topic (given the inability of the VI Working Group to reach consensus) will be of interest to the many applicants likely to be affected by the outcome.

On another interesting note, one very important topic that has been flying under the radar is Registry Transition, namely the current requirement for new gTLD applicants to provide both a backup Registry Services organisation and a financial instrument sufficient to guarantee a minimum of three years of Registry operations in the event of the TLD owner being unable to operate it.

Obtaining a backup Registry Services provider is not particularly difficult. However, for many potential applicants (in particular smaller community-based applicants) the requirement to obtain a letter of credit from a financial organisation is an enormous burden and a significant additional cost.

Acknowledging this today and noting that the protection of the Registrant is paramount to this process, Schwartz said that ICANN had invested significant time and will further expand the recent concept of Emergency Backend Registry Operator (and yet another acronym, EBERO) whereby qualified applicants (i.e. Existing Registry Operators) could tender to ICANN to provide ‘temporary’ Registry Services in the event of critical failure of the Registry Operator to operate the gTLD.

This is a great initiative and should be welcomed by the community for two key reasons:
a) It has the potential to remove the requirement to name a pre-organised backup Registry Service.
b) It has the potential to reduce the level of financial guarantee to ICANN from applicants.

Other interesting points worthy of note from yesterday’s session:

• Communications Plan – This is being worked on by ICANN currently but won’t be rolled out until the Final Applicant Guidebook is approved, almost guaranteeing that the earliest date for applications will be March or April 2011
• DAGv4 Summary of Analysis – This won’t be released to the public until after the Board’s retreat, which is a surprise given that the public comment finished quite some time ago
• IDN ccTLD Fast Track – ICANN have 33 applicants, representing 22 languages, currently under review as this program continues to drive the expansion of the internet provide across the globe.

All in all, these small yet important pieces of information represent yet another positive step forward in the new gTLD process. I for one can’t wait to see what the next few months will bring.

Click here to see the presentations from the Tokyo meeting as provided by ICANN.

This posting by Tony Kirsch, Senior Manager - International Business Development at AusRegistry International, was sourced from:
www.ausregistry.com/blog/?p=536

On the ICANN Blog, Craig Schwartz writes that “ICANN has consulted with an open drafting consultation group on several issues relating to implementation of the new gTLD program. Earlier this year the “Temporary Drafting Group” group met twice to discuss the Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Process and the process for future amendments to the registry agreement for new gTLDs.

“ICANN will convene a third consultation on 8 September 2010 at 18:30 UTC (timeanddate.com/s/1tre) to review and discuss community comments (forum.icann.org/lists/4gtld-base/) submitted on draft version 4 of the proposed new gTLD registry agreement (icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-agreement-specs-clean-28may10-en.pdf).

“If you would like to participate, please submit your name to tdg-legal@icann.org, and we will provide you with call information when it is available.”

The above information was sourced from the ICANN Blog here.

The domain names up for grabs are:

• 3DProjector.com.au
• AVShop.com.au
• BackupPower.com.au
• Blackberry.net.au
• Boards.com.au
• Cables.com.au
• Camerapro.com.au
• Chargers.com.au
• CloudNetworking.com.au
• DataRecoverySoftware.com.au
• DigiCopy.com.au
• DigitalCams.com.au
• DownloadIt.com.au
• ElectricalParts.com.au
• Gadgetry.com.au
• GamersNetwork.com.au
• GamesNetwork.com.au
• Gizmos.net.au
• GlobalPositioning.com.au
• GPSPro.com.au
• Groups.com.au
• HandHeld.com.au
• HtmlCodes.com.au
• MobileBackup.com.au
• Mouse.net.au
• MP3Players.com.au
• MP3Playerstore.com.au
• Network.com.au
• NetworkStore.com.au
• NewLaptop.com.au
• Notebook.com.au
• NotebooksOnline.com.au
• PatchPanels.com.au
• PCDealer.com.au
• Printer.com.au
• Printers.com.au
• PrinterShop.com.au
• ProjectorSales.com.au
• Repair.com.au
• Repairs.com.au
• Restores.com.au
• Router.com.au
• SalePoint.com.au
• Scanner.com.au
• Screens.com.au
• SecureDigitalCards.com.au
• SecurityCams.com.au
• Semiconductor.com.au
• Server.com.au
• Servers.com.au
• SolarPowerChoices.com.au
• SolarTiles.com.au
• TechNews.com.au
• Telecommuters.com.au
• VideoCams.com.au
• Wallpaper.com.au
• WebsiteSoftware.com.au
• WiMAX.com.au
• Workstation.com.au

To bid on these domain names visit the Netfleet website and login with your Netfleet username and password, enter your maximum bid for any domain names you choose and click submit. The colour coded legend on the right will indicate how successful your bid was, showing either red, or green, with a full explanation of why (you were outbid, you are winning etc).

Netfleet have incorporated maximum bidding, or proxy bidding in to the platform. This means every bid you enter should be your maximum, and the system will automatically bid on your behalf, only ever $1 higher than the previous bid. For example, if you enter a bid of $200 for a domain, and another users subsequently bids $150, the system will automatically bid you up to $151, meaning you would still be winning the auction.

Bidding is underway right now, closing at Fri, 27th Aug 2010 15:00:00 AEST, so to secure your chance of acquiring one of these premium .au domain names, check out our Domain Aftermarket Auctions right now:
www.netfleet.com.au/index.php?a=auctions

Ms Raad will be replaced by Maarten Botterman, current chairman of the board, as an interim CEO while PIR seeks a full time replacement.

Under Ms. Raad’s leadership, PIR’s .ORG base grew by 42 per cent, from 5.5 million to over 8.5 million registrations of .ORG domains. As a result of that growth, .ORG now also leads the industry in terms of the numbers of users that retain .ORG domains after the first and subsequent years. Moreover, during Ms. Raad’s tenure, PIR pioneered efforts in internet security, such as PIR’s launch of DNSSEC.ORG and initiated and led industry collaboration efforts such as the DNSSEC Coalition and Registry Infrastructure Security Group to make the domain name space a safer and more secure place.

“I have been fortunate to work with an extraordinary team and lead PIR through a period of change to tremendous achievement. While I remain personally committed to .ORG and its core mission, the time has come for me to seek new challenges and opportunities in the private sector,” said Alexa Raad.

The board expressed its gratitude for the work of Ms Raad, with the Chairman of the board expressing his gratitude for her work and achievements.

“We are grateful to Ms. Raad for all she achieved with her team over the years, renovating and growing the company from a young start-up to leading in the industry. She was the right candidate to provide a positive and focused leadership, which served PIR well. We wish her well in her future endeavors,” said Maarten Botterman, Chairman of the Board.

About Interim CEO

Maarten Botterman is an expert in Information Society policy issues with extensive international experience, with emphasis on the impact of technology on society and governance issues, and global information security and privacy issues. He has been on the PIR Board since January 1, 2008 and is actively involved in Internet governance development. He is founder of GNKS Consult, and has an advanced degree in Business Economics.

To register your .ORG domain name, check out EuroDNS here.
To register your .ORG domain name, check out America Registry here.

And with 4G (long term evolution - LTE) and WiMAX devices with dedicated internet access, the demand for IP addresses will only increase, thus necessitating the adoption of IPv6 even sooner, William Schmidlapp, Verizon Business’s product manager for Internet dedicated access services, told Network World.

“If every phone in China becomes a smartphone, then every phone will need an IP address,” Waliur Rahman, Verizon’s technical manager for IPv6 services, told Network World. “So you’re going to have to include IPv6 as part of your network architecture.”

To read this Network World report in full, see:
www.networkworld.com/news/2010/082410-verizon-ipv6.html

Registrants in Germany, Poland and Lithuania were the ones most likely to use a national registrar.

In the European Union, registrars in Cyprus, Denmark and Luxembourg were the ones with the largest share of their business originating from outside the country. Reciprocal cross-border registrant-registrar pairings (meaning that many registrants from “country x” chose a registrar in “country y” and vice-versa) were noted in the cases of Belgium/France, Germany/Austria, Germany/Denmark, The Netherlands/Belgium, Germany/United Kingdom, Germany/France and Denmark/Sweden.

As for registrars based outside of the European Union, Indian registrars held 60% of the Bulgarian .EU registration market, while registrars in the US held 34% of the Portuguese market.

To register your .EU domain name, check out Europe Registry here.

The .XXX sTLD has been kicking around since 2004 when ICM submitted an application in response to an ICANN Request for Proposals to create new sTLD registries. A first proposed registry agreement for .XXX was posted on 16 April 2006. In May 2006, the Board voted not to approve the agreement as proposed, and two revisions to the proposed registry agreement were posted for public comment in January and February of 2007.

On 30 March 2007, the Board rejected the proposed agreement. After ICM sought an independent review of the Board’s denial of ICM’s application for the .XXX sTLD, the Independent Review Panel issued a declaration. On 25 June 2010, the Board determined to accept and act in accordance with some of the Panel’s findings and directed ICANN staff to conduct expedited due diligence of ICM and to proceed into draft contract negotiations with ICM. On 5 August 2010, the Board directed staff, upon receipt of ICM’s application documentation, to post ICM’s supporting documents and proposed registry agreement for public comment for a period of no less than 30 days.

Some of the major changes between the 2007 versions and the current proposed versions are:

• The agreement is revised to reflect changes to address DNSSEC handling and current technical specifications, as well as links to current ICANN processes
• The agreement is revised to be consistent with most sTLD agreements in the renewal terms
• The termination, assignment and subcontracting provisions have been revised and clarified
• Modifications to further define the sTLD community and to provide the requirements of ICM in developing and implementing policy for the TLD through IFFOR, consistent with the ICM/IFFOR Sponsoring Organization Agreement and the sTLD charter.
• It is almost certain that there will be comments submitted opposing .XXX from the adult industry that has long opposed the sTLD’s introduction.

One such organisation that has opposed the .XXX sTLD in the past is the Free Speech Coalition. They have previously said that the proposal is “not of the industry and that the proposal does not have the community’s support” in a letter to ICANN.

Another to oppose the .XXX sTLD has been Fiona Patten, CEO of the Eros Association, Australia’s national adult retail and entertainment association, who is also vehemently opposed to the .XXX proposal.

“I can see no positive outcome from the introduction of .xxx,” Patten told DomainPulse.com in April, 2010. She also said she believes nothing has changed since the ICANN meeting in Wellington in March 2006 where the Government Advisory Committee, where governments give advice to ICANN, opposed the approval of .XXX. This included the Australian government who Patten says has indicated they are still opposed to the introduction of .XXX.

Patten also says it is her “understanding of the TLD process [that] industry support is a fundamental requisite and ICM does not have that.”

“In the past the arguments for a TLD such as .XXX was that it would prevent child pornography and stop children from accessing adult material,” Patten wrote in a recent blog posting.

“It will do neither. There will still be plenty of adult material on the .com domain and frankly child pornographers are criminals and they will not be concerned about NOT using a .XXX domain.

“I agree we need new domain names due to the enormous of the WWW but why not a .KIDS or other names that could create on line walled playgrounds for children?”

The first six months of 2010 saw registrations increase 7.6 per cent, more than double the increase of the first half of 2009, according to The Dashboard.

Other highlights of the latest edition of The Dashboard are:

• ORG realised a 16.5 per cent growth in the first half of 2010 for New Creates, staying on par with results posted from .COM and .NET
• 77.1 per cent of organizations renewed .ORG domains for one to three years - an increase of four per cent over 2009
• a .ORG content analysis showed that healthcare and education related domains had the most significant growth for 2010, increasing six per cent and 13.6 per cent respectively since 2009
• the US and European Union continue to represent the regions with the most significant .ORG registrations, though China grew from two per cent to four percent, and the Netherlands grew one per cent to three per cent in 2010.

“The staggering growth of .ORG is proof that we’re successfully expanding our influence across a wide array of registered businesses, for-profit companies and special interests while also continuing to serve the greater non-profit community,” said Alexa Raad, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry.

“With our overall number now reaching over 8.5 million, it only further illustrates the continued appeal of a .ORG address and how our domain is viewed as a trusted and secure source both domestically and internationally.”

Complementing .ORG’s notable growth thus far in 2010 was the announcement that .ORG is now offering full DNSSEC deployment. On June 23, 2010, during ICANN 38 Brussels, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry announced that it has taken the final step to become the first gTLD to offer full deployment of Domain Name System Security Extensions—otherwise known as DNSSEC.

To download the latest edition of The Dashboard, see pir.org/pdf/dashboard_1H_2010.pdf.

To register your .ORG domain name, check out America Registry here.

The article looks at:

• ICANN meeting participation: the ICA participated in the Kenya meeting remotely due to security concerns raising the issue of “the illicit attempt of the Czech Arbitration Court (CAC) to amend its supplemental UDRP rules to offer a fast track process that deprived registrants of essential due process rights” while in Brussels the ICA raised concerns regarding rights protections for new gTLDs, UDRP reform and issues around IP violations
• Comments to ICANN on registration abuse policies, Uniform Rapid Suspension, accountability and transparency, fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook, improvements to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement and the inter-Registrar Transfer Policy
• Keeping an eye on legislative changes in the US.

To read the full article by Philip Corwin, see:
domainnamewire.com/2010/08/23/catching-up-with-the-internet-commerce-association/