• Proposed ICANN Fees Generate Heat, But Not Price Hikes
  The group overseeing Internet domain registrations is proposing to sharply raise the fees it charges Internet registrars, drawing protests from both large and small domain sellers. The Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) wants to increase its budgeted revenue from $8.7 million to more than $16 million, with about 80 percent of that coming from registrars. ICANN's 2004-2005 budget (PDF) adds a new fee that will average about $19,200 per registrar, along with a 25-cent fee for each domain sold
  .... full story

05/27/2004

• Japan Registry Receives ICANN Approval
  Japanese domain registrar and reseller of Internet services Japan Registry (japanregistry.com) has received full registrar accreditation from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (icann.org), the company said on Thursday
  .... full story

• Rejected Domain Names
  In this edition we look at top-level domain suggestions rejected by ICANN, stupid Web pages and the most geeky 404 errors
  .... full story

05/21/2004

• Berners-Lee Against Sponsored TLDs
  Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, condemned the introduction of sponsored top-level domains (STLD) this week at the 13th annual international World Wide Web conference, according to reports
  .... full story

05/20/2004

• Berners-Lee Opposes .mobi (and Others Too)
  Tim Berners-Lee, supported by the W3C Technical Advisory Group, argues that new TLDs -- and especially .mobi -- should not be created
  .... full story

05/19/2004

• Fur flies in animal rights domain dispute
  The US Arbitration Forum has ruled that consumers are able to distinguish between a fur retailer and an anti-fur protest site. This rather common-sense ruling clears up a legal scuffle over ownership and content of www.neimancarcass.com
  .... full story
  
• Business miss out on domain names
  Obscure variants make searching for firms difficult, says survey
  .... full story

05/18/2004

• Domain Names tries another mail-out
  An internet registration business that was taken to court this year for misleading and deceptive conduct is again invoicing businesses for a service most did not realise they were getting.
  In a new mail-out, Domain Names Australia is seeking a $187 fee for renewal of email and web forwarding services that it claims it has been providing as part of the registration of internet domains
  .... full story

05/14/2004

• ID Theft Bills Progress on Hill
  The Fraudulent Online Identity Sanctions Act (H.R. 3754), to provide additional civil and criminal remedies for domain name fraud, was approved by the House Judiciary Cmte. on May 12, as was H.R. 1731, the Identity Theft Penalty Enhancement Act
  .... full story
  
• Jean-Jacques Damlamian, ICANN
  At a time when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is being challenged in court by its own constituents, a relative outsider has been tapped to lead the organization's 2004 Nominating Committee (NomCom)
  .... full story
  
• IE Domain returns to profit in 2003
  IE Domain Registry, the firm that distributes .ie internet domain names, made a profit of E480,874 in 2003, turning around a loss of E1.2m in the previous year
  .... full story

05/13/2004

• Dot FR is opening up this week
  The French NIC, which used to have one of the world’s most restrictive naming policies, is finally opening up
  .... full story
  
• VeriSign v. ICANN Over SiteFinder
  Verisign Inc. v. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers et al. (Central Dist. of Calif., Civil No. 04-1292). A hearing on ICANN's motion to dismiss VeriSign's complaint will be held on May 17
  .... full story
  
• ICANN Dispute Tests New Internet Services
  When the company under contract to run much of the Internet's core decided last fall to launch a new online search service, it saw an opportunity to help lost Web surfers find their way
  But critics saw it as a bald grab for dollars and worried that the Site Finder search system could cause Internet instability. The Internet's key oversight agency responded by pressuring the company, VeriSign Inc., to pull it
  .... full story
  
• COMPANIES are being warned about demands to renew their Internet domain name
  Some local businesses have received bogus invoices from an organisation called EU Registry Services in Cambridge demanding a fee of £60 to renew the domain name or risk it being lost
  .... full story

05/11/2004

• FOIA Request for ICANN's Strategic Plan
  The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness (CRE) has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Telecommunication and Information Administration (NTIA) for the Strategic Plan prepared by ICANN pursuant to their MOU with NTIA
  .... full story
  
• Dot-eu domain name scramble timetable unveiled
  There will be three stages in the registration process for the new European dot-eu domain names, it has been announced; member states, followed by trademark holders, will get their pick of URLs. The domain name free-for-all will kick off in earnest in April 2005
  .... full story

05/09/2004

• Whois: Watch out for that "White List"
  ICANN's revision of its Whois policy is reaching a critical phase. After numerous deadline extensions, the three task forces are scheduled to submit their final reports May 28
  .... full story

05/07/2004

• Domains Are Not Forever
  How to Lose Your Domain Name Without Even Trying
  I recently heard a story about a young woman (we'll call her Sheila) who, on visiting the Web site she had set up for her deceased boyfriend — a victim of the 9/11 attacks — discovered that the domain had been taken over by a porn site. Anguished and appalled, she set out to recover the domain and return the site to its original, inoffensive, and informational state
  The person who did this awful thing is a jerk (we'll refer to him as Jerko). But he's also well within his legal rights. Sheila made a fundamental and, unfortunately, quite common mistake with her domain: She let the registration lapse
  .... full story
  
• Africa set to take control of own domain names
  The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) should offer more support to the African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) -- the organisation that was recently set up to distribute and administer domain names on the African continent. This is the view of Dr Tarek Mohamed Kamal, a senior adviser to the Egyptian ministry of communications, who is also Egypt's representative on AfriNIC
  .... full story
  
• Civil society groups protest U.S. domain registrant info bill
  Five civil society groups have issued a joint letter expressing concern over a proposal (being considered by a committee of the United States House of Representatives) that would essentially increase penalties for knowingly providing incorrect information when registering a domain name, if that person is found to have violated a copyright or trademark
  .... full story

05/06/2004

• Independent Evaluators of sTLD proposals
  The evaluation of sTLD applications will be based upon submitted information concerning the Registry Operator's proposed technical solution. The application should demonstrate that the applicant has carefully analyzed the technical requirements of registry operation
  .... full story
  
• Commission publishes rules concerning ‘.eu’ domain name
  The European Commission has published the public policy rules concerning the implementation and functions of the ".eu" top level domain in the EU Official Journal.
  The ".eu" domain is intended to provide a European internet identity for companies and citizens, comparable to ".org" or ".com". This regulation is a further step towards the commercial availability of ".eu" names. It sets out public policy rules for a wide range of issues including eligibility, requests for domain name registration, accreditation of registrars, provisions for languages, reservation of geographical and geopolitical names, registration of names corresponding to prior rights, and a dispute resolution procedure
  .... full story
  
• Dot-coms a hot domain
  Dot-coms are back.
  Yahoo, EBay and other Internet firms have been some of the strongest-performing Bay Area companies during the past year, recording impressive gains in both revenue and market value
  .... full story
  
• IP Claims and Dispute Resolution Policy Target Both Infringement Prevention and Protection
  INTA Annual Meeting -- The PW Registry Corporation (http://www.pwregistry.pw) today announced services for trademark owners to police and protect their trademarks in the PW top-level domain, planned for general availability in the summer of 2004. Short for "Personal Web," the PW domain is the Internet's only top-level domain extension devoted to individuals and "Communities of Shared Interests."
  .... full story

05/03/2004

• Google Domain Names Gobbled Up
  Domain names including the word “google” have been gobbled up left and right lately by online entreprenuers, search engine marketing types, and those looking to maybe turn a buck, or a joke, on the Google IPO and hype. Gary Price of ResourceShelf put together this interesting list of such google-esque domain names
  .... full story
  
• Dot-coms a hot domain
  Dot-coms are back.
  Yahoo, EBay and other Internet firms have been some of the strongest-performing Bay Area companies during the past year, recording impressive gains in both revenue and market value
  .... full story
  
• IP Claims and Dispute Resolution Policy Target Both Infringement Prevention and Protection
  INTA Annual Meeting -- The PW Registry Corporation (http://www.pwregistry.pw) today announced services for trademark owners to police and protect their trademarks in the PW top-level domain, planned for general availability in the summer of 2004. Short for "Personal Web," the PW domain is the Internet's only top-level domain extension devoted to individuals and "Communities of Shared Interests."
  .... full story