• U.S. to retain control of Internet domain names
  The Bush administration announced Thursday that the U.S. government will not hand over control of the Internet to any other organization, a surprise move that could presage an international flap
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06/27/2005

• NonCommercial Domain Name Trademark Use OK
  The Ninth Circuit has held that the use of a business owner's trademark as the domain name of a noncommercial website — the subject of which is consumer commentary about the products and services represented by the mark — does not constitute infringement under the Lanham Act. Bosley Med. Inst. v. Kremer, No. 04-55962 (9th Cir. April 04, 2005) To read the full text of this opinion,
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06/26/2005

• Pick dot-com first for new domain name
  Choosing a domain extension is a very important aspect of picking the right name for your online presence.
  As you may have guessed, if you can get a .com version of your business name, that should be your first choice. It is well branded and if a visitor doesn't remember your Web site extension, they are more than likely to try the .com first.
  With more than 38 million .com domain names, it is by far the most popular extension on the Internet. In comparison, .net has 5.8 million, .org has 3.6 million, .info has 3.5 million, .biz has 1.1 million, and .us has 0.8 million names.
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• Icann stakes out domain for red-light district
  The domain name extension "xxx" has been approved by the California-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), the organisation responsible for approving decisions about domain extensions
  .... full story

06/24/2005

• Saint-Exupery estate wins 'cybersquatting' case
  The literary estate of French author Antoine de Saint-Exupery on Friday won a cybersquatting case to evict a Virgin Islands operator whose Web Site sells memorabilia linked to the creator of "The Little Prince."
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• What Price Dot EU?
  The European Commission is being quizzed over the costs of rolling out its new .eu domain for all institution websites and emails from 2006
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06/21/2005

• BDC Capital, Inc.'s BDC Partners Inc. Subsidiary Acquires Over 23,000 School- Related Web Domains
  today announced that BDC Partners, its wholly owned subsidiary, has completed the acquisition of more than 23,000 high school and college web domain names. It is believed to be one of the most comprehensive acquisitions of a single category of domain names in e-commerce history
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• Web challenge to English supremacy
  The dominance of English on the internet is being challenged by the UK organisation that maintains British website addresses, in a move designed to reflect the country's multi-cultural mix
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• Domain-name body going ahead
  A challenge to the legitimacy of Britain's internet address registry, Nominet, appears unlikely to halt moves to establish a New Zealand domain name dispute-resolution process based on the Nominet model
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06/20/2005

• International Domain Names on the way from Nominet
  Nominet is inviting feedback on its IDN consultation paper which can be found at to guage views and opinions on IDNs and the impact they could have on business and society in the UK
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• Germans come up with longest domain name
  The monicker is a quote from German literary genius Friedrich Schiller. The 200th anniversary of his death is being marked this year. The domain name is for the website operated by the German Language Society
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06/16/2005

• Google Site Ranking - The Secrets Out
  How many years did you register your domain name for?
  If it's only one then that's a point against you in Googles eyes
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• Secrets to detecting spammer sites
  One red flag is a one-year domain name registration, which is common for spammers for whom temporary locations are helpful to avoid detection
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• iTunes UK domain dispute heads to High Court
  Nominet UK was this morning served with papers relating to an application for Judicial Review in the High Court of the regulators decision concerning ownership of the iTunes.co.uk domain
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06/15/2005

• The implications of new Top Level Domains ' .xxx' and '.kids.us'
  Because sites within .kids.us cannot link to sites outside of this TLD, and because currently there is so little content within this TLD, there has not been much incentive for others to come rushing in.
  What about the .xxx TLD? Domain names within this TLD may sell for as much as $60 annually, which create a cost disincentive. But the rubber really hits the road here if the .xxx concept moves from voluntary to government-ordered
  .... full story

06/13/2005

• ICANN Nominating Committee Extends Deadline for Submissions to 20 July 2005
  The 2005 Nominating Committee began its work in March of this year and is actively seeking qualified candidates for the following key positions within ICANN
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06/12/2005

• Brazil proposes sweeping Internet Governance reforms
  an official proposal from the government of Brazil was released by Brazilian WGIG member Carlos Afonso. A key feature of the proposal is the creation of a Global Internet Governance Coordination Forum that is "autonomous and independent, affiliated to the UN and based on an international treaty which guarantees the required legitimacy, and established in conformity with the principles of multilaterality, democracy, transparency, and multi-interests
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• The World's Longest Domain Name
  

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06/10/2005

• US Government Uses GAC to Combat Privacy Push in WHOIS
  At the Luxembourg ICANN meeting, the US Government is organizing a 4-hour session of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) on how public display of Whois data supports "combating illegal activities on the Internet." Perhaps sensing that time is running out on unrestricted access to Whois data, the US GAC representative and US-based business/IPR interests have organized the meeting to propagandize the idea that compulsory, public display of domain name registration data and intrusive measures to enforce the accuracy of the data should be retained. The meeting is not open to the public and contains no representation of privacy or civil liberties perspectives
  .... full story

06/09/2005

• A Plan for when Changing your Domain Name
  Whether you're launching a new site design, changing your directory structure, or - gasp - changing your domain name, your site traffic and search engine rankings will, in one way or other, be affected
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• VeriSign wins renewal of .net contract
  A detailed walk-through of the selection process is available in a new report from ICANN. But it reads like bureaucratic boilerplate (probably designed to insulate ICANN from any possible lawsuit from the losing companies) and the bottom line is that VeriSign scored the best on a checklist of capabilities such as security and reliability
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• VeriSign given control of .net until 2011
  The Board handed back control of the registry on Tuesday at the third special meeting in a month called to sort out what has become a highly controversial issue.
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• kids.us Playground Nearly Deserted
  Two years after the USG mandated childsafe second level domain kids.us opened for business, it hosts, one can hardly say boasts, a scant 21 live websites
  .... full story

06/08/2005

• ICANN Board Designates VeriSign to Retain Control of .NET Registry
  ICANN’s Board has named VeriSign, Inc. as the designated .NET successor registry. ICANN has also approved entering into a new agreement with VeriSign for their continued management of the .NET registry for six additional years. This announcement is the culmination of the .NET RFP and successor registry process that began on 6 March 2004 and included an independent evaluation of VeriSign and four other applicants
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06/06/2005

• The politics of .xxx
  Now that pornographers have a domain name suffix reserved exclusively for them, look for politicians to become more eager than ever before to target sexually explicit Web sites.
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• A UN Controlled Internet
  As we've mentioned, many countries would like to see control over the Internet shifted from ICANN to a less "America-centric" outfit like the UN's ITU. Elliot Noss - Not a big fan of the idea: "We could expect to see the likes of Internet pioneer Vint Cerf replaced by some dictator's wife's third cousin."
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• .XXX: The 'Ghettoization' of the Internet?
  There's plenty of grumbling in response to ICANN's decision to create an Internet red-light district under the .XXX domain. Former ICANN board member Karl Auerbach calls the move "obscene" (BBC).
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• Choosing The Perfect Blog (and Domain) Name
  People often ask me what I'd do differently if I was starting my blogging from scratch - one of the big things would be around choosing better names and domain names for a few of my blogs
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• auDA confiscates dodgy Ansearch domains
  Australia's domain name regulator has seized more than 1,000 domains from Ansearch, saying the search engine company's intended use did not comply with its policies
  .... full story

06/04/2005

• FRC Voices Opposition to '.xxx' Domain Name
  Patrick Trueman, FRC's senior legal counsel and former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, released the following statement expressing strong opposition to ICANN's plan:
  "The new domain would do more harm than good. The '.com' domain has been a cash cow for the porn industry and pornographers will not give it up and remove themselves to the '.xxx' domain. Instead, they will populate the '.xxx' domain and perhaps double the number of porn sites available on the Web.
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• ICANN Publishes Proposed Agreement on .MOBI
  ICANN has completed negotiations with the Applicant for .MOBI sponsored top-level domain. The Agreement and Appendices have been posted on the ICANN website and submitted to the ICANN Board for approval
  .... full story

06/03/2005

• WIPO urges tradename protection for new domains
  The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is suggesting some safeguards to stop cybersquatters from grabbing trademark-protected names under new generic Internet domain names
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• Saucy sites to get .xxx TLD
  Sex sites are to get their own .xxx domain creating a "virtual" red light district on the wibbly wobbly web.
  Those behind the new top level domain (TLD) claim it will create a "clearly identifiable area of the internet that will empower families and help protect children and others from unwanted or inappropriate content"
  .... full story

06/02/2005

• Domain Names Predicted to be Outstanding Investment Opportunities
  Domain name owners from around the world gathered for a conference last week in Las Vegas to discuss strategies for developing domain names into profitable sources of revenue and valuable assets. Speakers said that they are now seeing a solid, mature increase in the value of domain names after the period of over-speculation that the dot-com industry experienced a few years ago
  .... full story
  
• .net vote stalls
  A controversial vote to give VeriSign control of the .net registry for the next six years has stalled
  .... full story
  
• Porn lovers get .xxx domain
  The non-profit organisation responsible for internet addresses has approved dot-xxx domains, a move that reverses the group's earlier position and heads off a potential political spat with conservative US politicians
  .... full story
  
• ICANN Finally Agrees To Build An Online Red Light District
  While ICANN rushed to expand the number of top level domains with somewhat useless domains like .travel and .post along with absolutely useless domains, such as .jobs and .mobi, they seemed to take forever in thinking about the one new TLD that probably made the most sense: .xxx. Apparently, they've finally realized that it does make sense to have a separate TLD for porn sites.
  .... full story

06/01/2005

• DNS Inventor Honored
  Paul Mockapetris invented the Domain Name system some twenty-two years ago, and is being honored for the achievement
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• sTLD Update
  ICANN Moves Forward in First Phase Commercial & Technical Negotiations with an Additional sTLD Applicant
  .... full story
  
• Are Brothels Really The Biggest Australian Domain Squatters?
  Who knew that brothels have been salivating over the possibility of domain squatting geographic domain names?
  .... full story

Click here to see the list of U.S. States and Countries with which we've done business registering domain names!