OpenSRS Blog » ICANN

ICANN: Get Ready for the Next Big .Thing

Ben Lucier — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 15:37:31 +0000

Last week, ICANN published this video that does a good job providing an overview of generic top level domains (gTLD) and the introduction of new gTLDs:

Some of the staff here have put a collection jar in the kitchen at the Tucows office so we can apply for .cow, but we’re just shy of the $185K application fee by about $184,985. We remain confident that our goal will be met and have plans for a fundraiser BBQ that should quickly close that gap.

If you’re interested in donating, or would just like to show us your support, please let us know in the comments.

Thank Moo!

Tucows Comments on ICANN Applicant Guidebook

Ben Lucier — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:04:45 +0000

The latest ICANN Applicant Guidebook was released in mid-April and covers the introduction of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLD).

The introduction of new gTLDs has been an ongoing conversation for more than a decade; We have an opportunity to approve the final draft in time for consideration of the new gTLD implementation program during the ICANN Board meeting, which will be held on Monday, 20 June 2011, in Singapore.

We submitted our comments yesterday and wanted to share them with you below:

May 15, 2011
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Rey, CA
90292-6601

RE: Comments on Applicant Guidebook Released April 15, 2011

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

ICANN should do what it should have done, but could not, in 1999.

Tucows urges the ICANN board to approve the Applicant Guidebook (“AG”) and start the communications period at the ICANN meeting in Singapore. Tucows urges the Government Advisory Council (“GAC”) to register their concerns and then to support the process moving forward. This is the appropriate action for reasons too numerous to list, but including the following:

There will be innovation, benefit to Internet users and job creation. If there is not, there will be no adoption and we need not worry about adequate protections.
The protections in the AG far exceed those in the existing gTLDs. All protections come at a cost of inhibiting innovation, Internet user benefit and job creation. The balance is well reached.
The GAC role inside of ICANN is important and will continue to evolve. This should be in a healthy way and not saddled with special interests lobbying governments for their narrow positions. In addition, the GAC’s role should evolve separate from, not be driven by, the new gTLD process.
Most importantly, ICANN was birthed as a result of the desire for new gTLDs. This did not happen twelve years ago due to the political landscape. It is important to happen now.

Innovation should not need permission.

THE PARADOX OF “PROTECTIONS”

Those who are anti-closure seem to be making two arguments. First, that there is no demonstrable value to moving ahead and second, that there are not enough protections to move ahead. This is inherently a paradox.

There can be no question that new gTLDs will only be successful IF they will create value for Internet users. They will only create value for Internet users if there is innovation. And of course, if there is innovation and value for users there will be company formation, jobs, a platform for additional innovation on top of a more creative namespace and other benefits that we cannot predict.

Now the paradox. If new gTLDs are not successful then there is clearly no need for protection. A namespace which does not have broad popularity does not have much, if any need for complex protections, and here think of the hundreds of ccTLDs which are only narrowly used and do not cause IP headaches like .cx (Christmas Islands) or many other examples.

Thus, the concern for protection only exists if there is benefit to Internet users, innovation, jobs, company formation, and a whole host of other benefits.

All important innovation leads to possible harms which are massively outweighed by the benefits they are intended to create. A great example of this is the iPod. Think of the innovation that has flowed from it, including the iPhone and the iPad. Think of the massive job creation this has led to, especially in the developing world. Think of the incalculable benefit it has created for users. We cannot imagine there is anyone reading this now who has not materially enjoyed those benefits. Yet it has also been a platform for sharing of music on a level never before possible. Most of that sharing is good and beneficial. Some of it violates IP rights.

Think of the Internet itself. In our view, the Internet is the greatest agent for positive change the world has ever known. Yet it is also the platform for a whole new category of things that require protections.

Only the most reactionary would argue against the iPod and the innovation that followed. Only the most reactionary out there would argue against the incalculable benefits that the Internet has created. The same is true here. Either new gTLDs will create a massive benefit which will far outweigh any harms or we need not worry about protections.

LEVEL OF PROTECTION AND A MEANS OF MAKING IT BETTER

We believe that there is an adequate level of protection for Intellectual Property (“IP”) in the existing namespace. We believe that this is not an exercise in perfection and so of course there are still issues. We also believe that there is more to be concerned about with IP interests abusing the current system to the detriment of legitimate registrants, but this is a matter for another dialog.

The protections contained in the AG are beyond the Implementation Recommendation Team (“IRT”) recommendations, recommendations negotiated in good faith by members of the IP community. Importantly, the level of protection in the AG goes far beyond that contained in the existing namespace in general and .com in particular. It will be many, many years, if ever, before any new namespace passes .com.

The UDRP is perhaps ICANN’s second-greatest success behind Registrar competition and the price reductions and improved customer experience it led to.

The UDRP has eliminated the vast majority of problems. As noted, the AG provides a whole host of additional protections beyond those of the UDRP. Each additional protection comes at a cost. The cost is freedom to innovate, provide benefits to Internet users and to create jobs. Protections are not absolute, they must strike a balance.

The right way to improve upon the protections in the AG is to launch and iterate. If additional protections are necessary then the community will develop them. There are no actors within the ICANN community who are opposed to reasonable protection of IP interests.

We feel it important here to repeat something we first raised at the Sydney meeting in 2009. We implore the IP community to work constructively inside the ICANN process. The bottom-up multi-stakeholder process must be approached trying to create win-win solutions.

Most IP actors inside of ICANN recognize and respect this. Sadly, some do not.

When some IP interests get as far as they can inside the ICANN process and then go outside of it to lobby their national governments they clearly demonstrate three things. First, they are acting win-lose. They do not recognize that all protections come at a cost and that the cost is innovation, user benefit and jobs. Second, they are harming the relationship between national governments and the broader ICANN community by putting GAC members in an untenable position (more on this below). Third, they work against the health and credibility of the bottom-up multi-stakeholder process.

These interests say they support ICANN. We believe that it is more accurate to judge people by what they do, not what they say.

THE ROLE OF GAC INSIDE OF ICANN

We believe that one of the great challenges that the ICANN community, and the GAC within that community, currently faces is finding the proper role for the GAC inside of ICANN. We also believe that this is distinctly separate from the new gTLD process.

We believe that nation-states are important actors in the ICANN process. We respect their place and look forward to them continuing to evolve towards taking a more integrated role inside of the ICANN community. Most importantly we think this is an evolving relationship. At the birth of ICANN the GAC were reluctant actors who showed up, but did not engage. Over time their role evolved to become more integrated. With the Affirmation of Commitments (“AoC”) there is an additional, structural evolution.

We believe this is healthy and appropriate. We see ICANN as a living experiment which should always be iterating and evolving.

We do not believe that this role need be distinctly defined through the new gTLD process. We do not believe that the role of the GAC should be as a recipient of lobbying by special interests to bring those views forward. We greatly sympathize with the current GAC and the position this lobbying has placed them in.

We believe that special interests lobbying governments in this way is inappropriate, bad faith and shows a disregard for the ICANN community. We note that any “advice” coming from the GAC that is in the nature of policy runs counter to the AoC and that the GAC and those lobbying them should see it as such.

The adoption of the AG should not be contingent upon “finalizing” the role of the GAC, nor should it be impacted by narrow interests lobbying national governments.

IMPORTANT HISTORICAL CONTEXT

When thinking about ICANN’s purpose and new gTLDs inside that purpose, some historical context is important.

In the late 1990’s, prior to ICANN’s inception and in the days of the Network Solutions monopoly, there was a strong movement to introduce new gTLDs. It was the existence of this movement and its actions that led to the Green Paper, the White Paper and then, finally, ICANN.

At the time of its formation ICANN was weak. Network Solutions was a strong, rich, well-connected company. The negotiations to birth ICANN were extremely difficult and the threat of back-breaking litigation was always present.

As part of this negotiation a deal was reached. Rather than introduce competition at the registry level, which would have been most natural, there would be structural separation. The concept of “registrar” was created and a series of contracts which ensured that the significant majority of the financial benefits would flow to the registry were adopted. This has played out with today’s registries enjoying healthy monopoly rents and today’s registrars preforming most of the work in a hyper-competitive market at very low margins. The increased competition has created huge benefits for Internet users in terms of much lower prices, much higher levels of service and an amazing level of customization, specialization and innovation. Tens of thousands of companies have created hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The AG, hopefully approved in Singapore, is simply doing what should have been done in 1999. What would have been done had ICANN been in a stronger position. It is a natural step that is twelve years too late but better late than never.

CONCLUSION

There have been many years of work towards the introduction of new gTLDs. The existing AG is not a perfect document, nor will there ever be one. This process has shown the ICANN community to be well-intended, hard-working and constructive. It has shown the staff to be resilient and resourceful. It is now time for the ICANN board to do their duty and approve the AG in Singapore and start the communication period.

Sincerely,

Elliot Noss
President & CEO, Tucows

Registry Cost Increases for .BIZ and .ORG Domains coming April 1, 2011

Dave Woroch — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:12:46 +0000

It’s an unfortunate part of being a domain registrar that we have to let you know about price increases coming up as a result of announced increases by the registries which operate those domain extensions.

Effective April 1, 2011 at 00:00:00 GMT, price increases for .BIZ and .ORG domains will go into effect at the registries. These costs are payable directly to the registry by OpenSRS for domain registrations and we really have no choice but to pass those costs along to resellers and, in turn, to consumers.

Here’s the breakdown for each top-level domain (TLD) involved:

.BIZ (operated by Neustar) – view ICANN notice

Registry fee increase takes effect on April 1, 2011 at 00:00:00 GMT.
New cost for a .BIZ domain payable to the registry is USD $7.30 (an increase of USD $0.45 from USD $6.85)
Total OpenSRS cost including ICANN fee and OpenSRS Management Fee will be USD $10.48.

.ORG (operated by Public Interest Registry) – view ICANN notice

Registry fee increase takes effect on April 1, 2011 at 00:00:00 GMT.
New cost for a .ORG domain payable to the registry is USD $7.21 (an increase of USD $0.46 from USD $6.75)
Total OpenSRS cost including ICANN fee and OpenSRS Management Fee will be USD $10.39.

Our Cost-Plus Pricing Model for gTLDs Provides Cost Certainty

Thanks to our Cost-Plus model for gTLDs, OpenSRS Resellers have complete visibility to our costs associated with domain names. It also means that, as with past registry cost increases, we aren’t going to use these registry price increases as an opportunity to raise our prices on these or other gTLDs by piling on increases for domains where our costs are not increasing.

We strongly believe that our transparent pricing model gives you comfort in clearly understanding how we approach pricing, and provides you with confidence in terms of what you can expect around pricing in the future.

.nxt Conference offers help understanding impacts and opportunities in ICANN’s New TLDs

James Koole — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 14:42:18 +0000

You’ve probably heard about New TLDs (top-level domains) – the single biggest expansion of the domain name system ever. With New TLDs, anyone will be able to apply for their own top-level domain extension – the part after the dot. It’s expected that the Internet namespace will grow from just 21 gTLDs (plus 250 or so ccTLDs) to hundreds or even thousands of TLDs in the next few years.

That change provides immense potential. The possibilities are nearly endless, from .africa to .zulu and everything in between. The introduction these new domain extensions will obviously have a big impact on the Internet, and on resellers like you.

.nxt conference

To help make sense of it all, the San Francisco Bay chapter of the Internet Society (SF-Bay ISOC) is hosting the .nxt Conference in San Francisco, CA on February 9-10, 2011.

The conference will feature domain industry experts from around the world with a focus on understanding the potential impacts of the upcoming expansion of the domain name space.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation interviewed .nxt Conference General Manager Kieren McCarthy for their radio show “Spark” this month and he did a fabulous job explaining it all. You can listen to the full audio interview at the CBC’s Spark website.

OpenSRS is a silver sponsor of .nxt Conference and we’ll be there to make sure that resellers like you have a voice in what’s happening and also to help you identify and understand what impact New TLDs will have on your business. It’s clear that the introduction of New TLDs presents some great opportunities as well. For that reason, it’s critical for anyone in the Internet space to follow what’s happening with New TLDs.

On the Agenda

The conference itself will feature discussions on Internet policy, implementation, business models and marketing as it pertains to NewgTLDs.

Rod Beckstrom, ICANN CEO and President will deliver the keynote to kick off the event on Wednesday, February 9, 2011.
Elliot Noss, Tucows President and CEO, will participate in a panel discussion on Thursday, February 10, 2011. Adam Eisner, OpenSRS’ Director of Domain Services, will be on stage on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 9, 2011, to talk about how applicants for New TLDs can work with Registrars like OpenSRS/Tucows to get up and running.

The full agenda can be found here.

Registration is open to all interested people and the conference fee of $495 is quite a bargain when you consider the opportunities and take a look at the list of speakers and panelists already confirmed.

There’s much more information about the conference at the .nxt conference website.

ICANN 39 Review: The Latest Developments on New gTLDs and .XXX

Adam Eisner — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:48:38 +0000

I just returned from ICANN’s 39th international public meeting, held last week in the beautiful city of Cartagena, Colombia. This was a highly anticipated meeting by many in the domain industry, as major developments were expected with regard to both the new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) process and .XXX, the proposed extension for adult sites.

New gTLDs

On the new gTLD front, ICANN’s recent decision to allow vertical integration – which would allow registrars to operate registries, and vice versa – cleared a major roadblock in the new gTLD process. With this contentious issue settled, there was hope in some circles that ICANN would approve the most recent version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG), which outlines how to go about applying for a new gTLD, and officially launch the start of the new gTLD process.

While ICANN did not outright approve the DAG nor officially launch the application process in Cartagena, there was reason to be optimistic moving forward. ICANN’s board passed a resolution at the meeting stating they considered many of the thornier issues related to new gTLDs (including trademark protection, root zone scaling and the economic impact) to now be closed. This in itself is a major step forward in the process. However, the Board also noted that there were still outstanding issues, including concerns from the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), which is comprised of representatives of more than 100 governments worldwide. The GAC provides advice to ICANN on key public policy issues.

As a result of the GAC’s concerns and in an effort to resolve the outstanding issues that remain in the gTLD process, the board resolved to have an extended, face-to-face meeting with the GAC in February 2011. The meeting will take place a few weeks before the next ICANN international meeting in San Francisco. While most of those involved in new gTLDs were disappointed that the process was not outright approved, most of the people I spoke to were encouraged with the progress that had been made. Many of those same people are hoping for closure to the entire gTLD process by the San Francisco meeting, but whether that actually happens remains to be seen.

Progress on .XXX

There was also some progress made at the meeting with regard to the proposed .XXX extension (which is separate of the new gTLD process). To recap: This adult-oriented extension has been discussed since the early part of the decade. ICANN and ICM Registry, the private company that wishes to introduce XXX, have historically disagreed on whether ICM cleared all the necessary hurdles to get the extension approved. An independent review panel eventually determined ICANN did not follow its own policies and procedures when it refused to proceed with .XXX, and at last week’s meeting, the board announced it intended to enter into an agreement with ICM Registry, subject to the GAC’s advice – another issue to be tackled in the extended meeting.

ICANN’s 40th International Meeting

So, in the end, significant progress was made on two high-profile issues, but they were not resolved entirely. This sets up a very interesting meeting in San Francisco. The approval of new gTLDs in a meeting in a city so intertwined with technology would make for a great story. And it would be good news for those whom have been waiting for their approval for so long.

The Impact of New IDNs

Adam Eisner — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:57:21 +0000

Since returning from the ICANN meeting in Seoul, I’ve received a lot of good questions about the Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) announcement made there.

The announcement garnered a lot of attention from our resellers and international media alike. It essentially approves the introduction of IDNs “after the dot” for country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs). Currently, IDNs are only available “before the dot”, so the extension “after the dot” (such as .CN or .IN) has to remain in latin characters. Not so under the new ccTLD IDN structure.

So the question is, what has changed since the announcement? The answer is: nothing yet. ICANN’s announcement only opened the door for applications, and did not actually result in any new extensions being introduced to the domain name system just yet. Individual country representatives and ccTLD operators still have to apply for their IDN extensions, and systems will need to be adjusted (both by registrars and registries) to make the names available. As a registrar, we will start evaluating them as the ccTLDs we support start introducing them, but there are few time-lines available just yet. As we get more information, we’ll definitely be providing details.

In the meantime, ICANN has more information on the IDN fast track process for those looking to learn more.

ICANN 36 Is A Wrap

Adam Eisner — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:31:08 +0000

I’m back from Seoul, which played host last week to ICANN’s 36th International Meeting. As far as ICANN meetings go, this one was extremely busy, well-attended and led to several significant decisions on a policy level.

The decision which garnered the most international attention was ICANN’s approval of a “fast track” process for certain Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). This will allow certain ccTLDs to introduce internationalized versions of their extension in native language scripts. Historically, IDNs have only been available “before the dot”, while the actual extension had to remain in Latin characters. IDN ccTLDs, however, will allow the extension “after the dot” to be entered in native language scripts as well. With the approval of the fast track process, ICANN will now begin accepting IDN ccTLD applications. Stay tuned for more developments on this new process in the coming months.

For those interested in the approval of new Top Level Domain names, the Seoul conference had both positive and negative developments. On the plus side, coming away from the conference, it is very clear everyone is committed to new TLDs. However, it is also now clear that the original time-line, which would have seen the first applications submitted in the first quarter of 2010, is now obsolete. Instead, there are no longer any clear time-lines for the approval of new extensions. On a positive note, ICANN did approve a motion to explore allowing those interested in operating a new TLD to submit an “expression of interest”. These submissions would be accompanied by a deposit, and would theoretically allow ICANN to gauge how many serious bids currently exist and help them garner additional support.

The next ICANN conference takes place February 2010 in Nairobi, Kenya. By that time, we should have some additional clarity on just how long the new TLD process is going to take. But will we see dates and time-lines before then? If we do, you can be sure we’ll discuss them in this space.

ICANN 36 Opens With A Flurry of Activity

Adam Eisner — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:13:21 +0000

Although ICANN’s 36th International Meeting here in Seoul has been underway for less than two days, it has already been quite eventful.

At Monday morning’s session on new gTLDs, a number of people voiced their frustration at a lack of definitive timeline around their launch (remember that applications were originally scheduled to be accepted in the early part of 2010, but it appears at this point that timeline is unlikely to be met). In the afternoon, representatives from Afilias, a registry services provider, and Demand Media, parent company of Enom, had a unique and spirited debate on the topic of Registry-Registrar separation. The session, held as a debate, addressed whether registrars involved in new TLD bids should be allowed to operate a registrar which sold the extension as well. An informal poll where participants were asked to shout their approval for one side over the other reflected the polarizing nature of the issue, as the room seemed split.

The final session I attended Monday was an open meeting of the Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group (PEDNR-WG), which is examining topics related to the abilities of registrants to recover domain names post expiration. This group is still in its early stages, with further updates expected in the coming months.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the workshop on Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), another highly-anticipated discussion topic at the meeting. During that session, it was announced that the IDN application process was expected to begin November 16 (subject to ICANN Board approval). This will allow ccTLD operators to offer their extensions in native scripts should they choose to do so.

All three sessions I attended were standing-room only, as was the IDN session. It is clear that this conference is touching upon a lot of hot-button issues that are going to have a significant impact on the future of the Internet.

Today (Tuesday) is Constituency Day, where various supporting organizations of ICANN get together to discuss relevant issues for a full day. Tucows’ CEO Elliot Noss and I will sit in the meeting of the Registrar Constituency alongside many other ICANN-accredited registrars, where we will discuss a wide range of topics affecting registrars industry-wide.

Editor’s note: For those not in Seoul, ICANN offers remote participation via its website that allows you to attend the meetings virtually, complete with a video and audio stream plus a chat window.

Thanks to ICANN for the photos on their Flickr page and for releasing them under a Creative Commons License.

ICANN 36 Preview: New CEO, New TLDs and More

Adam Eisner — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:11:55 +0000

ICANN’s 36th International Meeting, to be held next week in Seoul, Korea, promises to be an eventful one for a number of reasons.

The meeting will be the first under Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s new CEO. Beckstrom was confirmed as the CEO during the Sydney, Australia, meeting in June 2009, and has had a very busy few months since. Probably the most important development during his short tenure has been the Affirmation of Commitments announced in late September.

The Affirmation of Commitments is largely considered a very positive step in affirming ICANN as a global organization while solidifying its role in governing the Internet. For more insight into the impact of the Affirmation of Commitments, I highly recommend reading Tucows’ CEO Elliot Noss’ blog post on the topic.

gTLDs a “hot” topic

There will also be much discussion on the progress of new gTLDs at the conference. A few weeks ago, ICANN published a third version of the new gTLD Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG), which outlines requirements and procedures for those interested in applying for a new domain extension (ICANN plans to accept proposals for a round of new extensions in 2010). Anticipated time lines for the introduction of new extensions and proposed measures to protect trademarks, two issues related to new gTLDs which have not yet been settled, will also be “hot” topics.

IDNs on the agenda

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) will also be widely discussed. ICANN recently submitted a final proposal to “fast track” certain ccTLD extensions, and this proposal will be considered at the meeting by the ICANN board. If approved, the proposal will clear the way to introduce IDNs “after the dot” – that is, making domain extensions (and not just the name itself) available and operational in different language scripts.

I’ll provide some notes on the meeting once I’m on the ground in Seoul, as well as a wrap-up. Keep an eye on this space for updates.

ICANN Regional Registry/Registrar Gathering

James Koole — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:47:41 +0000

Over the past couple of days a number of OpenSRS people have been attending the Regional Gathering of ICANN-Accredited Registrars gTLD Registries right here in Toronto, Canada.

For some of us, including myself, it’s a first direct exposure to the workings of ICANN. I’ve peeked in via the Internet during a couple of the big International Meetings over the past few years since joining Tucows, but this is my first time sitting in the room, with a ICANN logo on a badge around my neck.

Discussions have been quite lively at times, with good dialogue between ICANN staff, a number of Registry representatives and also with the various Registrars in attendance. Topics like the new Registrar Accreditation Agreement, data escrow, compliance and abuse have all fostered some healthy debate between interested parties. Of course, not everything is a debate – there’s also plenty of consensus on certain topics like protection of registrant rights and other issues.

What’s very interesting about these meetings is that it’s an opportunity to participate in or watch as Internet policy is developed and implemented. Adam Eisner, our Director of Domain Services, has been active in ICANN over the past few years, attending International Meetings all around the world. He pointed out last evening that being involved in ICANN means that you are a part of the decision making process that leads to changes that have a direct effect on the Internet and how it works.

Talk about pressure! ICANN and those involved in ICANN meetings, including Tucows/OpenSRS and everyone in attendance here today, hold the future of the Internet in their collective hands.

You’re probably aware that Tucows is quite active in ICANN and have been for many, many years. Our corporate values include the statement, “The Internet is the greatest agent for positive change the world has ever seen.” Because of this belief, we feel that it is our responsibility to work with ICANN and the other stakeholders (including the general public) to ensure that this incredible resource is properly nurtured.

ICANN can be a frustrating experience at times. But that is more a reflection of the understanding that those involved have around the task they have taken on. Everything that is done has to be considered carefully. “Trying things out” isn’t a good approach when dealing with a global network of such power and importance. “Done right the first time” is pretty much the only option for ICANN and those involved in decision making and implementation.

It’s been a humbling experience and a considerable privilege to be even a small part of it.