ICANN

Want to help decide which names should get a chance to become a new Internet address? The group that runs the Internet's address system has an opportunity for you.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers says it's looking for volunteers to help evaluate which groups should get a big discount on the $185,000 fee to apply to run a new top-level domain name. Deserving applicants could pay a quarter of that cost - $47,000 - if they can show they need the financial help, that their proposed new domain name provides "a public interest benefit," and that they have the financial and technical means to run a new domain name. The support program appears to be aimed in particular at applicants from developing countries.

"These volunteers will be key to ICANN's effort to assure that the less-developed parts of the world are able to participate in the new domain name program," ICANN Senior Vice President Kurt Pritz said in a statement. "The panel members will make a real impact in ensuring that the opportunities for innovation and economic development created by the Internet are open to everyone."

ICANN's Support Application Review Panel, however, isn't open to just anyone. The group will be looking for volunteers who have experience running a small business, operating in developing countries, analyzing business plans, and have a knowledge of the domain name system. Potential volunteers will have until March 31 to submit an application to serve on the panel.

ICANN began accepting applications last month for its new domain name program, which calls for the introduction of an unlimited number of domain names. The application period for the program's first round ends in April.

After more than six years of debate and negotiation, the group that manages the domain name system will finally launch its program Wednesday evening to dramatically expand the number of new names available on the Web, but it could take up to a year or longer before the new dot-something actually becomes available.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers formally opens up the application process Wednesday at 7:01 pm Eastern time (12:01 am GMT) for those seeking to operate a new top-level domain, the name to the far right of the dot. The application period will remain open until April 12. The process could result in the introduction of hundreds or even thousands of new names to compete with the 22 existing generic top-level domains such as .com, .net and .org.

ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said Tuesday that the group still does not know how many applications it will get but has planned for about 500.

"Our goal is not to create any number of applications," Beckstrom said during a speech Tuesday in Washington. "Our goal is to serve the global public interest and to administer this program fairly and professionally for the benefit of global Internet users, while ensuring the security and stability of the global Internet."

Companies that want to try to operate their own domain name must first submit a lengthy application and a $185,000 fee. The evaluation process includes several stages beginning with a criminal background check of the proposed applicant's top officers and an examination of each applicant's business history.

ICANN also will examine whether the proposed domain name violates an existing trademark or sparks other concerns. If an application clears these hurdles, ICANN will then look at whether the group seeking to operate the domain name has the "technical, operational, and financial capability to operate a registry." ICANN has proposed a bidding process for those entities that are seeking the same name after initially urging the parties to try to resolve the dispute on their own.

The application process could take as little as nine months and up to two years, ICANN said. ICANN will release the list of applicants after the first round closes and allow for public comment on each proposed domain.

In the meantime, many companies and groups may try to keep their applications secret to keep others from seeking the same name while the application process remains open. Despite this, some companies already have announced plans to seek particular names such as the photography firm Canon, which said it would apply to operate .canon.

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse estimates ICANN could get as many as 1,000 applications and that at least two-thirds of them will come from companies that are defensively registering names for strategic and competitive reasons, the group's president, Josh Bourne said.This is one the reasons why the group, along with many major companies and other trademark owners, have voiced concern about the expansion. Some critics want ICANN to delay the program's rollout and include additional protections for trademark owners.

ICANN has said it may make additional changes to the application guidelines but has not committed to any immediate major modifications. Still, Bourne said his group will continue to press forchanges including allowing trademark owners to pay a fee to the operator of each new domain name to block the registration of their trademarks by others in perpetuity.

Two senior lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee are urging the Commerce Department to try to delay the rollout of a program that could dramatically expand the number of Internet addresses.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the California nonprofit picked by the Commerce Department in 1998 to manage the Internet's domain name system, is set to begin accepting applications for the new domain name program Jan. 12 despite a growing chorus of protests against the proposal.

The latest criticism comes from Judiciary Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet Subcommittee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., a senior Judiciary member and the ranking member on the Foreign Affairs Committee. They joined other lawmakers in recent weeks who have raised concerns about the domain name plan and have called for a delay in its launch. Trademark holders, including many of the nation's biggest corporations, say the new program could cost them millions of dollars to register their brands in the new names -- or launch new domain names themselves.

"We urge the department to take steps necessary to delay the roll out of these new [domain names] until a more thorough analysis and evaluation of the potential costs and benefits of all these factors is concluded and until the department can assure Congress and the American public with absolute confidence that the benefits of the proposed rollout exceed the costs and risks to consumers, businesses and the Internet," Goodlatte and Berman wrote in a letter on Friday. They called on the department to answer several questions about the program's development and rollout by Jan. 5.

Their letter was sent the same day that the Federal Trade Commission formally outlined the agency's concerns with the new program. "We write now to highlight again the potential for significant consumer harm resulting from the unprecedented increase in new" domain names, all four FTC commissioners said in a letter Friday to ICANN.

The commissioners said a dramatic expansion of domain names will make the already challenging task of tracking down Internet scam artists even harder. They urged ICANN to limit the number of new domain names that can be introduced in the first round, increase numbers of staff charged with ensuring compliance with ICANN policies, and improve the accuracy of data about people who register addresses in the new domain names, which the commissioners noted has been problematic for many years.

So far, ICANN has given little indication that it is willing to delay the program's launch. During two congressional hearings in recent weeks and a statement in response to the FTC letter, ICANN continues to defend the program.

"The new program offers significant protections beyond those that exist in current [top-level domain names], including new mandatory intellectual property rights protection mechanisms and heightened measures to mitigate against malicious conduct," ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom said in a statement released Saturday.

After expressing concerns earlier this year, the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which has some oversight over ICANN, has said it is satisfied with the protections ICANN has in place and pledged to closely monitor the program's rollout.

The agency, however, is in a difficult position. Some countries want the United Nation's International Telecommunication Union to take over ICANN's duties, a move the United States opposes. Given this, the United States has as a strong interest in ensuring ICANN succeeds, and thus does not want to be seen as imposing U.S. will on the nonprofit, which is supposed to operate based on input from Internet stakeholders around the world.

If you can't beat 'em, form a coalition!

Nearly 90 industry groups and companies announced Thursday they have formed a new coalition to try to block a plan, to allow for the introduction of an unlimited number of new Internet addresses. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the nonprofit group that manages the Internet's "top level" domain name system, plans to vastly expand the domain name space from the 22 groups of names such as .com now available to Internet users to almost any name such as .bank or .angrybirds.

The Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight says that ICANN's domain name plan will have costly implications for trademark owners, who could be forced to register their names in every new domain name launched or offer their own Internet address. The coalition also argues that ICANN has not taken their concerns seriously enough and failed to follow the consensus-driven process ICANN is supposed to use when enacting such new proposals.

ICANN is currently slated to begin accepting applications under the new domain name program in January.

"The major global industries represented by [the coalition] foresee immense damage to their constituents, consumers and the economy," Association of National Advertisers President and CEO Bob Liodice, said in a statement. "We implore ICANN to discontinue its efforts to roll out this ill-conceived, unwanted and destructive program."

Other groups in the coalition include the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Association of Broadcasters and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as well as such companies as Adobe, Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, and Samsung.

"The new gTLD program is the result of six years of careful study, discussion and debate," ICANN spokesman Brad White said. "It evolved from 45 comment periods encompassing 2,400 comments and analyses. There were 55 explanatory memoranda or independent reports and seven drafts of the Applicant Guidebook."
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Two key former officials with the nonprofit group that manages the Internet's domain name system are raising concerns with its plan to allow an unlimited number of generic Internet addresses, the top-level domain name suffixes that come after the dot like .com or .org.

Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf and tech investor Esther Dyson chaired the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers during its early years, when the group was introducing the first set of new domain names to compete with the only Internet addresses available to the public at the time: .com, .net. and .org. They now said they see several potential problems with ICANN's latest domain name plan, which has sparked strong opposition from major trademark owners.

Dyson was ICANN's founding chairman of the board from 1998-2000, while Cerf, one of the pioneers in the Internet's development, succeeded Dyson in 2000 and served until 2007. Despite their past association with ICANN, neither has a formal role with the group any more.

Following an appearance at an unrelated event on Wednesday, Cerf told Tech Daily Dose that he's "nervous" about ICANN's new domain name proposal. He cited several potential concerns, including that it could create confusion among Internet users, big problems for trademark owners who may feel forced to register their trademark in all the new names or launch their own Internet addresses, and also logistical headaches if any of the operators of the new domain names go out of business.

"At this stage of the game I think the engine is now running, and ICANN will do whatever it does," Cerf said. "We will have to watch and see what happens and figure out what to do if the outcomes turn out to be harmful."

ICANN is currently set to begin accepting applications for the new domain name program in January.

Dyson has raised similar concerns in recent months about ICANN's plan. In a syndicated column in August, Dyson also said expanding the number of domain names reduces the value of those out there already and questioned the motives behind the plan.

"Most of the people active in setting ICANN's policies are involved somehow in the domain-name business, and they would be in control of the new TLDs (top-level domain names) as well. It's worth it to them to spend their time at ICANN meetings (or to send staffers), whereas domain names are just a small part of customers' and user' lives," she wrote. "And that means that the new TLDs are likely to create money for ICANN's primary constituents, but only add costs and confusion for companies and the public at large."

ICANN, which did not respond to a request for comment, says the plan will promote innovation. And it is supported by ICANN's latest chairman, Steve Crocker, a peer of Cerf's in the development of the Internet.

The Internet hit an important milestone Thursday. The group that manages the Internet's domain name system just handed out the last five blocks of addresses that use the original Internet protocol system known as IPv4.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number made clear that this news will not affect average Internet users. But it will require websites to eventually transition to the next generation Internet protocol known as IPv6.

At a news conference in Miami, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom described the event as "one of the most important days in the Internet's history. It marks far more than a transition from one Internet address protocol to another. It marks the successful growth of the Internet."

Still, Beckstrom and other officials stressed that Internet users should not notice any difference. "This event is insignificant" for Internet users, Internet Architecture Board Chairman Olaf Kolkman said. "Next week the Internet won't be significantly different than it was a week ago."

ICANN's Internet Assigned Numbers Authority allocated the last blocks, containing about 60 million IPv4 addresses, to the five Regional Internet Registries on Thursday.

When asked how long it will take each region to exhaust their final allocation of IPv4 addresses, Raúl Echeberría, chairman of the Number Resources Organization that represents the regional registries, said it will depend on each region but said he expects the Asia-Pacific region will run out first. An official with that organization added that the Asia-Pacific regional registry, like the others, has a plan in place to ration the remaining IPv4 addresses and expected it would take five to 10 years to completely exhaust them all.

There are about 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses in total, with most of those now in use, but the transition to IPv6 will provide a "billion-trillion times" more addresses, Beckstrom said. Kolkman added that IPv6 will help enable the rollout of new technologies and innovations that are not possible under the current IPv4-based Internet.

ICANN and the other officials from Internet-technical groups called on companies, organizations and governments to help bring attention to the need to transition to IPv6.

"The older generation will not go away. It still has a lot to contribute," Internet Society President and CEO Lynn St. Amour said. "But the sooner we all move to adopt IPv6, the better."

In the meantime, many companies, organizations and others who use the Internet will have to make technical modifications to accommodate both IPv4 and IPv6 and eventually will only be given IPv6 addresses.

While major Internet firms like Google and Facebook have adapted their systems for IPv6, the Internet Society has helped organize World IPv6 Day on June 8 "to motivate organizations" around the world to transition to IPv6, St. Amour said. As part of this effort, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Akamai and others will offer their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour "test drive," she added.

Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., Wednesday re-introduced a nonbinding resolution calling on President Obama to oppose any efforts by the United Nations to take over governance of the Internet.

"It has become increasingly clear that international governmental organizations, such as the United Nations, have aspirations to become the epicenter of Internet governance. And I'm going to do everything I can to make sure this never happens," Bono Mack, the new chairwoman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, said in a statement.

She introduced a similar resolution in the last Congress. Bono Mack wrote House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., Wednesday to urge her to advance the measure.

The resolution notes that some countries that favor having the United Nations or another international entity play a bigger role in Internet governance "use the Internet as a tool of surveillance to curtail legitimate political discussion and dissent." Such countries want the United Nations or another international entity to "endorse national policies that block access to information, stifle political dissent, and maintain outmoded communications structures," according to the resolution.

The main group that currently has a formal governing role over the Internet is the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a California-based nonprofit that was picked by the U.S. government in 1998 to take over management of the Internet's domain name system.

In December, the United Nations hosted a meeting on ways to enhance "cooperation on international public policy issues pertaining to the Internet." At the meeting, ICANN President and CEO Rod Beckstrom called for continuing support for ICANN and its process of working with Internet stakeholders, including the United Nations and national governments.

"The entire ecosystem collaborates: ICANN, Internet service providers, domain name businesses, [the Internet Society], [the Internet Engineering Task Force], governments, regional Internet registries, individual Internet users, non-profits and businesses around the world. And it works," Beckstrom said in his prepared remarks. "The multi-stakeholder model is not the problem. It's the solution."

The group that manages the Internet's domain name system is meeting this week in Catagena, Colombia where its board is expected to take up a controversial proposal that could dramatically increase the number of generic Internet domain names available to users.

The Commerce Department has raised several concerns with the proposal, which would expand the number of generic top-level domains, such as .com and .info, from the current 21 to perhaps hundreds or more.

In a letter Thursday to ICANN, National Telecommunications and Information Administration Secretary Lawrence Strickling voiced concern that ICANN had yet complete a comprehensive study on the economic benefits to consumers of expanding the number of generical top-level domain names compared with the potential costs. He also questioned whether ICANN has met the goal it agreed to meet to provide a "thorough and reasoned explanation" of its decisions, particular when it comes to launching new domain names.

"While I am aware of the desire by some to move forward, the suggestion that the ICANN board could make an informed decision regarding the timing of the launch of the new gTLD program in Cartegena is unrealistic," Strickling wrote.

ICANN agreed to a set of performance goals, such as providing greater transparency and fact-based policy development, as part of an "affirmation of commitments" it struck with Commerce last year. ICANN was chosen in 1998 to take over the Internet's domain name system by the Commerce Department and still operates under the oversight of the U.S. government despite steps taken in recent years to loosen the United States' control over the nonprofit corporation.

The group that manages the Internet's address system Wednesday announced changes that would allow the firms or organizations that operate the databases of new top-level domain names to also own the companies that sell Internet address registrations to the public.

The move, adopted by the board of directors for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers at a special meeting last week, formalizes policies governing the relationships between companies or groups that operate as registries and registrars, which sell domain name registrations to the public.

"In the absence of existing policy or new bottom-up policy recommendations, the Board saw no rationale for placing restrictions on cross-ownership," ICANN board Chairman Peter Dengate Thrush said in a statement. "Any possible abuses can be better addressed by properly targeted mechanisms. Co-ownership rules are not an optimal technique in this area."

ICANN's board, however, did include some restrictions aimed at addressing potential concerns with the cross-ownership policy, including requiring registries and registrars to abide by a code of conduct that prohibits them from misusing data or engaging in other forms of "abusive conduct arising out of registry-registrar cross-ownership," ICANN said in the statement.

In addition, ICANN has imposed auditing requirements and graduated sanctions that could lead to termination of a registry or registrar's contract with ICANN and punitive damages. ICANN also noted that it retains the right to refer any competition issues to the appropriate government antitrust authority.

ICANN, which operates under an agreement with the Commerce Department, has never implemented a formal policy on the issue since the California-based non-profit corporation in 2000 approved the first set of new top-level domain names to compete with the only domains available to the public at the time: .com, .org and .net. At the time, Network Solutions was the sole operator of the registries for all three names.

ICANN has been debating for the last two years among its various supporting organizations whether to continue, expand or eliminate restrictions in its agreements with registries that limit them from owning more than 15 percent of a registrar.

"The decision was a surprise because betting men were giving odds that the board would institute a cross-ownership restriction limiting registrars and registries to owning between 2 percent and 15 percent of each other," Antony Van Couvering, CEO of a consulting firm that provides advice to firms that want to operate new generic top-level domains, said in a blog post. "The 2 percent figure is what the Board voted for in March 2010, a vote widely understood to be a warning to the so-called ICANN community to reach an agreement on the issue. The 15 percent figure is what had been lobbied for heavily by various powerful incumbent players, who buttressed their position with the argument that this was what had been done in the past."

While it appears unlikely that the Senate Judiciary Committee will act on the legislation this week, the Center for Democracy Technology voiced strong concerns Tuesday with a bill aimed at cracking down on foreign websites that offer illegal copyrighted content or counterfeit goods, saying it could hamper free speech on the Internet and force Internet intermediaries to become the gatekeepers of the Web.

The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, introduced earlier this month by Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is on the Senate Judiciary Committee's agenda for its markup Thursday but the session could get postponed if the Senate decides to adjourn on Wednesday. The committee may take up the measure if Congress returns after November's midterm elections for a lame-duck session, a Leahy spokeswoman said.

Either way, CDT officials raised several alarms about the bill. The bill would give the Justice Department new authority to file a civil action against a domain name linked to a Web site trafficking in illegal copyrighted content or counterfeit goods asking a court to order the registrar, a firm that sells Internet domain name registrations to the public, that registered the domain name to shut it down. The measure also would give the Justice Department power to target foreign registrars or websites by requiring U.S.-based third parties to stop doing business with these foreign targets. This might include requiring a U.S.-based Internet service provider to block access to such sites or requiring a U.S. payment processor to block payments to the site.

"The Justice Department is currently limited in the remedies available to prevent websites dedicated to offering infringing content. These websites are often based overseas yet target American consumers," Leahy said when he introduced his bill earlier this month. He said his measure would "give the Department of Justice an expedited process for cracking down on these rogue websites, regardless of whether the website's owner is located inside or outside of the United States."

CDT official said the bill raises First Amendment concerns by calling for the seizure of domain names, which would lead to the shut down of some websites that might also include legal content. In addition, they note that in allowing the U.S. government to dictate which websites should be taken down, it would set a bad precedent for other governments who might target websites for reasons some might find objectionable.