Domains & DNS: February 2007 Archives
It looks like trademark holders are biting back, as EUBrowser lose yet another WIPO complaint (UDRP)
I don't post about the company as much here as I used to, but this is worth mentioning :)
We've just slashed the pricing on domains for our current special offer:
- IE domains - €35 / year - €30 for transfers
- EU domains - €9.99 / year
- Co.uk domains €4 / year
While I was in LA last week John sent me details of the Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007.
While there are some potentially positive aspects in the Bill some of the Bill's contents are, for lack of better word, simply crazy.
32.—(5) The regulations shall provide that persons who have registered ‘.ie’ domain names before the regulations came into operation are taken to have registered those names under the regulations.That is simply wrong. How can they possibly expect that to hold up in court? How can they expect anyone to take the .ie ccTLD seriously if they can retroactively apply the bill to the 70k+ IE domains already registered? They also seem to think that issues surrounding registration disputes are a matter for government:
(6) A person who contravenes subsection (2), or contravenes a regulation made under this section, is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000.So that puts it in the realm of civil courts... lovely.. The Bill's provisions for the management of the IE namespace do offer some hope of industry involvement, but the bulk of the text does not strike me as particularly positive. If the government is concerned about the present and future of the IE namespace they may have been better advised to look at emulating other ccTLDs. By making explicit provisions for fines and other elements within the context of the Bill it sounds like they have no intention of allowing any freedom of governance. This is worrying.
ICANN's next meeting is being held in Lisbon, Portugal, from 25th to 30th March 2007.
The main ICANN site has some details, but I expect there'll be more content and detail in the coming weeks. There is also a site run by the local host (with really annoying background music), which contains information on the venue etc., but does not have a schedule as yet.
On a sidenote ICANN recently launched a blog, so subscribing to the feed might be beneficial if you are interested in following domain news.
I arrived back in Dublin this morning at around 11am Irish time, which was 3am LA time. I'm not 100% sure if I'm jetlagged or simply tired....
In any case it was a fantastic trip!!
I've uploaded the rest of the photos from my camera and have downloaded my mail (that took a lot longer).
It was great to meet some of the people I'd been in touch with over the last couple of years in person and, of course, it was a wonderful opportunity to make new contacts.
Prior to heading over I'd made a very short list of people I wanted to meet and I am delighted to say that I got to meet them all.
Both Frank and Peter have posted about their experiences in LA, though I haven't found anybody else's photos yet.
A panel of experts drawn from several quarters led a very compact and intense panel session on IDN, ccTLDs and new TLDs.
Most panel discussions I've attended have either run on too long or dragged a bit. In the case of yesterday's session the opposite was the truth.
The panel was comprised of Tina Dam (ICANN), who gave a brief update on IDN. She was followed by Hiro Hotta (JPRS) who gave us a lot of information and statistics on the Japanese experience with IDN to date. Pinky Brand (.mobi) covered the progress and future prospects of .mobi. Leona Chen (.asia) went through the prelaunch information for .asia, which looks like it's going to be very exciting, while Matt Serlin (MarkMonitor) covered some of the general aspects of ccTLDs.
After their presentations there was a Q & A session, which allowed people like me to throw as many queries as we wanted at a panel of experts - a great opportunity !
Domain Fest kicked off yesterday afternoon with registration in the mezzanine of the Hollywood Renaissance.
I now feel "branded", as I'm walking around the place with a big name tag hanging from a lanyard.
All delegates got a nice little bag jammed with goodies - the dotMobi guys provided a branded luggage label, which I can definitely see coming in useful on my way back!
After a brief introductory talk we all made our way into the bar for the cocktail party which was sponsored by Ask.com. It becomes obvious to anyone that networking is the main thing at this event, so I'm rapidly using up my supply of business cards and growing a lovely collection of my own. The biggest problem I'll have afterwards is working out why I got the cards in the first place..
This morning the talks start around 9am, so I'll be heading across to the Renaissance shortly.
