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The US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration sent a letter to ICANN expressing concern over the plans to introduce new TLDs.

In the letter, the US DOC expresses concern that ICANN is moving forward with the proposal to introduce new TLDs without giving significant thought to stability and whether or not this is even necessary

DNN wouldn’t go so far as to say that the DOC has domainer’s backs, but Domain Name Wire points out well that the DOC sentiments match some of the concerns that many domainers have about the introduction of new TLDs. This news is being covered at many sites and forums where you can find more insight.

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Original post by Adam Strong

The US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration sent a letter to ICANN expressing concern over the plans to introduce new TLDs.

In the letter, the US DOC expresses concern that ICANN is moving forward with the proposal to introduce new TLDs without giving significant thought to stability and whether or not this is even necessary

DNN wouldn’t go so far as to say that the DOC has domainer’s backs, but Domain Name Wire points out well that the DOC sentiments match some of the concerns that many domainers have about the introduction of new TLDs. This news is being covered at many sites and forums where you can find more insight.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Help plan DomainConvergence 2009, participate in the survey.

Original post by Adam Strong

The US Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration sent a letter to ICANN expressing concern over the plans to introduce new TLDs.

In the letter, the US DOC expresses concern that ICANN is moving forward with the proposal to introduce new TLDs without giving significant thought to stability and whether or not this is even necessary

DNN wouldn’t go so far as to say that the DOC has domainer’s backs, but Domain Name Wire points out well that the DOC sentiments match some of the concerns that many domainers have about the introduction of new TLDs. This news is being covered at many sites and forums where you can find more insight.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Help plan DomainConvergence 2009, participate in the survey.

Original post by Adam Strong

ICANN, the entity responsible for overseeing the Internet’s domain name system, has revoked EstDomains.com’s right to process new domain names because of the CEO’s recent cyber crime convictions in Estonia.

Two months ago, Brian Krebs of WashingtonPost.com published a translated report showing that Vladimir Tsastsin, the CEO of EstDomains, was convicted of credit card fraud, document forgery, and other cyber crime charges in February of this year. This report was a key factor - along with other recent revelations about the company’s ways - that led to the de-accreditation of EstDomains.

In a letter to Mr. Tsastsin of EstDomains (.pdf), ICANN explains their decision:

“Be advised that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Registrar Accredditation Agreement (RAA) for EstDomains, Inc. (Customer No. 919, IANA No. 832) is terminated. Consistent with subsection 5.3.3 of the RAA, this termination is based on your status as President of EstDomains and your credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery conviction. This termination shall be effective within fifteen calendar days from the date of this letter, on 12 November 2008.”

ICANN also said that the 281,000 or so domain names under EstDomain’s control could be transfered to an ICANN-accredited registrar on or before November 6, 2008. However, it seems unlikely that anybody would accept their domains with EstDomains many ties to spam emails, malware downloads, and other criminal domains.

[via WashingtonPost]

Update: EstDomains is appealing the conviction saying Tsastsin resigned from his position in June, thus making ICANN’s reason for termination invalid. Also, Tsastsin is appealing his convictions of fraud, money laundering, and document forgery. EstDomains will retain its accrediated status until further review. [via Domain Name Wire]

Further Reading:

• DNN: “Washinton Post Coverage on Nefarious Domain Name Activities”
• WashingtonPost: “EstDomains: A Sordid History and a Storied CEO”
• WashingtonPost: “A Superlative Scam and Spam Site Registrar”

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

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Original post by Chad Kettner

LogicBoxes, a software development and consulting company specializing in domaining, will launch an consulting program for large portfolio owners at the Traffic Conference in New York. The “Domainer Accreditation Program” will educate domainers of the many risk mitigation benefits that an ICANN Accreditation program can offer them while also helping them obtain and manage their own ICANN Accredited Registrar.

“We’ve recently seen a surge of enquiries for our ICANN Accreditation Consultancy services from large domainers”, said Bhavin Turakhia, CEO of LogicBoxes. “There are several compelling reasons why domainers look at obtaining an ICANN Accreditation. Apart from the benefit of eliminating the ‘middle man’ (the Registrar) between them and their portfolios, the accreditation also provides domainers with an unbeatable level of flexibility to portfolio management and even opens up newer profit centers for them.”

The Domainer Accreditation Program is geared to ensure a “red carpet treatment” which includes a dedicated account manger, compliance assistance, technical consulting, as well as a complete registrar software and is an extension of the previous accreditation consulting services.

[via LogicBoxes]

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Chad Kettner

Over the last few months Brian Krebs of the Washington Post has been covering stories about domain name resellers and registrars who are in one way or another tied in to nefarious online activities such as spamming, spyware and malware.  A noticeable trend in these articles is that the activity of these scammers is consistently showing them to be using registrar reseller accounts and privacy protection to cover their tracks.  Krebs’ stories are worth reading as they highlight the issues in the domain name system, ICANN and registrars which continue to provide a means for these scammers to operate. 

Privacy Protection and Bad Whois Information
One of Krebs earlier posts covered the story about spamming activity and how nearly 3/4 of all spam activity comes from domain names registered with a handful of domain registrars.  It’s no surprise that the spammers use fake whois information or the privacy protection services available at these registrars to to hide their identities.  The list compiled from over a year of research collecting spam emails can be seen at Knujon.com.  It’s important to note that ICANN made efforts back in May  to combat the problem with these registrars and that these registrars aren’t directly responsible for the activity.  These registrars however are responsible for any false whois records and ICANN points out that if the registrars  ”do not investigate and correct alleged inaccuracies reported to ICANN, our escalation procedure can ultimately result in ICANN terminating their accreditation and preventing them from registering domain names”.

ESTDomains
Another Krebs story covers EstDomains, a company which the Post points out is a Directi reseller and has been tied to numerous spam emails and malware downloads which hijack the users computer. 

One function of these codecs is to install software that changes the victim’s domain name service settings, so that some percentage of their Web site and search engine traffic gets redirected to Web sites and search engines controlled by the attackers.

According to a later article one of the sites EstDomains uses to promote their malware, “Power-antivirus-2009.com, received more traffic than chrysler.com, pontiac.com or salesforce.com before it was deactivated recently.”

DynamicDolphin
Krebs digs around and uncovers more out Dynamaic Dolphin ( a company owned by Media Breakaway). Dynamic Dolphin was listed in the Knujon list is also a Directi reseller and hides a majority of its domain names using the privacyprotect.org service from Directi.  The domains regsitered by the company are reported to be used in spamming a variety of items from knock-off purses to porn. The majority of the spam though is promoting pharmacy services that require no prescription.

Krebs notes in this article that while some legitimate domain registrants use privacy protection on the whois, it’s very unclear of how this fits within the ICANN registrar agreement which mandates that the whois information be publicly available.  He also points out that it’s unclear what ICANN can and will do about this even after publishing their ”concern” over these abuses.

KlikDomains
A more recent story is about Klik Domains which is also using a Directi reseller account and has been tricking internet users in to downloading fake anti-spyware software.  The company uses its status as a reseller to quickly create new sites and uses the privacy protection feature to hide their identity.

Directi president Bhavin Turakhia said his company has disabled its registrant-anonymizing privacyprotect.org service for all Web site names registered through Klikdomains.com, which he said has sold roughly 100,000 Web site names through Directi during the past couple of years. Nearly half of those have been suspended due to abuse complaints, Turakhia said. More than 21,000 sites were suspended in the past 48 hours alone.

Directi.com
Domain registrar Directi seems to be the hardest hit by these articles and the Knujon list, as most of the companies named in these articles were Directi resellers and/or used Directi’s whois privacy service at privacyprotect.org.  In a recent post on the Directi company blog they detail the ongoing cooperation with Knujon and Hostexploit.com to combat the issues  

 ”Directi ceased to offer its privacy protection services to all customers of ESTDomains and to tens of thousands of other domains obtained through the community”  

“Directi and HostExploit have discussed further ways to enhance their cooperative collaboration to clamp down spam and other forms of abuse on the Internet as rapidly as possible. Directi acknowledges and applauds HostExploit and Knujon’s continuous efforts in tracking down miscreants. HostExploit and Knujon confirms that they are pleased to work directly with the Directi abuse desk in helping Directi identify any miscreants that maybe using Directi’s services. The partnership includes sharing investigative processes and intelligence data on an ongoing basis. “

ICANN and domain name registrars seem to be up against the ropes on these issues, fighting a battle that will likely just change as scammers adapt to any new policies and rules that are created. The scammers meanwhile go about using reseller accounts and whois privacy/protection services to continue their operations and hide their tracks. There doesn’t seem to be an easy answers given in these articles but the mainstream coverage and the efforts of groups like Knujon might lead to some discussions and that hopefully leads to solutions.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong

According to Philip Virgo of ComputerWeekly, Wales is preparing to apply for their own sponsored top-level domain - .cym - in order to reverse the economic outflow from Wales in e-commerce.

The Welsh Assembly Goverment has expressed an issue with the majority of Welsh shoppers buying from non-Welsh sites and fewer non-Welsh buyers purchasing from Welsh businesses.

“In confirming the intent to apply for a TLD for Wales, Ieuan Wyn Jones fulfilled a desire that has been strongly expressed by Parliamentarians in both Cardiff and Westminster,” Virgo said on his blog. “An early day motion in the House of Commons was signed by 24 MPs of all parties. In the Welsh Assembly, the House Committee passed a vote of support by a large margin.”

The Welsh TLD would be used by organizations, companies, and individuals around the globe that express themselves in the Welsh language and/or look to encourage Welsh culture.

[via ComputerWeekly.com]

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Chad Kettner

As reported earlier, Afilias had submitted a proposal to ICANN for the .INFO gTLD that would allow them to shut down domain names at will if they consider them abusive. ICANN has approved the proposal without soliciting comments, however comments to any registry proposal can be submitted at any time by sending an email to registryservice (at) icann.org and are published on the ICANN website.

Apparently Afilias has presented the changes to their agreement as a “new” service. However this function is provided by Registrars, ISPs and Hosting companies today. Several parties have submitted their concerns about this new policy, despite some small modifycations by the registrar operator.

[Thanks to George Kirikos]

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Frank Michlick

After several of ICANN’s domain names were hacked in June, ICANN has blamed the attack on Register.com.

Although ICANN didn’t name the registrar explicitly, a WHOIS search shows that all the temporarily hacked domains - icann.com, icann.net, iana.com and iana-servers.com - were registered with Register.com.

“The DNS redirect was a result of an attack on ICANN’s registrar’s systems,” said ICANN today in an article by The New York Times. “A full, confidential, security report from that registrar has since been provided to ICANN with respect to this attack.”

[via The New York Times]

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Chad Kettner

In an email sent to domain name registrars this evening, ICANN announced a new resolution approved by the ICANN board, effectively ending domain name tasting. Since the GNSO had previously sent their recommendation to the board in April, the vote came as no surprise to those in the domain community.   The new policy will charge the .20 cent ICANN fee on every domain registered, whether or not it is deleted within the 5 day Add Grace Period or not.

(Read more about the new fees and the impact after the jump)

The Add Grace Period (AGP) was implemented to allow registrars a 5 day period whereby they could delete domain names that may have been registered using fraudulent credit cards, by error, etc. The system was gamed by domain tasting operations which would register thousands of domain names, test them for traffic during the 5 day window and delete domains which did not make enough money to cover the annual registration fees. ICANN fees are only charged at the end of the quarter for domain names registered, transfered or renewed so the .20 ICANN fee was avoided since the domain tasting operations would only have to pay the ICANN fee on domains that were older than 5 days.

Some in the domain name industry still are not satisfied with the policy change, but others in the domain industry believe that this will go along way to killing off domain tasting operations in mass scale.   Let’s use real numbers to show what effect this has on a tasting operation. From information we have been provided by industry insiders, tasting operations have typical success rates of around .5% . In a typical scenario before this policy a taster might register 100,000 domains and likely only keep 500 - deleting 99,500 within the first 5 days. Using the AGP loophole, the registrar would only be charged the registry and ICANN fees of $3210 ($6.42 x 500) + $100 (500 x .20) = $3310. With the new policy implemented, a registrar will be charged $3210 (500 x $6.42 ) on the kept domains and $20,000 (100,000 x .20) in ICANN fees. Using the .5% domain “keep rate”, the per name cost of a tasting operation has increased from $6.62 per name to $46.42.

It is indeed still possible that domain tasting will occur. The AGP still exists which provides the loophole to delete tasted domains. However, the added ICANN fees are on a per domain cost, so in order for domain tasting operations to be profitable they will have to be less “shot-gun” and more “sniper” precise.

The ICANN new fees are also based on a threshold of 10%. So if a registrar adds in 100,000 domains per month and is deleting more than 10% the fees will be charged. As long as the registrar is under this percentage fees will not be charged.

The resolution can be read in entirety after the jump :

(more…)

Ron Jackson, editor of DNJournal recently published the June edition of his newsletter featuring a great editorial about ICANN’s decision to allow “vanity” TLDs.  There is plenty of commentary from experts such as Michael Castello and Rick Schwartz debunking the idea that new domain extensions could spell disaster for the domain industry.

DotSauce has been hesitant to cover this news for the very reasons these experts describe below, that and the fact that it has spread across many many news sources, domaining releated and otherwise. This editorial should put to rest the debate and give you a clear understanding of what will go on in the near future.

Click on the image below for a copy of the June newsletter.

Ron Jackson, Editor of DNJournal says…

“In a nutshell, past history has not been kind to new TLDs and I see little reason to believe that dumping a massive number of them on the market at once will be any more or less successful than ICANN’s previous strategy of releasing new extensions in a slow, deliberate manner.”

Michael Castello of CCIN says…

“The markets within markets of domain speculation are timing out and so many new extensions will only confuse the masses. Most domainers only talk to domainers and do not understand the logic on the street. Domainers are thinking way too much and in reality success in this business is very simple. Search engines will help with the clutter of these new vTLDs (’vanity’ TLDs, a term coined by Michael’s brother and CCIN partner, David Castello) but in the long run .com is the easy way for people to navigate.”

Rick Schwartz, co-founder of TRAFFIC says…

“This is the biggest nothing I have seen in quite some time. It won’t affect anything for 10 years and when it all kicks in, it will cost traffic to .com…ZIPPO. It may even increase it as folks become more aware of the browser bar and direct navigation.”

This article is from DotSauce Magazine - The Domain Industry’s HOTTEST Publication!

Putting the Vanity Domain Extension Debate to Rest

Original post by Mark Fulton

According to website Zone-H, a group of Turkish hackers hijacked ICANN and IANA domain names on Thursday morning. All of the domain names are registered at Register.com. The group took over control of the domain names, including icann.com, icann.net, iana.com and iana-servers.com. The DNS records were changed and redirected to the hackers site with the following message :

You think that you control the domains but you don’t! Everybody knows wrong. We control the domains including ICANN!

Don’t you believe us?

haha

(Lovable Turkish hackers group)

This is the second major group to have their domain names hijacked in the last 30 days.  Previously Comcast.net domain names were hijacked at Network Solutions. So much for “preserving and enhancing the operational stability, reliability, security, and global interoperability of the Internet” eh ?

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

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Original post by Adam Strong

In a recently released policy brief, ICANN addresses domain name monetization (PDF) as if it were a problem to be addressed. The policy brief begins by discussing and explaining domain monetization and Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising in layman terms. The paper further goes on to discuss domain tasting and points out that domain monetization, specifically PPC, is at the root of the problems of domain tasting. Later in the brief, ICANN suggests that domain monetization may also be preventing internet users from using domain names. Generally speaking, the policy brief places domain monetization at the center stage as a problem likely to be cited in future ICANN policy considerations.

The paper asks:

“How Does Domain Monetization Impact Registrants?”

Domain name monetization techniques impact Internet users in different ways. The PPC model has been criticized for increasing the prevalence of cyber-squatting and speculative behavior by encouraging parties to grab names that are similar to famous brands or people and are therefore more likely to generate significant traffic.

Monetization did not impact registrants in this way. Tasting did. What is worrisome to Domain Name News is that in this brief ICANN is addressing the issue of domain monetization rather than domain tasting. The policy brief clearly puts “Domain Monetization” as the topic at hand, as if it were a problem. The problem we believe the brief should be addressing prominently is domain tasting. While there likely would be no domain tasting without a form of domain monetization (in this case PPC), one should not blame domain monetization as a problem worthy of policy considerations. Afterall, every domain name is monetized in some way, even ICANN.org is being monetized. Additionally, PPC domain monetization comes from search engines, yet ICANN places no blame on search engines or their advertisers for any of these “problems” with domain monetization.

Clearly there are ‘bad apples’ which brought the topic to the level where a policy brief had to be written about domain monetization. Registrars allowing tasting and domain monetization companies allowing trademarks to be monetized are part of the problem. Businesses and players in the domain business could have policed this issue a long time ago. Some registrars and parking companies have already undergone extensive purging of trademark infringing domains from their portfolios and prevent the monetization of them. There are also registrars who specifically forbid domain tasting. A leading parking company rep told Domain Name News “The TM market lives on as many parking companies continue to allow domain owners to park/monetize these domain names on their platforms. If the commercial incentive to own these names is removed, then the market will effectively disappear.”

ICANN is making attempts to solve the domain tasting issue with a proposed policy mentioned in the brief. Firstly, the proposed .20 fee for domain names deleted during the AGP should impact tasting operations bottom line and prevent the abuse of AGP. Additionally there is a proposed policy which states if a registrar deletes more than 10% of the total amount of domain names registered in a given month, refunds will not be granted. This should take care of the tasting issue, but it still leaves us wondering what else ICANN has up their sleeves regarding domain monetization.

But wait, ICANN isn’t through with saying that domain monetization is bad for the internet though. After addressing the tasting issue in the brief, ICANN states that domain monetization is a problem that is causing some domain names currently being used for PPC to be used in a way which may be a problem for some internet users. According to the paper Domain Monetization . . .

has also raised questions about whether “good names” are being used solely to create paid links and PPC revenue, rather than enable new users to create an online identity or substantive content.

This is often an argument cited by critics of domain monetization or domain parking. These critics (who likely do not have a good domain name or have a desire for a good domain name) feel that domain monetization robs them of domain names they could ‘put to use in a better way’ or as ICANN puts it with “substantive content”. In this scenario everyone who isn’t using a domain that I want is squatting the domain name. We wonder who is going to be the decision maker on any future policy of what is and is not “substantive content” or an “online identity” or who deserves a domain name and who doesn’t. It is not Domain Name News’ belief that this falls in to the mandate of ICANN and we feel they are treading further in to uncharted territory.  Additionally, there are plenty of alternative extensions available, and more to come. It’s likely that these “good domains” they are referring to are the more coveted .com domain names, so maybe this “problem” is already being addressed by the release of more extensions.

We believe that the intentions of this paper should have been to address the problems of domain tasting. As it is clear by a statement near the end of the paper that ICANN is more focused on tasting :

The practices of using parking and PPC to monetize domain names have not to date generated the same concerns as tasting.

The reasons for referencing domain monetization in this brief as if it were a problem is not clear, but it doesn’t read as a mistake. We see no good in labeling domain monetization as if it were a problem and wonder what else ICANN believes regarding domain monetization. The good that can be seen in this brief is that ICANN is making steps to do something about the tasting problems. The bad is that they’ve lumped all registrants and anyone monetizing a domain name in to the same basket. Let’s just hope that sensible minds come together in this “bottom-up, consensus based, policy making community” and not throw the baby out with the bath water.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

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Original post by Adam Strong

In a recent memorandum to ICANN, .info domain name registry provider Afilias has proposed that the company be responsible for all decisions regarding .info domain name abuses. The proposed Abusive Use Policy has its root in the good intention of comabting the use of domain names for phishing, spamming or other malcious use, however the proposal provides a greater amount of control to the registry and leaves the door open for the registry to make important decisions on what is and is not to be considered abusive use of a domain name.

The proposal defines the abusive practices which it would seek to prevent, but many of these abusive practices are left open for interpretation. The “Other abusive behaviors” also leaves in an open-ended category which would allow the registry to include any other form of abusive practices that they see fit:

Other abusive behaviors, normally identified by a pattern of material deceit, defined motive, leveraged opportunity and often conducted in a repetitive manner with or without concealment

The proposal finally seeks to put far greater control in the hands of the registry operator, in essence enabling the registry to become the ultimate decision maker in what is and is not considered abusive use of a domain name.

The proposal specifically states :

Pursuant to Section 3.6.5 of the RRA, Afilias reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name(s) on registry lock, hold or similar status,
that it deems necessary, in its discretion;

In a research study by software company McAfee, the .info registry was cited as having one of the greatest number of malicious sites in a gTLD. Additionally, last month Google removed sites using the .info domain name from their search listings. Many industry insiders would cite the reason for the higher level of abuses to be rooted in the cheaper domain prices and promotions frequently conducted by the registry. These efforts appear to boost registrations overall, but obviously are boosting the registrations by the wrong type of clientele.

Afilias is making an important step in cleaning up the problems at the registry, however their request to be the ultimate decision maker in cases of abuse needs to be re-thought. One would think that the process should have a greater level of checks and balances and some sense of due process set-up in making this level of decision. It is likely far easier though for the registry to propose a solution that gives them ultimate power than it is to come up with a solution that protects registrants rights and interests.

If ICANN were to grant this level of power to the .info registry, it is safe to assume that other registry providers, specifically Verisign with .com and .net, would also seek to have this authority.

ICANN invites public comment on all registry proposals. The public can comment by sending an email to registryservice@icann.org. Comments can be seen on the public site at http://forum.icann.org/lists/registryservice/

Thanks to George Kirikos for bringing this to our attention.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

Domain Convergence, October 6-8, 2008, Niagara Falls

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Original post by Adam Strong

Image via Wikipedia

Under the light of the recent de-accreditations for registrars Bestregistrar.com and DotForce, where ICANN is looking for a new home for it’s 5,800 registrants, a proposal for an Interim Terminated Registrar Transition Procedure has now been published for comments.

The process seeks to eliminate the involvement of the registrar that is being de-accredited and identify ICANN’s power & responsibilities.

This draft/interim process is currently being used by ICANN staff in facilitating the transition of registrations from two recently de-accredited registrars. It was developed from learning by staff in previous registrar de-accreditations (including both voluntary and involuntary terminations) and with input provided by the community at the Registrar Termination workshop hosted in Delhi, India at the February 2008 ICANN meeting. (Transcript, presentation slides, and summary of participant comments) Through the workshop in Delhi, community members provided several well-considered ideas for addressing particular scenarios that could be encountered upon the de-accreditation of a registrar. Although many of suggestions have been incorporated into this draft/interim procedure, some of the suggestions are not currently implementable due to existing policy limitations or a need for further development of long-term solutions. It is anticipated that, after this procedure has been finalized and approved, it will be periodically reevaluated and adapted as warranted by ICANN’s experience with its use.

(c) 2008 DomainNameNews.com

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Original post by Frank Michlick