In recent years, ICANN, the regulator of a “universal resolution” of the Internet for all Internet users, has been confronted with new difficulties that are weakening the body and its model. Its mode of operation has had to be adapted to an unprecedented global pandemic and its model of a global Internet is now being questioned by the growing desire of states to emancipate themselves from it, with the tragic conflict in Ukraine pushing the Urals a little further away from the Ro... Read More
Author: Arnaud Wittersheim
Head of Operations Department
Nameregistry - Compliance - Nameshield
ICANN72, between prioritisation needs and fragmentation risks
At the end of October, the 72nd ICANN summit was held, devoted to the development of policies that impact the domain name system (DNS) and the global Internet community. As already announced during the past summer, this latest annual meeting was to be held by videoconference in the time zone of Seattle in the United States. “Sleepless” were therefore not in Seattle but rather in Europe. The thorn in the side of the next round of new generic extensions A month before th... Read More
Data escrow no longer escapes the concentration of the domain names industry
There is a lot of talk about the concentration that is taking place in registries and registrars, two of the key actors in the domain names ecosystem. The two companies that have been in the news the most in the last two years, are Ethos Capital and Clearlake Capital, two private equity firms that have specialised in acquisitions in this sector. Ethos Capital, founded in 2019, had proposed in November in a 1.135 billion euros deal to acquire Public Interest Registry, the registry in char... Read More
ICANN71: GAC in the spotlight
Image source : icann.org website Some 56 sessions were scheduled as part of the 71st ICANN Summit in The Hague. Held once again exclusively by video conference due to the global health situation, no less than a quarter of these sessions were organised by the GAC, the governmental advisory committee that advises ICANN on public policy issues related to ICANN’s responsibilities in the domain name system. The GAC has been very active on all current ICANN policy issues and has clearly made... Read More
ICANN70: At the crossroads of different policy development processes
Initially scheduled to take place in Cancun, Mexico, like ICANN67 , the recent summit on Internet governance was once again held entirely by videoconference due to the global health situation. The PDPs, the Policy Development Processes, were the main thread of this summit. ICANN70 was the fourth summit held remotedely The PDP, Policy Development Process, is the central community mechanism used by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (Gnso), the body responsible for policy development... Read More
The historical operator of the .UK Nominet in troubled waters
credit image: www_slon_pics This Monday, March 22nd, at 5:15 pm CET, Nominet, the historical registry in charge of the extension of the United Kingdom, the .UK, announced that the motion aiming to dismiss five members of its board of directors, including the current CEO Russel Haworth and Chair Mark Wood, was approved by 52,74% of the members who expressed themselves in this consultation. According to its statutes, when a motion is supported by a majority of its members, Nominet must orga... Read More
ICANN67 – COVID19 : 0-1
Image source: geralt via Pixabay The 67th annual ICANN Summit, a summit dedicated to Internet naming regulations, was to be held in Cancún, Mexico, from 7th to 12th March. Often referred to by the acronym ICANN67, it is finally another acronym COVID19 that designates the now famous coronavirus that forced ICANN to reconsider all the logistics of this major event. Since 1999, ICANN has organised three annual meetings devoted to the regulations applicable to Internet naming and a fourth dev... Read More
ICANN66 at Montreal – A contrasting summit
During the first half of November, the 66th ICANN Summit was held in Montreal, Canada. This third and final annual summit devoted to policies applicable to Internet naming was eagerly awaited as the topics under discussion are numerous. At its closing, however, it left many participants a little bit disappointed. A preview of the topics and postures during the weekend before the official launch of the Summit The weekend before the official opening of the Summit is usually an opportunity t... Read More
Status of ongoing projects after ICANN64
A month ago, ICANN held its first annual meeting with the Internet community in Kobe, Japan. At this summit, ICANN presented the major projects of the year and those of the coming years. Let’s look back at the main topics. The implicitely constraint of the GDPR While in May 2018, Europe adopted ambitious legislation to protect users’ personal data, ICANN imposed a regulatory framework on domain name players to bring the industry into line with the constraints of the GDPR. In the... Read More
A much awaited first report on DNS abuse in the new extensions
While the fate of 25 not yet delegated new extensions remains to seal, which represents approximately 2 % of all the accepted extensions during the current opening round, ICANN has just published a study on the proportion of DNS abuse in the new extensions launched after 2012. The study was requested by the Competition, Consumer Trust and Consumer Choice Review Team ( CCTRT), which is mandated by ICANN to examine the extent to which the introduction or expansion of generic extension... Read More
