Following the announcement on Sunday February
16, of Agnès Buzyn’s candidacy to Paris municipal elections, several political journalists
discovered on Monday that the domain name buzyn2020.fr was registered but
redirected towards “Paris en commun”,
the campaign website of another candidate, Anne Hidalgo.
Several other names were registered on Sunday
night, also redirecting towards Paris en
commun’s homepage like buzyn2020.paris, agnesbuzyn2020.fr and
agnesbuzyn2020.com.
If several of these names were anonymously registered, two of them were registered by the association “Montreuil en Commun”, a group of “four municipal councilors” who claims to be “without any political label” and explains to Numerama the fact that these names were available “indicates the improvisation of her candidacy and LREM’s lightness regarding a serious matter such as a candidacy to run for Paris’ mayor”.
Raising awareness to cybersquatting risks
The LREM candidate will not be able to use the
domain name buzyn2020.com either, which was registered on Monday by Crisalyde, a
risk and crisis management consulting company.
“I took the opportunity to raise awareness. It’s my job, I saw a risk and I took advantage of it”, explains Selim Miled, Crisalyde’s CEO, to the Parisien.
Cybersquatting is a practice that consists in
taking a domain name by registering it, using or mentioning a trademark, a
business name, a patronym or any name on which the applicant has any right, in
order to make material or moral profit from its current or future notoriety.
Thus, Crisalyde registered 6 domain names: buzyn.paris,
agnesbuzyn2020.paris, buzynpourparis.com, buzynpourparis.fr, buzyn2020.info and
buzyn2020.com. “As soon as Agnès Buzyn’s
team contacts me, I will give them the domain name at the purchased price, with
a friendly advice” adds Selim Miled.
What strategy to adopt against cybersquatting?
Agnès Buzyn’s team will have to contact the
persons who registered these names, who may decide to graciously give them back
or resell them at prices they will have set.
However, legal actions exist aiming to retrieve a cybersquatted domain name, like the UDRP procedure (Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy). This procedure will allow to suppress or transfer the domain name.
And lastly, in order to prevent any cybersquatting risk, it is recommended to implement a domain names registration monitoring to be immediately alerted of any new domain names registration that can potentially infringe your notoriety or your business.
For more information on our online brand protection expertise and domain names recovery procedures, don’t hesitate to contact a Nameshield consultant.
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 devoted to more operational aspects, often
referred to as the GDD Summit (Global Domain Division Summit). These meetings
are an opportunity for participants from some 150 countries to discuss live the
hot topics related to the Domain Name System (DNS).
For the
past few weeks, however, world attention has focused on a completely different
subject: the ongoing spread of the coronavirus, which according to the latest
figures available has contaminated some 75,465 people in mainland China and
caused the death of 2,236 people since its emergence in December in Wuhan,
capital of Hubei province. While South Korea also now has more than 150
confirmed cases, the list of countries with confirmed cases keeps growing. More
than 30 countries are now in this situation.
Quite
logically, in recent weeks, behind the scenes of the ICANN organization,
coronavirus has been rising as a major concern for the players in the domain
name industry. More and more potential participants were talking about the fact
that they would prefer not to travel for this event, which is important to
them, while others were asking whether it was appropriate to hold this event in
such a context. Recent cancellations of similar events have indeed echoed their
concerns. Earlier this month, the GSMA, the organizers of the world’s largest
mobile industry exhibition, Mobile World Congress 2020, effectively cancelled
the event after more than 30 exhibitors and sponsors withdrew due to the
outbreak. The Fintech Festival of India (IFF 2020) organised by the government
of Maharashtra, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY),
the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Fintech Convergence
Council also similarly announced this week that it would postpone the event to
a “more appropriate time” due to coronavirus-related issues. The
event was scheduled to take place on 4-5 March 2020.
At the 19
February session of the ICANN Board, which was extended by one hour, ICANN
finally decided :
« Resolved
(2020.02.19.01), by virtue of the public health emergency of international
concern posed by COVID-19, the daily evolving developments, and the high global
risk still identified, the Board directs the ICANN President and CEO, or his
designees, to take all necessary actions to not hold ICANN67 as an in-person
meeting in Cancún, Mexico.
Resolved
(2020.02.19.02), as the Board has determined to not proceed to Cancun, Mexico
for ICANN67, the Board directs the ICANN President and CEO to move ICANN67 to
ICANN’s first fully remote public meeting. »
The ICANN Board
communiqué confirms that the summit, which is usually held in person, will for
the first time be entirely managed remotely with means still to be clarified.
If the
holding of such event in a remote mode is unprecedented, it should be noted
that in the past ICANN has already changed the organization of its meetings for
similar reasons. Indeed in June 2016, for example, ICANN decided to move
ICANN56 from Panama City to Helsinki in Finland because of the Zika virus. The
only difference is that their decision could have been anticipated earlier.
This is why
ICANN has already taken up the subject for the holding of the following events :
the GDD Summit planned in Paris in May and then the ICANN68 planned in Kuala
Lumpur in Malaysia in June.
The.TWregistry (TWNIC) offers grandfathering registrations for holders of existing ASCII.TW domains that wish to register the same ASCII domain under .台灣 (.xn--kpry57d).
Before the official opening, TWNIC provides
priority registration for registrants who meet the eligibility requirements.
For example, twnic.tw can be registered for
twnic.台灣 in the
grandfathering period.
The following eligibility criteria apply and
are checked by the registry:
The creation date for ACSII.tw should be earlier than the same ASCII name under .台灣 (.xn--kpry57d)
The registrant of ASCII.台灣 (.xn--kpry57d) should be the same as ASCII.tw
ASCII.tw and ASCII.台灣 (.xn--kpry57d) should be managed under the same registrar when creating ASCII.台灣.
Grandfathering Period : from January 7th, 2020 to February 10th, 2020.
The ASCII.tw Domain Name “.台灣(.xn--kpry57d)” will be starting on February 18, 2020.
For more information on the conditions for registration of your .台灣, don’t hesitate to contact us.
*An
internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at
least one language-specific script or alphabet, such as Arabic, Chinese,
Cyrillic, Devanagari, Hebrew. It allows
the use of domain names in the native language of Internet users using special
characters such as Asian, Arab or African users.
Following BREXIT, Eurid (.EU registry) had
recently updated its Domain names Registration Policy, by modifying the
conditions of attribution of a .EU domain name for the British and Gibraltarians,
according to the plan below:
* From 1st November 2019, EURid will NOT allow
the registration of any new domain name where the registrant’s residence or
establishment country code is either GB or GI, unless the citizenship country
code of the registrant corresponds to an EU27 Member State.
* On 24 October 2019, and following explicit
confirmation by the Commission, EURid will notify by email both GB and GI
registrants and their providers about their forthcoming non-compliance with the
.eu regulatory framework.
During this two-month
period, the domain names concerned remained active and could continue to be
used by their holders.
* As of 1 January 2020, all registrants who did
not demonstrate their eligibility will be deemed ineligible and their domain
names will be WITHDRAWN. A WITHDRAWN domain name no longer functions, as the
domain name is removed from the zone file and can no longer support any active
services (such as websites or email).
Twelve months after
the UK withdrawal, i.e. on 1 November 2020,
all the affected domain names will be REVOKED, and will become AVAILABLE for
general registration. Their release will occur in batches from the time they
become available.
* No transfer to GB /
GI registrants will be possible during the two-month period between 1 November and 1 January,
unless they have a citizen country code from an EU27 member state. The transfer
to a non GB / GI registered will remain possible.
Following the UK’s official leave
from the European Union on January 31, the United Kingdom and the EU will enter
into the so-called “transition period” until December 31, 2020.
During this “transition
period”, residents and citizens of the United Kingdom will continue to be
able to own and register .eu domain names. The plan described above will apply
from the end of the transition period and will soon be updated accordingly.
Nameshield will keep
you informed as soon as Eurid will update the rules.
For its part, the British register (NOMINET)
has no plans currently to restrict .uk domain names – they can be registered
irrespective of nationality or place of residence. All are eligible.
On June 1970, one year after the Stonewall
Riots, which marked the birth of the LGBTQ rights movements, the first Gay
Pride parades took place in many US cities to claim liberty, equality and
denounce prejudice, persecution, bigotry and hate.
Fifty years later, with the launch of the new extension .GAY by the registry TOP LEVEL DESIGN, a new digital space is created for the LGBTQ community. This extension is thus intended for individuals, organizations, businesses supporting the LGBTQ community. It will increase their visibility and create a safe online space.
The launch of .GAY will follow the calendar below.
.GAY Launching Calendar
Sunrise
period: from 10/02/2020 to 06/05/2020
EAP
(Early Access Period): from 11/05/2020 to 18/05/2020
General
availability: from 20/05/2020
.GAY donations to LGBTQ nonprofit organizations
Note that for each new domain name registered, the .GAY donates 20% of registration revenue to LGBTQ nonprofit organizations like GLAAD and CenterLink which are currently the inaugural beneficiaries.
A .GAY domain name registration will become a way to express support to the LGBTQ community.
.GAY rights protections policy
The .GAY will give the possibility to create a safer space online for LGBTQ community. Indeed, the extension will be subject to a .GAY rights protections policy, which will allow to report any content that is harmful or harassing LGBTQ people, and to act against them by removing the content or suspending the site itself.
“The use
of .gay for anti-LGBTQ content or to malign or harm LGBTQ individuals or groups
is strictly prohibited and can result in immediate server-hold. Prohibited
behavior includes harassment, threats, and hate speech” highlights the
registry.
.GAY domain name registrations will be prohibited to parties that are, or are associated with, recognized hate groups inciting violence against the LGBTQ community.
For more information on the conditions for registration of your .GAY, don’t hesitate to contact a Nameshield’s consultant.
In November 2019, a press release announced that .ORG registry, Public Interest Registry (PIR), a non-profit organization managed by Internet Society, is going to be sold off to Ethos Capital, a private equity firm.
.ORG is the extension for non-profit organizations. The acquisition of PIR by Ethos has quickly concerned the organizations using .ORG, on the basis of the potential misuse of the extension by its new owner, which has, by its very nature, profit motives.
The concern? That the registrations and
renewals fees for .ORG domain names increase.
Yet, key figures of the Internet’s world, like
Andrew Sullivan (Internet Society CEO) are exited, seeing in this a strong
strategic partnership and a significant financial contribution allowing
Internet Society to advance its mission of a “more open, accessible and secure Internet for everyone”, as he
wrote in the press release about the acquisition of November 13, 2019.
It would seem that the fears created find their
origin in the “surprise” and lack of transparency around the deal, since the
transaction amount has not been disclosed.
These fears are, of course, the corollary of the removal on June 30, 2019, of the price caps imposed until now to .ORG fees (historically low) by ICANN, despite many reservations expressed by the community. Finally, the fact that Ethos has directly or indirectly a number of close connections to former ICANN members raises concerns to several voices of the industry.
The fear to see the increase of .ORG prices led Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to launch the SaveDotOrg campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the potential impact of a .ORG price increase on the NGO’s budget constraints.
Also the possibility that Ethos Capital later
implements a principle of rights protections that could lead to a form of censorship,
as currently practiced in some countries wishing to silence NGOs.
In front of these protests, ICANN suspended the
acquisition operation last December and requests clarification from the
Internet Society.
More recently, in January 2020, a new candidate of the .ORG extension acquisition has appeared. It is a cooperative corporation (Cooperative Corporation of .ORG Registrants), gathering some web pioneer and former members of ICANN.
The .CY registry announces the
registration of first level .cy domain names, i.e.domainname.cy
The owners of second level registered domain
names, can also apply for the same domain names with a first level extension .CY.
Please note that the 2019 Decree does not provide for commitment on any domain names and thus, all requests will be examined on First Come First Served basis.
To submit a request, don’t hesitate to contact our customer support.
The general availability of .MADRID, the geographical extension of Madrid, the capital city of Spain is near. Managed by the Comunidad de Madrid registry, this extension was launched last April following the calendar below:
Launching schedule
APL
period (Approved Launch Program): from 11/04/2019 to 06/06/2019
Sunrise
and LRP (Limited Registration Period) period: from 16/07/2019 to 10/12/2019
General availability: from
17/12/2019
Some requirements must be respected to register a .MADRID domain name. A .MADRID name’s registration is reserved to individuals or legal entities possessing a link with the Madrid Community:
Local
presence;
Professional,
personal, cultural or commercial activity in the Madrid Community;
Direct
or indirect link with the Madrid Community.
The date of the general availability planned for December 17 2019, is approaching, if you wish more information on your .MADRID registration, don’t hesitate to contact your Nameshield’s consultant.
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 to get an
overview of the topics and postures involved. Not surprisingly, the expedited
Policy Development Process (ePDP) which aims to develop a consensus rule to
specify future conditions of access to personal data that are no longer
published in the WHOIS, the domain name search directory, due to GDPR, is one
of the major topics.
Among other
related topics, the replacement of the same WHOIS by the RDAP (Registration
Data Access Protocol) probably next year for generic domain names. This
replacement is not insignificant when we know that WHOIS has been in use for
nearly 35 years.
The body
representing governments, the GAC, has weighed up the issue of domain name abuse,
which has taken off considerably on the new generic extensions launched in
2012. When we know the rise of Internet practices aimed at weighing on
elections in certain countries and the economic impact of computer attacks and
hacking, we understand that this subject is being pushed by the GAC. While one
of ICANN’s topics is to clarify in their texts the notion of malicious uses, this
term refers to domains registered for phishing, malware, botnets and spam, the
other part concerns the means to stem them. The existence of abusive domains indeed
threatens the DNS infrastructure, impacts consumer safety and threatens the
critical assets of public and commercial entities. Finally, and not
surprisingly, the subject of a future round of new generic extensions has also
been on many lips.
Cherine Chalaby at the ICANN Summit held in Montreal
“The best ICANN summit”, really?
During the traditional opening ceremony, which brings together all the guests for one hour (2500 according to Goran Marby, ICANN CEO) in a huge room to listen to various speakers, including Martin Aubé of the Quebec Government’s Ministry of Economy and Innovation, Cherine Chalaby, one of the ICANN Board members whose term ends at the end of the year, told his audience that ICANN66 would be the “Best ICANN summit”. It must be said, however, that at the end of the week of debates and meetings, which followed one another at a sustained pace, while the subjects under discussion are really numerous, the feeling regarding this assertion was more than mixed for many participants.
First, the
expeditious process for access to WHOIS non-public data is progressing with a
framework constrained by ICANN and the Personal Data Protection Authorities.
The outcome of this process is envisaged between April and June 2020 and it is
currently a centralized model where ICANN would allow the future lifting of
anonymity of data that are now masked due to GDPR which holds the line.
Then the subject that was probably
most often mentioned during this new summit week concerned abuses with domain
names. For ICANN, the subject is central because it is directly correlated to its
totem: the stability of the Internet for which they are the responsible. Since
February 2019, ICANN has been publishing some metrics on malicious practices
identified through DAAR, their Domain Abuse Activity Reporting.
Their latest report presented in
Montreal shows that 364 extensions (mainly new generic extensions from the 2012
round) revealed at least one threat posed by one of the domain names activated
on these extensions. More worryingly, new generic extensions would still account
for nearly 40% of malicious uses, compared to 60% for historical generic
extensions. This figure should be highlighted with the volume of these two
categories of extensions. Indeed, out of just over 200 million generic names,
new generic domains represent only 15% of the total number of registered names.
ICANN therefore wants this subject to be taken up by the entire community
present in Montreal.
Proposals were made by the various bodies present, some of which went so far as to request a policy development process (PDP). This last proposal, if it were to obtain ICANN’s approval, would have the unfortunate consequence of postponing the hypothetical schedule for a next round of new extensions, a subject that interested many of the guests present in Montreal. Indeed, for ICANN, the problem of the concentration of malicious practices in the new generic extensions must be solved before any future round, so that the PDP still in progress on the review of the last round of 2012 has gone almost unnoticed.
If the rules are slow to evolve on malicious uses, your Nameshield consultant can already provide you with adapted solutions to your needs on this key matter.
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