Category: TLDs/New gTLDs

.ORG News – ICANN delays again the sale of the .ORG Registry

Sale of .ORG registry - PIR Public Interest Registry - dot ORG - Nameshield

A few months ago, in previous articles, we mentioned the sale by Internet Society of Public Interest Registry (PIR), the .ORG registry, to Ethos Capital, a private equity firm.

The .ORG is the reference extension for non-profit organizations and the .ORG registry represents more than 10.5 million domains. For reminder, the announcement of the sale of the registry caused several concerns in the NGO community.

In front of these many complaints, ICANN had already postponed the approval of the .ORG registry’s sale to Ethos Capital and requested additional information from Internet Society.

Further postponement of the .org registry’s sale after the intervention of the Attorney General of California

On Thursday 16 April, when the ICANN Board was to decide whether or not to approve the sale of the registry, it was finally decided at that meeting, to postpone it again until 4 May 2020. This fourth postponement was caused by a letter received the day before from California’s Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, asking ICANN to reject the sale. He explains that it “raises serious concerns that cannot be overlooked“.

“Empowering a for-profit entity that could undermine the accessibility and affordability of the .org domain, which serves nonprofits, should concern all of us” the Attorney General’s office told The Register.

The secret nature of Ethos Capital is a source of concern

In his letter, the Attorney General expressed several concerns about the transaction, including the secret nature of the proposed buyer, Ethos Capital: “Little is known about Ethos Capital and its multiple proposed subsidiaries“. Ethos Capital is criticized for its unusual corporation structure (the purchase involves six different companies, all of which were registered on the same day in October 2019) and its lack of transparency regarding its future plans.

In its notice published last Thursday, ICANN affirms having listened to the community and having demanded greater transparency and more guarantees from PIR. According to the organization, the Attorney General’s letter does not take into account the recent work that PIR has done regarding Public Interest Commitments, to make the entity more responsible to the community. ICANN requested PIR to strengthen these commitments, and a draft of the revised Public Interest Commitments has been provided to ICANN.

ICANN’s behavior and Internet Society criticized

ICANN has also been subject to a number of criticisms during the entire process, particularly as it appeared that the organization’s staff was pushing for approval of the transaction despite near universal opposition to it from the Internet community.

In addition, early last week, ICANN’s founding CEO Michael Roberts and original Board Chair Esther Dyson wrote a letter to Xavier Becerra criticizing the transaction and accusing their successors of abandoning ICANN’s core principles.

According to the Attorney General, this transaction will have an impact on ICANN’s reputation given the way the organization has handled the situation.

Not only ICANN and Ethos have been criticized by the Attorney General’s office, Xavier Becerra also blames the Internet Society for proposing the sale of the .ORG registry to Ethos Capital: “ISOC purports to support the Internet, yet its actions, from the secretive nature of the transaction, to actively seeking to transfer the .ORG registry to an unknown entity, are contrary to its mission and potentially disruptive to the same system it claims to champion and support“.

Xavier Becerra’s letter does not threaten ICANN with action if it does approve the sale. However, it does indicate that the Attorney General of California holds significant authority over the organization and is prepared to act, particularly since this sale could affect hundreds of thousands of other non-profit organizations.

“Given the concerns stated above, and based on the information provided, the .ORG registry and the global Internet community – of which innumerable Californians are a part – are better served if ICANN withholds approval of the proposed sale and transfer of PIR and the .ORG registry to the private equity firm Ethos Capital. This office will continue to evaluate this matter, and will take whatever action necessary to protect Californians and the nonprofit community.”

In a notice published last Thursday, ICANN thus declared the postponement of its decision: “We have agreed to extend the review period to 4 May 2020, to permit additional time to complete our review.”

.ZA websites will have to propose a link towards the COVID-19 official website implemented by the government

South Africa - .ZA domain names - dot ZA
Image source: 12019 via Pixabay

Since last Thursday, the South African government has imposed to all websites using domain names in .ZA to propose a link that redirects towards the official Covid-19 information website implemented by the government:  www.sacoronavirus.co.za

This new rule applies to all .ZA websites, regardless of their content.

The two other extensions managed by ZADNA registry, JOBURG and .CAPETOWN are also affected by this rule.

In the same logic, the registry also invites Internet services providers to block any websites which spread fake news.

Lastly, it is interesting to note that the government’s COVID information website is not www.coronavirus.co.za but www.sacoronavirus.co.za. This is because the domain name www.coronavirus.co.za has been registered by a domainer who proposes on his website to resell the name in question.

Like all crisis or news, COVID-19 led to a massive registration of domain names containing the associated terms, some unscrupulous players seeking to take advantage of the situation.

Unsurprisingly, during this unprecedented and complicated period, there has been a high increase in the number of cybercriminal attacks of all kinds.

The launch of 8 new extensions for India

Domain Names - Extensions India - IDN in Indian Language - Nameshield
Image source: 0426xgds via Pixabay

.IN Registry launches new Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) in Indian Language.

IDN registrations will begin on March 16th 2020 and listed as below:

Internationalized Domain Name (IDN)

.ಭಾರತ

.ଭାରତ  

.ভাৰত   

.भारतम्  

.भारोत 

.بارت    

.ڀارت       

.ഭാരതം     

Language

Kannada

Oriya

Assamese

Sanskrit

Santali

Kashmiri

Sindhi

Malayalam

The launch schedule would be as follows:

  • Sunrise A (Indian Registrant holding Indian Trademarks) : starts 16/03/2020 ends 15/05/2020
  • Sunrise B (Overseas Registrant holding Indian Trademarks) : starts 16/04/2020 ends 15/05/2020
  • Sunrise C (Existing Registrant holding ASCII domain name .in) : starts 01/06/2020 ends 30/06/2020
  • General Availability: 15/07/2020

Note that the possibility of registration during the priority phase of SUNRISE for foreign holders starts a beat later.

For more information on the conditions for registration, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Grandfathering registrations of a .TW in Chinese characters are opened for .TW domain names’ holders

Domain names in .TW in Chinese characters - .台灣
Image source: Yenyu_Chen via Pixabay

The .TW registry (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.

BREXIT – The plan of the .EU for UK citizens

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.