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The following is a guest post by Michele Neylon, founder of the web hosting company Blacknight and chairman of the working group asking for feedback in this article. Since ICANN policy affects us all, we encourage our readers to provide their feedback on the issues identified by the working group.

The following is a guest post by Michele Neylon, founder of the web hosting company Blacknight and chairman of the working group asking for feedback in this article. Since ICANN policy affects us all, we encourage our readers to provide their feedback on the issues identified by the working group.

ICANN’s Generic Names Supporting Organisation (GNSO) has formed a working group to consider changes to the domain transfer process to enhance security and reduce hijacking.  The working group consists of registrars, aftermarket players, domainers and other members of the ICANN Community.  The group published its preliminary recommendations at the ICANN meeting in Brussels two weeks ago and the 20-day comment period has just begun.

The key areas of focus for the working group are as follows:

1. Whether a process for urgent return/resolution of a domain name should be developed, as discussed within the SSAC hijacking report (http://www.icann.org/announcements/hijacking-report-12jul05.pdf; see alsohttp://www.icann.org/correspondence/cole-to-tonkin-14mar05.htm);
2. Whether additional provisions on undoing inappropriate transfers are needed, especially with regard to disputes between a Registrant and Admin Contact. The policy is clear that the Registrant can overrule the AC, but how this is implemented is currently at the discretion of the registrar;
3. Whether special provisions are needed for a change of registrant near a change of registrar. The policy does not currently deal with change of registrant, which often figures in hijacking cases;
4. Whether standards or best practices should be implemented regarding use of Registrar Lock status (e.g., when it may/may not, should/should not be applied);
5. Whether, and if so, how best to clarify denial reason #7: A domain name was already in “lock status” provided that the Registrar provides a readily accessible and reasonable means for the Registered Name Holder to remove the lock status.

Comments by registrants, registrars and other interested parties are strongly encouraged and can be viewed at:

http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#irtp-b-initial-report

The deadline for submitting comments is 25 July, 2010.

(c) 2010 DomainNameNews.com

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According to Kieren McCarthy ICANN’s general counsel read a statement at the start of the public forum at the current ICANN meeting in Brussel, stating that the Board had accepted the results of the independent review panel and thus would approve the .xxx TLD tomorrow. The board had delayed the decision until the 38th ICANN meeting in order to gather additional comments from the public.

According to Kieren McCarthy ICANN’s general counsel read a statement at the start of the public forum at the current ICANN meeting in Brussel, stating that the Board had accepted the results of the independent review panel and thus would approve the .xxx TLD tomorrow. The board had delayed the decision until the 38th ICANN meeting in order to gather additional comments from the public.

The board would then enter the contract negotiations with application ICM Registry and then refer the contract to the Governmental Advisory Committee since they had raised concerns in the past.

This decision would ignore the lobbying of the adult industry against the new extension, however the registry might have some challenges selling domains under the new TLD.

(c) 2010 DomainNameNews.com

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While everyone involved in ICANN topics is gearing up to fly to Brussels for the 38th ICANN meeting, the travelers are joined by the Free Speech Coalition’s (FSC, trade organization of the adult industry) Executive Director Diane Duke and FSC Board Vice President Tom Hyme. The two are attending the ICANN meeting to lobby against a potential approval of the .XXX sTLD by ICANN’s board.

While everyone involved in ICANN topics is gearing up to fly to Brussels for the 38th ICANN meeting, the travelers are joined by the Free Speech Coalition’s (FSC, trade organization of the adult industry) Executive Director Diane Duke and FSC Board Vice President Tom Hyme. The two are attending the ICANN meeting to lobby against a potential approval of the .XXX sTLD by ICANN’s board.

“I am honored to be going to Brussels with Diane,” said Hymes, who traveled to Wellington in 2005 for the same purpose. “The fact that so much time has gone by has done nothing to diminish the dangers posed by dot XXX. Yes, it should never have been resurrected from the dead in the first place, but it was and now we need to be there, reminding the ICANN Board and staff at every turn that dot XXX has no industry support, and also that the last thing in the world they want to be is the ultimate arbiter of a policy-setting IFFOR (International Foundation for Online Responsibility). Believe me, that scenario would be hell on earth for ICANN.”

Diane had already spoken against the release of the .XXX sTLD at the 2007 ICANN meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, where the ICANN board rejected the application by ICM registry. ICM had then asked ICANN to have an independent review panel look over the decision. The review panel concluded that ICANN should not have rejected the application after first approving it. The decision was tabled again, but delayed at the 37th ICANN meeting in Nairobi, Kenya earlier this year in order to ask the public for additional comments.

Conservative oriented organizations have been speaking out against introducing a .XXX extension as well as the adult industry.

[via AVN]

(c) 2010 DomainNameNews.com

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As already rumored by Stephane von Gelder yesterday, ICANN has just published the fourth version of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook amongst a number of other documents released over the weekend.

As already rumored by Stephane von Gelder yesterday, ICANN has just published the fourth version of the New gTLD Applicant Guidebook amongst a number of other documents released over the weekend.

The release is supposed to give potential applicants and other stakeholders time to review the guidebook before the 38th ICANN meeting to be held in Brussels from June 20-25th. The new version of the guidelines includes changes to the Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) process, the trademark clearing house and post-delegation dispute resolution, centralized zone file access (ZFA) amongst many other items. Another topic added is the Registry/Registrar separation issue which results in severe restrictions as to who may apply for a new TLD, especially affecting existing industry players. Other modifications seem to make country and continent TLDs close to impossible.

(c) 2010 DomainNameNews.com

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When ICANN introduced the mandatory Registrar Data Escrow (RDE) for registrars in 2007, the program was a direct result of the problems experienced with the registrar RegisterFly. ICANN requires all registrars to deposit a copy of their whois information with an approved RDE provider in order to protect registrants from the loss of their domain. The system is trying to encourage registrars to deposit the underlying whois information for domains under whois privacy (which was one of the issues at Registerfly, since some of the ownership data was lost). Registrars under the old Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) can still deposit whois proxy information, but the new RAA forces registrars to inform their registrants if this is the case.

When ICANN introduced the mandatory Registrar Data Escrow (RDE) for registrars in 2007, the program was a direct result of the problems experienced with the registrar RegisterFly. ICANN requires all registrars to deposit a copy of their whois information with an approved RDE provider in order to protect registrants from the loss of their domain. The system is trying to encourage registrars to deposit the underlying whois information for domains under whois privacy (which was one of the issues at Registerfly, since some of the ownership data was lost). Registrars under the old Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) can still deposit whois proxy information, but the new RAA forces registrars to inform their registrants if this is the case.

In November of 2007, ICANN selected Iron Mountain as the preferred provider for RDE services. While registrars are free to select another (ICANN approved) provider, most, if not all, chose to go with Iron Mountain, also since there would be no additional cost involved. Today Iron Mountain announced in a press release, that it now offers an audit service for the submitted information.

With the ICANN Deposit Audit Service (IDAS) application, Iron Mountain systematically audits registrar escrow deposits, measures the integrity of those deposits, and reports the results to ICANN. The new application supplements Iron Mountain’s Registrar Data Escrow service. With this service, domain name registrars periodically escrow their registration information records to safeguard these intellectual property assets. Because the registration data is placed in an escrow account with Iron Mountain and verified through the IDAS application, it can be effectively retrieved by ICANN in the event of a technical, operational, or business failure of a registrar.

The additional reports will be used by ICANN to audit compliance of registrars. Details on how the audit works were not provided, but it can be assumed that the deposited data would be verified and compared with zonefile and registry records, since bulk querying the whois-servers of registrars would be against their terms of use.

“The goal of the data escrow program is to help ensure the security and stability of the Domain Name System by protecting the data associated with registered domain names in a secure escrow account,” said Mike Zupke, ICANN’s registrar liaison manager. “Iron Mountain’s Deposit Audit Service is the next step in a full range of programs and procedures that will work to safeguard registrants and maintain Internet stability.”

Disclaimer: This article has been syndicated from DomainCocoon’s corporate blog. Frank Michlick, Editor at DNN, also is founder of DomainCocoon.

(c) 2010 DomainNameNews.com

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CEO Rod Beckstrom earns $750,000 annual base salary plus bonus

CEO Rod Beckstrom earns $750,000 annual base salary plus bonus

As a not-for profit Organization, ICANN always had to file and publish some information of how they spent their money. However those filings are hard to read and some cases some of the information has been removed. It appears ICANN president & CEO Rod Beckstrom is trying hard to bring a new openness to ICANN. Today he published a document on twitter showing the compensation for ICANN’s top employees. The non-profit models its compensation based on For-Profit companies and “has had major blunders, yet to my knowledge no staff were ever held accountable through termination or pay reductions” according to an article by George Kirikos published on CircleID. Kirikos also points out that the highest paid UN employee earns an annual salary of US$201,000 (“Under Secretary General”) even when taking into account the ITU employees.

But not only salaries at ICANN are costing the domain industry and registrants a fortune. Many of the recently de-accredited registrars owed ICANN large amounts of money. And yet ICANN decided to wait and not require an earlier payment of the fees. Most likely this money will never be seen by ICANN now, and thus the rest of the community will have to pay for it.

The board has recently decided to release $1.5 million from the existing budget contingency in order to cover operating expenses for the 2010 budget. In addition the board “requests the CEO and his designated staff to closely monitor expenditures and forecasts for FY10“.

See the details for ICANN top staff compensation after the jump.

President and Chief Executive Officer

Rod Beckstrom was appointed ICANN’s President and Chief Executive Officer, as well as a member of the Board of Directors, effective 1 July 2009. ICANN and Beckstrom entered in to a three year employment agreement effective 1 July 2009. Under the terms of the agreement Beckstrom is paid a base salary of US$750,000 per year, additional at risk compensation of up to US$195,000 per year, and coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan as ICANN makes available to its staff.

Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Doug Brent was appointed as Chief Operating Officer on 13 December 2006. Brent’s compensation consists of a base salary of US$270,000 per year, a housing allowance of $24,000 per year which is tax neutralized, additional at risk compensation of up to 48 percent of base pay each year, and standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan as ICANN makes available to its staff.

General Counsel and Secretary

Mr. John Jeffrey was appointed as General Counsel and Secretary on 2 September 2003. Jeffrey’s compensation consists of a base salary of US$230,000 per year, additional at risk compensation of up to 30 percent of base pay per year, and standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan as ICANN makes available to its staff.

Senior Vice President, Services

Mr. Kurt Pritz was appointed as Vice President, Business Operations on 2 September 2003. Pritz was appointed Senior Vice President, Services on 13 December 2006. Pritz’ compensation consists of a base salary of US$245,000 per year, additional at risk compensation of up to 30 percent of base pay per year, and standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan as ICANN makes available to its staff.

Chief Financial Officer

Mr. Kevin Wilson was appointed as Chief Financial Officer on 26 June 2007. Wilson’s compensation consists of a base salary of $170,000 per year, additional at risk compensation of up to 20 percent of base pay per year, and standard coverage under vacation, health and welfare plans including medical, dental, vision, life insurance and a 401(k) retirement plan as ICANN makes available to its staff.

ICANN Compensation Practices (PDF)

[Thanks to Rod Beckstrom, George Kirikos]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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Domain Names Doug Brent, george kirikos, icann, ICANN / Policy, John Jeffrey, Kevin Wilson, Kurt Pritz, Rod Beckstrom, Salaries

4 of the 16 Applications (Egypt, Russia, Saudia Arabia and UAE) that ICANN received for the Fast Track IDN ccTLD have already passed the String Validation phase and can now apply for String Delegation (adding the domains to Root DNS) to IANA. The introduction process of new IDN ccTLDs is done in three steps:

4 of the 16 Applications (Egypt, Russia, Saudia Arabia and UAE) that ICANN received for the Fast Track IDN ccTLD have already passed the String Validation phase and can now apply for String Delegation (adding the domains to Root DNS) to IANA. The introduction process of new IDN ccTLDs is done in three steps:

1. Preparation (by the requester in the country / territory). Community consensus is built for which IDN ccTLD to apply for, how it is run, and which organization will be running it, along with preparing and gathering all the required supporting documentation.
2. String Evaluation: incoming requests to ICANN in accordance with the criteria described above: the technical and linguistic requirements for the IDN ccTLD string(s). Applications are received through an online system available together with additional material supporting the process at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/
3. String Delegation: requests successfully meeting string evaluation criteria are eligible to apply for delegation following the same ICANN IANA process as is used for ASCII based ccTLDs. String delegation requests are submitted to IANA root zone management.

The requirements that had to be fulfilled in phase two were:

• the script used to represent the IDN ccTLDs must be non-Latin;
• the languages used to express the IDN ccTLDs must be official in the corresponding country or territory; and
• a specific set of technical requirements must be met (as evaluated by an external DNS Stability Panel comprised of DNS and IDN experts).

More details about the Fast Track IDN process can be found on the ICANN site.

[via ICANN]

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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In light of eNom following suit and increasing their redemption fee to $250 (as reported by DNN), ICANN has published the “Advisory Concerning Posting of Registrar Fees for Restoring Deleted Domain Names” yesterday. In the advisory ICANN does not limit the amount chargeable for domain redemption, but does remind registrars that the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) requires them to publish the fee amount on their website. According to the RAA, the fee “must be clearly displayed on the website” and that it must be posted “both at the time of registration and in a clear place on its website [...]“.

In light of eNom following suit and increasing their redemption fee to $250 (as reported by DNN), ICANN has published the “Advisory Concerning Posting of Registrar Fees for Restoring Deleted Domain Names” yesterday. In the advisory ICANN does not limit the amount chargeable for domain redemption, but does remind registrars that the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) requires them to publish the fee amount on their website. According to the RAA, the fee “must be clearly displayed on the website” and that it must be posted “both at the time of registration and in a clear place on its website [...]“.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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According to an ICANN announcement published yesterday, all UDRP providers must accept electonic filings by UDRP claimants and respondents as of March 1st, 2010. The original rules had required UDRP providers such as WIPO to provide hard copies of the entire complaint. As of March 1st they will only be required to forward a hard copy notice that a UDRP complaint has been filed.

According to an ICANN announcement published yesterday, all UDRP providers must accept electonic filings by UDRP claimants and respondents as of March 1st, 2010. The original rules had required UDRP providers such as WIPO to provide hard copies of the entire complaint. As of March 1st they will only be required to forward a hard copy notice that a UDRP complaint has been filed.

ICANN | Announcement Regarding Implementation of Modification to Implementation Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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According to our contacts at the current ICANN meeting in South Korea ICANN staff has announced that the schedule for new gTLDs will be pushed out even beyond Q2/2010 due to the controversy and amount of different opinions and comments from the community.

According to our contacts at the current ICANN meeting in South Korea ICANN staff has announced that the schedule for new gTLDs will be pushed out even beyond Q2/2010 due to the controversy and amount of different opinions and comments from the community.

In the meantime other working groups are pushing ahead to introduce IDN ccTLDs. When the the expansion of the root zones came up, there were no concerns to add as many as 100 zones in a short period of time.

Another topic of discussion is DNSSEC, the signing of the root zones published by the registry as a protection against DNS poisoning attacks.

We also expect the registrar/registry separation to be another big topic at the event. Interestingly enough Afilias seems to be one of the registries pushing to see this issue addressed – the registry operating company running .INFO and .ORG, which is owned by several registrars.

(c) 2009 DomainNameNews.com

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