Minds + Machines

Today, the old Joint Project Agreement (JPA) between ICANN and the Department of Commerce expired, and had its place taken by something called the Affirmation of Commitments, already being referred to as the “AoC” in the ICANN vernacular. The document is short and plainly written, so it’s worth a read and actually doesn’t need a lengthy decryption. Naturally I have some concerns, but I’ll save those for another time. This is good news and should be celebrated.

ICANN is now a global organization, in fact as well as in name. Importantly, under the AoC, ICANN remains “private sector led,” although governments, through the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), will have an expanded review function. That was already the case, but under the old JPA it was just one government, that of the United States, doing the reviewing.

The new framework spelled out in the Affirmation of Commitments is something ICANN has needed for a long time. It reinforces ICANN’s charter as a group that works in the public interest; it makes ICANN truly global; it gives ICANN the freedom to operate, and it sets up what we hope will be a sustainable model for government involvement. ICANN’s leadership has been given a license to do good, and we in the ICANN community should also redouble our efforts to make good on ICANN’s promise.

Congratulations to everyone at ICANN and at the Department of Commerce for reaching this historic milestone.

In a recent post to Circle ID entitled New Domains and ICANN Accountability, Steve DelBianco paints himself as “frustrated” that ICANN didn’t take a different path toward new TLDs. Mr. DelBianco was one of four witnesses at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts and Competition on September 23, 2009. He is a creative advocate for his clients, an engaging speaker, and a skillful writer, and he produced a synopsis of the hearing which sounded convincing — until I tried to make sense of it.

My take on the proceedings is decidedly different than Mr. DelBianco’s.

For starters, the panel was not, as Mr. DelBianco claims, historic, except insofar anything that happens, passes, and is recorded is historic. The hearing was mostly a rehash of the familiar pro- and anti-new-TLD arguments, with two notable exceptions: ICANN COO Doug Brent’s solid testimony, and Mr. DelBianco’s showmanship and dizzying arguments, neither of which I had experienced before. (Paul Stahura of eNom and Richard Heath of INTA also testified.)

ICANN has in the past represented itself quite poorly before Congress, culminating with Paul Twomey’s defensive performance (some called it arrogant) before the House Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet in June 2009. Last week, Doug Brent was the opposite — reasonable, responsive, and firm while remaining humble and respectful. His testimony was, in my opinion, very helpful for ICANN’s image.

Mr. DelBianco is a different kind of presenter. With stage props, clever quotes from Mark Twain, a mellifluous tone, and a perfect understanding of committee protocol, he presented what seemed to be a well-fashioned argument: non-Roman-character top-level domains now; Roman-character TLDs much later, if ever.

At first, I couldn’t really make sense of it. Why was DelBianco pushing IDNs? Remember the setting — the House members, which included Howard Coble, a co-author of the letter that set the stage for the hearing), have been heavily lobbied by the many representatives of big intellectual property holders. Verizon by itself has 120 full-time lobbyists in Washington, and they are active on this issue. The stage was set by the letter to ICANN, very sparsely attended by subcommittee members, and those mostly Republicans, even though the subcommittee is dominated by Democrats. The lawmakers were primed for an anti-new-TLD message, and Mr. Coble in particular read out a prepared statement that hewed exactly to the position that had so frequently from major companies such as Verizon, Time Warner, and other large trademark holders — no new TLDs. Why then the advocacy for IDNs?

DelBianco’s testimony was two-pronged and dazzlingly contradictory. On the one hand he said — waving what would become a familiar prop, an enormous label-maker — that top-level domains were just “labels,” meaningless in themselves. On the other hand, he claimed, the masses of non-Roman-alphabet users were crying out for internationalized domain names (IDNs). So, according to DelBianco, on the one hand TLDs are pointless labels — except when they are not. On the other hand, there is no demand for new TLDs — except that non-Roman alphabet users are clamoring for them.

Why are new TLDs mere “labels” when they are in Roman characters, but oh-so-meaningful when they are not?

When Paul Stahura asked, “Why should the Chinese get .BLOG in Chinese characters, but I can’t get .BLOG is English?” the Republican subcommittee members looked up, as if they too were suddenly wondering how they had got themselves into the position of supporting unlimited new TLDs for the Chinese, but none for Americans. And what about Africans, South Americans, and Europeans who do use Roman characters but speak different languages. Are they not also disadvantaged by the limited choice of generic top-level domains?

How, I wondered, did DelBianco, a polished advocate, tie himself in such knots?

Cicero’s great question was cui bono? — whom does it benefit? — when trying to understand the motivation behind a speech in the Roman Senate. Understand who stands to gain, and you will understand much of the argument. DelBianco’s outfit, NetChoice, has a short list of members, which include big trademark holders, and, significantly, VeriSign. And while most big trademark holders would like to see no new TLDs — some of them would probably like to see the Internet disappear altogether — VeriSign wants to see new business, but only the kind which doesn’t threaten the dominant position of .COM. Privately, VeriSign representatives have told me that they want to see .COM replicated world-wide in IDNs, and I don’t believe that this is much of a secret.

From that point of view, but not from any other that I can discern, Mr. DelBianco’s testimony makes a kind of sense, which makes it all the more worrying that he is also known to be lobbying the ICANN Board. VeriSign already has considerable influence in ICANN, and has been part of the new gTLD process since the beginning and have had ample opportunity to argue their case through the good offices of Chuck Gomes, their Vice President of Policy and Compliance. I would be disheartened to learn that they are “triple-dipping” by also lobbying Congress and the ICANN Board.

Such actions take the debate away from ICANN, its proper venue, and into the shadowy back halls of Congress where campaign contributions may have more weight than reasoned arguments. If ICANN’s Board responds to this kind of influence, others will have no choice but to follow suit, and much of ICANN’s purpose will have been compromised.

[UPDATE Sept. 28: a malformed link in the 6th paragraph rendered this post unintelligible. Thankfully, no-one appears to have read it. Now fixed.]

Sixty-one businesses, organizations, and individuals, including many of the domain industry’s major players, yesterday sent a letter to ICANN, detailing the reasons why new top-level domains are required without delay.

If you’re interested in top-level domains, or if you just want to understand why they are important to the Internet, this letter lays out the reasons clearly and succinctly, with a minimum of jargon.

The letter focused on why top-level domains are needed, and soon:

• Growing consumer demand
• Sky-high prices for decent domain names
• Additional safeguards against Internet crime, built into new top-level domains
• The frightening prospect of a split root and multiple internets that don’t work together
• Foster innovation in the domain namespace and create thousands of jobs

Finally, the letter calls on ICANN to follow its founding mandate to create competition and choice in the domain namespace by creating new top-level domains.

The signatories include domain name registries, registrars, domain name aftermarket companies, ccTLD operators, venture capitalists, academics, members of ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Committee, new top-level domain applicants, and business owners and entrepreneurs from outside the domain name industry, representing 16 countries:

Paul Stahura – CEO, eNom (USA)
Jonathon Nevett, Senior Vice President, Network Solutions (USA)
Elliot Noss – CEO Tucows (CANADA)
Rob Hall – CEO, Momentous (CANADA)
Adrian Kinderis, CEO, AusRegistry International (AUSTRALIA)
Hirokatsu Ohigashi, Director, GMO Internet (JAPAN)
Anthony Harris, Exec. Dir., eCOMLAT (ARGENTINA)
Stephane Van Gelder, General Manager, INDOM (FRANCE)
Marcus Faure, Chair of the Executive Committe, CORE Internet Council of Registrars (SWITZERLAND)
Dirk Krischenowski, CEO, dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG (GERMANY)
George T. Bundy, CEO, BRS Media Inc., Administrator of .FM Top-Level Domain (USA)
Alexander Schwertner, General Manager, ePAG (GERMANY)
Bhavin Turakhia, CEO, DirectI (INDIA)
Patrick Vande Walle, Secretary, ISOC-LU; ISOC Trustee; and Member, ICANN SSAC & ALAC (LUXEMBOURG)
Michele Neylon, CEO, Blacknight (IRELAND)
Ben Crawford, CEO, CentralNIC (UK)
Massimo Ralli, CEO, DotRoma (ITALY)
Mickey Beyer-Claussen, CEO, Pervasive Media (USA)
Minor Childers, Founder, Dot Eco LLC (USA)
Christopher Ambler, CEO, Image Online Design (USA)
Emiliano Pasqualetti, CEO DomainsBot (ITALY)
Misha Halvarsson, Managing Director, South Asian Resources, Inc. (USA)
Joe Dolce, Executive Director, Dot Gay Alliance (USA)
Alexander Schubert, General Manager, Dot Gay LLC (LATVIA)
Caspar von Veltheim, Managing Director, Bayern Connect (GERMANY)
Dan Mandell, President, Neutral Space (USA)
Fred Krueger, CEO, Top Level Domain Holdings (UK)
Gertrude E. Allen, Venture Partner, Inventages (USA)
Steven Kelley, CEO, Far Further (USA)
Dr. Henrik Örnebring, Research Fellow in Comparative European Journalism, Oxford University (UK)
Bill Mushkin, CEO, Name.com (USA)
Ivan Pope, CEO, Snipperoo (UK)
Oscar Robles Garay, Director, NIC Mexico (MEXICO)
Dr. Liz Williams, New Top Level Domain Strategist (UK)
Neal Marshad, CEO, Marshad Technology Group (USA)
Tim Denton, Commissioner at Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CANADA)
Jim Dufour, Oceanographic Engineer, Scripps Institution of Oceanography; Chief Environmental Officer, Dot Eco LLC (USA)
Eric Leinberg, CEO, International Data Preservation (USA)
Stephen Deerhake, .AS Top-Level Domain, CEO, GDNS Inc. (USA)
Richard Lau, Owner, DomainManager.com (CANADA)
Paul Shafi, .GS Top-Level Domain, Director, Atlantis North Ltd. (UK)
Jennifer Johnson, CEO, Hashtag Media (USA)
Alexei D. Leshnikov, Director, RU-CENTER (RUSSIA)
Bill MacDonald, Film and Television Producer (“Rome” + “The Saint”) (USA)
Larry Rees, CEO, Strategy HQ (UK)
Clive Flory, CEO, Ostiary (USA)
Dr. Peter Ayton, Professor in Cognitive Psychology, City University London (UK)
Josh Elliot, former IANA staff (USA)
Thomas Keller, Director Domain Services Worldwide, 1&1 Internet AG (GERMANY)
Richard Wilhelm, Board Member, Central Registry Solutions, Member ICANN SSAC (USA)
Dayna Landry, CEO, City Mommy, Inc. (USA)
Adina Reichardt, Chair, dotBayern e.V. (GERMANY)
Herald Summa, CEO, ecoVerband der deutschen Internetwirtschaft e.V. (GERMANY)
Johannes Lenz-Hawliczek, CEO, .HOTEL Top-Level-Domain GmbH (GERMANY)
Katrin Ohlmer, CEO, DOTZON GmbH (GERMANY)
Brette Borow, CEO, Girls Guide To (USA)
Marcus Eppensperger, Board Member, United-Domains AG (GERMANY)
Seth Jacoby, President, FirstLook (USA)
Thomas Lenz, CEO, dotKöln Top-Level-Domain GmbH (GERMANY)
Tom Barrett, President, Encirca (USA)

I also signed the letter on behalf of Minds + Machines.

This month I had the distinct privilege of participating in a fantastic session at DePaul University in Chicago, where Paul McGrady (many in the intellectual property world know him as the author on the Lexis-Nexis guide “McGrady on Domains”) hosted and moderated a very well attended session on New TLDs.

The session was well attended, and had applicants, in-house counsel for large well known brands, students, registrars, brand management companies, very sharp attorneys, and many very impressive representatives from the intellectual property profession.

The panel consisted of J. Scott Evans from Yahoo!, Marc Trachtenberg from Winston & Strawn LLP, David Wheeler from Greenberg Traurig, LLP, and myself.

I have posted the presentations and some more information on the session HERE.

It was a distinct honor to sit amongst this group of peers, and there were great questions from the audience.

-Jothan

TechCrunch reports that its brand has been taken as a Twitter name, and that there is a landrush going on to get these names, which are already trading for money. The problem is so bad that a name brokerage, Tweexchange, has sprung up to get to facilitate sales. Twitter has posted a policy outlawing the sale of names, but a quick review of this policy reveals that it’s as as toothless as a newborn baby, and is clearly more observed in the breach than otherwise.

Trademark owners might want to take note of a worrying trend — valuable names that fall outside the DNS, outside any of the recommendations made by ICANN’s IRT (Implementation Recommendation Team), outside the UDRP (Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy), and outside of any recourse except for the creaky, expensive, and slow-moving protections of national trademark laws. Twitter’s policy offers none of the protections of ICANN’s current system, let alone the expanded protections foreseen by the IRT recommendations.

Twitter should be looking hard at a new .TWITTER top-level domain, so that it doesn’t have to come up with its own dispute policy. Whatever that policy ends up being, it is sure to engender numerous lawsuits and the headaches and expense that come with them.

Trademark owners, for their part, would be far better off encouraging Twitter to apply for the top-level domain .TWITTER, so that naming disputes could handled by the umbrella policies that are already built into ICANN, instead of the reactive, seat-of-the-pants policies that will emerge from private companies.

By opposing new top-level domains, and thereby encouraging the palpable demand for new names to leak out of the DNS system and into private namespaces, trademark owners are inviting a world of woe upon themselves. Instead of one uniform policy, they are about to find themselves reacting to multiple policies in multiple namespaces governed by recalcitrant companies whose commercial imperatives are completely opposed to what trademark holders see as their legal responsibilities.

Next up — Facebook. After that, who knows? There will be more.

Minds + Machines has been selected to provide registry services by Bayern Connect GmbH, which is pursuing the .BAYERN top-level domain name for Bavaria. We are delighted to be chosen by this very strong applicant.

The press release from Bayern Connect quotes CEO Caspar von Veltheim:

“We need a strong and stable technical infrastructure to take our place among existing top-level domains,” said von Veltheim. “We are therefore using the Espresso platform, which powers over a dozen country-code top-level domains, is used by ICANN worldwide to demonstrate security best practices, and can deliver domain names for Bavarians at a fraction of the cost of other solutions.”

Bayern Connect’s choice of Minds + Machines to provide registry services is a natural evolution of our increasingly close relationship with CEO Caspar von Veltheim, who has also agreed to serve as Director of Minds + Machines Germany. In addition to the technical expertise provided by Minds + Machines, Bayern Connect has secured funding from Top Level Domain Holdings, Minds + Machines’ parent company.

Bayern Connect has already presented its project to the Bavarian State Government, and has the support of major Bavarian businesses and institutions, as well as important cultural figures. Prince Leopold von Bayern, a long-time advocate for the preservation of Bavarian traditions, is serving as Senior Advisor. “With .BAYERN, Bayern Connect will give Bavaria a home on the virtual Internet,” said the Prince.

Responding to concerns from intellectual property owners, Bayern Connect is being advised by Dr. Andreas Schulz, a prominent intellectual property attorney. “Trademark owners are entitled to a fair and transparent system by which the domain names are allocated. I will help Bayern Connect develop policies that will assure this,” said Dr. Schulz.

As a Bavarian business, Bayern Connect will donate a substantial portion of the annual registration revenues to Bavarian charities and cultural organizations. “Bavarians will make .BAYERN succeed, and therefore we will give back to Bavaria,” said von Veltheim. Bayern Connect GmbH is based in Munich.

UPDATE Oct. 7, 2009 — It has been brought to my attention that there is an inaccuracy in one of the quotes from Caspar von Veltheim in the blog post above. ICANN does not and has not used Espresso to demonstrate security practices. In fact, ICANN itself doesn’t demonstrate anything. Instead, they work with a company called DeltaRisk, which used an older version of the CoCCA registry software (upon which Espresso and Espresso CC are based) for the demonstrations.

Engr Ndukwe Kalu, President of NIRA, the Nigerian Internet Registration Authority, died unexpectedly in Lagos last week. He was a member of CoCCA, the Council of Country Code Administrators, and was a strong supporter of CoCCA. “His humor, encouragement, suggestions and sage advice were welcomed by our organization, which had few contacts in the region,” said Garth Miller, Director of CoCCA, in an article on his passing.

Over the last 18 months he worked with CoCCA to bring the .NG registry to a stable and secure infrastructure. “We remember him for the zeal he has contributed to the activities of NIRA particularly the landmark achievement of full control of Nigeria’s domain name on May 13, 2009 leading to full local management of the registry ”, said Vice President of NIRA, Mrs. Mary Uduma. At the time, Engr Ndukwe Kalu said of the redelegation, “The attempt to obtain full control met with a lot of challenges because as a totally new entity the executive had to concentrate on putting in place the required structure and infrastructure that would sustain the .ng ccTLD.”

Local management of the .NG registry allowed NIRA to utilize the CoCCA registry platform, which is a fully automated EPP system. Enabling Anycast DNS ensured 100% uptime world wide, bringing the .NG registry up to par with other world-class registries. The .NG registry continues to thrive and is systematically opening up to international registrations. Under Ndukwe Kalu’s guidance NIRA set a goal to become one of the top 20 ccTLD registries by 2011 in order to “positively impact the Nigerian economy because with the development of the Nigerian cyberspace countless opportunities would be born for both the state and citizens.” More information about the redelegation efforts may be found at allAfrica.com.

Our thoughts and best wishes are with his family and colleagues.

In another evidence of the demand for new top-level domains, the .SIC top-level domain for Transylvania has been announced. A full write-up can be found on the Support New Top-Level Domains site.

Here’s a portion of the announcement:

On the initiative of the Szekler National Council it was managed the visualization of Szeklerland [Transylvania] in the virtual space. The ICANN, the highest organization responsible for the supervision and allocation of the domain names, in its communication of 13th of May accepted the .SIC highest level domain name as abbreviation of SICULITAS. So, from the first quarter of 2010 this could be the own internet domain name of Szeklerland. The translation of “Siculitas” today means “Szekler people”, but in the Hungarian administration of the Middle Ages the meaning was ” a community with self-government and freedom rights”. With the choice of this domain name the Szekler National Council would like to express not only a regional identity but also the historical roots of the Szekler freedom.

The own internet domain name of Szeklerland makes it possible that from the first quarter of 2010 self-governments, institutions, companies, private individuals in Szeklerland use for their internet addresses the .sic termination. The Szekler National Council considers as an important step of the autonomy aspirations, a victory the fact that Szeklerland appears as an independent entity on the net among countries, autonomous regions and cultural communities. Beyond that the new domain name could be a symbol of unity for the Szeklers all around the world because they will have the opportunity to use for their internet addresses the .sic termination. The ICANN accepted the highest domain name .sic for Szeklerland together with other nine regions’s domain names. So, Szeklerland appeared in the news together with Quebec, Scotland, Bretagne, Cornwall, England, Wales, Leon, Basque country and Galicia. The Szekler National Council could decide in his next session to propose the SIC abbreviation for the international marking of Szeklerland.

Minds + Machines is pleased to announce that our parent company, Top Level Domain Holdings, has acquired a further 15% interest in DotEco LLC, which is pursuing the .ECO top-level domain in association with former Vice President Al Gore, the Alliance for Climate Protection, the Sierra Club, and the Surfrider Foundation.

Here’s the text of the TLDH press release:

On 27 May 2009 the Board of Top Level Domain Holdings Limited (AIM: TLDH) announced that it had subscribed for a 10.0 per cent. interest (on a fully diluted basis) in DotEco for a cash consideration of US$200,000 (the “Initial Investment”). The Company has agreed today to acquire a further 15 per cent. interest in DotEco for a cash consideration of US$200,000, financed from its current cash resources, following which its interest in DotEco will amount to 25 per cent. (the “Acquisition”).

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (”ICANN”) announced its intention to allow qualified parties to apply to own and operate new generic TLDs (”gTLDs”). DotEco, which is based in California, intends to build an environmentally-focused gTLD and entered into an integrated partnership with former US Vice President Al Gore and the Alliance for Climate Protection which supports DotEco’s efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of climate change. DotEco intends to submit an application with ICANN for the eco top level domain. The Company expects that the application and approval process could take up to 24 months. As DotEco is a start-up venture it has not to date prepared any financial statements.

When the Company made its Initial Investment, the Board anticipated then the Company’s interest in DotEco may well be diluted over time as DotEco raised additional capital in future. While there can be no assurance at this stage that the ICANN auction and application process for new gTLDs will proceed as expected or that DotEco will be successful in its applications, the Board believes that DotEco is well positioned ahead of the gTLD application process and its prospects, if awarded the eco top level domain, are potentially very attractive. In addition, the Board’s target minimum equity interest in gTLD applicants is generally 25 per cent. and the Acquisition therefore will enable the Company to achieve its preferred minimum equity interest level before any anticipated equity dilution by DotEco should its application be successful.

The vendor of the further interest in DotEco is Clark Landry, a director of the Company and founder shareholder of DotEco and who, as previously announced, has an interest of 24.87 per cent. fully diluted interest in DotEco. Accordingly, the proposed Acquisition is a related party transaction for the purposes of Rule 13 of the AIM Rules. The Independent Directors of the Company (being David Weill, Guy Elliott and Michael Mendelson), having consulted with Beaumont Cornish Limited, the Company’s nominated adviser, unanimously consider the terms of the proposed Acquisition are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company’s Shareholders are concerned.

David Weill, Chief Financial Officer said:

“Awareness is now building for the proposed .ECO domain in the international arena and we are pleased to have been able to increase our holding in ECO ahead of the application process formally beginning. We look forward to .ECO remaining at the forefront of the new top level domains expected to be launched in 2010.”

This summer the number of registrars on the Espresso CC platform, jointly developed by CoCCA Registry Services and Minds + Machines, has steadily grown with the migration of several ccTLDs onto the platform.

Recent grants from Minds + Machines have enabled the development of several gTLD desired features including: one-step EPP server, WHOIS server and key retrieval configuration; transfer activity reporting; one-click database back up; banded volume discount settings, and many other easy-to-use features for TLD operators.

The Espresso system is EPP-compliant; supports IPV6, ENUM, DNSSEC; allows shadowed domains to combat botnet attacks such as Conficker; enables IDNs (internationalized domain names); and supports and multiple language files (15 so far) allowing registrars to manage their accounts in their native language.

Minds + Machines, as CoCCA’s partner, is offering a fully ICANN-compliant version of Espresso for new generic top-level domains in 2010. CoCCA (the Council of Country Code Administrators) is a member-owned organization that provides services to ccTLD operators. CoCCA began as a cooperative of three ccTLD operators, .CX (Christmas Island), .GS (South Georgia), and .NF (Norfolk Island) on a quest to build a better registry platform and to share resources as a way of achieving economies of scale. The more members, the less each has to contribute toward development, attorney fees, and infrastructure. In four years CoCCA has grown 700% , with twenty-one members now sharing resources using world-class EPP technology.

On behalf of its members, CoCCA accredits registrars that agree to follow best-practice recommendations in the registry-registrar-registrant business model. We warmly welcome the most recently approved registrars, who are now able to offer to their customers registrations in CoCCA member TLDs.

Here are the newly-accredited registrars, in alphabetical order. Welcome!

• 3w Media GmbH
  
  




• Bizcn.com, Inc.
  
  




• Blacknight Internet Solutions
  







• BRS Media, Inc.
  







• cctldnames
  







• Communigal
  







• Cybernaptics Ltd.







• DomainClub.com
  
  







• DomainersChoice
  







• Domain Monster
  







• Domain The Net Technologies
  







• Domaine.fr
  







• Enom
  







• Entorno Digital S.A.
  









• Gandi SAS
  







• Larsen Data
  







• Maridan Internet
  







• Moniker
  
  







• Networking4all
  







• Niceweb.eu
  







• NovaGroup
  







• Oxwell
  







• Register.eu
  







• Reg.Net.ua
  







• Todaynic.com, Inc.
  







• Web Solutions ApS
  







• Webworkers Internet Consultants
  







• Xin Net Technology