Internet Pro Radio | icann.Blog

Greedy Domainer Slime

Bret Fausett — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:23:00 -0700

New post over on Name Brief, which was getting sort of dusty. Watch this carefully because it's a small version of the debate that will ensue if ICANN auctions TLDs and then proposes to do good deeds with the proceeds.

Revisiting the Registry-Registrar Split?

Bret Fausett — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:22:00 -0700

I found this bit from the most recent Board minutes intriguing:

"Charles River Associates has been commissioned to undertake a study on....the market of maintaining or not maintaining the separation between registrars and registries."

I didn't think the issue of "not maintaining" the registry-registrar split was even on the table for discussion. This comment came up in the context of a very interesting Board discussion on the staff's progress developing an implementation plan for new gTLDs, and you should probably read the whole thing for context. Still, I'd be interesting in knowing the provenance of this particular work item. Anyone know?

FWIW, I'm generally aware of conversations about whether to allow some of the low-interest TLDs, like .aero and .museum, to offer registrations direct to the public -- and the heated disagreement on both sides of that issue -- but I was not aware it was something that ICANN was examining.

TWiL does Domain Name Law

Bret Fausett — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:41:00 -0700

Hey, guess what just showed up on my iPod? This week's This Week in Law, which focuses almost exclusively on domain name law. I haven't listened to it yet, but then again, I don't really need to. I was on the show.

Fantastic Presentation on YouTube/Pakistan Debacle

Bret Fausett — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 13:48:00 -0800

Great stuff from the folks at RIPE NCC. Must reading....and watching!

Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act

Bret Fausett — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:19:00 -0800

Here's a copy of a new proposed piece of legislation that will be getting some press the next few days. It's called the "Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008," or the APCPA. It's ostensibly aimed at stopping Phishing -- a laudable goal -- but in some places the cure is as bad as the disease.

Take, for example, Section (c)(2), at pages 10-11 of the PDF, which says that a registrar must takedown any whois proxy information if it receives a letter or facsimile or email from anyone in the world claiming that the Act has been violated. The Act imposes no obligations that the written notice be made in good faith, and places no penalties on people who send proxy-takedown letters in bad faith.

The irony is that the proxy-takedown letter itself could be false -- false identity, pseudonym, or made anonymously -- and the registrar would have a duty to takedown the proxy information.

If passed in this form, this provision could have incredible anonymous speech ramifications, as all you'd have to do to unmask someone is submit a proxy takedown letter.