The .au (Australia) country code authority auDA announced today that they would not be renewing their contract with CEO Chris Disspain. Disspain has been with auDA since October 2000, being their first CEO and also being involved in the re-delegation of .au to auDA. Here's the full announcement: The Board of auDA (.au Domain Administration Ltd) announced today that it … [Read more...] about Chris Disspain To Leave auDA
Middle East DNS Forum 2016 Venue and Dates Updated
The Middle East DNS Forum is being held in Tunisia this year. The event will be held on May 4th and May 5th at the Ramada Plaza Hotel Tunis in Gammrath. A provisional schedule has been posted on the event site. Previous years have featured a mixture of global and regional focussed sessions covering legal, policy and business aspects of the domain name industry. If … [Read more...] about Middle East DNS Forum 2016 Venue and Dates Updated
DotAfrica Gets Green Light From ICANN Board
ICANN 55 is ramping up here in Marrakech. Yesterday the ICANN Board met and gave the ZACR bid for .africa the green light. Resolved (2016.03.03.01), the Board authorizes the President and CEO, or his designee(s), to proceed with the delegation of .AFRICA to be operated by ZACR pursuant to the Registry Agreement that ZACR has entered with ICANN. The .africa saga has been long … [Read more...] about DotAfrica Gets Green Light From ICANN Board
Over 19 Thousand Welsh Domains Registered
The first .wales and .cymru domains went live back in September 2014. Just over a year later there are now over 19 thousand .wales and .cymru domains registered. The .wales domain extension appears to have been significantly more popular than the Welsh language version .cymru, with approximately twice as many registrations so far. In terms of registrar spread, it looks like … [Read more...] about Over 19 Thousand Welsh Domains Registered
How Much Has ICANN Spent On The IANA Transition?
ICANN critics often focus on ICANN's expenditure. The organisation's overall budget had been growing for years prior to the new TLD program launch. However with the new TLD launch it mushroomed very quickly, with the organisation collecting $185k per application. With 1930 applications that gave them $357,050,000 - though admittedly there were quite a few applications withdrawn … [Read more...] about How Much Has ICANN Spent On The IANA Transition?
Apple vs FBI: Apple and Others To Argue On The Hill
Tomorrow afternoon at 1pm EST Apple will be giving testimony to the House Judiciary Committee. The session that Apple and others will be taking part in is aptly named: The Encryption Tightrope: Balancing Americans’ Security and Privacy In common with other hearings the various witnesses called to speak have already submitted their written testimony, so we can already look at … [Read more...] about Apple vs FBI: Apple and Others To Argue On The Hill
UK Government Considers Forcing All Adult Sites To Do Mandatory Age Verification
The UK government has opened a consultation on "age verification". It's bundled in under the title of: Child Safety Online: Age Verification for Pornography. There's a few "gems" in the materials that show not only how big the adult industry is, but also how big an impact any proposals could have on it. For example, the report from the panel of experts gives some very … [Read more...] about UK Government Considers Forcing All Adult Sites To Do Mandatory Age Verification
PuntCat The .Cat Registry Breaks 100k Domains Registry
The .cat domain name registry has broken the 100 thousand domains registered mark. The milestone was reached last Friday evening and was made official Saturday. The registry put out a release to celebrate the milestone and are confident in their claim that the .cat domain name is now the "go to" domain extension for Catalonia and Catalan speakers. This is exactly what Santi … [Read more...] about PuntCat The .Cat Registry Breaks 100k Domains Registry
Which Brands Registered Short IE Domains During Sunrise?
The sunrise period for "short" IE domain names drew to a close before Christmas. While there wasn't a huge number of domains registered during the sunrise by brand owners, there were several well known companies that succeeded in getting one or more domains. If you check the whois records for many of the domains you'll find that they are registered to well known brands' … [Read more...] about Which Brands Registered Short IE Domains During Sunrise?
LACTLD Appoints Andrés Piazza General Manager
LACTLD has announced that the appointment of Andrés Piazza as General Manager. Piazza will take up the post formally from April 1st 2016. He will be working alongside the current General Manage, Carolina Aguerre, from mid-March. Piazza is a well known figure in the Latin American and Spanish speaking internet industry. He's been with LACNIC since 2011, but prior to that was … [Read more...] about LACTLD Appoints Andrés Piazza General Manager