LOS ANGELES, CA – On Thursday, April 30, ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, based in Los Angeles, CA, made a tough decision to protect the global non-profit community, by rejecting a controversial deal announced in November 2019, that PIR, Public Interest Registry, a non-profit company which owns and manages the rights to the registry for ‘.org’ domain names, would be sold and ultimately converted to a for-profit entity owned by Ethos Capital. … [Read more...]
ICANN Moves Forward With 20 Million Deal While World Preoccupied with Epidemic
PALM BEACH, FL – Rahm Emanuel once said, “You never let a serious crisis go to waste.” I’d bet that’s been on the mind of ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, these last couple weeks, as President and CEO, Göran Marby, announced the organization has decided to move forward with its controversial twenty-million-dollar deal, many feel is nothing short of a bribe, with its latest renewal of the .com Registry Agreement with Verisign. The … [Read more...]
Bad News for ICANN: Pressure Intensifies for Decision Behind .Org Price Cap Removals
PALM BEACH, FL – Sometimes they say “where there is smoke, there is fire,” and the room keeps getting hotter for ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, for its poor, super-controversial and extremely suspect decision to allow the Registry Agreement with Public Interest Registry to renew without price-caps in place. The whole situation is turning into a hot potato / can of worm’s scenario where -if- any backroom deals or funny business exists; … [Read more...]
Wyden: “I Will Explore Every Avenue To Ensure Users, Nonprofits Are Protected”
PALM BEACH, FL - In the ongoing debacle which has highlighted ICANN's unusual position on the .org registry sale which resulted in the billion-dollar sale of .org to a private equity company, US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) told The Register that the response from Ethos Capital to his and several of his colleges concerns regarding the sale .org - just isn't good enough. ....nothing in this response addresses my concerns that selling .org to a private equity firm would be a … [Read more...]
Laundry List of Questions on .ORG Sale Delivered by Congress to Ethos, IS, PIR
PALM BEACH, FL – A letter signed off by four U.S representatives, one of which is presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, was delivered to Ethos Capital, Internet Society and Public Interest Registry posing a long list of questions regarding the future operation of the .org domain registry. Among these questions, is what guarantee will be provided that the registry will not be relocated outside of the United States, which could put the domain name, widely used for U.S. … [Read more...]
ROOTS: Frank Schilling, Uniregistry, Join ICA; Group Sees Busy Year With Slew of Issues
PALM BEACH, FL – According to an internal membership notification, this past week, Frank Schilling, known for amassing one of the world's most valuable domain name portfolios as well as building one of the most robust domain name platforms in the industry, “Uniregistry,” has returned to the Internet Commerce Association as a “Gold” member; there are currently five (5) membership levels (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Individual). The ICA has been especially busy this … [Read more...]
Blowback: All Eyes on ICANN Over Poor Decision to Allow Price Cap Removal
PALM BEACH, NY – Unanswered questions and lots [and lots] of suspicion swirls around ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and its own transparency – all due to its super-controversial decision to allow the Registry Agreement with Public Interest Registry to renew without price-caps in place. It’s a decision that keeps coming back to haunt them, likely until this “.org” fiasco deal finally dies. If the organization (ICANN), which is supposed be … [Read more...]
Profiteering? ICANN’s “Terrible Blunder” Expected to Cost Non-Profits Dearly
PALM BEACH, FL – On November 13, 2019, news began circling that Public Interest Registry (PIR), the Reston, Virginia-based not-for-profit created to manage the “.org” top-level domain name had been acquired by a private equity management firm called Ethos Capital. Since then, the ICA, Internet Commerce Association, a non-profit organization representing domain owners, delivered a letter to ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, calling on the … [Read more...]
Numbers Reported for “.CLUB” Decline Due to Registry Quality Compliance & Cleanup
PALM BEACH, FL – The following is a correction to previously published work which included an embedded Tweet which has been called into question and said, by the registry, to be incorrect; a reader from the “.Club” registry contacted me with a correction request yesterday including some supporting explanations for certain numbers seen on nTLDStats.com and numbers from a Tweet which were embedded and published on StrategicRevenue.com on October 17, 2019. Upon reading the … [Read more...]
Domain Industry Takes Note of ICANN Update to Public Comment Guidelines
PALM BEACH, FL – On October 9, 2019, ICANN, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit corporation that sets policy for the global Domain Name System (DNS), updated its “policy guidelines” for how it collects and takes into considering feedback from the ICANN community or the general public. The update was posted on the organizations website by David Olive, Senior Vice President of Policy Development Support. The ICANN site states the following … [Read more...]
LGBT Domain Registration Service, PrideLife LLC, Announces Relationship With Afilias
PALM BEACH, FL - A new domain name registration service is hoping its partnership with Afilias and its "LGBT" theme will help spotlight its business, which caters to the LGBT community and offers domain name registrations such as the new ".lgbt" domain name. The service, PrideLife LLC (getpridelife.lgbt), also suggests other alternative Afilias sponsored gTLDs such as ".red", ".pink", ".black" and others. The .lgbt TLD was delegated by ICANN in 2014 and shows just under … [Read more...]
Surprise, Surprise: ICANN Renews “.Org” Registry Agreement, “Price Caps” Removed
PALM BEACH - On June 30, 2019, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) announced that it had renewed its Registry Agreement with Public Interest Registry which operates the .org top-level domain. At major issue was whether the agreement would be renewed “as-is” with long-standing price caps removed. After public outcry a comment period was held with just six (“6”) [about 0.18%] out of 3,252 comments being in favor of removing the price caps; … [Read more...]
ICA Lays Ground for Compelling Argument Even the Most Bias of Opinion Cannot Deny
NEW YORK, NY – Two things happened on November 1, 2018, when the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) announced it would renew its Cooperative Agreement with Verisign while removing price caps on fees it charges registries: Verisign’s stock (VRSN) shot up $25 per share in a single day (then levelling off at still a healthy gain), Verisign came out blasting domain industry participants, calling them “Domain Scalpers” near suggesting that … [Read more...]
Donuts Acquisition of BudURL Makes Good Use of New Top Level Domain Names
NEW YORK, NY – Donuts Inc, the company behind hundreds of new domain name extensions has acquired a link shortening service formally known as BudURL, and rebranded it as BL.INK. The service had been around for ten years and was founded by Andy Meadows. The acquisition took place sometime in 2017 according to a company press release, yet Donuts had been operating it in “stealth mode” quietly building in key features which will enhance the services ability to customize URLs … [Read more...]