Employ Media says ICANN “publicly defamed” it in breach notice.

.Jobs registry Employ Media has struck back at ICANN after the latter sent it a breach notice.

In a letter to ICANN, Employ Media Vice‐President & General Counsel Brian Johnson wrote:

It goes without saying that all of us here at Employ Media, and indeed many in the international human resource management community, are extremely surprised and disappointed with ICANN’s complete reversal of position in this matter. We are specifically disappointed with ICANN’s decision to publicly defame Employ Media and its contractual partners, which serves no purpose except to cause irreparable harm to Employ Media and others who have built their business around ICANN and the Internet governance framework for which it is responsible.

Indeed, it did seem like a “complete reversal” and this issue will create a lot of work for ICANN’s new contractual compliance deputy.

Johnson also requested an immediate phone conference “to address the damage caused by the Notice and
to further initiate discussions relating to the issues identified therein.”

The group is invoking “Cooperative Engagement” under Section 5.1(a) of the registry agreement.

ICANN Board approves new .xxx domain name.

Today the ICANN Board of Directors authorized the CEO of ICANN to execute the proposed registry agreement for the .xxx sTLD with ICM Registry.

ICANN’s Board of Directors didn’t agree with GAC advice on the issue.

It’s unclear if Free Speech Coalition will file a lawsuit in an effort to block the implementation. They mustered only a couple dozen protesters yesterday at the ICANN meeting.

At least two board members recused themselves from the vote. CEO Rod Beckstrom abstained.

Many board members spoke out about their votes. A couple stated they were concerned this decision will upset governments. Multiple board members said they voted in favor in part because if .xxx isn’t approved now then a .xxx will certainly be submitted and approved in the new TLD process. This .xxx would be unrestricted.

Board member Johnston Rodin called the decision a “lose-lose”, but said she’d vote in favor.

Update: I talked to ICM Registry founder Stuart Lawley afterward. He said he hopes to have the trademark sunrise period in June and the landrush in the fall.

New TLD approval won’t come until June at the earliest.

Today the ICANN Board of Directors provided a timeline for approving the new top level domain applicant guidebook.

The new planned date for “board consideration” of the guidebook is June 20 at the Singapore meeting.

Here’s the timeline:

-Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) feedback is expected by March 25.
-The final GAC scorecard for constituency comment is expected by April 15 with a public comment period ending May 15.
-On May 20 the GAC and Board will have a teleconference on the final scorecard.
-The final guidebook will be posted May 30 and the board will consider it on June 20

This timeline could result in the application window opening later this year.

The board meeting in Singapore will be at the beginning of the week long meeting. Peter Dengate-Thrush said it will be at the beginning “because we want to have a party”.

Just a bit of advice — don’t bet any money on this timeline.

Adult site owners protest at ICANN meeting.

About 25 adult webmasters — and one homeless guy who’s been hanging out outside the ICANN meeting all week — joined together to protest the .XXX top level domain name this afternoon in San Francisco.

The protest was organized by Free Speech Coalition.

Protesters held signs with .XXX inside a ‘no’ symbol and chanted various slogans against the approval of the domain name. Among their complaints: they’ll have to pay $60-$70 per domain, it will make it easier for governments to censor the internet, and that .xxx “perpetuates misinformation and stereotypes of the adult community by insinuating that we are ‘irresponsible”.

ICM Registry has spent millions of dollars and been fighting for years to be able to offer the domain name. ICANN’s board is expected to give final blessing to ICM Registry at its board meeting Friday.

Whether that will be the end of it is unclear. Some adult webmasters are threatening to sue if .xxx is approved. I doubt a lawsuit by opponents will be successful. I also wonder how much support there will be amongst adult webmasters for a lawsuit given that they were only able to muster up 25 protesters today in San Francisco.

French Open organizer awarded domain name by arbitration panel.

Fedération Française du Tennis (FFT), organizer of the Grand Slam tournament French Internationals of Roland Garros (French Open), is the latest group to win a .co domain name through a UDRP case.

This was an easy case for the tennis organization. The registrant of the domain name sent an email to the Federation that read:

Bonjour,

I own the domain frenchopen.co, which I recently bought when the .co extension came into public availability.

I have had a lot of interest from private parties to buy the domain name. But as the domain is more relevant for the French federation and Rolland garros, I would like to give the first refusal to FFT. So if the organization is interested in buying or renting the domain “frenchopen.co” please get in touch with me. You can contact me at […].

Merci

I’d call that game, set, match.