Three strikes, and OpenTLD is out. ICANN has sent a notice of termination to OpenTLD, the domain name registrar associated with the Freenom group of companies. Freenom is best known for giving away free domain registrations, most famously .tk, ... Continue Reading1 Comment
Domain investor sues to try to get one character .com domain names
· Policy & LawCompany claims it should get 1.com, a.com etc based on its registration of internationalized domain names. A domain name investor has sued ICANN (pdf), arguing that the investor should have exclusive rights to many single-character .com domain ... Continue Reading5 Comments
ICANN places .desi with EBERO as it looks for successor
· UncategorizedEBERO will manage the domain while ICANN seeks a company to take over the top level domain. ICANN has placed the top level domain .desi into the Emergency Back-End Registry Operator (EBERO) program. Earlier this year, TLD operator Desi Networks ... Continue Reading3 Comments
ICANN sends breach notice to GKG.net
· Policy & LawRegistrar has not been responsive to ICANN's requests and hasn't paid its bills. ICANN has sent a breach notice (pdf) to accredited registrar GKG.net. Officially, the breach notice is for three issues: Failure to implement a transfer due to ... Continue ReadingLeave a Comment
What happened in the domain business last month
· UncategorizedA WordPress giveaway, GoDaddy's new TLDs, and ICANN's weird logic made news last month. Miss any of the big news last month? These were the top five stories on Domain Name Wire, ranked by pageviews: 1. WordPress offers 1 million free transfers ... Continue ReadingLeave a Comment
ICANN says putting TLDs out to bid is against internet users interest
· Policy & LawWell, that's an interesting argument. ICANN has responded to a letter (pdf) Internet Commerce Association sent to it regarding the renewal of the .net contract. The organization recently renewed its contract with Verisign to operate .net, and ... Continue Reading3 Comments
ICANN hopes to accept TLD applications in early 2026
· Policy & LawA preliminary date is set for "new new" TLDs. ICANN hopes to begin accepting applications for the next round of top level domain names in 2026, 14 years after the last application window. The ICANN Board has accepted an implementation plan from ... Continue ReadingLeave a Comment
Top level domain operator wants out of the business
· Policy & LawHere's a first: a non-brand TLD operator voluntarily terminating its contract. For the first time, an operator of a new top level domain that didn't apply as a brand owner has voluntarily told ICANN it wants to terminate its contract. While ... Continue Reading4 Comments
Epik cures breach but questions remain
· Domain RegistrarsBreaches cured but registrar still needs ICANN's approval for change of control. Last Friday, before the long holiday weekend in the U.S., ICANN published an update on the situation at domain name registrar Epik. The organization said that Epik ... Continue Reading6 Comments
ICANN enters into .net contract extension with Verisign
· Policy & LawICANN greenlights massive price increases for .net domains in contract renewal. On Thursday, ICANN executed a renewal of a contract extension with Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) for running the .net registry. It extends the agreement to June 30, ... Continue Reading2 Comments