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Top Domain Name Stories from May

by — Uncategorized 0 Comments

A whole lot of GDPR.

Here’s a look at the top stories on Domain Name Wire last month, ranked by pageviews:

1. Google has already GDPR’d its Whois records – Google Registry began limiting the data in Whois records well before the May 25 deadline.

2. ICANN files legal action against Tucows registrar over GDPR – And it didn’t get the answer it wanted.

3. GoDaddy will continue publishing most domain owner data – In news welcomed by many people in the domain name ecosystem, GoDaddy decided to keep most Whois information public for people outside the EU.

4. Here’s why it’s going to be hard to sell your .App domain names – .App came out with a roar in May. But selling domains is going to be difficult because of a lack of public Whois (see story #1) and because you have to install an SSL certificate in order for a .app domain to resolve. Some services have come to the rescue.

5. Sahar Sarid arrested on charges related to Mugshots.com A domain investor connected to Mugshots.com got his own mugshot.

If you missed any podcasts, take some time this weekend to listen:

#187 – Drew Wash develops businesses on premium domains – Listen

#186 – Building an Ecommerce business on your domain name – Listen

#185 – Jen Sale of Evergreen – Listen

#184 – Jean-Noël Frydman discusses his France.com saga – Listen

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.Com Leaderboard for domain name registrars

by — Domain Registrars 10 Comments

Little change at the top for domain name registrar rankings.

ICANN has published the latest official .com data from February.

In February, these were the top 10 registrars in terms of new .com registrations:

1. GoDaddy.com* 846,327 (974,020 in January)
2. Tucows** 206,361 (220,521)
3. Endurance+ 149,255 (175,515)
4. NameCheap Inc. 117,911 (134,155)
5. Web.com++ 103,383 (105,596)
6. Google Inc. 87,990 (96,020)
7. HiChina Zhicheng Technology Ltd. 81,015 (143,353)
8. NameSilo 60,550 (60,280)
9. Xin Net Technology Corporation 52,388 (127,808)
10. 1&1 51,647

Here’s the current leaderboard of the top registrars in terms of total .com registrations as of the end of February 2018. There were approximately 135.8 million total .com domains registered as of the end of February:

1. GoDaddy* 47,490,250 (47,161,126 in January)
2. Tucows** 13,014,976 (13,123,965)
3. Endurance+ 7,844,339 (7,927,353)
4. Web.com++ 6,705,866 (6,684,867)
5. HiChina 4,999,217 (5,129,880)
6. NameCheap 4,085,262 (3,960,861)
7. 1&1 3,766,579 (3,770,121)
8. GMO 2,111,351 (2,171,151)
9. Xin Net Technology Corporation 1,778,658 (1,753,431)
10. Google 1,534,162 (1,466,445)

Many domain companies have multiple accreditations and I’ve tried to capture the largest ones. See the notes below and let me know if I’ve missed any large registrars.

* Includes GoDaddy and Wild West Domains
** Includes Tucows and Enom
+ Includes PDR, Domain.com, FastDomain and Bigrock. There are other Endurance registrars, but these are the biggest.
++ Includes Network Solutions and Register.com

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Tucows is launching TieredAccess.com for gated Whois

by — Domain Registrars 0 Comments

Domain name registrar moves forward with plans for gated access to Whois records.

With public Whois a thing of the past at many domain name registrars, Tucows is getting ready to launch a system that will allow some parties to get access to Whois records.

The company has set up the domain name TieredAccess.com. According to a message the company recently sent to resellers, the site will be updated in “the coming weeks” to allow parties to submit an application for access to Whois data.

It plans to limit this to “only those with legitimate purposes” and mentions law enforcement, intellectual property, and commercial litigation interests as examples.

Separately, the company is working through a few kinks in its reseller platforms as they relate to GDPR. For example, at Enom you could “push” transfer a domain name between resellers rather than going through the traditional domain transfer process. This involved transferring data between resellers, so that system has been disabled until it comes up with a revised solution.

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German court denies injunction against Tucows’ registrar EPAG over GDPR

by — Policy & Law 2 Comments

Court agrees with Tucows that some Whois data is redundant.

A German Court in Bonn has denied (pdf) ICANN’s request for an injunction against Tucows’ domain name registrar EPAG.

ICANN filed the injunction request last Friday, the day the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect. EPAG had notified ICANN that it no longer planned to collect data on administrative and technical contacts for Whois to comply with GDPR. ICANN has made it clear that registrars must continue to collect this data, even if they don’t have to publish it.

The stated goal of the injunction request was to force EPAG to continue collecting the data. But ICANN (and probably Tucows) also wanted to get clarity from courts about how GDPR impacts Whois.

In denying the injunction, the court agreed with Tucows’ position that the administrative and technical contacts can be duplicates of the registrant contact information, so it’s not really needed. There has not been a requirement that registrants provide different data for each contact type. In practice, it’s usually the same (with the exception of some hosts and registrars being named the technical contact).

ICANN says the German court ruling doesn’t provide it the clarity about GDPR and Whois is was hoping to obtain.

While ICANN appreciates the prompt attention the Court paid to this matter, the Court’s ruling today did not provide the clarity that ICANN was seeking when it initiated the injunction proceedings,” said John Jeffrey, ICANN’s General Counsel and Secretary. “ICANN is continuing to pursue the ongoing discussions with the European Commission, and WP29, to gain further clarification of the GDPR as it relates to the integrity of WHOIS services.

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Tucows responds to ICANN legal action related to GDPR

by — Domain Registrars 2 Comments

World’s second largest domain name registrar lays out its position on GDPR as it relates to domain registrations.

On Friday, the day that the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect, ICANN filed a legal action in Europe against Tucows’ registrar EPAG. ICANN asked for a temporary injunction after EPAG notified ICANN it would no longer collect administrative and technical contact details for domains in an effort to comply with GDPR.

Tucows has issued a statement about its position, and it goes a long way to explaining the rationale behind its GDPR-related decisions.

At a high level, there are two things to mention when it comes to Tucows and GDPR.

First, Tucows has been the most forward-thinking and forward-planning registrar when it comes to Whois. At least from a public perspective, Tucows has been laying the groundwork for its plans publicly for many months. Then ICANN passed down its mandate with just days before GDPR went into effect.

Second, there is some nuance to what EPAG said that it would not collect that I didn’t pick up Friday evening in ICANN’s statement: ICANN will continue to collect registrant data for customers; its opposition is to collecting administrative and technical contact data. Click to continue reading…

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