Issue 193 - 19th August 2005

.es - sunrise phase 2 set for 6th September

Liberalisation of the .es domain at the second level continues with phase 2 of sunrise scheduled to begin on 6th September. Phase 1 applied to public bodies only.

Spanish organisations will be permitted to register any generic or non-generic term that they have rights to. Foreign organisations will be able to register only their generic or non-generic trademarks (registered in Spain) as a domain.

Individuals will be able to register:

• Their name and surname, as it appears on the (Spanish) National ID Card or Resident's permit.
• Generic or non-generic brand names of which they are the owner or licensee and which are registered with the Spanish Patents and Trade Marks Office or with the Interior Market Harmonisation Office or World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
• Domain names in the form "profession or professional business"-"recognised professional name in trade"; e.g., "lawyer-joebrown", or "consulting-brown".

Orders can be placed now at www.netnames.com. Platinum Service clients should contact their account managers. First-come, first-served release of .es is scheduled for 8th November and will be open to all having a link with Spain.

.tw second-level grandfathering period

NetNames can now take orders for the .tw second-level 'grandfathering' period, which will run from 23rd August to 22nd September. Those who registered a third-level .tw domain by 31st July can apply for the second-level equivalent at www.netnames.com.

Approval of .xxx delayed after objections from US government

The US government has expressed concerns to the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) over the potential .xxx domain. Michael Gallagher, assistant secretary at the United States Department of Commerce, has put a block on any development of the .xxx infrastructure until its impact has been more rigorously evaluated.

As previously reported by N3 Lite, .xxx was given the go-ahead by ICANN in June of this year. The new domain name was intended to specifically denote adult content. It is now thought that a final decision will be made at the next meeting of the ICANN board, scheduled for 15th September.

The Department of Commerce claim to have received an unprecedented level of protest against .xxx in the form of nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails from concerned parties. It has also been reported that the chairman of ICANN's Government Advisory Committee, Mohd Tarmizi, wrote to ICANN officials last week advising caution and noting "a strong sense of discomfort" among many (unnamed) countries. The new domain has certainly provoked much media coverage and debate.