1.
gTLD Update
First
.museum Internet addresses go live
A handful
of Internet addresses with the .museum suffix went live
this week, marking the launch of the world's first 'sponsored'
domain suffix.
For
now, the only active address is that of the registry, Museum
Domain Management Association (MuseDoma). .museum domains
will be available for purchase next year.
MuseDoma's
launch plan calls for the creation of generic second-level
domains within .museum, such as art.museum, history.museum
and air.museum.
2.
Industry
News
Report
from this week's ICANN meeting
by Jonathan Robinson, Director of Business Development
at NetNames
As has
already been reported in N3Lite, the major theme of this
week's ICANN conference has been Internet security issues,
following the attacks in the US on September 11,
Given
the vital role that domain names and the DNS play in e-commerce
today, it made sense to raise the profile of security issues.
Issues discussed included both physical and electronic security
of systems ranging from registrar systems and name servers
to the root name servers at the top of the DNS hierarchy.
One
issue that was moved up the agenda was ensuring that effective
back-up or escrow of domain registrant (whois) data is taking
place. From an intellectual property (IP) perspective, a
key issue that remains is the actual integrity of the whois
data. In fact, this is an issue that links IP issues and
more general security concerns. Clean data in the whois
records is desirable from an anti-cybersquatting perspective
as well as for confidence in the contact information for
broader security reasons.
From
a registrar perspective, agreeing best practice on transfers
between registrars remained a hot topic. The balance has
to be struck between facilitating ease of transfer (for
ease of competitive service provision) and protecting domain
registrants' position from illegitimate or badly understood
inter-registrar transfers.
One
of the options ICANN considered in a committee meeting was
putting strict security requirements into its contracts
with accredited domain name registrars, issue non-binding
guidelines, or do nothing at all. ICANN will announce its
decision in due course.
In terms
of future technologies, one of the week's hot topics was
the (enum) relationship between telephone numbers and computer
(Internet Protocol) addresses.
For more information on the ICANN meeting, please go to
www.icann.org
Air
France wins Romania's first domain name case
French
airline, Air France, this week won the first domain name
dispute in Romania. The case, which took place in the Bucharest
Tribunal law court ruled that the defendant, Amaltea SRL,
had no legal right to the airfrance.ro domain name.
Amaltea
can appeal against the decision within 15 days. This is
not the first time Amaltea has lost a domain name. A WIPO
decision last June forced the company to transfer the ownership
of the swissair.ro domain to Swissair.
3.
NIC News
New
rules for French and Reunion domains
From
November 19, 2001, new regulations from the French Registry,
which administers the .fr (France) and .re (Réunion)
domains mean that companies can register an unlimited number
of domain names. Companies were previously limited to three
domains with these suffixes.
In addition,
French trademark holders (registered through INPI) can now
register .fr and .re domains, providing the trademark is
identical to the domain name to be registered. Holders of
international trademarks will still only be entitled to
register under the .tm.fr second-level suffix.
4.
NetNames News
A
domain name isn't just for Christmas…
With
Christmas soon upon us, why not give your friends and
family an original present this year by presenting them
with their unique domain name?
If
the .com or .co.uk isn't available for example, why not
consider registering an alternative suffix such as .info,
or one of the more unusual country-code suffixes perhaps?
.ws (Samoa) is being marketed as the "web site"
suffix, while .mu (Mauritius) would be ideal for music
lovers. .to (Tonga) is a popular suffix for redirection
purposes. To register your Christmas domain, please go
to www.netnames.com
5.
Fact of the week
English
overtaken as the web's most popular language
English
speakers are no longer in the majority on the Internet,
according to the third annual State of the Internet report.
The study, from the Internet Council and International
Technology & Trade Associates, says that English language
speakers have been overtaken by over 100 million non-English
speakers from the Asia and the Pacific region.
Only
45 percent of the Internet population now speak English,
according to the report, with countries like China, India
and South Korea showing the fastest growth rates in the
last couple of years.
