• "There is a sense that markets are waiting impatiently as various macro risks loom on the horizon"--David Folkerts-Landau, Group Chief Economist at Deutsche Bank--Central Banks Around the Word are Dovish | ritholtz.com.• Crude Oil Freight Rates Plunge to Record Lows | WolfStreet.com: "Overcapacity is the result of misallocation of resources by investors and/or governments that have been fooled by their own optimism, twisted policies, and central bank promises that their QE and a flood of cheap money would actually create real-economy demand. And overcapacity is now also sinking the oil tanker market." See also: The Great Debt Unwind Beneath the Surface: US Commercial Bankruptcies Soar | WolfStreet.com.
• Markets: Gathering Clouds?
 |
| From August 10 to September 9: US benchmark S&P500 -2.19% and UK benchmark FTSE100 -1.30% |
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Feature • IANA Transition Drama in D.C.: Less than three weeks to go before the IANA Stewardship Transition is complete on October 1, 2016, and Republicans in Washington, D.C., have multiple forays underway in a last-ditch effort to delay the transition and extend the IANA functions contract which will otherwise expire September 30, 2016. Meanwhile ICANN and pro-transition forces in Washington are countering. For more see on Domain Mondo:
This coming week U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) will hold a subcommittee hearing entitled "Protecting Internet Freedom: Implications of Ending U.S. Oversight of the Internet,"--United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary | judiciary.senate.gov: Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, Wednesday, September 14, 2016, at 10:00 AM EDT, in Dirksen Senate Office Building 226, Washington, D.C., Chairman Cruz presiding.
See also ICANN fight intensifies ahead of Cruz-called hearing | POLITICO.com: Jamie Hedlund, VP of strategic programs in ICANN's Global Domains Division, argued in an interview with POLITICO.com that opposition was coming from individuals "who don't understand fundamentally what's at issue."
and The ICANN Debate: 6 Things You Need to Know | heritage.org: "... six key points you need to know on this issue from Heritage expert Brett Schaefer ... 'the Obama administration has allowed political concerns to trump prudence and U.S. officials have downplayed and dismissed the many legitimate concerns that people have raised about the transition because it wants the transition to occur before it leaves office.'..."
Feature • ICANN and Zika--tweets from #ICANN57 this past week:
See also ICANN fight intensifies ahead of Cruz-called hearing | POLITICO.com: Jamie Hedlund, VP of strategic programs in ICANN's Global Domains Division, argued in an interview with POLITICO.com that opposition was coming from individuals "who don't understand fundamentally what's at issue."
and The ICANN Debate: 6 Things You Need to Know | heritage.org: "... six key points you need to know on this issue from Heritage expert Brett Schaefer ... 'the Obama administration has allowed political concerns to trump prudence and U.S. officials have downplayed and dismissed the many legitimate concerns that people have raised about the transition because it wants the transition to occur before it leaves office.'..."
Feature • ICANN and Zika--tweets from #ICANN57 this past week:
- If you need a 1 hour webinar and two blog posts to explain how to get to the #ICANN meeting, maybe you picked the wrong location. #ICANN57
- @ICANN said on #ICANN57 webinar today, #zika has been endemic to India since 2013. Why, then, was this mtg moved from Puerto Rico to India?
For more see CALENDAR and LINKS | DomainMondo.com:
- ICANN 57 | Hyderabad, India, 3-9 Nov 2016 (ICANN57 was moved from Puerto Rico due to the Zika virus. See: Relocating ICANN57 | ICANN.org and cdc.gov/zika/).
- WEBINAR: ICANN57 Hyderabad
- Download Presentation [PDF, 432 KB] |
- Adobe Connect Session Recording
- ICANN57 Hyderabad: What You Need to Know (Part 2)
- ICANN57 Hyderabad: What You Need to Know (Part 1)
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Other ICANN, Internet Governance, and Domain Name News:
• The South China Morning Post has suddenly shut down its Chinese-language website | Quartz | qz.com: "... the Chinese-language website [domain: nanzao.com] of Hong Kong’s main English newspaper, the South China Morning Post, is gone ... The South China Morning Post was acquired by Jack Ma, one of China’s richest men and the founder of e-commerce platform Alibaba, in December 2015. Joseph Tsai, the executive vice-chairman of Alibaba, told the New York Times then that the decision to purchase the newspaper was made in order to provide coverage of China that was untouched by the “negative” bias of the Western media. In 2013, Jack Ma was reportedly furious at the Chinese language website of the South China Morning Post after it ran an interview with him, in which he said that the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square was “the most correct decision.”..."
• New gTLD Registry Operator and Registrar Rightside (eNom.com, Name.com), CEO Taryn Naidu, and CFO Tracy Knox, will be conducting one-on-one institutional investor meetings at the 2016 Deutsche Bank Technology Conference on Tuesday, September 13, 2016, at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas. A copy of the investor presentation will be available in the Investors section of Rightside's website. Rightside shares (NASDAQ: NAME) have declined -32.86% since August 10th:
• New gTLD Registry and Registrar services provider Centralnic Group PLC (LON: CNIC) reported first-half 2016 results this past week: adjusted pre-tax profits of £948,000, though after tax the group had a £1,306,000 loss. $CNIC shares have declined -13.33% since August 10th (see chart above). Centralnic CEO's Statement: "The domain name industry is undergoing a period of disruption and consolidation ..."
• Trump Org. Beats Defamation Claim From Domain Name Pitchman | NewYorkLawJournal.com: "... Brooklyn federal Judge Eric Vitaliano said the complaint in Stephens v. Trump Organization, 15-cv-2217, failed in every respect. Vitaliano said, "It is inconceivable that Stephens could, as the silence in his papers emphasizes, plead any facts that would entitle him to co-opt the Trump name" or "that any words used by the Trump defendants to denounce cybersquatting (in all its forms) would be defamatory."..."
• John McAfee, creator of antivirus software, sues Intel for right to use his name: "McAfee joined digital gaming company MGT Capital Investments Inc as chairman and chief executive, and plans to rename the company 'John McAfee Global Technologies Inc.'''--domain-b.com. Intel acquired the McAfee trademark (mcafee.com, @mcafee) in 2010, and utilizes the name in connection with its cybersecurity unit called "Intel Security." See also Intel Sells a Majority Stake of Cybersecurity Unit to TPG | NYTimes.com: "Under the terms of the deal, [the spinoff] will borrow money to pay out a roughly $2 billion dividend to Intel, which will retain a 49 percent stake in the business. TPG will pay $1.1 billion in cash for a 51 percent stake. The business, currently called Intel Security, will again adopt the McAfee name when the deal closes, which is expected in the second quarter of 2017."
• Internet in Russia freer than in US, claims top Kremlin official | rt.com: "Volodin was giving a press conference in the central Russian city of Tambov, where a local reporter asked him to comment on the possibility of introducing a rule that would require social networks to obtain ID from their users “so that people could know who is on the other side of the internet.” The official replied that unlike many countries, Russia has chosen self-regulation on the internet and he saw no need to change this."
• Open Internet Advocates Claim Victory in Europe Net Neutrality Fight: "The BEREC guidelines state that internet users “have the right to access and distribute information and content, use and provide applications and services, and use terminal equipment of their choice, irrespective of the end-user’s or provider’s location or the location, origin or destination of the information, content, application or service, via their internet access service.”"--Motherboard.Vice.com.
• Facebook’s satellite went up in smoke, but its developing world land grab goes on | Emily Reynolds | Opinion | TheGuardian.com: "The whole point of the internet – the joy of it, the endlessly radical possibilities that are part and parcel of it – is that it’s open, that it’s neutral, that its users are free to say, do, and read almost anything they want on it."
• How internet pirates became a political force in Iceland | newstatesman.com: "In 2013, five months after its founding, the Pirate Party won three of Iceland’s 63 parliamentary seats – the only one of the world’s thirty or so officially registered Pirate Parties with a presence in a national legislature – and it is expected to gain between 15 and 20 in the elections later this year. It has been quite a rise for an activist movement that initially focused on internet freedom and copyright reform."
• Trump Org. Beats Defamation Claim From Domain Name Pitchman | NewYorkLawJournal.com: "... Brooklyn federal Judge Eric Vitaliano said the complaint in Stephens v. Trump Organization, 15-cv-2217, failed in every respect. Vitaliano said, "It is inconceivable that Stephens could, as the silence in his papers emphasizes, plead any facts that would entitle him to co-opt the Trump name" or "that any words used by the Trump defendants to denounce cybersquatting (in all its forms) would be defamatory."..."
• John McAfee, creator of antivirus software, sues Intel for right to use his name: "McAfee joined digital gaming company MGT Capital Investments Inc as chairman and chief executive, and plans to rename the company 'John McAfee Global Technologies Inc.'''--domain-b.com. Intel acquired the McAfee trademark (mcafee.com, @mcafee) in 2010, and utilizes the name in connection with its cybersecurity unit called "Intel Security." See also Intel Sells a Majority Stake of Cybersecurity Unit to TPG | NYTimes.com: "Under the terms of the deal, [the spinoff] will borrow money to pay out a roughly $2 billion dividend to Intel, which will retain a 49 percent stake in the business. TPG will pay $1.1 billion in cash for a 51 percent stake. The business, currently called Intel Security, will again adopt the McAfee name when the deal closes, which is expected in the second quarter of 2017."
• Internet in Russia freer than in US, claims top Kremlin official | rt.com: "Volodin was giving a press conference in the central Russian city of Tambov, where a local reporter asked him to comment on the possibility of introducing a rule that would require social networks to obtain ID from their users “so that people could know who is on the other side of the internet.” The official replied that unlike many countries, Russia has chosen self-regulation on the internet and he saw no need to change this."
• Open Internet Advocates Claim Victory in Europe Net Neutrality Fight: "The BEREC guidelines state that internet users “have the right to access and distribute information and content, use and provide applications and services, and use terminal equipment of their choice, irrespective of the end-user’s or provider’s location or the location, origin or destination of the information, content, application or service, via their internet access service.”"--Motherboard.Vice.com.
• Facebook’s satellite went up in smoke, but its developing world land grab goes on | Emily Reynolds | Opinion | TheGuardian.com: "The whole point of the internet – the joy of it, the endlessly radical possibilities that are part and parcel of it – is that it’s open, that it’s neutral, that its users are free to say, do, and read almost anything they want on it."
• How internet pirates became a political force in Iceland | newstatesman.com: "In 2013, five months after its founding, the Pirate Party won three of Iceland’s 63 parliamentary seats – the only one of the world’s thirty or so officially registered Pirate Parties with a presence in a national legislature – and it is expected to gain between 15 and 20 in the elections later this year. It has been quite a rise for an activist movement that initially focused on internet freedom and copyright reform."
• Comments close this coming week at ICANN on Proposed Renewal of .TEL Registry Agreement: Close Date 13 Sep 2016 23:59 UTC.
Tech News:
- World's fastest optic undersea cable now links U.S. to Japan and Taiwan: "... in June, the six-member FASTER Consortium began beaming light through the FASTER cable [which] connects the United States and Japan ... we [Google] invested in a cable that links FASTER in Japan on to Taiwan, where our largest data center in Asia ..."--googleblog.com. See also: FASTER Cable System | NEC.com and FASTER | Wikipedia.org.
- "Amazon.com Inc. is pursuing video rights to a wide range of sports, including the French Open tennis championship and professional rugby, as the company looks for ways to draw new customers to its online TV service"--Bloomberg.com
- Apple's new iPhones: 'The Thrill Is Gone'--if what I have already is good enough why should I upgrade?--See "'Good Enough' theory could be taking hold"--SeekingAlpha.com. See also Samsung out as much as $1 billion for Note 7 recall, will reportedly stop using its own batteries--9to5Google.com.
- IoT: A Zion research report indicates the commercial telematics market is set to grow from $20.42 billion in 2015 to $55.14 billion by the end of 2021, at a CAGR of more than 18% between 2016 and 2021.--ConnectedCar-news.com
- Google to acquire Apigee | cloudplatform.googleblog.com: "The addition of Apigee’s API solutions to Google cloud will accelerate our customers’ move to supporting their businesses with high quality digital interactions." See also: Google given more time to reply to EU antitrust charge on Android | Reuters.com.
- Can Uber Make A Profit? "... unclear whether Uber is a sustainable long-term business that justifies its current valuation. Ride services are fungible and thus competition will drive down prices to the point of marginal supply."--SeekingAlpha.com
- Tech Startups Face Dwindling Funding | WSJ.com: "China’s technology startups were red-hot for years. Today, the catchphrase among some in the industry to describe the funding environment is “deep winter.”"
- Tax Avoidance Schemes: How Apple—and the Rest of Silicon Valley—Avoids the Tax Man | WIRED.com: "... By selling intellectual property rights to sock-puppet subsidiaries, tech giants shift profits to low-tax nations like Ireland. But that’s just a start. Sublicense the IP to a second Irish unit that books global sales, have entity B pay onerous royalties back to A (wiping out its earnings), then show that A is headquartered in the Caribbean, making its royalty income untaxable in Ireland ..." See also: Brussels calling: tech firms add lobby strength as EU gets tough | Reuters.com.
Four most popular posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this past week on DomainMondo.com:
- News Review [4Sep]: Threats to the Open Internet and ICANN Culpability
- ICANN Litigation, Cooperative Engagement, and IRP Status Update
- US Senator Cruz Attacks ICANN, Fadi Chehadé, IANA Transition (video)
- Senate & House Chairmen's Letter to Attorney General & Commerce Sec.
- The High Cost of Honesty in a Sea of Low-Cost BS | CharlesHughSmith.blogspot.com.
- Shopping Malls in Crisis: "[L]andlords are essentially making the case that Aeropostale is better off with only a fourth of its brick-and-mortar locations, ideally in the best-performing malls where traffic trends haven't been pummeled. The company can then pursue growth through online sales, as well as licensing pacts and wholesale contracts in the U.S. and abroad -- much as Authentic Brands is trying to do with Juicy Couture."--Bloomberg.com
- Fundamental Attribution Error, Why Predicting Behavior Is Hard--FarnamStreetBlog.com
- A Farewell Guide to Political Journalism | TheAtlantic.com by Ron Fournier: "A reporter’s job isn’t to make friends. It’s ... to hold powerful people accountable. Remember the Balz lesson: Your sources are more likely to respect you if they’re a little afraid of you. Don’t cede power to the powerful."
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo
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