1) HTC Terminates New gTLD .HTC: Well-known global brand HTC has joined McDonald's and other global name brands in rejecting ICANN's Extortionate .BRAND Scam:
Registry Agreement Termination Information Page | ICANN.org:
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| ICANN hides its Registry Agreement Termination Information Page under "Proof of Concept Reports" |
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| Like McDonald's, HTC's back end registry services provider was also Neustar |
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| Letter from HTC to ICANN terminating new gTLD .HTC |
News Review: ICANN's Extortionate .BRAND Scam Failing: "... an assortment of hucksters, lawyers, charlatans, and snake oil salesmen ... thought they would get filthy rich off all the big "dumb" rich trademark holders who were told they must pay to defensively register their trademark as an ICANN .BRAND TLD or risk losing their "brand name" and trademark on the internet to other claimants. ICANN charged an initial $185,000 "shakedown" fee per brand name upfront, plus periodic fees thereafter for the "privilege" of operating the .BRAND TLD. Of course, that may be just a drop in the bucket compared to the fees charged by the consultants, lawyers, back end registry service providers, and others, including the aforesaid charlatans."
2) Other ICANN news:
a. Letter from GAC (Thomas Schneider) to ICANN (Theresa Swinehart) | ICANN.org re: GDPR Compliance Task Force: schneider-to-swinehart-24jul17-en.pdf [77.6 KB] embed below (highlighting added):
b. ICANN Management Organization Chart | ICANN.org 01 Aug 2017: management-org-01aug17-en.pdf (pdf) [131 KB]
c. Geographic Names as Top-Level Domains (TLDs): Letter from Avri Doria and Jeff Neuman to GNSO Chair James Bladel (pdf), embed below (highlighting added):
3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
- The Curious Case of Untied.com: Terrible Ruling Allows Untied To Keep Its Domain But Not Its Soul | Techdirt.com. See also the Canadian Court's ruling (pdf).
4) ICYMI Internet Domain News
- Politico.com reports U.S. Senator Ted Cruz is "slowing down the Senate Commerce Committee vote on NTIA Administrator-nominee David Redl" because Cruz "is seeking assurances related to the IANA transition."
- 10 major trends in Internet governance: mid-year review | Diplomacy.edu: "...; [individual] citizens are becoming less relevant in digital realpolitik. They are personally targeted in advertising and surveillance efforts by corporations and governments ... Governments are increasingly speaking about digital sovereignty and less about the empowerment of individuals. Citizens are becoming more and more the object of digital growth and less and less the engine behind it ..."
- China holds drill to shut down 'harmful' websites | Reuters.com and VPN crackdown an ‘unthinkable’ trial by firewall for China’s research world | South China Morning Post | scmp.com: "Beijing risks a brain drain and undermining international collaborations by cutting off academics reliant on virtual private networks, scholars say."
- China trial paves way for ‘unhackable’ communications network | ft.com
- Ransomware victims have paid out more than $25 million in the last 2 years report researchers at Google, Chainalysis, UC San Diego, and the NYU Tandon School of Engineering--TheVerge.com.
- Tillerson reportedly considering shuttering US State Department cyber office | slate.com
- Google Fights Against Canada Supreme Court's Order to Change Global Search Results--WIRED.com: "Google is hoping to find a loophole on American soil by arguing this violates the First Amendment. “We’re taking this court action to defend the legal principle that one country shouldn’t be able to decide what information people in other countries can access online,” says David Price, senior product counsel at Google. “Undermining this core principle inevitably leads to a world where internet users are subject to the most restrictive content limitations from every country.”"
- Russia--TASS.com: Putin says everything should be allowed on Internet within law--"Russia has no censorship in any sector, Putin noted." But see also: Putin bans VPNs to stop Russians accessing prohibited websites | Reuters.com and Thousands March for Internet Freedom in Moscow | Breitbart.com.
5) Investing: GoDaddy $GDDY, Tucows $TCX, Verisign $VRSN & .WEB
- GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY), secondary offering lockup expiration: August 3, 2017.
- Q2 2017 earnings LIVE webcasts for GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) and Tucows (NASDAQ: TCX): August 8, 2017, at 5pm EDT.
- Verisign & .WEB: For 2017, Verisign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) expects to record revenues in the $1.155 billion to $1.165 billion range, while non-GAAP operating margin is expected to be between 64.5% and 65.25%. See also Verisign's FORM 10-Q for Q2 2017 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and VeriSign (VRSN) Q2 2017 Results - Earnings Call Transcript | SeekingAlpha.com:
"Well, there's really no update to provide on [new gTLD] .WEB at this point. With respect to our interactions with the Department of Justice [Antitrust Division], we continue to cooperate with DOJ as it pertains to the CID [civil investigative demand] we discussed last quarter. That dialogue is constructive, has been constructive. We produced documents and information. We'd answered questions as needed, and we're meeting with the department. So that's an ongoing process, and beyond that, there's really nothing to say at this point."--D. James Bidzos, VeriSign, Inc. CEO, July 27, 2017Global Public Interest? Verisign enjoys the pricing power (pdf) of an ICANN-enabled global monopoly:
And unlike the world's largest TLD (top-level domain) .COM (pdf), the new gTLDs are ICANN-enabled global monopolies with absolute, unlimited pricing-power. ICANN operates in the global public interest? LOL!
6) Most read posts (# of pageviews Sun-Sat) this past week on DomainMondo.com:
1. News Review: EFF Warns Registrants To Avoid New gTLD Domain Names
2. The Big Four: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google; & The New Rules (video)
3. Apple $AAPL Q3 FY17 Earnings Webcast, August 1, 5pm EDT
4. Tech Giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google: Above The Law? (video)
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo