UPDATE 6 June 2018--ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH | ICANN.org--ICANN published the German and English translations of EPAG documents filed in the German Court case in which ICANN's application for an injunction was denied: EPAG Protective Letter (German) [PDF 12.2 MB] and Affidavit of Alexander Schwertner (German) [PDF 145 KB]. English Translations below are unofficial; provided for information purposes only:
- English Translation of EPAG Protective Letter [PDF, 143 KB] embed below,
1) European Data Protection Board Tells ICANN, Again, No GDPR Moratorium
"The European Data Protection Board endorsed the statement of the WP29 on ICANN/WHOIS during its first plenary meeting on 25 May ... The GDPR does not allow national supervisory authorities nor the European Data Protection Board (the WP29 will become the EDPB on 25 May 2018) to create an “enforcement moratorium” for individual data controllers. Data protection is a fundamental right of individuals, who may submit complaints to their national data protection authority whenever they consider that their rights under the GDPR have been violated ..." (emphasis added).Full embed below:
Editor's note: see also News Review | GDPR Moratorium Just Another ICANN 'Fantasy' 29 April 2018. For more on the GDPR & ICANN WHOIS, including litigation in Germany, see last week's News Review | GDPR Effect: ICANN Sues German Domain Name Registrar and updates therein.
I also recommend reading former ICANN staffer Kieren McCarthy's take on the events in Germany last week, including his review of how ICANN repeatedly deluded itself to reach this sorry state:
"... for an organization with a self-importance that often leads it down a path to delusion, being told that your most important contract is effectively unenforceable has to sting .... ICANN as an organization also has an opportunity to change with the times. The CEO and board have been able to see first hand how they were given terrible advice time and again from their own staff. The next year would be a good time to clean house and install a more diverse, open-minded and international team ..."
UPDATE: LIVE twitter feed of the European Data Protection Supervisor:
Tweets by EU_EDPS
b. Handbook on European data protection law (2018 edition) (pdf) (402 pages.):
Editor's Note: the manuscript for this handbook was completed in April 2018.
2) Other ICANN news
b. 29 May 2018 Letter (pdf) from NCSG Chair Farzaneh Badiei to ICANN Board Chair Cherine Chalaby--Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group's Input on ICANN's Fiscal Year 2019 Budget
See: ICANN Board Adopts the FY19 Operating Plan and Budget | ICANN.org
c. ICANN Reviews Webinars--ICANN.org: ICANN invites the community to attend one of two webinars being held to discuss short-term options and long-term options on the timeline of ICANN Reviews. The presentation will be identical for both one-hour webinars, scheduled as follows: Webinar 1: 07 June 2018: 5:00 UTC [local time] or Webinar 2: 07 June 2018:17:00 UTC [local time].
d. ICYMI: DENIC eG [domain: denic.de] as New ICANN-Designated Agent to Support Registrar Data Escrow Services | ICANN.org : "... ICANN org selected DENIC through a competitive Request for Proposal initiated in August 2017, following requests from the registrar community to expand the RDE program, in part to meet regional challenges such as the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation [GDPR]. ... The Registrar Data Escrow program is intended to protect registrants in the event of registrar failure or termination of a Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) ..." More information at the link above.
3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
b. How to Choose a Domain Name That Will Stand the Test of Time | SearchEngineJournal.com: "... 9. What TLD? ... follow this rule: Is your target market global (as in do your potential customers live all over the world)? Yes: Choose .COM.
No: Choose a TLD for the country you’re targeting [ccTLD] ... Why? Google doesn’t give any priority to keywords in your TLD ... Most potential customers would guess your domain ended in “.com”. The same goes for your email address ... A “.COM” or a country TLD [ccTLD] is more trustworthy and known than keyword gTLDs (e.g., “.BIKE”) ..."
c. Banished by the Google God: 16 Ways to Get Deindexed by Google | .searchenginejournal.com
d. U.S. District Judge Orders (pdf) Partial Dismissal in Mainstream Advertising's Trademark Infringement Case--In January 2018, Mainstream Advertising filed its second amended complaint, alleging trademark infringement, wrongful garnishment/seizure, abuse of process, conversion and Accounting. Moniker then filed its motion to dismiss--Florida Record | flarecord.com.
e. Tesla CEO Elon Musk registered the domain name Pravduh.com after saying he would create a site to rate reporters--CNBC.com.
4) ICYMI Internet Domain News
b. InternetNZ funds work on mobile services, internet addiction | computerworld.co.nz
c. Geoblocking: Amazon.com, Inc. will force Australians to use its Australian website instead of its much larger U.S. site to avoid a new sales tax.
d. EU & GDPR:
- EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line | juliareda.eu: "In stark contrast to the GDPR, experts near-unanimously agree that the copyright reform law, as it stands now, is really bad." EU governments agree on copyright reform, which still needs EU parliament approval, to let news sites charge aggregators for snippets and force upload filters on websites.
- Tech groups raise concerns EU ePrivacy plan could kill innovation | siliconrepublic.com
- EU data privacy laws are likely to create barriers to trade says Wilbur Ross, U.S. Commerce Secretary--ft.com: "We do not have a clear understanding of what is required to comply ... GDPR also raises concern for law enforcement and intellectual property rights by restricting access to publicly available internet domain-name registration data ..."
- EU Data Privacy Law (GDPR) Creates New Business for Tech Consultants--WSJ.com.
- NYTimes.com and noyb.eu: an Austrian privacy advocacy group has filed complaints against Google and Facebook and two of Facebook’s subsidiaries, WhatsApp and Instagram, claiming they failed to give European users specific control over the use of their data, in violation of the GDPR, and asking regulators to impose fines--$4.3 billion on Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and $1.5 billion each on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp--roughly 4 percent of each company’s 2017 revenue, the maximum penalty allowed under the GDPR.
- 5 unexpected consequences of GDPR | TechRadar.com
- ICANN "has been too slow to react to the global impact of the GDPR.”--Andy Kays, CTO at Redscan--WHOIS GDPR Denial Will Harm Security Industry, But ICANN To Blame |informationsecuritybuzz.com.
5) The three most read posts this past week on DomainMondo.com:
-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo