News Review 1) ICANN Org vs EPDP Access? 2) New gTLDs Next Round?

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-09-30 with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN Org vs EPDP Access? 2) New gTLDs Next Round? 3) Other ICANN news: a. .AFRICA Litigation, and more, 3) Names, Domains & TMs: Malicious Domain Names, and more, 4) ICYMI: US-China Internet Bifurcation, Bad Internet Laws, Digital Cooperation, 5) Most Read.

1) ICANN & GDPR: ICANN Org vs EPDP Access?

Next ICANN EPDP Team Meetings scheduled for Tuesday Oct 2, and Thursday Oct 4, 13:00 UTC, 9am EDT. Non-members of the EPDP Team can follow the EPDP meetings (including "small team" meetings Wednesday and Friday this week) via Adobe Connect or audio cast via browser or application.

Editor's note: links to transcripts and Adobe Connect recordings will be posted here, as made available by ICANN. Note that links to EPDP meetings' transcripts are posted (usually within 24 hours) on the GNSO calendar. See also EPDP Team wiki, mail list, Temp Spec, action items, EPDP Charter(pdf), GNSO's EPDP page, & weekly updates to GNSO Council.

Fri. Oct 5 EPDP small group meeting (wiki link) 13:00 UTC (9am EDT): meeting transcript (pdf),
MP3, Adobe Connect replay, chat transcript (pdf), Background document embedded below:

Oct 4 EPDP Meeting (agenda), meeting transcript (pdf), chat transcript (pdf), Adobe Connect replay, MP3, Purpose N (pdf). Data elements workbooks. Editor's note: meeting discussions were led by 2 CBI facilitators, Gina Bartlett and David Plumb.

Wed. Oct 3 small group meeting: background document (pdf). Editor's note: 2 facilitators from CBI.org were at this meeting--Gina Bartlett led the meeting and David Plumb was present--so apparently CBI.org has been retained for further "facilitation and mediation" although the details are not known. The Wednesday small group EPDP members present: Alex Deacon (IPC), Laureen Kapin (GAC), Ben Butler (SSAC), James Bladel (RrSG), Marc Anderson (RySG), Margie Milam (BC). NCSG (6 EPDP members) was MIA (missing in action) for most of the meeting with no explanation or apologies noted--Stephanie Perrin (NCSG) did appear more than an hour after the meeting started.  

The Wednesday small group did not address the implicit flaws in the present WHOIS data fields (which if corrected would clearly distinguish between a legal entity or person as the actual registrant), instead they appeared to reach 'rough' consensus on adding more WHOIS data fields (before Perrin appeared). So much for data minimization! Meeting transcript (pdf), Notes & Action Items, Adobe replay, MP3, chat transcript (pdf) excerpt:

Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "note that the registrars will be held accountable for how well informed the individual is. If they give away their rights because they were not well informed, it will be the registrars fault."
Ben Butler (SSAC): "Thank you Stephanie. That would seem to raise the importance of getting the educational resources item right."
Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "Caution is required here ....if civil society were to sue under the GDPR, in my view (remember, I am not even a lawyer let alone a litigator) the strategy would be to go for ICANN as data controller responsible for the policy, and the registrar as data controller for the client relationship data."

Oct 2 Meeting (agenda, documents, high level notes and action items), chat transcript (pdf) embed below; and Meeting Transcript (pdf);

• Adobe Connect replay, MP3, F2F Action Items and F2F High-Level Notes (pdf); EPDP Planning (pdf) updated Oct 1;
• Agenda item 3) Legal basis for purposes and related processing activities: Lawful Basis memo (pdf);
• Agenda item 4) Review data elements workbook for purpose C - Enable communication or notification to the Registered Name Holder and/or their delegated parties of technical and/or administrative issues with a Registered Name (see https://community.icann.org/x/5AC8BQ).

Oct 2 Chat Transcript:

Highlights of the EPDP F2F Meeting Sep 24-26 in LA:

Definition of "train wreck" -- a chaotic or disastrous situation that holds a peculiar fascination for observers.

Best Quote of the entire F2F Meeting was from Stephanie Perrin [NCSG] on the first day:

"... about the only valid primary purpose for gathering data from the registrant is so that you can give the registrant the rights to a domain name that’s--that is the most legitimate purpose there is."

Biggest controversy: ICANN CEO Goran Marby on Tuesday

Marby's presence in the ePDP was profoundly divisive, exacerbating divisions between those who want ICANN to do anything to create a unified access model and those who think the multistakeholder process should be driving policy

— IGP Alert (@IGPAlert) September 26, 2018

ICANN CEO Goran Marby met with the EPDP working group Tuesday (transcript embedded below) the day after his controversial blog post:

Clueless to the end, ICANN CEO Goran Marby’s final statement to the EPDP working group: "It was fun" (transcript, supra, p. 32). Marby's Tuesday EPDP session Adobe Connect replay and MP3 audio.

ICANN CEO Marby sends a profoundly mixed message: he says repeatedly the community makes policy and he doesn't want to preempt it. At the same time he invites governments to sanction ICANN as an authority. Doesn't that fundamentally pre-empt what the community does?

— IGP Alert (@IGPAlert) September 26, 2018

Many members of the ePDP wanted to adjourn they were so depressed after Marby's appearance. As the mediators urged us to move beyond that, Board member @chrisdisspain pulls us back into rancor by defending Marby

— IGP Alert (@IGPAlert) September 26, 2018

The key problem is that most ePDP members, especially contracted parties and NCSG, think @ICANN has taken sides and is engaged in a parallel process to create unified Whois access model

— IGP Alert (@IGPAlert) September 26, 2018

Other highlights:
Day One--Welcome & Introductions:
Kurt Pritz, EPDP Chair: "I’m certainly aware of the concerns and even criticism of our progress to date, so I've taken, you know, every comment I’ve heard on board. And in hindsight we might [have] do[ne] some things differently ... while I wish we were further ahead, I don't feel so bad about it ... You know, personally, I don't think that the multistakeholder model can take [any] more of these top down temporary specifications before it falls in on itself ..."

Milton Mueller (NCSG): "Hi. I’m Milton. I spoke to Margie Milam of the Business Constituency who has disappeared but I didn't do it."

Alan Greenberg (ALAC): "I talked to Farzi [Badii] who the last time I heard her introduce herself, introduced herself as Farzaneh Badass. And she’s a ... concert violinist in the making."
David Plumb (facilitator): "Yes, not surprising."
Alan Greenberg: "Badass or concert violinist?"

Editor's note: there is no question some substantive work was done during the F2F, but whether it was enough to meet the EPDP's tight timeline is questionable. We may have a better idea after the EPDP meeting(s) this coming week, depending on how well the EPDP working group, and its Chair Kurt Pritz, function without the three facilitators from CBI.org who led most of the F2F meeting sessions.

"I mean, from some of the things I’ve seen in the chat it looks like the third party mediators were a positive thing, but it’s not clear to me whether or not any substantive progress was actually made at the face-to-face or are we going to end up in yet another RDS PDP type situation? The other thing as well is, I mean, the – whether or not this kind of outside the EPDP lobbying by certain groups – whether that’s having any impact on the general morale of people involved within the EPDP."--Michele Neylon (RrSG), GNSO Council Meeting, Thursday, 27 Sep 2018 transcript (pdf), p. 38.

More info on the EPDP F2F meeting in last week's News Review.

Note also: 

• Whois Reform Grinds forward--by Milton Mueller, InternetGovernance.org, Sep 28, 2018. [Editor's note: Professor Mueller, a NCSG member of the EPDP, provides a deep dive into the current status of the EPDP issues.]

• NTIA [US gov] Seeks Comment on New Approach to Consumer Data Privacy--RFC--25 Sep 2018.

• ICANN Webinar (one hour) data protection/privacy (GDPR) update now scheduled for Oct 8, 2018, 15:00 UTC (11am EDT) via Adobe Connect. Dial-in info, questions, etc., here. 

• Verisign Requests One-Year Extension (pdf) of current implementation deadlines under ICANN's Thick WHOIS Policy.

• Tim Berners-Lee announces Solid (domain: solid.inrupt.com), an open source project to decentralize the web and give users control of their data, and Inrupt (inrupt.com), a startup to guide the project.

2) New gTLDs Next Round? 

Comments closed Sep 26, 2018, to the Initial Report on the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures Policy Development Process (Overarching Issues & Work Tracks 1-4).

Editor's note: all submitted comments are here. Of particular note, are the comments submitted by:

• Public Interest Community (pdf) members: Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF.org), Samuelson-Glushko Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC), Public Knowledge, Martin Silva Valent, Esq. (Professor at Universidad de Palermo), Kathryn A. Kleiman (Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University), Leah Chan Grinvald (Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School), Eve J. Brown (Professor at Roger Williams University), A. Michael Froomkin (Professor, University of Miami School of Law), Bryan Bello (Center for Media and Social Impact, American University).

• Christopher  Wilkinson

• Council of Europe (pdf)

• ICANN Board of Directors (pdf)

• ICANN Org (pdf)

• Non-Commercial Stakeholders Group (NCSG) (pdf)

• The gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG) (pdf)

• At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) (pdf)

• Registry Operator XYZ

and my submitted comment (pdf) embed below. I thank the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division, for their affirming response which I received Friday.

See also New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP September 2018 Newsletter (pdf).

3) Other ICANN News

a. .AFRICA new gTLD litigation UPDATE:

Future Hearings:

Jan 25, 2019 at 08:30 am Final Status Conference;
Feb 6, 2019 at 10:00 am Trial.

b. Pre-ICANN63 Policy Open House webcast:

ICANN63 is in Barcelona, Spain, Oct 20-25, 2018.

Thursday, 11 October 2018, 10:00 UTC and 19:00 UTC. The open house will run in English with simultaneous Spanish interpretation. The presentation materials will be translated into Spanish, and posted following the open house with the recordings of the sessions here. Register via this form by 8 Oct 2018. More info here.

c. Issues and Challenges Impacting Domain Name Registrants (pdf):

--ICANN.org blog 26 Sep 2018. See also icann.org/registrants.

d. Open for Public Comment at ICANN Closing in October (23:59 UTC on the respective date indicated below--subject to change by ICANN):

• Next Steps On Reviews 5 Oct 2018

• Proposals for Devanagari, Gurmukhi, and Gujarati Scripts' Root Zone‬ Label Generation Rules 8 Oct 2018
• Proposals for Kannada, Oriya and Telugu Scripts' Root ZoneLabel Generation Rules 8 Oct 2018
• Proposed gTLD-Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) Profile 13 Oct 2018

e. SSR2 Restart, Terms of Reference Update (pdf).

f. ICANN's new gTLD .BRAND extortion racket loses two more: .spiegel and .blanco.

4) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Malicious Domain Names often use a trusted TLS certificate and appear to be safe for online shoppers who unknowingly provide sensitive account information and payment data reports Venafi.com. Among the key findings from the research:

• The total number of certificates for look-alike domains is more than 200% greater than the number of authentic retail domains.
• The growth in look-alike domains appears to be connected to the availability of free TLS certificates; 84% of the look-alike domains studied use free certificates from LetsEncrypt.org.

b. Zoho.com says its domain name registrar, TierraNet (tierra.net), pulled Zoho's website offline for a few hours after receiving three phishing complaints in two months related to Zoho-hosted email users. Zoho is now looking for a new domain name registrar according to TechCrunch.com. [Editor's note: Zoho may want to check out Cloudfare Registrar. Early access sign up.]

c. Intellectual property and e-commerce: Alibaba’s perspective | wipo.int.

5) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

US-China Internet Bifurcation:

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt predicts the internet will bifurcate into Chinese-led and US-led versions within the next decade: "I think the most likely scenario now is not a splintering, but rather a bifurcation into a Chinese-led internet and a non-Chinese internet led by America."--CNBC.com.

Bad Internet Laws:

The spectre of bad Internet laws in Europe should be a warning shot for Canadians https://t.co/bogvr2dbcW

— EFF (@EFF) September 20, 2018

UN Sec-Gen High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation:

1st mtg of High-level Panel on #DigitalCooperation underway during #UNGA with co-chairs @melindagates & #JackMa and 20 diverse experts ranging from economists to civil society activists, young entrepreneurs & govt Ministers talking about a digital future that works for all pic.twitter.com/B240uNeIIk

— High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation (@UNSGdigicoop) September 24, 2018

More information: digitalcooperation.org and @UNSGdigicoop.

6) Most Read Posts this past week on DomainMondo.com: 

1. News Review: ICANN & GDPR, EPDP F2F Meeting in LA, Sep 24-26

2. Tech Review: Digital Outdoor Advertising Growth Due To GDPR? (video)

3. Tech Review: 1) First Major Global eSports League; 2) eSports in China

4. US Senate Hearing To Examine Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

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Tech Review: Digital Outdoor Advertising Growth Due To GDPR? (video)

Tech Review (TR 2018-09-29)--Domain Mondo's weekly review of tech investing news with commentary, analysis and opinion: Features • 1) Digital Outdoor Advertising Growth Due To GDPR? 2) What Is Fintech? 3) Investing: The Week, Investing Notes: US, China, Trump & Trade Tariffs, 4) ICYMI Tech News.

1) Digital Outdoor Advertising is growing steadily, is GDPR one of the reasons?

Digitization of traditional outdoor advertising has contributed to the healthy growth of the "Out of Home" advertising sector, says Aidan Neill, co-founder of bitposter.co. There are other reasons, too, such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which became enforceable May 25, 2018. CNBC.com video above published Sep 24, 2018. Other companies mentioned: clearchannel.com and jcdecaux.com.

2) What is fintech? 

What is fintech all about? It’s a multi-billion dollar industry that’s changing everything from how we make purchases to how we get loans.

3) Investing

The Week: NASDAQ Composite +0.7% | S&P 500 Index -0.5% | DJIA -1.1% 

Q3 2018: S&P 500 posts strongest quarter since 2013.

"Economic progress continues in the United States … the data coming in is some of the strongest we have seen in this cycle ... let’s start with valuation ... [S&P 500] is selling at 17 times earnings, substantially below the peak multiples reached at the end of the last century or in 2007. Using my dividend discount model ... the index is now slightly above equilibrium, or fair value. In terms of sentiment, investors are optimistic, but not as euphoric as they were in January. These factors would argue that the market could move somewhat higher, but that a major surge is unlikely … weak markets elsewhere in the world don’t necessarily have a negative impact on the United States … One of the most important tenets of my current view is that the next recession will probably not occur until after the election in 2020 ..."--Byron Wien, Blackrock.com, Sep 25, 2018.

Wall Street's Charging Bull

Investing Notes: US, China, Trump & Trade Tariffs

The US and China are in a 'classic game of chicken' says Professor

Professor James Crabtree of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy explains the political dynamics coming from both the U.S. and China: US consumers are not going to feel any impact from tariffs for quite a long time. CNBC.com video published Sep 24, 2018.

The US has an 'extremely strong economy'

CNBC.com video above published Sep 24, 2018: Todd "Bubba" Horwitz of BubbaTrading.com says the U.S. could "survive without anybody if we had to," and he's not worried about tariffs or Trump's stance on China's theft of intellectual property and unfair treatment of U.S. companies.

DAILY BRIEF:

- Household debt hits all-time high
- China’s industrial profits fall to 4-month low
- London-Shanghai stock link could be ready by December
- Turkey becomes new investment target
- WeChat Pay to allow HK users to make mainland paymentshttps://t.co/Fw6d0xv8mD

— ChinaEconomicReview (@chinaeconreview) September 28, 2018

4) ICYMI Tech News:

• Amazon $AMZN still is the largest cloud provider at 34% market share, but Microsoft $MSFT at 14% share, is ahead of IBM $IBM 8%, Google $GOOGL $GOOG 6%, and Alibaba $BABA 4%, according to Synergy Research Group . Microsoft announced in July a five-year deal with Walmart $WMT to use Microsoft's cloud and AI tech. Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud revenues grew 23% in its fiscal Q4 to $9.61 billion and its Azure cloud business increased by 89%. Microsoft still maintains a strong position as software and hardware provider, while expanding into artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and IoT. Microsoft's acquisitions include LinkedIn and GitHub.

• Apple $AAPL completes deal to buy Shazam (shazam.com)--reuters.com.

• WeChat Pay vs. Alipay mobile payments: Tencent & Alibaba chase remittances in battle for Southeast Asia | reuters.com.

• Bitcoin prices may not have hit rock bottom yet, says Cboe options expert | MarketWatch.com.

• Media Madness: Comcast $CMCSA bid $40 billion for control of Sky;  Walt Disney $DIS probably paid too much for parts of Rupert Murdoch’s empire, including a stake in Sky, so selling that stake to Comcast would reduce Disney's debt to better battle streaming rivals like Netflix $NFLX. See Fox and Disney selling stake in Sky to Comcast--TheHill.com.

• Quantum Computing meeting at the White House: National Strategic Overview For Quantum Information Science | WhiteHouse.gov (pdf). 

• Personal Tech: Remove yourself from people search sites and erase your online presence | ZDNet.com--a step-by-step guide to reducing your digital footprint online, whether you want to lock down data or vanish entirely.

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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Nokona Gloves, The Last Baseball Glove Maker in America (video)

The Last Baseball-Glove Maker in America

Nokona baseball gloves are made in Nocona, Texas using a number of different leathers including kangaroo, cowhide and buffalo. From hot stamping, to embroidering, to lacing, Nokona has been handcrafting ball gloves since 1934. Video by Brian Schildhorn. Published by Bloomberg.com Sep 13, 2018.

Domain: nokona.com
Tweets by NokonaBaseball

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High-Tech Farming, Growing Kale in a Factory (video)

This High-Tech Farmer Grows Kale in a Factory

In the kale-filled facility at vertical farm startup Bowery Farming, it’s a piece of proprietary software that makes most of the critical decisions -- like when to harvest and how much to water each plant. But it still takes humans to carry out many tasks around the farm. Katie Morich, 25, loves the work. But as roboticists make gains, will her employer need her forever? Bloomberg.com video published Sep 20, 2018.

At Bowery, we're committed to growing the purest produce possible. To us, that means using zero pesticides and non-GMO seeds. We distribute our greens locally and control the entire process from seed to store.

Editor's note: the marriage of agriculture and technology is an evolving story. Bowery Farming's focus on fresh produce involves locally grown produce with consistent quality control and production management in order to serve as a trusted, reliable source to its customers and consumers.

Domain: boweryfarming.com
Tweets by BoweryFarming

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FOMC meeting, Fed Chairman's LIVE Press Conference Sep 26

FOMC Press Conference September 26, 2018

FOMC meeting on September 25-26, 2018: this meeting is associated with a Summary of Economic Projections and a press conference by the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome ("Jay") Powell. The 25 basis point increase to a 2.00% - 2.25% target for the fed funds rate was expected. Fed Funds Futures odds here.

The 2:30 pm EDT press conference did include a question about trade policy although Chairman Powell has avoided this issue in the past. Will tariffs cause inflation, increasing the need for more rate hikes, or chill spending and capital investment, negating further need for higher interest rates?

Domain: federalreserve.gov

Fed Chairman Powell

FOMC Summary of Economic Projections for the Fed Funds Rate Jan 2018 - Jan 2020, Median (FEDTARMD)

Tweets by federalreserve
Tweets by FactSet

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US Senate Hearing To Examine Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy

What is the impact of digital privacy regulation on the tech industry?

TheAtlantic.com video above published Sep 14, 2018: Victoria Espinel, President, BSA | The Software Alliance, Michael Beckerman, CEO, The Internet Association and Dean Garfield, President and CEO, Internet Technology Industry Council. The panelists weigh in on adapting to regulation, the social impact of technology, and innovation.

Experts in digital privacy and protection weigh in on the current landscape

TheAtlantic.com video above published Sep 14, 2018: Harriet Pearson, Partner, Hogan Lovells, Bruce Schneier, Fellow, Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University and Ari Waldman, Professor of Law and Director, Innovation Center for Law and Society, New York Law School share their thoughts on the importance of emphasizing innovation, risks of data collection and consumer rights. More info: protectingprivacy.theatlantic.com.

US Senate Commerce Committee Hearing: Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy: U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a full committee hearing titled “Examining Safeguards for Consumer Data Privacy” at 10:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday, Sep 26, 2018. LIVE video of the hearing will be available on commerce.senate.gov.

The hearing will examine privacy policies of top technology and communications firms, review the current state of consumer data privacy, and offer members the opportunity to discuss possible approaches to safeguarding privacy more effectively.

“Consumers deserve clear answers and standards on data privacy protection. This hearing will provide leading technology companies and internet service providers an opportunity to explain their approaches to privacy, how they plan to address new requirements from the European Union and California, and what Congress can do to promote clear privacy expectations without hurting innovation”--Senator Thune.

Witnesses:

• Mr. Len Cali, Senior Vice President, Global Public Policy, AT&T Inc.
• Mr. Andrew DeVore, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, Amazon.com, Inc.
• Mr. Keith Enright, Chief Privacy Officer, Google LLC
• Mr. Damian Kieran, Global Data Protection Officer and Associate Legal Director, Twitter, Inc.
• Mr. Guy (Bud) Tribble, Vice President for Software Technology, Apple Inc.
• Ms. Rachel Welch, Senior VP, Policy & External Affairs, Charter Communications, Inc.

*Witness list subject to change (source).
Twitter: @SenateCommerce

Background:

The European Union's sweeping privacy law known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, became enforceable May 25, 2018, requiring websites to be more transparent about how they handle personal data and giving users more control over what companies can do with their information. A month later, California passed the United States' toughest data privacy law to date in an effort to head off an even stricter ballot initiative. The new California law does not go into effect until 2020, setting off a push in the tech industry for national privacy standards that would prevent (preempt) states from enforcing their own rules.

EFF.org: "The Senate Commerce Committee is getting ready to host a much-anticipated hearing on consumer privacy—and consumer privacy groups don’t get a seat at the table. Instead, the Committee is seeking only the testimony of big tech and Internet access corporations: Amazon, Apple, AT&T, Charter Communications, Google, and Twitter. Some of these companies have spent heavily to oppose consumer privacy legislation and have never supported consumer privacy laws. They know policymakers are considering new privacy protections, and are likely to view this hearing as a chance to encourage Congress to adopt the weakest privacy protections possible—and eviscerate stronger state protections at the same time. It is no coincidence that, in the past week, two leading industry groups (the Chamber of Commerceand the Internet Association) have called for federal preemption of state data privacy laws in exchange for weaker federal protections. For example, laws in California and Illinois require companies to have user consent to certain uses of their personal information (Nevada and Minnesota have these requirements for Internet access providers), while the industry proposals would only require transparency. That means that companies would be allowed to collect information without your permission as long as they tell you they’re doing it. The upcoming hearing at the Senate Commerce Committee may be the launch pad for this strategy of undoing stronger state laws ..."

See also:

• Google releases framework to guide data privacy legislation--TheHill.com; 

• Internet Association Proposes Privacy Principles For A Modern National Regulatory Framework | internetassociation.org:

• privacy principles and considerations 

• two-page summary

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The New Microsoft $MSFT, Microsoft Ignite, Orlando, LIVE Sep 24-28

Developing for the Cloud | Microsoft Ignite 2018

Microsoft's Jeff Sanquist, general manager who leads developer relations: “My team is laser-focused on changing the relationship with technical audiences around the world.”

Azure Compute:

Microsoft Ignite, September 24–28, 2018, Orlando, Florida
Microsoft Ignite has sold out. Watch the keynotes and sessions LIVE--join the live stream starting September 24 here.

Agenda - Sessions - Speakers

Domains: ignite.microsoft.com  |  azure.microsoft.com
Microsoft Corporation
NASDAQ: MSFT

$MSFT

#MSIgnite
Tweets by MS_Ignite

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News Review: ICANN & GDPR, EPDP F2F Meeting in LA, Sep 24-26

Domain Mondo's weekly internet domain news review (NR 2018-09-23 with analysis and opinion: Features •  1) ICANN & GDPR, EPDP F2F Meeting in LA, Sep 24-26, 2) ICANN New gTLDs CCT-Review Report, and more, 3)a.Canada's TM law, b. GoDaddy & new gTLDs, c. ccTLD .eu, and more, 4) ICYMI: Internet Freedom (EU,UK), Net Neutrality (US), 5) Most Read.

UPDATE Sep 24, 2018: ICANN said today it is considering (beyond its role as a WHOIS data 'controller' and its role in contractual enforcement), to "be acknowledged under the law as the coordinating authority of the WHOIS system ... shifting the liability for providing access to non-public registration data to ICANN and establishing a globally scalable unified solution for access to non-public WHOIS data," adding, "it will be important to engage with the European Data Protection Board to test with them whether the approaches and interpretations of the law may ultimately provide a feasible solution meeting the needs of stakeholders seeking access to non-public WHOIS." (emphasis added)

1) ICANN & GDPR, EPDP F2F Meeting in LA, Sep 24-26

ICANN EPDP Working Group Face-to-Face Meeting in LA Sep 24-26, 2018. Google Map of ICANN offices and hotel and logistics info (pdf). Non-members of the EPDP Team can follow EPDP meetings via Adobe Connect or audio cast via browser or application.

LA F2F Meeting wiki page: agenda with local (PDT) and UTC times, slides, documents, recordings. Meeting facilitators: David Plumb, Gina Bartlett and Toby Berkman of CBI.org.

Notes:

• ICANN CEO Goran Marby met with the EPDP working group Tuesday: Adobe Connect replay and MP3 audio replay.

• Data_Elements_Processing_Workbook_v0.4.4 (pdf) updated 9/25; 

• Purposes for processing registration data - 24 September 2018 V7 (pdf);

• Updated (9/25) worksheets for Purpose A (pdf), Purpose E (pdf), Purpose M (pdf).

• Adobe Connect replay (video) & audio MP3 links on the meeting wiki page.

• Meeting Transcripts' links on meeting wiki page and GNSO Calendar.

• Chat Transcripts: Day 1 (pdf); Day 2 (pdf); Day 3 (pdf).

UPDATE Sep 24, 2018, slides:

F2F agenda (subject to change), times shown are local PDT:

Editor's note: links to EPDP meetings' transcripts are posted (usually within 24 hours) on the GNSO calendar. See also EPDP Team wiki, mail list, Temp Spec, EPDP Charter (pdf), GNSO's EPDP page, & weekly updates to GNSO Council.

EPDP Highlights for the week ending Sep 22 (emphasis and links added):

GNSO Council mail list:

Sep 18, 2018: "The BC/IPC [ICANN Business Constituency and Intellectual Property Constituency] recently sent a letter [pdf] to ICANN org about the accreditation and access model. This letter seems problematic at this stage of the game. We discussed this issue ad nauseam during the EPDP Charter development and the Council has tasked the EPDP with addressing the Annex. To ask ICANN org to circumvent the EPDP undermines the policy development process and seems disingenuous to the Council's approval of the Charter. In addition, the EDPB's July 5 letter [pdf] states responsibility for designing an access model lies with ICANN and the registries/ registrars, not just ICANN as indicated in the BC/IPC letter. Will our BC and/or IPC councilors please shed some light on this?"--Darcy Southwell (RrSG).  

Sep 19, 2018: "Darcy has asked an excellent question. As an outgoing councilor, I guess I can afford to be blunt here. What is going on? I quit the RDS PDP after two years of soul destroying work because it was blindingly clear we were going nowhere, and the Board was already working on a temp spec to override anything we were doing. IS the same thing going to happen with the EPDP? I am deeply concerned about the integrity of the multi-stakeholder process. Sorry for being direct, but time is precious."--Stephanie Perrin (NCSG). 

Editor's note: the lone response from either BC or IPC councilors as of Sep 21, 2018, is here. 

EPDP Sep 18 meeting chat transcript (pdf):  Milton Mueller (NCSG): "... confusing access with purpose again .... and again .... and again" .... Farzaneh Badii (NCSG): "... gating questions have to be answered. We are not answering them. Every meeting has turned into an access meeting ..." Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "Another useful document on the DPIA process, endorsed by the Schleswig Holstein DPA (co-author) is available here ... targeted to GDPR compliance ... (file under
educational efforts, or what we ought to be doing at this point) ... Useful also in that it crosslinks to relevant standards." 

EPDP Sep 18 meeting transcript (pdf, 49 pp.):
Milton Mueller (NCSG): "Yes, Kurt [Pritz], these comments are primarily directed to you as the chair of this committee. We've just spent half of our meeting on an extraneous agenda item. I don't know how we got – how this got prioritized. I think it’s very evident from the discussion that it should not have been prioritized. And I’m – I really think that we need to have better management of our agenda. We have to focus on the things that are essential to the temp spec and that is what data is collected, what are the purposes and what data is going to be redacted in public Whois. It’s simply unacceptable for us to keep getting distracted from these fundamental issues onto things that are secondary and that may not even be controversial once we've decided what data elements are actually going to be collected and what are going to be disclosed. So can we get off Appendix C? Can we just drop it? It’s not getting us anywhere. It’s a waste of time and I think I still don't understand how we even got on this." p.19 
Kurt Pritz (EPDP Chair): "Okay, Milton ..." 

[Editor's note: Kurt Pritz, the inept EPDP Chair appointed by the GNSO Council, is a major contributor to the EPDP working group's dysfunction. Maybe the LA F2F meeting facilitators (CBI) can ameliorate some of the effects of Pritz's dysfunction.]

Stephanie Perrin (NCSG): "... In many ways Alan [Woods, RySG] has just made my point. We are going in circles, folks. I hope some people have now taken the training but unfortunately the training is, while it’s very good I think, for length of time that takes to do it ... it does not help us do a privacy impact assessment on the framework that we're dealing with. And the problem, as I see it, is that the bylaws to which Alan keeps referring ... require a privacy impact assessment. Everybody’s assuming that the bylaws as ICANN has set them up, are some kind of gospel. They don't comply with data protection law. We have been told by the DPAs point blank over years, that it's not up to ICANN to set itself up as a law enforcement data dump. I’m paraphrasing there ... the purposes of third parties are not the purposes of ICANN and ICANN cannot write itself bylaws that provide that ... If we’re going to be going in circles you might as well go back and do a privacy impact assessment of the entire registration data service because this isn't working ..." p.24

EPDP Sep 20 meeting chat transcript (pdf): Amr Elsadr (NCSG): "I'm in favor of attempting to answering the Charter questions, as opposed to redlining the temp spec." ...   Kristina Rosette (RySG):+1 Amr (answering charter questions and not redlining TS) ... Milton Mueller (NCSG): "Please, let's not redline Temp Spec" .... "our ultimate objective is to replace the temp spec with a real policy, have we forgotten that?" ... farzaneh badii (NCSG): "why are we thinking about section by section. lets think about charter questions, the data elements, answer questions and then see which sections of temp specc has to be revised." Milton Mueller (NCSG): "exactly, Farzy." Amr Elsadr (NCSG):@Farzi: +1 ....  Milton Mueller (NCSG): "An access method is outside the gating question" ... Ashley Heineman (GAC): "I agree Milton" ... Thomas Rickert (ISPCP): "Kurt - I think Milton made an excellent point when he said that you can only have a discussion about redaction once you know what you collect in the first place" ...  Ashley Heineman (GAC): "... I think the charter questions provide a good framework for our discussions" ... Milton Mueller (NCSG): "I am going to leave the call ... this is a waste of time" ... Thomas Rickert (ISPCP): "... Today, I am quite frustrated because we do not seem to be making any progress at all."

EPDP Sep 20 meeting transcript (pdf, 45pp.):
Milton Mueller (NCSG): "Yes I’m just – there’s some kind of strange process going on here but I

thought I had made the point [p. 35] that we cannot discuss access to nonpublic Whois data until we know what the data is and what is public and what is nonpublic. And here we are having a discussion of access to these data elements that we don't even know and we don't know what's public and nonpublic. Why is this happening? Did I miss something in the discussion? It seemed like you agreed with me, Kurt, that there was a logical order to the discussion of these elements. Are we discussing what we’re going to discuss when we’re in Los Angeles? Or are we having this discussion in a real sense? I’m just completely lost here." p.40

Kurt Pritz (EPDP Chair): "Thanks, Milton. I think there are several topics in Appendix A, other than
redaction, that require discussion where redaction isn't necessarily on the critical path. And so what …" p.40

Milton Mueller (NCSG): "… redaction is not on the critical path when you're talking about access to nonpublic Whois data and redaction tells you what's public and what's not public? How can you say that?" p.40

Kurt Pritz (EPDP Chair): "I wasn’t referring to access, I was referring to some of these other things that are in Appendix A ..." p.40

Mark Svancarek (BC): "... I really reject the idea that we must define all data elements to be redacted before we can talk about the concept of reasonable access ..." p.41 

James Bladel [RrSG]: "... I keep feeling like we just continue to get wrapped around the access issue and ... it’s unfortunately just not something we can take on in the scope of the time that we have. And I think that that’s one of the reasons why the GNSO Council designed the charter the way they did. So I think we just need to kind of note it, flag it, and move on. Thanks." p. 42

Editor's note: The continual diversions to access and 3rd party purposes and interests, particularly by Facebook's Margie Milam  and Microsoft's Mark Svancarek (BC EPDP members), together with the inept EPDP Chair's dysfunction, is fast sinking any chance of this EPDP working group addressing 3rd-party "access" to redacted WHOIS registration data, due to a lack of time, if nothing else. But again, that may be the strategy of the IPC (Intellectual Property Constituency) and BC (Business Constituency) in order to put more "pressure" on ICANN management and the ICANN Board to adopt and implement a "unified accreditation and access model" more to IPC and BC's liking, without input from this EPDP working group. See BC/IPC Sep 7 letter (pdf) to ICANN CEO Goran Marby.

The EPDP working group wasted almost the entire month of August compiling a "triage report" for the GNSO Council that could instead have been simplified to a survey completed in the first week of August, followed immediately with the EPDP Team addressing the Charter's gating questions. Instead the inept EPDP "leadership team" assisted by ICANN staff, forced the EPDP working group to engage in temp spec redlining exercises:

“I came into this thinking that the fastest way home was to sort of redline the temporary specification"--Kurt Pritz, EPDP meeting Sep 20, 2018, transcript, supra, p.10.

In other words, Kurt Pritz thought he knew a better way than following the GNSO Council's EPDP Charter, which is why the EPDP team is behind schedule and "off track" as it arrives in LA this week for its face-to-face meeting. I have observed every meeting of this EPDP working group, and thus far, from all indications, it appears Pritz lacks the intellect, aptitude, and/or skills, to be an effective EPDP Chair. Until the Chair's dysfunction is addressed, this EPDP isn't likely to get much done.

More info and updates on last week's meetings in last week's News Review.

Definition of "train wreck" -- a chaotic or disastrous situation that holds a peculiar fascination for observers.

Note also:
ICYMI ICANN Lost Again in the Appellate Court in Germany:

ICANN v. EPAG Domainservices, GmbH (a Tucows affiliate)

• UPDATE Sep 24 POSTPONED: ICANN org 1-hour webinar Wednesday, 26 Sep 2018, 15:00 UTC (11am EDT), on recent data protection/privacy activities of ICANN related to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), via Adobe Connect (dial-in info). More info here. The webinar will be recorded and published here according to ICANN.--Webinar to be rescheduled per ICANN.
• GNSO Council Meeting Thursday 27 September 2018 at 04:00 UTC. Agenda (pdf) Item 7: "Council Update – Temporary Specification for Registration Data Expedited Policy Development Process - Recurring Update (15 minutes)."
• EPDP Q&A re: EPDP on the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data.

• What Domain Resellers Should Know About ICANN’s Temporary Specification | enom.com.
• Claimed Failure to Disclose GDPR’s Collateral Impact Leads to Class Action Against Nielsen Holdings--jdsupra.com.
• Hard Times With WHOIS? INTA Wants To Know--jdsupra.com.
• A Slice of GDPR in California?--jdsupra.com.

2) Other ICANN News

a. ICANN's Whitewash CCT-Review Report: Competition, Consumer Trust, and Consumer Choice Review Team Final Report (pdf), re: new gTLDs: 

"the review team concluded that the New gTLD Program should be regarded only as a “good start,” and that a number of policy issues should be addressed before any further expansion of gTLDs."--Report, supra, p.6 (emphasis added)

Editor's note: a good start? Hardly! New gTLDs are (for the most part) a BIG #FAIL, but ICANN's CCT-Review Team was unable or unwilling to honestly assess and acknowledge ICANN's Mistakes, Fiascos, and Horrible Implementation which resulted in this disastrous new gTLDs program. Recommendation: Relegate this CCT-Review Report to File 13. But did anyone really expect anything different from this Review Team handpicked by former ICANN CEO Fadi Chehadé?

b.  Root KSK Rollover: ICANN Board approved (with dissent) to change or "roll" the key for the DNS root on 11 October 2018 (first time the key has ever been changed)--ICANN.org. See also What To Expect During the Root KSK Rollover (updated 17 Sep 2018)(pdf).

c. ICANN Webinars on Proposed Updates to Draft Operating Standards for Specific Reviews 04 Oct 2018: 16:00 UTC, and 05 Oct 2018: 00:00 UTC. More info here.

d. GNSO Project List (pdf) 19 Sep 2018.

e. New gTLD .Merck: Merck KGaA’s written Submission (pdf) in support of Oral Presentation to BAMC on 4 Sep 2018.

f. is for FAIL: ICANN Reviews | glassdoor.com--what ICANN employees are saying about ICANN: "Sinking ship ... Senior management don't seem to have a clue ... Highly political and run by SJW's with ego problems ..."

3) Names, Domains & Trademarks

a. Trademarks: changes to Canada's trademark laws will remove the use requirement, possibly opening up the trademarks register to a flood of speculation. The changes, set to come into effect next year, will also institute three international trademark treaties: the Nice Agreement, Singapore Treaty and Madrid Protocol--CanadianLawyerMag.com. Editor's note: forget about domain speculation, trademark speculation may be the speculators' new game of choice and Canadian trademark lawyers' equivalent of ICANN's new gTLDs program.

b. Domains: Top Registrar in World: Godaddy has only 5.8% of top 16.6 MILLION New GTLD Registrations! | ricksblog.com. Editor's note: GoDaddy $GDDY, the world's largest domain name registrar, manages 21% of all domain names in the world--expandedramblings.com--but new gTLDs' domain names comprise only 1% of all domain names managed by GoDaddy. Why? New gTLDs (for the most part) are a BIG #FAIL.

c. ccTLD .eu: Euro bureaucrats tie up .eu in red tape to stop Brexit Brits snatching back their web domains | register.co.uk.

d. Prepared especially for ICANN's Next Round? A Top Level Domain (TLD) Registry In A Box, don't you want your very own brand new gTLD?

4) ICYMI Internet Domain News 

Internet Freedom
EU: "EU copyright rules would limit online freedom"--Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman of Mozilla, Mountain View, CA, US--ft.com. But see also "French applaud EU copyright reform vote"--euractiv.com.

Internet Freedom
UK: "Politicians are threatening our right to have private discussions - we must not let them ban secret social media groups"--telegraph.co.uk.

Net Neutrality
US: FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Slams California Net Neutrality Bill--"The internet should be run by engineers, entrepreneurs, and technologists, not lawyers, bureaucrats, and politicians," Pai said. Pai is also citing a recent federal court of appeals ruling as evidence states lack the legal authority to reimpose net neutrality.

5) Most Read Posts this past week on DomainMondo.com: 

1. News Review: GDPR, EPDP Dysfunction, ICANN's Flawed Temp Spec

2. Tech Review: Amazon $AMZN Platform Power, Startup Role Model?

3. HBO vs Netflix, LVMH vs Amazon, iOS vs Android (video)

-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo 

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