1) ICANN & GDPR: GNSO EPDP Phase 2 First Meeting Recap
First meeting notes and action items, excerpts:
- EPDP Leadership team to develop first draft of proposed approach / work plan for review during next EPDP Team meeting May 16, 14:00 to 15:30 UTC;
- EPDP Team Members to review all Phase 1 legal memos and identify any clarifying questions by 15 May at the latest to determine whether a briefing by Bird & Bird is needed;
- Question for ICANN Org: "Is there an attorney-client relationship between ICANN Org and Bird & Bird?"
- EPDP Chair Janis Karklins "to reach out to [ICANN CEO] Goran Marby to obtain further information in relation to the expectations, working methods and time commitment expected from the small team that is to work with ICANN Org to move forward the discussions with DPAs on UAM" [Editor's note: see Technical Study Group Publishes TSG01: Technical Model for Access to Non-Public Registration Data | ICANN.org];
Other EPDP Links: EPDP team's new private mail list (members only), wiki, EPDP public mail list and GNSO mail list.
Related:
03 May 2019 Letter from Pearse O'Donohue (European Commission) to ICANN CEO Göran Marby [embed below] re: European Commission Policy Recommendations of the Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP), in reply to 26 Apr 2019 Letter from ICANN CEO Göran Marby.
Editor's note: interesting discussion on the EPDP public mail list (thread:"European Commission comments on Phase 1 report - additional information") re: letter above, including the following exchange (emphasis added):
2) Other ICANN News
ICANN DNS Symposium 2019, 10-11 May 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand is a two-day event that will focus on emerging technologies, protocols and other issues that may affect the security, stability, or resiliency of the Domain Name System: Agenda (pdf); Bangkok local date and time.
3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
a. Tucows Inc. (NASDAQ: TCX) (brands include registrars eNom, Hover, OpenSRS, and ISP Ting), will release first quarter (Q1) 2019 financial results, Wednesday, May 8, 2019, at 5:05 p.m. EDT. Concurrent with the release of its quarterly financial results, management’s pre-recorded remarks discussing the quarter and outlook for the Company will be posted to the Tucows website at http://www.tucows.com/investors/financials. In lieu of a live question and answer period, for the subsequent six days, until Tuesday, May 14, shareholders, analysts and prospective investors can submit questions to Tucows’ management at ir@tucows.com. Management will post responses to questions of general interest to the Company’s aforesaid website on Tuesday, May 21, 2019, at approximately 4:00 p.m. EDT. All questions will receive a response, however, questions of a more specific nature may be responded to directly.
UPDATE 8 May 2019: consensus estimates: EPS $0.30 (-14.3% Y/Y) and Revenue $83M (-13.4% Y/Y). Actual results: Revenue $79M (-18% Y/Y), EPS $0.26 (-26% Y/Y). Tucows misses on EPS by $.04 and Revenue by $4M.
b. GoDaddy Q1 2019 financial results and 2 May 2019 webcast transcript
Q1 EPS and revenue misses. Revenue breakdown: Domains $319.6M up 9.6% year over year (YOY); Hosting and Presence $268.9M up 12.1% YOY; Business Applications $121.5M up 19.5% YOY. Guidance: Q2 revenue from $730M to $740M and FY19 revenue of $2.97B to $3B.
c. Back to Basics: How to Transfer a Domain Name--pcmag.com.
4) ICYMI Internet Domain News
India bans China's TikTok (domain: TikTok.com) for “degrading culture and encouraging pornography”--globalvoices.org.
Online Ad-Click Fraud Is Costing Companies $50 Billion A Year--zerohedge.com. See also: PingWest analysts' report on large-scale click farming on China's Pinduoduo e-commerce platform--"Pinduoduo, the Fast-Growing Ecommerce Firm, Unobtrusively Encourages Simulated Trading: An Investigation."
Sri Lanka attack: Internet shutdowns are more common than you think--nbcnews.com. "Don't praise the Sri Lankan government for blocking Facebook"--wired.com.
Freedom of Expression Online: The Internet, Social Media, and Algorithms--eff.org. See also: World Press Freedom Day 2019--YouTube video; and
5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com:
-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo
To: Chris Disspain, ICANN Board Liaison to EPDP
"We appreciate your relaying of information about ICANN Corp’s interactions with the EDPB [European Data Protection Board]. We also appreciate your efforts to clarify certain positions. With this last message, however, I think you are in danger of crossing the line into advocacy of a particular position, and this is inappropriate. Under the ICANN bylaws the community develops policy and the board reviews and approves community developed policies with an eye to the larger picture. As a board liaison to the EPDP, your job is to serve as an information channel between the team and the board and to advise the EPDP team about any issues and concerns the board has that the EPDP might not be taking into account. It is not to advocate for a particular position.
"With regard to “UAM,” it is already established policy, as developed by phase 1 of the EPDP, that we are no longer talking about “access” models we are talking about disclosure models. See Recommendation 3 of the final report, which has been approved by the Council. So we’d appreciate it if you get up to speed and adopt the approved and correct terminology.
"Legitimately, the EC [European Commission] is motivated by BOTH the need to comply with its own law AND its desire for convenient disclosure processes. There is no inherent tension between these two as long as the disclosure processes are consistent with data protection principles. That will be a difficult job, so let us work it out. All stakeholders and views are represented here; the EC can and does speak for itself. So we don’t need your attempt to push a tendentious interpretation of their views upon us.
"Finally, when you say this: '….. that the EC’s view is that attempts to narrow ICANN’s purpose are counter-productive and the current wording needs to be revisited.'
"No…you are so far off base that it is laughable. The EC’s position on Purpose 2 could not be clearer. It was directly challenged in their comments. Taking out selective snippets and trying to twist their words in ways that conform to the position you are pushing is not helping this process at all. It is also, as I said before, not an appropriate thing for a board member to be doing. Please stay in your lane, and let the multistakeholder process work.--Dr. Milton L Mueller [NCSG], Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Public Policy, Internet Governance Project.Response from Chris Disspain: "Thanks Milton. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. Cheers, CD."
2) Other ICANN News
(emphasis added):
"This is a sad day for the DNS industry. ICANN is not giving any consideration to end consumers (registrants.) This is yet another example of how the ICANN multi-stakeholder model does not work. ICANN chooses time and time again to ONLY act in the very narrow interest of contracted registries, including Pubic Interest Registry (PIR), Verisign and others. What is being proposed here is to give PIR the unrestricted ability to increase prices on its base of 10+ million registrants by any amount, with no restrictions whatsoever. PIR will be able to do this without any type of justification. PIR can wake up one morning and decide to arbitrary increase prices by 30%, 300% or even 3000% and this price hike will be fully permitted under the ICANN new proposed .ORG Registry Agreement between ICANN and PIR. So you have a situation where any price increases will be forced upon by 10+ million end-user registrants -- and nobody will be able intervene and make sure consumers are protected. End-users will have no choice - but to pay the higher, unjustified fees. This is extremely BAD for consumers. This is BAD for the millions of organizations that use a .org domain name. These organizations will have no choice but to pay higher fees and be entirely at mercy to PIR. It is virtually impossible to switch away from a .org domain name and use an alternative extension, simply because of enormous switching costs ...." –Don
"Wake up people! ICANN and the registries want to steal your domain names!"--onlinedomain.com.
"In my STRONG opinion, ICANN is a corrupt racketeering organization. It's a crime syndicate that advances interests of a few insiders at the expense of the masses and the general good. They have abused their power and their role."--ricksblog.com.
b. Shangri-La Hotel Bangkok ICANN Meetings:
- ROW 9 May 2019, Bangkok, Thailand
- ICANN DNS Symposium 10-11 May 2019, Bangkok, Thailand (more info below)
- DNS-OARC 30 workshop, 12-13 May 2019, Bangkok, Thailand
Remote Participation via Zoom; Phone Local Numbers, Meeting ID: 364 103 6094.c. Evolving ICANN’s Multistakeholder Model | ICANN.org
ICANN wants to "evolve" the multistakeholder model, see:https://t.co/scIVZWDOH7— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) April 26, 2019
That's another way of saying "we want to rewrite the rules, to shut out the public even more, so we can pursue our agenda without criticism or accountability."
3) Names, Domains & Trademarks
UPDATE 8 May 2019: consensus estimates: EPS $0.30 (-14.3% Y/Y) and Revenue $83M (-13.4% Y/Y). Actual results: Revenue $79M (-18% Y/Y), EPS $0.26 (-26% Y/Y). Tucows misses on EPS by $.04 and Revenue by $4M.
b. GoDaddy Q1 2019 financial results and 2 May 2019 webcast transcript
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| $GDDY |
c. Back to Basics: How to Transfer a Domain Name--pcmag.com.
4) ICYMI Internet Domain News
Online Ad-Click Fraud Is Costing Companies $50 Billion A Year--zerohedge.com. See also: PingWest analysts' report on large-scale click farming on China's Pinduoduo e-commerce platform--"Pinduoduo, the Fast-Growing Ecommerce Firm, Unobtrusively Encourages Simulated Trading: An Investigation."
Sri Lanka attack: Internet shutdowns are more common than you think--nbcnews.com. "Don't praise the Sri Lankan government for blocking Facebook"--wired.com.
Freedom of Expression Online: The Internet, Social Media, and Algorithms--eff.org. See also: World Press Freedom Day 2019--YouTube video; and
"The rhetoric of attacks on the free press always denies that their intention is to stop legitimate reporting. So bloggers are described as "not journalists". Social media journalism isn't real journalism, but merely gossip and a threat to family values. Punitive media registration for websites is simply creating a level playing field with traditional news organizations. Online censorship will be aimed only at disreputable sites, not "legitimate" news and commentary. And so on."--eff.org
5) Most Read this past week on DomainMondo.com:
-- John Poole, Editor • Domain Mondo