VeriSign to act as a .gov register
According to IANA records, VeriSign has recently taken over registry functions for .gov, U.S. Government's official top-level domain. In IANA registry, VeriSign is named as a technical contact for the TLD.
The fact is evident as VeriSign itself states it in a letter to DNS administrators asking the latter to reconfigure their DNSSEC setup so the changes would be reflected. "VeriSign has been selected by the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to operate the domain name registry for .gov", the letter says clearly.
.gov TLD is one of the oldest top-level domains; it has been reserved for the needs of different U.S. Government departments and agencies ever since. Certainly, this is a big contract for VeriSign both in terms of funds and prestige: the numbers behind the papers are estimated to exceed $3 bln.
U.S. Government fights fake pharma along with Google and Go Daddy
Following a series of meetings between the giants of internet industry and U.S. officials, Google and Go Daddy stepped forward to propose "the formation of a private sector 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that would be dedicated to promoting information sharing, education, and more efficient law enforcement of rogue internet pharmacies", as stated by Neustar. Three biggest US registrars, Go Daddy, eNom and Network Solutions, along with Neustar at the registry side, acknowledged the initiative. American Express, Visa and Mastercard, as well as PayPal, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are named among other group members.
It is not clear whether pulling criminal pharmacy portals off will be one of the group's main goals or not; the statement considers "taking voluntary enforcement action (stop payment, shut down the site, etc.) where appropriate". The group is also willing to take part in forming an expansion to white lists of genuine pharmacies, as well as in customer education.
Bank of America tries to protect itself from WikiLeaks
In the light of WikiLeaks threatening to publish cables that might do some damage to the reputation of Bank of America, U.S. biggest national bank ended buying hundreds of domain names containing negative statements regarding bank's top management in a defensive move.
Over 300 domain names have been registered since December 17 "that disparage BofA officials using variations on "sucks" and "blows", including BrianMoynihanBlows.com and BrianMoynihanSucks.com, referring to the bank's chief executive", states The Financial Times.
GAC and ICANN agree on the meeting
ICANN board members are to meet GAC commitee in Geneva for two days of talks. The session is scheduled for February 28th and March 1st, 2011, Stephane Van Gelder, a GNSO member, said in his blog.
"The meeting is an attempt to resolve the final issues standing in the way of ICANN's approval of the new gTLD program. It is not yet known whether this will be a closed meeting. ICANN's thrice yearly international meetings are open to anyone and attendance is free, but this specific get-together between GAC and Board members may be seen as requiring a little more intimacy", Van Gelder assumes.
The documents recently published by ICANN state that if the Board were to approve the Guidebook after the meeting, the first applications were likely to be received as early as in July 2011, while if there were any changes proposed to the Applicant Guidebook, the applications could be accepted in August 2011.
Israel's ccTLD starts Hebrew domain name landrush
ISOC-IL, a registry for Israel's national domain .il, announced the opening of public Hebrew domain name registrations. Starting from 2 pm local time on Sunday, December 26, 2010, Israeli citizens can register their own third-level domain names written in Hebrew script.
Before opening a landrush phase, ISOC-IL had commenced a short period of priority registrations. During the sunrise period, the trademark owners as well as organizations were able to register corresponding third-level domain names. Overall, less than 400 registrations have been approved during the sunrise phase.
.communism hoax deeply appreciated by Russians
Breaking news regarding .communism gTLD, published recently at some domain news portals (namely domaingang.com), has been reprinted by certain Russian media and highly appreciated by Russian public. Not that somebody has mentioned the more-than-suspicious, Putin-sounding surname of the so-called "Russian investor" Sergei Putanov, or that the alleged billionaire's photo certainly resembles Russia's most renowned political figure.
The fictitious person invented by domaingang.com's editors in 2010 allegedly owns a place called Dubai in Florida. The character has also been known for being a gold Olympics medalist, and his domain buying habits can be described as "never buying anything cheaper than $500,000". Mr. Sergey Putanov, though being a man-made hoax, has achieved his fame when certain Russian media started to reprint the news regarding Sergey's success in talking ICANN board into approving .communism gTLD to commemorate the 87 years since the passing of Vladimir Lenin.
