.cat celebrates its 50,000 names
.cat reached its 50,000 names in less than a month before Catalan upper-level domain celebrates its 5 years on the internet. 50,000 domain names is a giant step for the community domain — especially taking into the account the fact that not just anyone, but only members of Catalan community from all over the world can secure their own domain name in this steadily growing domain that is so far quite resistant to domain hacks.
.cat was approved by ICANN in 2005. To acquire a domain name, one has to belong to Catalan cultural and linguistic community, either by promoting the Catalan culture and language in any way possible or by being endorsed by existing .cat users.
Interpol to join ICANN ranks
Interpol representatives consider joining ICANN's Governmental Advisory Commitee as observers, according to Rod Beckstrom, President and CEO of ICANN. Recently, Interpol held a meeting with ICANN at its headquarters, and much was spoken about law enforcement over the Internet. Cyber-security, financial scams and tech crimes were at the agenda as well, leading to talks regarding security governance between ICANN CEO and Interpol secretary Robert K. Noble. "We seek the active engagement of law enforcement in our multi-stakeholder community where all parties are welcome. We recognize Interpol as an important international leader in this field,” said Mr. Beckstrom. “We are very pleased by its expression of interest in joining the ICANN Governmental Advisory Committee as an observer.”
ICANN's commitment to finally bring law enforcement into Internet governance might be linked to the speech that Michael Moran, Interpol's coordinator for anti-child-abuse measures, recently gave at ICANN's meeting in San Francisco. Moran pointed out inaccuracy of DNS entries, blaming ICANN for not being able to stop child abuse acts online.
At the moment, there are about 20 'observers' in ICANN's GAC committee. This status can be granted to any intergovernmental or treaty organization.
Moscow-based Cialis
An UDRP claim was filed recently covering 209 domains that seem to sell Cialis analogs. The claim probably originated from Eli Lilly, global pharmaceutical company owning Cialis brand, but there's no direct evidence to this. The domains in question include bestcialisinfo.net, internet-cialis.com and many others; the entire list can be found at udrpsearch.com. In terms of UDRP claim numbers the complaint is a relatively major one; what's more interesting is that all domains in question are owned by Moscow-based person, one 'Igor Palchikov'. Created in September 2010, the domains help promote and sell generic Cialis pills.
Minds + Machines gain more clients
Minds + Machines, a company that provides tech support for new gTLD domain applicants, has been selected to handle .mumbai, a proposed city top-level domain. A new company, India TL Domain Pvt Ltd, is said to have all the required support from Mumbai government — which is necessary in order to secure a top-level domain representing a city, country or any other territory.
As noted in the corresponding press release, city's deputy mayor, Ms. Shailaja V. Girkar, said that "the city of Mumbai fully and exclusively supports the application of India TL Pvt Ltd for .Mumbai."
"We believe that this application best represents the interests and the community of the City of Mumbai and we request that ICANN approve this application", Mumbai mayor says.
Minds + Machines is a thriving player at the newly emerged market of gTLDs. Among other Minds + Machines clients there are applicants for .gay, .eco, .nyc and many others.
ICANN urges domain transfer despite legal consequences
EuroDNS, a large European registrar, finally had to pass Facebok.com, a controversial typo domain name, to Facebook. Due to this, EuroDNS might face legal consequences in the nearest future.
About 8 months ago Facebok.com was subject to UDRP claim initiated by Facebook. Initially, Facebook won the case, and, according to UDRP rules, the next step for EuroDNS would have been returning the domain to Facebook. However, soon after the case commenced, the domain name was transferred to one Facebok.Com, Inc., a Panama-based shell company, which immediately filed a suit targeting EuroDNS, Facebook and previous domain owner, Franz Bauer. The offshore company implied that domain theft took place.
ICANN, nevertheless, decided to be strict about this: it urged EuroDNS to transfer the domain immediately, and, according to ICANN, EuroDNS risked losing its registrar license otherwise. Therefore, EuroDNS had an uneasy choice to make: either it would lose its license or risk being sued. Finall\y, EuroDNS had to push through the transfer, but suggested that ICANN reimburses the company in case of legal consequences, according to EuroDNS CEO Xavier Buck: "…the action you demand from EuroDNS will have tremendous consequences for our company in the pending judiciary case. Consequently, EuroDNS reserves all rights to seek indemnification from ICANN for any damages or loss caused by the action we have been forced to take not to lose our Registrar accreditation", noted Buck in his reply letter to ICANN.
