French accents to be allowed in .CA
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is to launch the second and final phase of its consultation in the implementation of French characters in .CA domain names. .CA holders and Canadian Internet users are now invited to provide their feedback on certain revisions to CIRA’s proposed policy to help the organization finalize its plan for launching IDNs later this year.
CIRA received over 350 comments on the online forum and more than 50 submissions during last round of discussions on the subject which lasted twelve weeks. As a result, the registry prepared a corresponding report which provides highlights of the responses and summarizes the key themes of the feedback received.
"Internationalized Domain Names are critical to enable Canadians to register and access domain names in both of Canada’s official languages," says Byron Holland, CIRA’s President and CEO. "The level of response we received during the first phase of the consultation demonstrates how important this issue is to our registrants."
Public comments can be submitted at idnconsultation.ca (!!!ссылка - http://idnconsultation.ca) until February 24, 2012.
Verisign places a hefty sum apart for dozen new gTLDs
VeriSign plans to apply for 12 new gTLDs, according to senior vice president Pat Kane of VeriSign. «Most of those will be transliterations of .com», Kane said. The internationalized domain names in question are not yet disclosed, and probably will not be until April, when ICANN's application window closes.
VeriSign CEO Jim Bidzos said that "the major event for 2012 is the renewal of the .com Registry Agreement with ICANN, which expires at the end of November, and Verisign is already engaging with ICANN on this", as Kevin Murphy of DomainIncite notes. The company will have to post a renewed contract for public comment, as well as gain US Department of Commerce seal of approval.
Cybersquatting criminalized in the Philippines
Cybersquatters could be subject to heavy fines and penalties in Philippines, according to a new bill passed by the country's Senate this week. The newly criminalized individuals could face minimum 6 to 12 years in jail if found guilty. An alternative is to pay 500,000 peso which is equivalent to roughly $12,000. The same bill has set a penalty for hackers, who can be fined 200,000 peso and are subject to serve the same prison sentence.
According to Senator Angara, Chair of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, the Cybercrime Prevention Act "also provides for the creation of new government agencies such as the Office of Cybercrime under the Department of Justice (DOJ); a National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) under the Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-ICTO); and a National Cybersecurity Coordinating Council (NCCC) under the Office of the President".
Angara also notes that "the bill will have to undergo bicameral review before it becomes national law, but I am optimistic that our counterparts in the House of Representatives will act as decisively". It is interesting that a vague definition of "cybersex" has been included in the bill, which also covers certain "content-related offenses".
