ICANN corporation has confirmed that it is looking into the circumstances in which thehungergames.movie domain operated by Donuts was launched. As it was reported earlier, the promotional webpage of the latest Hunger Games movie has been launched. However, according to the ICANN rules there is a 90-day “controlled interruption” phase after the domain has been delegated. During this time it is only permitted to register administrative NIC domains in the new domain zone. Webpage thehungergames.movie was launched at least 10 days before this phase ended.
ICANN officials and representatives of Donuts haven’t commented on this issue yet. ICANN has only announced that the corporation is aware of the situation and is checking all the circumstances. Donuts highlight the importance of this domain in .MOVIE for the whole New gTLD Program since The Hunger Games is a popular box office hit. Independent observers believe that the case is very simple. Probably, Donuts managed to strike a very good deal with the Lion’s Gate Entertainment, however, the timetable of the promo campaign of the movie had been already approved at this point. To fit in Donuts decided to “forget” about the ICANN rules. Strictly speaking, the launch of thehungergames.movie poses no security threat, the 90-day phase was created to insure exactly that. However, there is a violation and nobody can guarantee that it won’t become the precedent that would lead to the abuse of rights on the side of other registries.
