Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/dn-news for
the latest domain news. By close of business Melbourne
time on 25 January, a more recent edition of the news
will normally be posted to the auDA web site.

The domain name news is supported by auDA.

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DOMAIN NAMES
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au: Discussion paper on edu.au policies released
The edu.au 2LD is managed on behalf of the Australian
education sector by the Australian Information and
Communications Technology in Education Committee
(AICTEC).
 http://auda.org.au/news.php?newsid=52

Sex.com Sold to Escom LLC For $14M
The infamous and controversial domain Sex.com has
officially been sold to Boston-based Escom LLC for a
reported $14 million, XBiz has learned.
 http://xbiz.com/news_piece.php?id=12847

http://smh.com.au/news/breaking/sexcom-fetches-19m/2006/01/20/1137553746035.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/20/sex_com_fight_continues/
 http://www.redherring.com/article.aspx?a=15405
 http://p2pnet.net/story/7656
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/19/domain_sold/

Vixie, Cerf Clash On Net's Future
Paul Vixie helped create BIND, the domain name system
that lets people type in a domain name instead of a
dotted quad; now the programmer has lent his talents
to a German group seeking to create an alternative to
the modern Internet. "What were you thinking?" Vint
Cerf, now with Google, asked Vixie upon learning of
his efforts with Germany's Open Root Server Network
(ORSN), the Wall Street Journal said. "I don't think
it's helpful to give visibility to a group that is
fragmenting the Internet," Cerf told the Journal.

http://webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20060119VixieCerfClashOnNetsFuture.html
 http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/17/0337225

Registrars Meet with ICANN
On Jan. 11, 2006 in Washington D.C., registrars met
for a day-long session with ICANN executives including
Paul Twomey, Kurt Pritz and John Jeffrey.
 http://cfit.info/newsletter_jan18.html

CFIT Delivers Concerns of Proposed .COM Registry
Agreement
At a meeting in December with representatives of the
U.S. Department of Commerce, CFIT was asked to submit
its formal opposition to the .com deal. CFIT is asking
Commerce to oppose the deal on the grounds that it is
both anti-competitive and anti-consumer. The key
arguments outlined include presumptive renewal,
supercompetitive pricing and monopolistic expansion.
 http://www.cfit.info/downloads/commerce.pdf

The Smells of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking (from
http://udrplaw.blogspot.com)
It has been awhile since a UDRP panelist issued a
decision in support of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking
against a trademark owner. The latest RDNH decision
involves the domain name AROMA.COM. In a decision
issued January 16, 2006, Panelist John J. Upchurch
determined that Mirama Enterprises, Inc. dba Aroma
Housewares Company "attempted to abuse the
administrative process to wrest control of
Respondent's domain name and take over the domain name
registration."
 http://www.arb-forum.com/domains/decisions/588486.htm

John Levine: Reflection on new TLDs
While pondering the renewal prospects for the three
sponsored TLDs, .aero, .museum, and .coop, I went back
and looked at the original applications for those and
also for the unsponsored TLDs approved at the same
time, .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME, and .PRO. Two lessons leapt
out at me

http://weblog.johnlevine.com/ICANN/tldreflec.html?seemore=y

ALAC on New TLDs (ICANNwiki)
A Draft ALAC Response to the Questions Posed by the
GNSO The Bold text below comes from the Terms of
Reference approved by the GNSO Council on 2 December
2005.
 http://www.icannwiki.org/ALAC_on_New_TLDs

CENTR welcomes Fay Howard as the General Manager
Fay was CENTR's first General Manager and led the
project to create CENTR in 1998. She has since worked
for Nominet UK and Eurid (.eu) as well as a number of
TLD bids.
 http://www.centr.org/docs/2006/01/Text_Fay.pdf

cn: Ucloo files lawsuit against domain registration
company
Ucloo Online Inc. has decided to file a lawsuit
against a domain name registration service provider
over its blocked domain "ucloo.cn".

http://english.people.com.cn/200601/19/eng20060119_236754.html

Taiwan hosted 7.67 million Internet domain names in
July 2005, says government agency
Taiwan hosted 7.67 million Internet domain names in
July 2005, ranking globally fourth or fifth, according
to a report released early last week by the Focus on
Internet News & Data and Innovation Diffusion Enabler
& Activator of the Advanced e-Commerce Institute
(ACI-IDEA-FIND) under the government-sponsored
Institute for Information Industry (III).
 http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20060118PR211.html

Dot-mobi firm opens Dublin headquarters
MTLD, the company charged with managing the new
dot-mobi internet domain name has opened a new
headquarters in Dublin.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/19012006/95/dot-mobi-firm-opens-dublin-headquarters.html

The Catalan Campaign to Win .Cat Top-Level Domain
In September 2005 ICANN approved the first top?level
Internet domain to be dedicated to a particular human
language and culture: '.cat'. A related paper was
recently published in First Monday by Peter Gerrand,
titled "The Catalan campaign to win the new .cat top
level domain". As explained in its abstract, the paper
explains: "While '.cat' creates a precedent for
greater use on the Internet of 'minority languages',
there are significant hurdles for other candidates for
language?based top?level domains. The paper discusses
the concomitant factors needed to support the greater
use of any minority language on the Internet."

http://www.circleid.com/posts/the_catalan_campaign_to_win_cat_top_level_domain/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Sources include Quicklinks <http://qlinks.net/> and
BNA Internet Law News <http://www.bna.com/ilaw/>.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

(c) David Goldstein 2006

David Goldstein
 address: 4/3 Abbott Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David &#167;yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 5773 - home


		
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