Issues Paper on Internet Governance Released (reg req'd)
On 27 January 2004, the International Chamber of Commerce
released an 'Issues Paper on Internet Governance' (Paper),
aimed at clearing up confusion on the issue. The Paper
defines internet governance as technical engineering,
technical co-ordination and handling of public policy
matters.

http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=24759&email_access=on

New paper clears up confusion over Internet governance
With the express aim of clearing up the confusion over
Internet governance, ICC has written a new paper clarifying
how the internet functions, enumerating the different
technical bodies which help to run it and listing the
public policy issues it currently affects.

http://www.iccwbo.org/home/news_archives/2004/internet_governance.asp

http://www.iccwbo.org/home/e_business/policy/ICC%20issues%20paper%20on%20Internet%20Governance.pdf

au: Stop Using my Name (reg req'd)
There is a lot of confusion in many businesses about names.
The Advisory Council on Intellectual Property (ACIP) is
conducting a review into the interplay between trade marks,
business names, company names and domain names to try and
address this confusion.

http://www.mondaq.com/article.asp?articleid=24785&email_access=on

New Domain Is Proposed
In a sign that the wireless Internet is coming of age,
Nokia, Vodafone, Microsoft and six other technology and
telecommunications companies joined Wednesday to propose
the equivalent of a .mobile Internet address category for
mobile Web access.
 http://www.iht.com/articles/509726.html
 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/11/technology/11wire.html

http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8944447%255E15318,00.html
 http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/March2004/6770.htm
 http://news.com.com/2100-1039_3-5172205.html

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techcorporatenews/2004-03-10-domain-name-mobilization_x.htm

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=499971

Web Domain Proposed For Mobile Phones
In an effort to spur cell phone Internet usage, a group of
nine companies including mobile phone operating system
developers Microsoft and Nokia has proposed to establish a
new Internet address domain.

http://www.cmpnetasia.com/ViewArt.cfm?Artid=23155&Catid=3&subcat=48

New Mobile Domain Another Bad Idea
You may have seen a new proposal for a "mobile" top-level
domain name for use by something called "mobile users"
whatever they are. (The domain will not actually be named
.mobile, rumours are they are hoping for a coveted
one-letter TLD like .m "to make it easier to type on a
mobile phone.)
 http://www.circleid.com/article/529_0_1_0_C

Industry Giants Embarking on Internet Frontiers
In a recent press release, Alan Harper says: "The aim of
the initiative is to accelerate the rollout of Internet
products and services specifically designed for mobile
devices as well as to ensure far greater operating
simplicity for mobile subscribers across the globe. This
venture should build on the considerable trust that exists
in the mobile community between subscribers and operators."
What is this initiative you ask? A new wireless protocol? A
new wireless association? Not exactly!
 http://www.circleid.com/article/528_0_1_0_C

ICANN, big business, and top-level domains
I'm really surprised nobody has written an open source tool
to disrupt this whole TLD silliness. It's very easy to set
up your own TLDs in BIND (I've already written about it at
length.) With a tiny shim program, it should be trivial to
redirect requests for new, funky TLDs to an arbitrary root
server.
 http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/4569

Abortion foe appeals Web site ruling
A federal appeals panel in St. Paul is reviewing how far
people can go in using trademarked names in Web site
addresses to promote their own views.
 http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4661568.html

Domain firm in online content rip-off scam
In a twist on the website copycat rip-off exposed by
silicon.com earlier this week, another scam has been
uncovered involving the theft of online content that is
then used to sell advertising. Following on from our exposé
of the serial website thief ripping off car websites
wholesale and gaining from advertising sales on the bogus
sites, silicon.com has been alerted to a domain-name
website that is stealing content from organisations such as
the New York Times. Domains Magazine at first appears to be
a genuine information source on domain-name registration
and website hosting, complete with the latest news about
the industry.

http://www.silicon.com/networks/webwatch/0,39024667,39119087,00.htm

Mercury Interactive buys mercury.com domain name for $1.1m
Mercury Interactive paid $700,000 in cash, plus $400,000 in
equipment, services, and technical support.

http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=779282&fid=942

wipo continues efforts to stamp out cybersquatting
Efforts by the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) to combat the abusive registration of trademarks as
domain names, or cybersquatting, made significant headway
in 2003 although the problem persists most notably for
high-value brands around the world. Since the Uniform
Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) went into
effect in December 1999, through 2003, WIPO’s Arbitration
and Mediation Center has handled some 6,000 disputes,
covering 10,000 domain names.

http://www.wipo.int/edocs/prdocs/en/2004/wipo_upd_2004_217.html

ICANN: Proposed Corrections to Bylaws
On 26 June 2003, the ICANN Board at its public meeting in
Montreal, Canada, discussed and adopted the amendments to
the ICANN Bylaws to include the country code Names
Supporting Organization (ccNSO). Under the transition
article, the ccNSO Launching Group was formed, with the
responsibility to solicit ccNSO members and constitute
ccNSO membership [03.109], and to establish a schedule and
procedures for the selection of the initial ccNSO Council
[03.110].

http://www.icann.org/legal/proposed-bylaws-corrections-11mar04.htm

ICANN Meetings in Rome - GNSO Council Meeting
The following is the un-edited raw output of the real-time
captioning taken during the meeting identified above.
Although the captioning output is largely accurate, in some
cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible
passages or transcription errors. It is posted as an aid to
understanding the proceedings at the session, but should
not be treated as an authoritative record.

http://www.icann.org/meetings/rome/captioning-gnso-council-03mar04.htm

us: N.Y., Wis. Opt Out of Anti-Crime Database
New York and Wisconsin have joined the list of states that
have pulled out of an anti-crime database program that
civil libertarians say endangers citizens' privacy rights.
...
The Seisint records include details on property, boats and
Internet domain names that people own, their address
history, utility connections, bankruptcies, liens and
business filings, according to an August report by the
Georgia state Office of Homeland Security.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3853562,00.html

ICANN: Return of the Jedi Engineers
That strange beast The Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN) gathered in Rome last week for
one of its regular meetings.
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/36226.html

What Is A Domain Name And Why Do You Need One?
A domain name in its simplest form is just an Internet
Website address. Just as your house or apartment has its
own unique identifying address for the post office, so does
each and every Website in existence.

http://www.webhostdir.com/news/articles/showarticle.asp?id=1920

Country-Code Domain Names and Trademark Rights
Country-code domain names (ccTLDs) such as those ending in
".uk" and ".tv" are not popular for U.S. companies, but
that doesn't mean they should be ignored. Indeed, ccTLDs
can cause headaches for trademark owners worldwide, who
must contend with varying rules and laws. This article
explains the importance of ccTLDs and the trademark
challenges they pose.
 http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2002/wood-2002-05.html

How to Manage "Country-Code" Domain Names in a ".com" World
Not long ago, companies could register their domain name in
the ".com" hierarchy without concern for other "top-level
domains." But now, a number of nations are exploiting their
"country-code" domain names -- such as Tuvalu's ".tv". This
article explains the structure of these country codes and
how businesses should react to them.

http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2000/grossman-2000-08a.html

When is a Domain Name Considered a Trademark?
Sometimes, but not always, domain names function as
trademarks. And, when they do, domain names may be entitled
to the additional legal protection given to trademarks.
This article explains how to determine when a domain name
is a trademark and why that determination is important.
 http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2001/kubiszyn-2001-01.html

A Lesson in Domain Names and Trademarks from Bruce
Springsteen
In a domain name dispute that surprised many people, a
panel of arbitrators ruled that Bruce Springsteen was not
entitled to the domain name brucespringsteen.com. The
controversial ruling provides some useful lessons about
domain name disputes, trademarks and the arbitration
process. This article explains the brucespringsteen.com
ruling and what it means for other trademark owners.
 http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2001/hoffman-2001-10.html

Web name wait lists 'will hurt the little guy'
A controversial new waiting list service will make it
easier for big companies to snap up expired internet domain
names, say experts, leaving the little guys with little
chance of grabbing the web address they want.
 http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994768

HKDNR Announces the Commencement of Second-Level '.hk'
Domain Name ('2LD') Priority Registration Period
HKDNR is pleased to announce the commencement of the new
Second-Level '.hk' domain name ('2LD') Priority
Registration Period at 12:00 noon on 26 January 2004 to
12:00 noon 19 March 2004.
 http://www.hkirc.net.hk/eng/2ld/2ld.htm

MaxMD To Offer Internet Domain Names With .md Designation
to International Health Care Community
MaxMD, a privately held company, announced today that it
will begin selling internet domain names with the
designation .md to the global health care community
beginning March 1, 2004. By creating a new internet
landscape for the global health care community, MaxMD
increases the availability of relevant internet names and
addresses. As a result, participants in the health care
sector can acquire valuable names that correlate precisely
with the marketing of their core businesses, established
trademarks and new products.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/index.jsp?epi-content=REDIRECT&epi-process=process_redirect.jsp&mtitle=All+News&ndmViewId=news_view&newsLang=en&newsId=20040225005446

IDNs: Their History and How They Are Evolving
With the growth of the Internet from a small U.S.-based
research network to a widely used international network
with more than 60 percent of the users whose primary
language is not English (and that percentage is expected to
continue to grow), the time need has arisen for domain
names in native languages represented in characters other
than those found in the English language. Because the
Domain Name System (DNS) only allows domain names that are
a combination of ASCII alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9)
and the hyphen (-) and this is the primary system used by
all Internet users around the world, DNS cannot inherently
support other character sets. VeriSign recognized the need
for a solution and established the IDN Internationalized
Domain Name (IDN) Testbed in November 2000 "for the purpose
of testing proposed standards for the deployment of IDN
technology and to provide operational experience with those
proposed standards."

http://www.verisign.com/services/cdns/news/columnist_200403.html

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

Check out http://www.auda.org.au/domain-news/dn-news for
the latest domain news. Within 24 hours of this news being
posted, a more recent edition of the news will normally be
posted to the auDA web site. The domain name news is
supported by auDA.

Also see
http://greta.electric.gen.nz/mailman/listinfo/internet-news
for an archive or to subscribe to the general news.

Sources include Quicklinks (www.qlinks.net) and BNA
Internet Law News (www.bna.com/ilaw)".


=====
David Goldstein
 address: 2/4 Dundas Street
             COOGEE NSW 2034
             AUSTRALIA
 email: Goldstein_David§yahoo.com.au
 phone: +61 418 228 605 - mobile; +61 2 9665 0015 - home

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