Hello all!!!

Well, it's almost the end of the year, and it's the
time I ask for any feedback, positive and negative, on
what people think of the news.

Are there any issues you want more or less of? Can you
think of ways to make the news better in any way?

If there are any comments, feel free to get in touch,
either through the list or directly to me.

Last year there was a comment, one of which was
dividing the news up into sections, however I thought
this to be quite difficult and I've continued to post
what I believe are the more important items at the
top.

Cheers
David

**********************************************************
Check out http://auda.org.au/domain-news/dn-news for
the latest domain news. By close of business Melbourne
time on 15 December, a more recent edition of the news
should be posted to the auDA web site. The domain name
news is supported by auDA.
**********************************************************

*********************
WSIS & GOVERNANCE
*********************
So what happened at WSIS? By Peng Hwa Ang
As I said in my address at the recent AoIR meeting,
there is just no way to predict the outcomes of
political debates. And so it has been a surprise to
just about everyone involved in the process that the
WSIS meeting decided to set up the Internet Governance
Forum but also decided to leave oversight in the hands
of the USA. So what happened at the WSIS? Did the
USA?win?, as the US media seemed to have portrayed?
I?ll let you draw your own conclusions at the end of
this.

http://internetinasia.typepad.com/blog/2005/12/so_what_happene.html

Letter reveals US role in web power struggle
Condoleezza Rice accused Europe of seeking to impose
"burdensome, bureaucratic oversight" that would have
damaged the internet

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9075-1915821,00.html

UN ICT TASK FORCE EVENTS IN TUNIS HELP TO FURTHER
SUMMIT AGENDA
The UN Information and Communication Technology Task
Force organized nine parallel events at the Tunis
phase of the WSIS. These events helped to further the
agenda of the Summit ?with an eye on the road after
Tunis?, said the Task Force?s Executive Coordinator,
Sarbuland Khan. ?The World Summit has provided a
highly visible forum for advancing the critical role
of ICT in achieving development goals, and for putting
ICT for development issues on the ?radar screens? of
policy-makers?, Mr. Khan said. ?What is most important
now is to ensure that the energy generated does not
dissipate, that the issues do not recede from the
policy agenda, and that the vision and action plan
formulated by the Summit do not go unfulfilled."
 http://unicttaskforce.org/perl/documents.pl?id=1577

War of words with Tunis heats up
Tunisia has denounced the "unfriendly attitude" of
Switzerland after Bern received four Tunisian human
rights militants at the foreign ministry on Thursday.
 http://www.nzz.ch/2005/12/10/eng/article6304295.html

After the WSIS: The time for balance
WSIS poses more questions than solid agreements, in
spite of the official promise to turn it into a
"summit of solutions". The Tunis Summit has not been
vanguardist and in many aspects Geneva commitments and
declarations were reaffirmed. Being a four-year
decision-making process, more results were indeed
expected, although the opening up of spaces for
dialogue on fundamental issues, whose results will
have to be reviewed later on, should also be
highlighted as positive.
 http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/3660.html

Internet governance and WSIS: who won? In a certain
way, the world has won
There is a bit of confusion in the interpretation of
the results from the WSIS which had its second phase
ended in Tunis in November, 2005. For some nothing
changed, but the truth is that the WSIS process as a
whole has led to several important gains. Actually,
the entire WSIS process during these five years (the
initial proposal for a summit was born in 2000) has
contributed enormously to make the general public
aware of relevant ICT-related concepts and actions for
social inclusion and human development.
 http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/3653.html
 
Creating spaces for civil society in the WSIS
In the aftermath of Tunis, a critique of the civil
society participation has emerged which constructs the
main value of WSIS as one of networking in a closed
network of the privileged. While this critique has
some merit, it is too partial a view and dismisses the
real gains that have been made by civil society
participation. Remove civil society from WSIS and
there would be no new global policy space for
considering broad public policy issues affecting the
internet, including access to the internet and the
digital divide.
 http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/3659.html

Intellectual Property issues kept off WSIS agenda
The issue of intellectual property did not make the
headlines during the concluding session of the
five-year-long UN WSIS in Tunis. And some critics are
concerned it was intentional.
 http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=158

WSIS is over, but the debate has just begun
The information society is broader than the agenda of
the WSIS could ever have hoped to cover. And the
resulting non-binding Tunis Declaration has produced
little in concrete terms for developing countries.
Everyone knew this before the Tunis phase of WSIS even
started. So why did some 20,000 delegates bother to
turn up? At the end of the day, was it worth it?

http://www.panos.org.uk/iwitness/summit/shanmugavelan.asp

WSIS: Civil society open letter to Kofi Annan
Civil society open letter to United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan in response to the attacks on human
rights and freedom of expression that took place in
Tunisia on the eve of and during the WSIS: "We believe
it is essential that lessons are learnt from what has
taken place here this week and we therefore call upon
you, the Secretary General of the United Nations, to
launch a full investigation into the attacks on human
rights and freedom of expression that we have
witnessed in Tunisia both in the run-up to and during
the WSIS".
http://www.citizens-summit.org/Letter-SecGen-241105.shtml

Internet governance: Everybody's business in the
Information Society
The issue of a more democratic and equitable
management of global Internet resources was one of the
central issues in the UN WSIS.
 http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/3292.html

****************
DOMAIN NAMES
****************
US warns of fake net domain data
More than 5% of the net's most popular domains have
been registered using "patently false" data, research
shows.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4507936.stm

http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,17500107%5E15318%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html

http://smh.com.au/news/breaking/2m-domains-registered-with-false-data/2005/12/08/1133829692072.html

http://news.com.com/ICANN+told+to+clamp+down+on+dodgy+domain+names/2100-1038_3-5986553.html
 http://internetnews.com/stats/article.php/3569521
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d06165.pdf [report]

eu: Businesses Compete for '.eu' Domain Name
Richard More O'Ferrall, spokesman for the EU small
business lobby UEAPME, said the ".eu" name could be
useful for European companies. "It broadens your
appeal and the appeal of your product across Europe,"
he said. "You have something that identifies you with
the EU."
 http://www.ecommercetimes.com/rsstory/47757.html

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/INTERNET_DOT_EU

http://www.altustimes.com/articles/2005/12/09/ap/hitech/d8ec2neo6.txt

http://smh.com.au/news/breaking/brand-owners-rush-for-eu-domains/2005/12/08/1133829692349.html
 http://afr.com/articles/2005/12/08/1133829715076.html

Eurid receives 100,000 .eu applications on day one
During the first 24 hours of receiving applications,
over a third of the requests (34.89 per cent) came
from Germany.
 http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=11935

Sex.eu tops list of domain name requests
Sex.eu was the most sought after domain name using the
European Union?s own TLD on the opening day for
registrations. According to data supplied by EURid,
the body responsible for registering .eu domain names,
sex.eu received the highest number of applications.
 http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5361
 http://infoworld.com/article/05/12/07/HNsex.eu_1.html

http://www.techworld.com/networking/news/index.cfm?NewsID=4953

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,123869,00.asp

http://corante.com/goingglobal/archives/2005/12/08/eu_off_to_a_strong_start.php

Europe Divided Over Introduction of Internet Domain
Name
They could not agree on a single constitution, and now
it looks like Europeans cannot agree on the best way
to identify themselves on the Internet.
 http://iht.com/articles/2005/12/08/business/names.php

http://nytimes.com/2005/12/07/business/07cnd-domain.html

She Gave Me a Fake Phone Number!
The Intellectual Property Constituency, meeting at the
ICANN conference in Vancouver, was interested in
increasing ICANN's budget not because they thought
they deserved it, but because they wanted ICANN to
actually enforce the rules on the books about fake
registrations. Now there's some evidence about how
prevalent that is. If there's any surprise here, it's
that the numbers are so low.

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

How to Listen to the Individual Internet User
The recent ICANN meeting in Vancouver touched upon
many issues important to ordinary Internet users:
privacy in domain name registration; the cost and
terms of .com domain names; internationalized domains;
introduction of new domain suffixes. But there were
few "ordinary Internet users" at the meeting. Few
people can roam the globe to keep up with ICANN's
travels, and not many more participate in online
forums.

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

National Arbitration Forum's Revised Supplemental
Rules
In order to better serve our Parties and Panelists,
NAF has updated the Supplemental Rules that direct the
administration of domain name disputes heard by its
Panel. Most of these updated Supplemental Rules take
effect on January 1, 2006.

http://www.arb-forum.com/domains/NAFSupplementalRules.asp

ca: Police domain names send web users on political
detour
A B.C. man is using web addresses that appear to be
police departments in Vancouver and several other
Canadian cities ? to send people straight to the main
website of the federal NDP.
 http://www.cbc.ca/bc/story/bc_web-ndp20051209.html

Sex.com, drugs and a rocky road
The surreal saga of the adult Web portal sex.com -- a
ten-year tale whose cast of characters includes a
convicted felon, a private investigator with a
Stanford MBA, a dot-com entrepreneur turned speed
addict, a young woman caught with 202 pounds of
marijuana, and the operator of a Mexican shrimp farm
-- just added another improbable twist.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/12/08/technology/sexcom_fortune_121205/

NRO Statement on ICANN-VeriSign Agreement
The Number Resource Organization, acting in its
capacity as the Address Supporting Organization (ASO)
has read the proposed settlement agreement between
ICANN and VeriSign. The ASO has noted the various
aspects of the agreement and comments that have been
made by various ICANN constituencies. We are concerned
that regardless of the legal propriety of the
settlement, there exists a strong, perceived sentiment
that this agreement maintains the existence of what
can be characterized as questionable business
practices. The ASO believes that this detracts from
ICANN?s ability to fulfill its role to provide
stability in the technical coordination and management
of the Internet.
 http://nro.net/documents/nro30.html

RIPE NCC Regional Meeting, Qatar, January 2006
This meeting is specifically designed to provide
participants with a forum to discuss topics related to
IP networking in the region.
 http://ripe.net/news/ncc-rm-qatar.html

Special .travel Registration to End
Domain name registrar NamesBeyond announced on
Thursday that the reservation process for over six
million place names in the .travel domain will expire
on December 31, 2005.

http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/1209-5_Special_travel_Registration_to_End.cfm

Netnames expands to Germany as .eu goes live
UK domain name firm NetNames has opened a new German
office in Frankfurt. The move comes as .eu, the suffix
for European Union Web domains, goes live.

http://www.netimperative.com/2005/12/7/Netnames_Germany

Slashback: Cancer, Cats, ICANN
Slashback tonight brings some corrections,
clarifications, and updates to previous Slashdot
stories, including the demystification of Australia's
"Mystery Cat", the US Government backs Microsoft in
their battle against Korea, RedHat joins the fun and
decides to invest in India's economy, the ICANN
community slams the VeriSign deal, and Clinical
results from the cancer-killing virus trials - read on
for details.

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/07/220229

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

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

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

(c) David Goldstein 2005

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

Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com