ICANN Plans to Delegate New gTLD’s via Lottery
ICANN has finally figured out a way to decide which new gTLD applications will be processed and how those new gTLD’s will be allotted. ICANN originally stated that a random allotment or a draw for giving preference to new gTLD applicants could be viewed as an illegal lottery. Well now, ICANN has changed its tune and is moving forward with the original random draw idea.
The random draw will take place between December 4th and 15th of this year. The cost of a single ticket is $100 dollars to participate in the draw. This fee comes after paying the $185,000 application fee. ICANN will use the draw numbers to set the initial evaluation dates and release the evaluation results. The first evaluations results will be available beginning in late March and wrapping up in late June.
Council of Europe has Whois Privacy Concerns
Following recent pressure from popular US-based brands, The Council of Europe is turning up the heat on ICANN in regards to the privacy implications of it’s proposed modifications to Whois requirements in the Registrar Accreditation Agreement.
Earlier this week the Bureau of the Consultative Committee of the Convention for the Protection of Individuals submitted a letter to ICANN concerning Personal Data (T-PD). The Bureau said:
“The Bureau of the T-PD took note of the position of the Article 29 Data Protection Working Parking in its comments of 26 September 2012 on the data protection impact of the revision of these arrangements concerning accuracy and data retention of the WHOIS data and fully shares the concern raised.
The Bureau of the T-PD is convinced of the importance of ensuring that appropriate consideration be given in the ICANN context to the relevant European and international privacy standards”
EU Registrars may be able to escape new Whois rules
In response to the Article 29 Working Party’s privacy concerns over ICANN’s proposed changes to Whois requirements, ICANN’s CEO, Fadi Chehade, announced that European registrars may be off the hook from the new rules.
In a recent statement Chehade said the following:
“ICANN proposes to adapt the current ICANN Procedures for Handling Whois Conflicts with Privacy Law, to enable registrars to seek an exemption from these new RAA WHOIS and data protection obligations in the even that the obligations would cause registrars to violate their local laws and regulations.”
Florida Man wanted $200,000 for ‘League of Legends Porn’ dot-com Domain Name
Last month the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) made a decision in the domain complaint case filed by Riot Games against the owner of LeagueofLegendsPorn.com.
The WIPO ruled that Riot Games had complete rights to the domain since it contains the mark of their video game, League of Legends. Consequently, the Florida man who registered and owned the domain, Michael Brown, was ordered to transfer the domain name.
Now the complete particulars of the WIPO decision have been made public. Documents of the decision features some dialogue between Brown and Riot Games, in which Brown demanded a fee of $200,000.00 USD before he would agree to transfer the domain.
When Brown first responded to Riot Games‘complaint, he claimed that he registered the domain in good faith and that he overlooked the fact that he registered the domain name. He even stated that he had no problem handing over the domain name, but when he was asked to transfer the domain name, he demanded a large upfront payout.
Back in March, Brown first asked how much he would receive for transferring the domain name. Riot Games responded that they would pay the cost Brown initially paid to register the domain. Brown rejected the offer, stating it was not enough. Riot Games then counter offered $250.00 USD to avoid time and legal fees. Brown rejected the second offer, proclaiming that the site would draw in large amounts of revenue according to his traffic stats and asked for $200,000.00 USD in exchange for the domain. As of today, Brown has yet to transfer the domain.