insight 

We’ve just released a position paper on signing the root. There is quite a lot to this but I thought I would attempt to summarise the paper for those of you who don’t want to read the full seven pages.

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I see that there have been a few stories in the press regarding ICANN investigating the practice of registering a domain name based on the search someone has done on that domain name. As far as we are aware this practice is not widespread in the UK. Read more

This is just a quick reminder that Nominet’s second consultation on corporate governance closes next Wednesday, 31 October. We currently have had only 16 responses. If you have any comments you would like to make about the proposals please do let us know by completing the questionnaire or emailing us governanceconsultation@nominet.org.uk.

The US Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) recently announced the renewal of a contract with Neustar to manage the .us domain name space. Read more

Occasionally domain name stories appear in the media solely because the name itself is of big enough interest, as was the case this week with a small spate of tales about the web site acdc.com, which has recently come into the hands of the band ACDC. It’s a bit of an amusing story but it nevertheless raises one of those important points regarding Trademarks, domain names and cybersquatting. Read more

On Thursday we held an interactive workshop about the key issues on Internet governance from a UK perspective. It was a surprisingly well-attended and really productive session. Several key messages emerged from the discussions which we will now be sharing alongside several examples of best practice in Internet governance from the UK at the next IGF in Rio in November. Read more

We’re watching the launch of .asia with interest. Yesterday saw the opening of the sunrise period during which organisations with Trademarks can register domain names. If there are multiple registrations for the same domain, then instead of the usual first come first served process as observed with the launch of .eu there’ll be an auction this time. Read more

I noticed with interest that NASK, the .pl Polish registry has made an announcement regarding a domain name tasting service. Read more