Domain Names of the World

Against the background of an unprecedented number of cybersquatting cases in 2007, the evolving nature of the domain name registration system (DNS) is causing growing concern for trademark owners around the world.

Last year, a record 2,156 complaints alleging cybersquatting - or the abusive registration of trademarks on the Internet - were filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center (Center), representing an 18% increase over 2006 and a 48% increase over 2005 in the number of generic and country code Top Level Domain (gTLDs and ccTLDs) disputes.

“These increases confirm that ‘cybersquatting’ remains a significant issue for rights holders,” said Mr. Francis Gurry, WIPO Deputy Director General, who oversees WIPO’s dispute resolution work, noting that a number of developments in the DNS are also cause for concern from the perspective of intellectual property holders, as well as Internet users generally. Among these, use of privacy services to shield abusive registrations and the evolving role of certain domain name registrars, together with the ongoing trademark abuse reflected in WIPO’s caseload, raise concerns about the introduction of a number of new gTLDs announced for late 2008.

WIPO's Press Release

Guerra contra los 'ciberocupas'

La Organización Mundial de la Propiedad Intelectual (OMPI) expulsó en 2007 a un número récord de ciberocupas de páginas web con nombres de dominio que hacen referencia a compañías, fundaciones y famosos con marcas registradas.[...]

Notícia publicada en EL PAÍS

Judge doubts confusion will occur with products comparing retailer to Nazis, terrorists

A Conyers, Ga., man has won a two-year legal battle with Wal-Mart, which has demanded he stop making and selling T-shirts, beer steins and other items that sport slogans such as "Wal-ocaust" and "Wal-Qaeda."

U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. rejected Wal-Mart's claims that Charles Smith, a 50-year-old computer store owner who thinks the retailing giant is "taking over the world," violated the company's trademark.

"The fact that the real Wal-Mart name and marks are strong and recognizable makes it unlikely that a parody -- particularly one that calls to mind the genocide of millions of people, another that evokes the name of a notorious terrorist organization ... will be confused with Wal-Mart's real products," wrote Batten.

In a meticulously crafted, 87-page order that eviscerated conclusions by Wal-Mart's expert witness, the judge explained that Smith's products qualified as protected noncommercial speech because his goal was to criticize Wal-Mart, not to make a profit from his products. The judge noted that Smith had sold only 62 T-shirts, including 15 to one of Wal-Mart's outside law firms.

Full story

VeriSign Expands Project Titan to Strengthen Internet Infrastructure with New Security Upgrades

VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN), the leading provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world, announced an expansion of its Project Titan initiative to include additional security upgrades aimed at strengthening its global Internet infrastructure.

When it initially unveiled Project Titan in February 2007, VeriSign announced plans to increase capacity of the .com and .net Domain Name Systems (DNS) by 10 times by 2010, and the development of new proprietary technologies and processes. Now, VeriSign is announcing the deployment of additional proprietary security upgrades and monitoring tools to identify, track and isolate malicious Internet traffic generated from cyber attacks.

“VeriSign is working to stay ahead of the constantly changing demands on its Internet infrastructure and threats to its security,” said Ken Silva, chief technology officer at VeriSign. “The first stage of Project Titan was focused on the speed of the Internet and range of our infrastructure. This next stage will focus on ensuring that the level of security exceeds demands, such as new attacks coming from wireless devices, to keep the infrastructure stable and operational.”

VeriSign focuses on Internet security and stability because of the critical role the Internet plays in commerce, communications and government operations. According to an International Chamber of Commerce study released this month, a survey of over 1,000 economic experts from 90 countries said that a one-day Internet blackout would mean that "businesses would suffer major losses and costly damage which would have huge and lasting effects."

In the last year, the Internet has experienced new and evermore complex forms of cyber attacks and disruptions. For example, government servers in Estonia came under fierce attack last summer, effectively crippling Web site operations there. And in February, an effort by a Pakistani telecom provider to block YouTube.com in that country effectively disrupted access for many global users to the popular site.

According to the "Internet Security Outlook Report" issued by CA Inc., social networks and Web 2.0 services and sites are increasingly becoming the targets for cyber attacks. A Trojan horse on the iPhone is the latest example of how hand-held devices are increasingly a target. The U.S. Government last week said that "real and growing" threats to computer networks and the infrastructure were the focus of the recent “Cyber Storm II” simulated cyber-security exercises involving government agencies, private companies and security experts to test response to threats.

Building on its initiative to expand and diversify the capacity of its global Internet infrastructure by 10 times by the year 2010, VeriSign announced it would expand its existing security by:

Implementing next generation monitoring and response services. Deploying these tools, developed by VeriSign as part of the Project Titan security initiatives, will improve the ability to detect, isolate, and stop security threats to protect the .com and .net provisioning and resolution systems. The tools are designed to assist in warding off threats at their early stages before they are able to damage and compromise networks, platforms and devices.

Implementing new security and operational protocols to better manage traffic flow and increased protection against application-type attacks. Deployment of these enhancements are intended to mitigate the risk of service disruption from attacks that use the behavior of protocols such as TCP and HTTP that consume computational resources in order to overload critical systems.

Implementing new tools to track, correlate and pinpoint security and network related events on a global basis. The ability to identify various attack vectors against the .com and .net infrastructure will assist in enabling early elimination of threats to reduce the potential for repeated incidents and threat of larger scale attacks.

Press release

There is a market of 500 million people--about 8.6% of the world's population--that the business media all too often neglects as it serves up story after story about China and India. That would be Latin America.

Between 2000 and 2007, the number of Internet users in Latin America grew from 18.1 million to 122.4 million, a compounded annual growth rate of 32% compared with only 12% in North America during the same period. Chile has the highest penetration of 43.2%, with Argentina at 39.7%, Brazil at 22.4%. Average penetration across Latin America is approximately 21.5%, as compared with 71.4% for the U.S. Overall, Latin America's Internet population represents close to 10% of the world's Internet users.

Not surprisingly, Latin America is developing its own collection of Internet stars. One that has really caught my eye is MercadoLibre, an online marketplace that facilitates buying and selling of computers, electronics, photography equipment, household items, even cars. It was started in 1999 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by Stanford Business School graduate, Marcos Galperin. Full disclosure: MercadoLibre invited me to visit the company last autumn and advise them on strategy. What I learned impressed me.

Although MercadoLibre had a rocky start, the company has started delivering stellar results, growing at over 60% and profitability is increasing steadily. The moral of this story: It takes patience to build a great company, even in Internet time. Now, I believe MercadoLibre has an opportunity to become a billion dollar enterprise in the next 10 years and be a force in Latin America's economy.

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Millions of High Value Domains Still available on First-Come-First-Served basis

Hong Kong, 26 March 2008 – DotAsia Organisation announces Go Live of the “.Asia” registry, signifying the start of first-come-first-served registrations, allowing anyone around the world to get their .Asia domain instantaneously. “With over 10 million domains registered in China alone and over 150 million worldwide, the potential for .Asia is only now starting to be realized. There are millions of great .Asia domains still available on a first-come-first-served basis,” says Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia.

During the earlier Sunrise and Landrush phases, .Asia already received over 500,000 domain registration applications. About 45,000 domains received more than one application, and will go to auction. This proved to be successful in reducing the chaos created in previous domain launches as registrants clamour for high value domains.

Register .ASIA now

Press release

Quanto costa modificare il proprio indirizzo Internet? Dipende… fino a un milione di dollari.
E' questa la cifra pagata da una società di viaggi inglese per aggiudicarsi il dominio cruises.co.uk, un prezzo con cui in concreto ha pagato solo la lettera "S" dato che già possedeva l'indirizzo cruise.co.uk.

Leggi l'artcilo completo su Reuters Italia

Nominalia defiende la libertad de expresión y el cumplimiento de los derecho elementales del hombre, por este motivo se posiciona contraria a todo tipo de actos que esten en conflicto con un Mundo donde la libertad y derechos esten condicionados o violados.

Casos como el de Birmania y ahora el Tibet nos obligan a manifestar nuestro apoyo a todos aquellos que defienden su libertad de expresión y buscan escapar de la opresión ya sea por carácter político como religioso.

Una red libre y sobre todo un mundo libre, por este motivo no nos queremos olvidar de los que no estan disfrutando lo que para ellos es un derecho natural.

REGISTER.IT SOSTIENE I DIRITTI CIVILI
E' un nostro dovere sostenere le più elementari libertà di parola, assemblea e religione.

Dalla Birmania al Darfur, ora il Tibet. Anche Register.it soffre con il Papa per gli eventi di questi giorni e per tutti quei posti nel Mondo dove la libertà e i diritti civili sono dimenticati o prevaricati. Crediamo nella libera espressione delle idee, in un Mondo libero e una Rete libera, per questo non vogliamo dimenticarci mai di chi come noi non gode di questi privilegi.

Il Papa: «Soffro per il Tibet». La strategia del dialogo, alla quale si appella il Papa che rompe il silenzio della Chiesa («Il mio cuore di Padre sente dolore e tristezza di fronte alla sofferenza di tante persone»), è lunga e difficile.
Leggi l'articolo su Corriere.it

Porn-friendly .xxx domain backer loses suit against federal agencies.
The company behind the proposed .xxx top-level domain, which was rejected after the Bush administration intervened, has been trying to dig up embarrassing government documents through a federal lawsuit.

Make that "was trying." A federal judge on March 12 granted summary judgment to the Bush administration in the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by the ICM Registry.

By way of background, ICM Registry had proposed the porn-friendly .xxx domain in 2004 to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, four years after ICANN rejected the idea the first time. In June 2005, ICANN approved .xxx--but the Bush administration objected two months later, and ICANN's board subsequently reversed itself by a 9-5 vote.

ICM Registry's Stuart Lawley, an indefatigable entrepreneur who made his fortune by founding a U.K. Internet service provider, didn't give up. He filed a FOIA request to learn how conservative groups pressured the Bush administration, and he released the first round of documents in May 2006. But the State Department and Commerce Department withheld others--claiming they were part of an internal "deliberative process"--and those are the documents at issue in the current lawsuit.

Robert Corn-Revere, an attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine who is representing ICM Registry, said a lawsuit against ICANN for denying the .xxx top-level domain is now possible.

Full story

The Danish Internet company Balslev Media has recently purchased the German domain name www.casino.de for Euro 400,000 / US $591,000.

According to the new owner of Casino.de, the domain name acquisition was a bargain. "The value of the domain consists of several things; first of all it's the perfect brand name -- it's short and it describes exactly what we do. Furthermore, many people will find our Web site even if they don't know anything about us through direct traffic, which is when people type in a keyword domain name in their browser and find a service provider without searching for it first. Additionally, the high price is based on the popularity of online casino and poker gambling on the Web," says webmaster Jan Balslev.

Casino.de is a German language version of the English language guide to gambling www.online-casinos.com. Both sites offer comprehensive guides for gamblers such as free training games, visual casino game instructions and gambling tips. As the owner puts it "A land-based casino or an online casino is not the place to learn the rules for blackjack, or any other casino game for that matter."

In the past the domain name Casino.de has had several different owners, among others Deutsche Bahn -- the German states railroad company, and until recently, an offshore company.

Full story

La banda ancha aumenta un 19,9% en España
A finales de enero se estima que había 8,15 millones de líneas, lo que supone que el 18% de la población cuenta con conexión de alta velocidad

España sigue creciendo en cuanto a la implantación de ADSL. Los últimos datos ofrecidos por la Comisión del Mercado de Telecomunicaciones (CMT) sitúan el número de líneas de banda ancha en 8,15 millones a finales del pasado mes de enero, lo que supone que un 18% de la población ya accede a Internet con una conexión de alta velocidad. El aumento interanual se sitúa de esta manera en el 19,9%.[...]

Noticia publicada en EL PÁIS

Il numero dei domini registrati complessivamente fino alla fine dell'anno 2007 risultava di 153 milioni. Solo nel 2007 sono stati registrati 33 milioni di domini!

Dei 153 milioni di domini registrati piu' di un terzo, ossia 58 milioni sono cctld (country code top level domain); tali estensioni hanno registrato un aumento di 33% rispetto al 2006 e l'aumento di 6% da un trimestre ad un altro. I domini più registrati sono: .com, .de, .net, .cn, .uk, .org, .info, .eu, .biz, .mobi.

L'aumento nel numero di registrazioni più del 50% nel 2007 rispetto al 2006 è stato rappresentato dai domini con le seguenti estensioni: .cn (399%), .ru (61%), .es (52%) e .tv (51%). Il registry .cn ha continuato ad offrire dei prezzi promozionali, il .ru ha tratto vantaggio dalla crescita nel settore Internet, il .es ha continuato a crescere in seguito alla liberalizzazione ancora di qualche anno fa ed il .tv ha approfittato della crescita di popularità di video online.

Registra un dominio

Leggi The VeriSign Domain Report

.Asia Landrush Closes with Half a Million Domain Name Applications.
Buy.Asia with most Applications in Landrush; Sex.Asia with most Applications in Sunrise

DotAsia Organisation announced today that a total of 473,633 domain registration applications were received within the 3-week Landrush period. Including Sunrise and .Asia Pioneer Domains, the number of applications totals to over half a million: 505,838. .Asia registry will Go Live on March 26, domain names will be available on a First-Come-First-Served basis.

“The results exceeded our expectations. We are very pleased with the enthusiastic demand for the .Asia domain. This is a testament to the global interest in the thriving Asia Internet marketplace, and the investment appeal for the most prestigious cyber real-estate in Asia,” says Edmon Chung, CEO of DotAsia. “It will be interesting to see which of the domain names would fetch the highest prices in the auction. I believe we could be in for some surprises.”

45,697 domains received more than one application in Landrush and will go to auction. Out of which, “buy.asia” was the most sought after, with over 400 applicants fighting for the name. Others in the top 5 include: hot.asia, gold.asia, fun.asia, girl.asia. 1,051 domain names received more than one application during Sunrise. Among which, “sex.asia” received the most Sunrise applications, with 14 prior-right claims filed.

Full story

I trucchi, i software per poter diffondere le proprie idee sul web
nei paesi dove non è possibile a causa delle restrizioni dei governi

Leggi l'articolo su Repubblica.it

The Domain Name Industry closed 2007 with more than 153 million domain name registrations worldwide across all of the Top Level Domain Names (TLDs), an increase of nearly 33 million domain name registrations since the close of 2006.

In the last quarter of 2007, the base of domain name registrations grew 27 percent over the fourth quarter of 2006 and fi ve percent over the third quarter of 2007. This growth rate is slightly lower than the rest of the quarters in 2007 but is in line with the traditional seasonal slowing due to the fourth quarter holidays including Christmas and the New Year. The total base of Country Code Top Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) was 58 million, a 33 percent increase year over year and a six percent increase quarter over quarter. Across all of the gTLDs and ccTLDs, .com has the highest base followed by .de (Germany), .net and .cn (China). The fi fth spot is shared by .uk (United Kingdom) and .org. with approximately the same size base of domain name registrations.

New registrations in the fourth quarter of 2007 came in at just over four million domain name registrations per month to total approximately 12.2 million new domain names. New registrations grew by four percent quarter over quarter and by fi ve percent year over year.

The composition of the domain name industry and rank order in terms of base size remained relatively constant. The largest TLDs in terms of base size were .com, .de, .net, .cn, .uk, .org, .info, .eu (European Union), .biz and .mobi.

Full story

Fund.com sold yesterday for US$9,999,950 in an all-cash transaction Clek Media announced

Clek Media also brokered the sale. The buyer is Fund.com Inc., a New York firm previously named Meade Technologies Inc. To date the buyer has revealed their plans for the domain mostly in filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

This is by far the largest domain name sale of 2008, but is dwarfed by last year’s sale of business.com for $345 million. It is also the highest ever reported cash-only sale, beating porn.com ($9.5m) and sex.com whose exact price has not been reported.

Source

Più di 500.000 richieste di domini per la chiusura del Landrush dei domini .ASIA

Hong Kong, 13 Marzo 2008
Il Landrush period per il lancio dei domini .asia è terminato il 13 marzo. Sono state raccolte 505.838 richieste di nuovi domini, mettendo insieme le richieste arrivate durante il Landrush e quelle delle fasi Sunrise e Pioneer. Solamente durante Sunrise e Landrush 46.748 nomi a dominio sono stati richiesti più di una volta e saranno assegnati in base a delle aste organizzate dall'Authority stessa. Il dominio maggiormente ricercato è stato Buy.asia, con più di 400 richiedenti. L'apertura delle registrazioni libere, basate sul principio first-come-first-served, è prevista per il 26 Marzo.

Leggi il comunicato stampa dell'Authority (pdf- eng)

Irán se propone bloquear acceso a Internet a sus ciudadanos

Las autoridades iraníes temen que su pueblo se informe “demasiado" sobre las elecciones nacionales del 14 de marzo.

El portavoz del gobierno, Muhammed Javad Mahmoudi, declaró al periódico iraní Etamat que la causa oficial de que el gobierno se disponga a bloquear el acceso a Internet a sus ciudadanos es que desea “que el gobierno tenga acceso prioritario a la red, sin verse retrasado por los usuarios particulares".[...]

Noticía publicada en DIARIOTI

Gli utenti Internet italiani sono sempre più utenti dotati di banda larga, addirittura 3 su 4 si collegano in broad band, e aumentano non di poco le famiglie che dispongono di un personal computer, sebbene la maggioranza ne rimanga tuttora priva.

Il digital divide italiano cambia, si riduce anche il gap tra uomini e donne nell'uso delle tecnologie, alcuni scossoni anche nel divario tra Nord e Sud, mentre si consolida quello tra le diverse generazioni. Questo, in estrema sintesi, lo spaccato dell'Indagine mensile ISAE sui beni tecnologici delle famiglie, una inchiesta basata su un campione di 2mila individui con cui è stato possibile tracciare un quadro dell'Italia che, seppure lentamente e tra molte incertezze, va cambiando.

Tra il 2007 e i primi due mesi del 2008 si è assistito nientemeno che ad un balzo tecnologico, se così si può definire l'aumento consistente nel numero di personal computer posseduti dalle famiglie: si è passati dal 45,3 per cento al 49,6 per cento. Una qualche corrispondenza si ha anche nell'aumento delle connessioni ad Internet, che se interessavano il 38,7 per cento delle famiglie, a febbraio 2008 erano salite al 43,1 per cento del totale. Come accennato, uno dei dati più interessanti è che "oltre i 3/4 del totale - spiega ISAE - con connessioni a banda larga".

Leggi l'articolo completo su Punto Informatico