VeriSign Opens New Lab to Test Interoperability of Internet Solutions With DNSSEC

VeriSign, Inc. the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure for the networked world, invited Internet community leaders to join Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and others that are working to improve the security of Internet communications with interoperability solutions at a new DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) Interoperability Lab established by VeriSign.
At the RSA Conference 2010 in San Francisco next week, VeriSign executives will meet with hardware and software vendors, ISPs and government agencies to explain how they can help facilitate the successful implementation of DNSSEC. Also at RSA, VeriSign Executive Chairman James Bidzos will focus on the crucial role that trust plays in securing the Internet in a keynote address at 3:00 pm Thursday, March 4.
DNSSEC helps protect the Domain Name System from "man in the middle" and cache poisoning attacks by applying digital signatures to DNS data. By signing DNS data, DNSSEC authenticates the origin of the data and verifies its integrity as it moves across the Internet. Working methodically and carefully, and in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Commerce and ICANN, VeriSign anticipates that by the first quarter of 2011, DNSSEC implementation will be complete on the .edu, .net and .com Top Level Domains (TLDs).
"DNSSEC offers security protection to Internet users of all kinds, but it will only be effective if it is implemented from end to end," said Ken Silva, senior vice president and chief technology officer at VeriSign. "The entire community must participate if we're to remove the technical roadblocks that still exist with firewalls, load balancers and other infrastructure equipment. That's why it's so vital for solution providers, ISPs and government agencies to join Cisco, Juniper Networks and the other industry leaders who have wisely taken advantage of the testing environment provided by the VeriSign DNSSEC Interoperability Lab. We're proud to work with innovators like these who recognize that making DNSSEC a success is a responsibility that must be shared across the Internet."

Live Domain Auctioneers Auction Underway

The first Live Domain Auctioneers auction in 2010 started today, February 28,2010 . The last Live Domain Auctioneers auction from 2009 have some nice results.There were 175 unique domain names,all of them sold to the highest bidder,regardless of price.
Live Domain Auctioneers are auctioning off 174 domain names to the highest bidder.

Here are some interesting domain names being auctioned :

LogisticsSupplies.com AscentSystems.com LandUseConsultants.com
DrDrummer.com KillerMetal.com DanceMusician.com AddictedRecords.com
ReelEvents.com CreativeCarpeting.com TrollingSkirts.com
RecycleBarrels.com TimeDevelopment.com SiouxLands.com
SizzleClicks.com CarLoanMaster.com
JobAide.com AltCareers.com AddingValues.com
PerfectGoddess.com BargainBidders.com GaugeGuy.com
DateADancer.com RentAShopper.com MasterRep.com
PurchaseFilm.com PicSamples.com SimpleCellPhone.com

General Motors wins domain name case

General Motors,the largest U.S. automaker has recently won a domain name case at the World Intellectual Property Organization against Shenzhen Belding Golf Planning Co. . General Motors,also known as GM filed a complaint with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center ,requesting the cadillacgolf.com domain name to be transferred from the respondent to the complainant.
The complainant is the owner of the registration for the trade mark "Cadillac" .Therefore,the complainant contended that the disputed domain name is confusingly similar to its trademark.
Moreover,the complainant contended that the respondent registered and used the domain name in bad faith.
"In using the disputed domain name, and by offering for sale goods that are sold by the Complainant under the Trade Mark, the Respondent has intentionally attempted to attract for commercial gain Internet users to the Website, by creating a likelihood of confusion with the Complainant’s mark. As such, it may be inferred that the Respondent intentionally registered the disputed domain name to trade off the goodwill and reputation of the Complainant."
In defense,the respondent contended that in China the word "Cadillac" is the name of a person and not a "distinctive and proprietary English word."
Moreover,the respondent applied for registration of the "Cadillac Snake Eyes" trademark in China and still expects this application will proceed to registration
All in all,the Panel ordered the disputed domain name to be transferred from the respondent to the complainant.

President Clinton to Keynote at 25 Years of .Com Policy Impact Forum

VeriSign, the operator of.com, announced today that President Bill Clinton will deliver the opening keynote address at its Policy Impact Forum in Washington D.C. on March 16. This event is part of a larger industry-wide campaign led by VeriSign recognizing 25 years of Internet innovation.
In March 1985, the first .com domain name was registered, igniting the birth of the consumer Internet that, 25 years later, continues to globally transform communication, commerce and our society as a whole. In recognition of this milestone, VeriSign will host a series of events bringing together .com's many stakeholders -- including Internet luminaries, online businesses, policymakers, entertainers, consumers and more -- to look at how far the consumer Internet has come, while seeking to better understand the opportunities and challenges of the .com domain of the future.
"Over the last two decades, the Internet has created communities, transformed economies and made the world a smaller place," said Mark McLaughlin, CEO of VeriSign. "President Clinton has been at the forefront of this change, both during his Administration, when the Internet emerged as a social phenomenon, to today through his works with the Clinton Global Initiative and Clinton Foundation. We're delighted to hear his perspective as we mark the Internet's impact on our society and economy."

Baidu.com plans to launch online video site on QiYi.com

Baidu.com,a Chinese search engine,announced recently that they acquired the QIYI.com domain name for their feature online video website . This new media site is set to launch in March 2010 and the CEO will be COO Gong Yu.
QiYi.com will provide authorized high definition video content.

National Arbitration Forum announces changes to the domain name dispute resolution procces

The National Arbitration Forum has recently announced that some changes will be made to the domain name dispute resolution process. Therefore,starting March 1,the National Arbitration Forum requires that all the case documents to be submitted electronically.Moreover,supplemental rules will be required for all cases file on or after March 1,2010.
The complainant must not exceed fifteen pages,must "send or transmit its Complaint to the Respondent under cover of the Complaint Transmittal Cover Sheet posted on the Forum's web site.",and must also "provide a copy of the Complaint to the registrar of the disputed domain name at the same time the Complaint is sent to the Forum."
Some suggestions and reminders are being given by the National Arbitration Forum regarding this new process:
There are recommended the following types of electronic signature :
-scanned signature inserted in a document
-the use of /s/ to indicate an electronic signature

Domain News : DENIC Releases BR.DE Domain Name

DENIC have allowed the registration of the two-letter domain name BR.DE. The domain was excluded from the release of two-character domains affected in autumn 2009. Upon DENIC's objection, this temporary injunction was now rescinded. The domain name was subsequently registered at 15:00 on 18 February.

Everybody who was interested in the domain name was able to register it as of the above timeas long as the applicant did not infringe on any rights of others.

Due to the special nature of the release of the domain name, DENIC applied a special procedure for its release with registration requests only being allowed to be submitted by means of a special request form issued by DENIC.

For more information on the release of the domain name BR.DE and the process involved, see the DENIC announcements at:

* www.denic.de/en/denic-in-dialog/news/2530.html?cHash=cb30518676
* www.denic.de/en/denic-in-dialog/news/2532.html?cHash=bfed236ee6

AFNIC CEO elected as new CENTR Chair

CENTR is the Council of European National Top Level Domain Registries, gathering more than 50 registries such as DENIC for Germany (.de), Nominet for the United Kingdom (.uk) or Switch for Switzerland (.ch). The election took place during CENTR's General Assembly held in Warsaw on February 25 and 26.
Mathieu Weill, AFNIC's CEO, replaces Andrzej Bartosiewicz, from the Polish registry, NASK, whose term was coming to an end. The other CENTR Board members are:
Sabine Dolderer, DENIC (.de)
Alberto Pérez Gomez, Red.es (.es)
Annebeth Lange (.no)
Juhani Juselius (.fi), Treasurer
Mathieu Weill declared: "CENTR is a platform for exchange of information and best practices among members, but it is also a lively community, working in the public's interest. I will work both to enhance services provided by CENTR to its members and to raise our industry's profile".

DOMAIN NEWS : Webfusion Starts 2010 with Discount Prices

Beginning in January, leading domain registration and web hosting provider Webfusion is offering .com domains for only $8.88. By lowering the price on .com domains, the company is making the web's most popular domain name extension available at one of the best values on the market. Combined with affordable web hosting, consumers can get their websites online quickly at low prices.


(PRWEB) January 18, 2010 — To start the New Year off right, Webfusion is lowering the price of .com domain name registrations to $8.88 for a limited time. Customers can register an unlimited number of .com domains at this price point, providing customers with a great opportunity to secure the web’s most recognized domain extension (http://webfusion.com/register-domain-names/).

Ideal for business websites, the .com domain has long been synonymous with commercial aspirations on the web. For developers looking to build a new venture, or business owners looking to increase their online presence, the .com domain is perfect.

When combined with the open source applications which come free with Webfusion’s hosting packages, customers can build powerful websites in a matter of minutes.

Known for providing trusted 24-hour phone support, Webfusion has been a leader in domain services since 1997. And while the company’s quality support and reliability will remain, this .com offer is only available for a limited time.

About Webfusion US

Webfusion offers businesses and home users in the United States and Canada with reliable, feature-rich hosting and domain registration services. Within the company’s custom control panel, customers can automatically install leading open source applications to make the web development process easier.

By combining 24/7 technical support with the state of the art data centers, the company has become the preferred web host for thousands of users. Serving a diverse customer base ranging from web developers to small businesses and individuals, Webfusion offers both Linux and Microsoft hosting, as well as secure domain registration and e-mail services.

Follow Webfusion on Twitter - http://twitter.com/webfusion or read our blog for updates

DOMAIN NAME NEWS : Forbes wins Forbes.ru domain name and $300,000 from cybersquatter

The Russian edition of Forbes has recently won a domain name case against Landmark VIP Services. It seems that Landmark VIP Services used the domain name ,Forbes.ru to advertise travel packages .Therefore,Forbes and Axel Springer Russia decided to sue Landmark VIP Services.
The Moscow Arbitration Court decided not only to give the disputed domain name to Forbes,but the court also awarded it $300,000 .
Grigory Punanov, chief editor of ForbesRussia.ru,said in a statement that "We fought for a long time for the legal right to use the domain name Forbes.ru. I hope the ruling will enter legal force and that our site will soon be available at that address."
The online version of the magazine launched in November at ForbesRussia.ru .

DOMAIN NEWS :Final Inventory for TRAFFIC auction released

Rick Latona Auctions released its final inventory for the TRAFFIC conference auction in Las Vegas.

The auction will take place Friday the 22nd of Jnauray,2010.
Pre-bidding should be ready today.

Here are a few interesting domain names in the auction :

Sunburns.com
XXX.us
Imply.com
Motivating.com
GoFish.com
EVQ.com
IKC.com
SEU.com
GolfAndCountryClub.com
FaceWhitening.com
RealEstate.co.za
Stutter.com
GolfClothing.com
WFH.com
Meetings.com
ORN.com
LaptopReviews.com
Lemons.com
Pizza.us
Dietfood.com
MotorcycleHelmets.com
BabyFood.com
SeniorCitizens.com
FreePorn.co.uk
LongIsland.com

You can see the final inventory here .

DOMAIN NEWS : Musik-total.de sells for $13,700

Musik-total.de domain name was recently sold through Sedo for $13,700. Here are other domain names recently sold by Sedo you may find interesting :

wtr.dk 500 USD
imoda.net 2,000 USD
azemar.it 600 EUR
circlesolution.net 1,450 USD
ecigs.co.uk 900 GBP
sks.co.uk 3,000 GBP
mentalfitnesscenter.com 1,295 USD
copasdomundo.com 1,750 USD
whonow.com 834 USD
crystaltools.com 2,000 USD


For more information check out www.sedo.com

DOMAIN NAME NEWS : Vietnam ranks second in Southeast Asia for national domain names

VietNamNet Bridge – The Vietnam Internet Centre (VNNIC) on January 13 announced reaching its 100,000 .vn national domain name - ranking second after Singapore in Southeast Asia for the number of national domain names.
VNNIC’s director Nguyen Le Thuy said this is the number of activated domain names, the total registered domain names is up to 120,000. Thuy said that Vietnam reached the goal nearly one year before the schedule because the country aimed to 100,000 national domain names by the end of 2010.

Deputy minister of information and communications Le Nam Thang said that with 100,000 .vn domain names and around 80,000 international domain names, it is clear that the development of Internet in Vietnam is very strong.

Though ranking second in the region, the ratio of national domain names to population in Vietnam is still modest. Singapore, with only 5 million people, has up to 110,000 national domain names. This fact shows that their remains great potential for the .vn domain name market.

After the government issued a decree on Internet management, VNNIC asked the Ministry of Information and Communications to issue policies to manage Internet resources of Vietnam based on the change from the ask-give mechanism to registration based on the principle of equality. This is the major reason for the fast growth of .vn domain names in recent years, which averaged at 17 percent per year.

Symantec Sees Large Drop In Spam From Domains In China

Samir Patil has blogged on the Symantec site that the company’s Symantec Probe Network has registered a DECREASE in spam from domains registered in China since early December. He reported that .cn spam fell from 30-50 percent daily to about 20 percent.

“It appears that the drop is due to the recent enhancement in domain registration procedures introduced by China’s Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). On December 11, CNNIC announced a new registration procedure for .cn domains,” he said.

In December, China announced that those registering domains in the country would be required to do so using paper forms. Also, only businesses registered by the state would be allowed to register domains.

Spammers commonly used sites registered in China for Canadian pharmacy spam campaigns.

This is great. Maybe the one thing that spammers can’t do is something as low-tech as filling out paper forms.

I’ll be interested to see:
— if the Chinese authorities can lower that 20 percent figure further
— what countries the spammers will move to
— if any other government tries the same approach.

DOMAIN NEWS : McAfee: 'IE exploit is now in the public domain'

The company that led the investigation into the Internet Explorer hack from China that sparked the Google controversy has confirmed that details of the exploit have been published online.

The exploit has already led to Microsoft urging its customers to upgrade from IE6, but the McAfee – the company that was pulled into investigate – has now confirmed that the code used in 'Operation Aurora' is now online.

"Unfortunately, the risk has been compounded because the attack code that exploits this Internet Explorer vulnerability has now been posted in the public domain, increasing the possibility of widespread attacks," says a McAfee release.

Of course, the message form the computer security company is 'use our computer security' but the underlying threat of the compromise is clear.

Government attacks

McAfee described the attack back when it confirmed that IE had been one of the vectors as similar to the high-cost narrow target attacks on government and critical data.

"We have never seen attacks of this sophistication in the commercial space," said Dmitri Alperovitch, a Vice President of Research with McAfee.

"We have previously only seen them in the government space."

Lacoste gets hands on lacostebuy.com domain name

Lacoste,am apparel company that sells high-end clothing,footwear,perfume and some other products filed with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center,requesting the domain name lacostebuy.com, to be transfered to them. It is well known that Lacoste has many registered trademarks for the term "Lacoste" all over the world.Because the respondent,Liu Dong Ping,did not respond in any way,it's clear that the disputed domain name was registered in bad faith.
"No legitimate Lacoste merchandise is being offered for sale at the disputed website and the Respondent’s use of the Domain Name to sell counterfeit Lacoste merchandise is clearly in bad faith.
The Respondent currently earns revenue directly by drawing consumers to its site by its unauthorized use of the Complainant’s LACOSTE mark in its Domain Name."
In an attempt to demonstrate that the domain name was confusingly similar to its trademark the company contended in the coomplaint that the domain name is confusingly similar to Lacoste trademark,because it incorporates their famous trademark entirely.
Having established all three elements required ,the Panel ordered the domain name,lacostebuy.com to be transfered from the respondent to the compliant.

DOMAIN NEWS : State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company scores victory in domain name case

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company,a mutual insurance firm, has recently won another domain name case. Complainant submitted a complaint to the National Arbitration Forum,requesting the domain name tatefarmautoinsurancequotes.com to be transferred from the respondent to the complainant.
The complainant owns a service mark registration for the "State Farm" mark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office .Therefore they contended in the complaint that the respondent registered a domain name confusingly similar to its trademark .
Moreover,they said the disputed domain name was registered and used in bad faith.
Respondent,Central Tech c/o Mike Turin, consented to the transfer of the domain name to Complainant.
Therefore,because the complainant managed to demonstrate all the elements needed and because the respondent consented to the transfer,the Panel ordered the domain name to be transferred from the respondent to the complainant.

DOMAIN NEWS : Estibot launching EstiBot 2.0 soon

Even though EstiBot 2.0 should have been ready until now,the launch has been delayed to add some new features.

Estibot 2.0 will have a new look,an end-user lead generator and a direct match network.
With the End-User Lead Generator you can "generate end-user leads with full details (such as search volumes, CPC, Alexa, registrant, contact e-mail, phone and much more) for ANY domain. Simply appraise a domain and click "Help Me Sell This Domain". "
Do you want to "appraise domains on EstiBot and receive instant notifications of users willing to buy at the appraised price."?Then you will have to use the Direct Match Network.
If you want to get a live look at this new version check out : http://beta.estibot.com/

DOMAIN NEWS : Candidates, Squatters, and Gripers: A Primer on Political Cybersquatting and a Proposal for Reform

During last year's election, were you hoping to read-up on Barack Obama's abortion stance? Too bad, if you went to Obama ForPresident.com. It featured crossword puzzles and fantasy football rather than public-policy papers. Were you looking to volunteer for U.S. Senate candidate John Sununu? If you visited JohnSununu.com, it allowed you to sign up for a free online dating service but not to sign on to a political campaign. Did you want to help finance John McCain's bid for the presidency? During much of the 2008 campaign season, a contribution submitted through the official-looking JohnMcain.com would have supported a man in Houston, Texas, without one nickel funding McCain's run for the White House.

All three of these web sites were intuitively linked to prominent U.S. politicians, but none were owned by the candidates or their campaigns. These sites exemplified a broader trend. Without any legitimate affiliation, people nab rights to web sites that evoke politicians' names. They do it for profit. They do it for spite. They do it to broadcast criticisms. They do it out of egotism or to indulge their idea of fun. Most importantly, they do it often and they do it everywhere. "Political cybersquatting," as this practice is known, is occurring with increasing frequency around the world.

This article discusses political cybersquatting's causes and proximate harms. The next section offers necessary background information on Internet processes and governance. The following section describes the politicalcybersquatting problem by showing that (1) candidates are seriously injured by cybersquatting, (2) candidates are exceptionally exposed to cybersquatting, and (3) candidates cannot rely on existing preventive and remedial methods to consistently solve their cybersquatting problems. Finally, the article proposes a new specialized top-level domain, ".pol," as a way to mitigate political cybersquatting's
harms.

DOMAIN NEWS : Domain Pulse conference to be held in Lucerne,Switzerland

The Domain Pulse conference will be held this year in Lucerne,Switzerland on 1 and 2 February.

Switch in cooperation with Denic and the registry in Austria,nic.at, will hold this conference in the Lucerne Cutultural and Conference Centre.
The main theme of the conference will be DNSSEC .
Marc Furrer, President of the Federal Communications Commission and Urs Eppenberger from SWITCH,will hold a presentation about the introduction of DNSSEC in Switzerland.

Registration for the conference is still online on the website .

You will also find there the full progam and further information about the conference .