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NEWS ABOUT: ICANN

Coming This Week: Dot-Anything

Domain name possibilities to explode on Thursday

(Newser) - The Internet is getting a makeover. Starting Thursday, the web will make a big step in moving way beyond dot-com , dot-net, and the like. For the first time since 2000, ICANN, the administrator of Internet addresses, will begin taking applications for a huge range of new top-level domain names. Now,... More »

Colleges Snatch Up .XXX Sites

Domain name makes Web debut at 11am today

(Newser) - Today is the day that .com starts to sound even tamer: The much more risque .xxx domain goes live at 11am ET today. Some 100,000 websites are expected to make their very adult debut at that time, and CNN reports on some of the upsides and downsides to the... More »

Domain-Name Bosses Approve Huge Expansion

Forget .com: we'll soon see sites ending in brand and city names

(Newser) - It's a huge day for the Internet: The organization in charge of online addresses has OKed a giant boost in domain endings, giving the green light to nearly any word in any language, reports the New York Times . The Internet Corporation for the Assignment of Web Names and Numbers... More »

Porn Sites Get .XXX Addresses

And porn industry not happy, considering legal action

(Newser) - The Internet got its very own street corner yesterday, as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers gave the greenlight to a ".xxx" virtual redlight district. And purveyors of porn and the religious right alike aren't happy with the decision, reports the New York Times . “Our industry... More »

.Love? .Nazi? Domain Name Suffix Battle Heats Up

Will it make surfing easier—or just more complicated?

(Newser) - In a matter of months, companies will have the chance to gobble up brand new domain name suffixes—and controversy is already boiling. In 2008, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved a plan to expand the selection of suffixes from the usual .com and .net to choices... More »

Porn Sites to Get .XXX Suffix

Panel agrees to new suffix for adult entertainment online

(Newser) - Someday soon, .xxx could be bigger than .com in the Internet world. The panel that oversees domain names has agreed to create the .xxx suffix for porn sites on the Web, reports PC World . The move has been long debated, with proponents saying it will help filter such sites from... More »

Web Addresses Will Gain International Flavor

Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew domains, among others, will have support by 2010: ICANN

(Newser) - In the biggest change ever to the system, Web domains will soon be available in the native scripts of Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, and other non-Latin-based languages. A proposal expected to be approved this week means “Internationalized Domain Names” could be up and running as soon as mid-2010. China and... More »

Microsoft Offers $250K to Catch Worm Creators

(Newser) - Microsoft has offered a $250,000 bounty for the creators of the dreaded Conficker worm, which has infected 10 million computers worldwide, PC Magazine reports. The software giant is working with security firms and domain name administrator ICANN to find the culprits, whose virus exploits a vulnerability in Windows. Microsoft... More »

Domain-Name Rule Change 'Brand Owner's Nightmare'

Firms must guard against squatters

(Newser) - The decision of an internet oversight body to allow more domain names opens the playing field to cybersquatters—who register domain names in the hopes someone else will have to purchase them later, BusinessWeek reports. No more is it a matter of simply .com or .net: Squatters may now buy... More »

Domain Snatchers Hit With Lawsuit

ICANN also named for allowing frontrunning practice

(Newser) - A class-action lawsuit filed yesterday targets a top purveyor of domain names and its alleged practice of “frontrunning,” Network World reports. Network Solutions essentially registers a domain name the second a customer searches for it, forcing the customer to pay the company’s above-market rate of $35 for... More »

Foreign Domain Names Coming to Net

After years of complaints, ICANN fast tracks non-Latin web addresses

(Newser) - Soon, Chinese domain names can at long last be in Chinese. Addressing one of international critics’ longest-standing complaints, ICANN, the independent non-profit that regulates the Internet, is putting internationalized domain names on the fast track, ZDNet reports. Studies are already underway on how to integrate domains with non-Latin characters into... More »

ICANN Appoints New Zealander to Replace Cerf

Will be first non- American to head the Internet regulatory body

(Newser) - ICANN, the independent organization managing the Internet, filled its leadership void today by appointing New Zealand’s Peter Dengate Thrush as chairman. He will be the first non-American to head the group, which took over regulation from the US government, and has often come under international fire. Dengate Thrush downplayed... More »

Internet Running Out of IP Addresses

Service providers need to get onboard with IPv6

(Newser) - By 2010, new computers won’t be able to get online, warns Internet co-inventor Vint Cerf, unless ISPs adopt IPv6, a new system of assigning IP addresses. IP addresses are unique number strings devices need to get online, but most of the 4 billion numbers possible under the current system... More »

Net Co-Inventor Leaving Domain Name Agency

Cerf navigated oversight board through WWW's early days

(Newser) - Vint Cerf, who helped develop the technological underpinnings of the Internet, is stepping down as head of its oversight board, the AP reports. Many predicted the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers was doomed when Cerf took over in 1999, but he steered it through international criticism for 7... More »

Insider Trading May Have Net Variant

Agency investigates claims of shady profits from domain names

(Newser) - Someone call Michael Milken: Insider trading trailblazers may have found a new perch online. ICANN is investigating a poaching practice it's calling “front running,” in which buyers with inside information grab desirable domain names before others can register them. Speculation on the shadowy URL snatchers runs to viruses... More »

Translating 'Dot Com' into Cyrillic

Domain names in non-Roman alphabet to be tested by Net managers

(Newser) - On Monday the Internet's global reach will extend further when it tests non-Roman character domain names. For years, non-English speakers have petitioned the US and companies controlling the Internet for domain names in their native language, the BBC reports. But ICANN, the nonprofit corporation which allocates domains, has been afraid... More »

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