Internet

Summary/analysis of dot-xxx issue

May 18, 2010

I have spent the past week going through literally thousands of comments about whether there should be a new dot-xxx Internet extension for pornography. You won’t be surprised to hear it has brought out some strong feelings.
Anyway, the company behind the application, ICM Registry, hired me to write an objective summary of what was said. [...]

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My feedback to the Crown Prosecution Service re: Twitter joke prosecution

May 12, 2010

I have just send a complaint – or “negative feedback” as the website wishes to call it – to the Crown Prosecution Service in South Yorkshire for its prosecution of Paul Chambers for making a (stupid) joke on Twitter. I reproduce it below:
If you also wish to complain, you can do so at: http://www.cps.gov.uk/contact/feedback_and_complaints/index.html
No doubt [...]

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The future of the Internet is here: non-English extensions hit the Web

May 5, 2010

It’s taken far longer than it should but we are finally there – new, non-English extensions exist on the Internet as of a few hours ago.
The person who hit the button – my friend, Kim Davies – tweeted the news. Kim has already written a quick blog post on the launch, highlighting the Egyptian Ministry [...]

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In remembrance of Guy Kewney

April 8, 2010

So I am a pretty poor choice to write something about Guy Kewney, who passed away earlier today my time and in the early hours UK time.
I have never worked alongside Guy. I have never edited him or been edited by him. In fact, I think I have never written for the same publication as [...]

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The Sex.com bankruptcy court doc

March 18, 2010

The auction for Sex.com was due to be held in New York a few hours ago but, as became clear last night, creditors of the current owner, Escom, forced through an involuntary bankruptcy which has caused the auction to be “postponed”.
Thanks to the court document [pdf] filed here in Los Angeles, we now have a [...]

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ICANN Board sticks .xxx on public agenda

March 1, 2010

The ICANN Board has stuck discussion of the dot-xxx Internet extension on the agenda for its public meeting on 12 March – a good but brave move.
As covered last week, ICANN came off pretty badly following an independent review of the Board’s decision to reject dot-xxx back in 2007. A three-judge panel decided that [...]

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Talking about Sex.com on NPR’s On the Media

February 28, 2010

I recorded a show for National Public Radio’s (NPR) On the Media show earlier this week talking about Sex.com, my book about it and the domain’s upcoming auction next month.
The show played this morning. You can see the NPR page (with transcript) at http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/2010/02/26/06. And listen to the show below:
[Audio clip: view full post to [...]

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Nominet passes governance test with flying colours

February 25, 2010

The dot-uk registry Nominet has passed a crucial governance test with flying colours, voting yes [pdf] on eight Board resolutions with more than 93 percent member support.
The resolutions will make a variety of changes to the organisation, ranging from an increase in the number of Board members to an explicit statement that Nominet will work [...]

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Watch out: .xxx is coming to an Internet near you soon

February 23, 2010

So I think there is a real chance that the Internet extension .xxx will appear on the Internet some time this year.
Of course, you really can never know since overseeing body ICANN is a complex beast, but following the first use of the organization’s Independent Review Process (IRP) and the resulting panel declaration [pdf], [...]

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Whois study shows 77 percent of domains have dodgy registration info

February 17, 2010

I’ve written a story for The Register about a new report [pdf] regarding the Whois system for domain registration data. We all knew that Whois was a mess, but it’s good to have some facts and figures that show what a mess it is.
Here’s hoping this gives the endless, intractable discussions within ICANN about Whois [...]

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