Cybersquatting, czyli rejestrowanie domen znanych marek i odsprzedawanie ich po zawyżonej cenie, to praktyka wciąż żywa. Problem powrócił wraz z pojawieniem się domen IDN, czyli adresów internetowych zawierających znaki diakrytyczne.

Domeny z polskimi znakami diakrytycznymi nie okazały się wielkim sukcesem. Do kwietnia 2008 r. w naszym kraju zarejestrowanych zostało niewiele ponad 17 tys. adresów z "ogonkami".

Domeny używające znaków narodowych nie zresztą odniosły wielkiego sukcesu nie tylko w Polsce, ale również w innych częściach świata. Mimo bardzo umiarkowanego entuzjazmu w stosunku do tej usługi, przyczyniła się ona do pewnych "zawirowań" prawnych, które mogą utrudnić życie właścicielom znaków towarowych. Umiędzynarodowienie nazw adresów internetowych otworzyło furtkę cybersquatterom, czyli osobom rejestrującym domeny, zawierające w nazwie zastrzeżone znaki, w celu późniejszej ich odsprzedaży. Domeny IDN od początku były rejestrowane na zasadach "kto pierwszy ten lepszy", bez poprzedzającego etapu prerejestracji, jak np. w przypadku domen .eu czy .asia.

- Uruchomienie fazy Sunrise przed "wpuszczeniem" domen IDN na wolny rynek, zaowocowałoby większym uporządkowaniem w tym sektorze oraz oszczędziłoby wielu firmom czasochłonnych procesów. – zauważa Ewelina Jaworska z firmy 2BE.PL – Wówczas wszystkie podmioty, zainteresowane rejestracją nazwy zawierającej narodowe znaki diakrytyczne, mogłoby wejść w jej posiadanie, zabezpieczając tym samym swoje interesy w różnych zakątkach świata. – dodaje.

Polskim przykładem takiej sytuacji jest fabryka farb i lakierów "Śnieżka", którą w Sieci znaleźć można pod domeną www.sniezka.pl. Zarejestrowany jest również adres z polskimi znakami: www.śnieżka.pl, gdzie znajduje się mały serwis o górze Śnieżka.

Nic nie stoi teraz na przeszkodzie, aby kupić domeny Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Nike, Adidas, tyle, że zapisane za pomocą znaków używanych w języku rosyjskim, greckim, perskim, czy japońskim. Oczywiście firmy, którym "podkupiono" nazwy, mogą dochodzić swoich praw przed sądem. Zdarza się jednak, że kraje rozwijające się nie zapewniają odpowiedniej ochrony prawnej właścicielom znaków towarowych. Wówczas droga do przejęcia spornej domeny może być trudna.

source: http://di.com.pl/news/20809,1,0,Cybersquatting_powraca_z_IDN-ami.html

Resolucion 616-08 - MRECIC - INTERNET - Incorporación de caracteres multilingües, pertenecientes al idioma español y portugués, para los nombres de dominio que tienen la terminación “.ar”.

Nuevos caracteres: ‘á’, ‘â’, ‘ã’, ‘à’, ‘é’, ‘ê’, ‘í’, ‘ó’, ‘ô’, ‘õ’, ‘ú’, ‘ü’, ‘ñ’ y ‘ç’.

 Cronograma de implementación. Registro escalonado. Reglas de conversión. Reglas de prioridad.

Incorporación del nuevo subdominio “GOB.AR” en reemplazo del subdominio de uso gubernamental “GOV.AR”.

Esta Resolución no ha sido publicada en el Boletín Oficial hasta la fecha.
Fuente: Network Information Center (NIC) Argentina
http://www.nic.ar

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Incorporación de caracteres multilingües

Resolución Ministerial 616/2008

BUENOS AIRES, 9 de Abril de 2008

VISTO el Decreto N° 267 de fecha 06 de Abril de 2005; la Resolución Ministerial Nº 2226 del 8 de agosto de 2000 que aprueban las Reglas para la Registración de Nombres de Dominio Internet en la República Argentina, y

CONSIDERANDO:

Que el Decreto N° 267/05 dispone que este Ministerio debe ‘Entender, en su carácter de administrador del Dominio de Nivel Superior Argentina (.AR), en el procedimiento de registro de nombres de dominio Web de las personas físicas y jurídicas, como así también ejecutar los planes, programas y proyectos relativos al tema, interviniendo en los procesos de negociación y conclusión de acuerdos y otros instrumentos de carácter internacional, y propiciando las medidas necesarias tendientes a lograr armonizar las disposiciones generales y globales que regulan la registración de los nombres de dominio en la República con el derecho interno’.

Que el MINISTERIO DE RELACIONES EXTERIORES, COMERCIO INTERNACIONAL Y CULTO presta, a través de UINET los servicios de registro en INTERNET de los “Nombres de Dominio de Nivel Superior Argentina” que tienen la terminación “.ar”, que permiten categorizar la estructura de la red, posibilitando así la prestación de servicios de INTERNET, identificando dominios en INTERNET con la República Argentina, entre otras funciones.

Que es responsabilidad de esta Cancillería el velar por la correcta prestación de los servicios del Network Information Center (NIC) Argentina.

Continue reading ‘Caracteres multilingües en dominios “.ar”. Cambio de “gov.ar” a “gob.ar”’ »

Además, se podrá añadir el subdominio “.gob.ar” para reemplazar al “.gov.ar”, utilizado como referencia de la palabra goverment, del inglés. El Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, a través del NIC Argentina (el registro de nombre de dominios de nuestro país), trabaja hace más de un año en el desarrollo del proyecto, que ahora tiene el visto bueno [...]

The xn-- domains registration will be started on April 28, 12 a.m. (MSK)

nic.ru

I do recommend investing in IDNs - but only when appropriate. Appropriate means good commercial and similar terms in languages that use more than just English's 26 letters of the alphabet. However, domains that are simply English words, replacing a vowel such as an "i" with an "ì" are worthless. Their only possible value is for phishing.
Yesterday while browsing Sedo, the auction of Office.net caught my attention. I wanted to place a bid, but because the bidding was so low for what is such a great domain, I hesitated. If a deal is too good to be true, it probably is. Continue reading ‘Sedo Auctions Phishing Domains’ »

I've said before that IDNs are going to do well simply because even if people know English fluently as a second language, they prefer to use their native tongue when using the internet. Now an extreme example of the importance of IDNs has just surfaced - because IDNs weren't available, two people died and three people are in jail.
The story reads like something from the twilight zone. A couple in Turkey split up and the wife had moved back in with her family. The couple were text messaging each other. The wife's cell phone didn't have IDN capabilities - and could not read or write the closed i or "ı". So, the letter i showed in place of the closed i. Continue reading ‘IDNs Prevent Death’ »

by Chuck Kisselburg

While leaving my hotel the other day I happened to glance at the USA Today newspaper. At the bottom of the front page was a story titled, “ChinaUSA in Internet users vaults past ”. As the story points out, the number of Chinese on the Internet hit more than 220 million by February, compared to 216 US Internet users at the end of 2007.

While US-based internet usage for 2007 had grown 53% over the following year to reach the 216 million mark, it should be noted that of the US’s 304 million people, 71% use the Internet today. China, on the other hand with it’s higher figure and strong growth rate (233 million at the end of March vs 220 million in January), only 17% of its 1.3 billion population uses the Internet. As you can see China has a LONG way to go before starting to reach a point of saturation.

Being that I was at a conference all day whose focus was on the Domaining industry, I was not able to see how much attention this story received on any of the evening news stations. I am pleased, however, that this story was not buried within the newspaper as this is a very significant story.

Last February I blogged on the concept of IDNs and the perception of IDNs being on ICANN’s fast track. So based on the fact that China has been forging ahead with the potential of “Their Own Internet” and seeing that the number of users of the Internet has surpassed that of the US is rather significant to me.

While the story came and went on the pages of USA Today, I can’t help but think of the following aspects of this milestone:

1). How distinct is China’s Internet over the Internet you and I use today and what impact might varying internets have on each other? (I am referring to the root server system.)

2). What impact will this have on the overall IDN conversation? Is China doing what works for their users and how might this impact the way a Chinese-based Internet affects application development (as highlighted in my posting on “Practical Implications Regarding ICANN’s IDN TLD Evaluation Deployment in the Root Zone”), allowing for a culturally good Internet experience as well as ICANN’s process for IDN script development?

So while China is shooting beyond the US regarding number of users on the Internet, it will be interesting to watch other countries do the same, especially when IDNs are rolling out. It will also be interesting to see how the Internet “industry”, as we know it today, may shift. It will also be interesting to see how, if any, instances or segments of the Internet may grow and operate without following any of the established policies and agreements established through ICANN, as may be the case with China.

Today I asked myself if I can ping an IDN host.

My default ping (iputils on linux) couldn't do it, but I found some patches out there, e.g. from Fedora. Thanks to SpanKY, we now also have IDN-enabled ping in Gentoo (he used a modified patch).

Moniker.com will be hosting a geo domain auction in Paris in June. They recently sent out an auction alert thru their newsletter. The geo domain industry is maturing and the international market is exactly where the fire needs to be ignited. Moniker.com continues to educate business owners and investors on the importance of a great web address. It will be interesting to see the results of this auction.

Even if the results are not good, it is a great indicator that the domain industry is understanding exactly how powerful geo domains are becoming as countries from across the world embrace the internet. Things can only get better if the auction fails. I have a feeling if great names are submitted, we will be surprized of the auction results.

Auction Alert Make sure your marquis names are among the premier international inventory in the Live Domain Auction at DomainerMeeting in Paris, June 19-20. The deadline for bulk domain submissions is tomorrow! If you’re looking to cash in some of your domain assets, now is the time to consider an auction if you have these types of domains among your holdings:

Top notch foreign language (not English) dot coms
Premium ccTLDs
High-quality Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)

In addition to bulk submissions, Moniker will continue accepting limited auction submissions (max of 10 names) through April 30. After April 30, only single-word premium domains (one per person) will be accepted through May 14.
» Submit domains for consideration now
» Find out more about DomainerMeeting
» Visit Moniker’s main auction page for DomainerMeeting

(Via Moniker.com)

Previously, comment has been sought on potential issues associated with the implementation of IDNs in .nz, along with any other issues that the IDN working group (WG) should consider. (Submissions received can be viewed here http://www.dnc.org.nz/idn-consult). A meeting of the IDN WG was held on the 18th of February to discuss the submissions we received.

At this meeting the WG agreed that InternetNZ should proceed with the planned implementation of IDNs in .nz. The next phase of the process is to consider the options for how to equitably distribute the registrations of IDN variants of currently registered ASCII domain names in .nz.

To avoid potential disputes during the initial phases of IDN registrations in .nz a policy of a sunrise period for registrations has been suggested. Due to the nature of the Māori language it is impossible to automatically assign IDN variants to current .nz ASCII domain names.

The sunrise period will allow for current .nz registrants to have a chance to register the IDN variants of their ASCII names before open registration of IDNs in .nz are offered.

We are seeking comment on the proposed course of action outlined below.

• 1. The policies for IDN registrations are in line with the rest of the .nz policies and procedures (which can be viewed at www.dnc.org.nz/policies). They will express the same values as the core principles of the current system and particularly the “first come, first served” principle (excluding the sunrise period).
• 2. The cost to register an IDN will be the same as an ASCII .nz domain name.
• 3. There will be no automatic assignment of IDN variants to current registrants of .nz ASCII names.
• 4. If current .nz registrants wish to register an IDN variant of their current ASCII names, they must do so during the proposed sunrise period or risk losing the variant to another applicant on a first come first serve basis.
• 5. Apart from the requirement of current .nz registrants to apply for IDN variants of their ASCII names, there will be no other provisions regarding initial registration principles for IDNs in .nz.

Continue reading ‘.NZ: Internationalised Domains Names - Second Consultation’ »