Press releases
EPAG is positive about the outcome of the 38th ICANN Meeting in Brussels
Bonn, July 01, 2010
From June 20-25, 2010, EPAG was Silver Sponsor of the 38th ICANN meeting in Brussels. Thanks to a large number of visitors at the EPAG booth, many new contacts and personal meetings with existing customers and partners, the team around EPAG’s managing director Alexander Schwertner is looking back to a successful week in Brussels.
The EPAG sales team informed the visitors at the booth about the wide range of ccTLDs and SSL certificates. During the meeting several registrars have recognized the value of cooperating with EPAG and will complement the extensions sold today with our many additional services.
Business aside, the fun-part had also its go at the EPAG booth! Many visitors had their picture taken at the booth by a professional photographer. The EPAG team has printed the photos directly, so that visitors could take it home as a nice souvenir from the meeting.
Alongside the introduction of new top-level domains, proposed amendments to the contracts between ICANN and registrars were at the focus of the meeting sessions.
Since some time recently, registrars have seen themselves exposed to increased pressure from governments, law enforcement authorities and other stakeholder groups. They call for tightening the registrar accreditation agreements between registrars and ICANN as they want to lead a more efficient fight against criminals on the Internet. Recently a workgroup presented an extensive list of demands that would in practice make domain registration of the broad mass of Internet users significantly more complicated and more expensive. At the ICANN meeting, registrars and other interest groups took the opportunity to engage in a constructive dialogue and emphasized that they do not have any interest to protect criminals. Alexander Schwertner, managing director of EPAG stated: “Before new and expensive rules are released, ICANN should from our point of view put more emphasis on enforcing compliance to the existing and extensive provisions in the present agreement against non-compliant registrars.”
Regarding the new top-level domains, the process has made significant progress. Just before the meeting, the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG) has been published. A number of important topics have already been resolved here. Some questions are left to be answered before applications of new TLDs can finally start. The second part of a study on the economic benefits of new TLDs is still outstanding. In the first part of the study, they have weighed different economic advantages of the new TLD program against various costs. A clear quantification of the net benefit is expected from the second part of the study, to be published in the coming months. The submission of the complete study is an important prerequisite demanded by governments for the launch of applications for new TLDs.
The study on the scalability of the root-zone should also be available in autumn. It will give information on how many new TLDs the DNS tolerates in a specific time frame. In the issue of vertical integration between registries and registrars, despite the ongoing discussions, a decision for the first round of applications was made. It was decided that registrars and registries are allowed to hold only minimal cross-shareholdings.
Moreover, a number of trademark rights issues could be resolved. Thus, both IP Clearinghouse and Uniform Rapid Suspension, as well as Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution are contained in the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook.
In order to clarify the outstanding issues it was decided to hold an extraordinary board meeting in September 2010. This gives the reason to hope that the final version of the Applicant Guidebook will be available on the next ICANN-Meeting in December 2010.
About EPAG Domainservices GmbH:
EPAG is an ICANN registrar since 2000 and is specialized on the management of domains for domain resellers, large as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. The team of experts offers its customers a full service from the entirely automated domain registration to personal support with the registration of country-code top-level domains. EPAG Domainservices GmbH is a 100-percent subsidiary of the QSC AG Cologne, the leading medium-sized telecommunications provider with an own next generation network.
Contact:
Tanja Gutike
EPAG Domainservices GmbH
Phone: +49 228 32968 16
E-mail: news@epag.de
From June 20-25, 2010, EPAG was Silver Sponsor of the 38th ICANN meeting in Brussels. Thanks to a large number of visitors at the EPAG booth, many new contacts and personal meetings with existing customers and partners, the team around EPAG’s managing director Alexander Schwertner is looking back to a successful week in Brussels.
The EPAG sales team informed the visitors at the booth about the wide range of ccTLDs and SSL certificates. During the meeting several registrars have recognized the value of cooperating with EPAG and will complement the extensions sold today with our many additional services.
Business aside, the fun-part had also its go at the EPAG booth! Many visitors had their picture taken at the booth by a professional photographer. The EPAG team has printed the photos directly, so that visitors could take it home as a nice souvenir from the meeting.
Alongside the introduction of new top-level domains, proposed amendments to the contracts between ICANN and registrars were at the focus of the meeting sessions.
Since some time recently, registrars have seen themselves exposed to increased pressure from governments, law enforcement authorities and other stakeholder groups. They call for tightening the registrar accreditation agreements between registrars and ICANN as they want to lead a more efficient fight against criminals on the Internet. Recently a workgroup presented an extensive list of demands that would in practice make domain registration of the broad mass of Internet users significantly more complicated and more expensive. At the ICANN meeting, registrars and other interest groups took the opportunity to engage in a constructive dialogue and emphasized that they do not have any interest to protect criminals. Alexander Schwertner, managing director of EPAG stated: “Before new and expensive rules are released, ICANN should from our point of view put more emphasis on enforcing compliance to the existing and extensive provisions in the present agreement against non-compliant registrars.”
Regarding the new top-level domains, the process has made significant progress. Just before the meeting, the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook (DAG) has been published. A number of important topics have already been resolved here. Some questions are left to be answered before applications of new TLDs can finally start. The second part of a study on the economic benefits of new TLDs is still outstanding. In the first part of the study, they have weighed different economic advantages of the new TLD program against various costs. A clear quantification of the net benefit is expected from the second part of the study, to be published in the coming months. The submission of the complete study is an important prerequisite demanded by governments for the launch of applications for new TLDs.
The study on the scalability of the root-zone should also be available in autumn. It will give information on how many new TLDs the DNS tolerates in a specific time frame. In the issue of vertical integration between registries and registrars, despite the ongoing discussions, a decision for the first round of applications was made. It was decided that registrars and registries are allowed to hold only minimal cross-shareholdings.
Moreover, a number of trademark rights issues could be resolved. Thus, both IP Clearinghouse and Uniform Rapid Suspension, as well as Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution are contained in the fourth version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook.
In order to clarify the outstanding issues it was decided to hold an extraordinary board meeting in September 2010. This gives the reason to hope that the final version of the Applicant Guidebook will be available on the next ICANN-Meeting in December 2010.
About EPAG Domainservices GmbH:
EPAG is an ICANN registrar since 2000 and is specialized on the management of domains for domain resellers, large as well as small and medium-sized enterprises. The team of experts offers its customers a full service from the entirely automated domain registration to personal support with the registration of country-code top-level domains. EPAG Domainservices GmbH is a 100-percent subsidiary of the QSC AG Cologne, the leading medium-sized telecommunications provider with an own next generation network.
Contact:
Tanja Gutike
EPAG Domainservices GmbH
Phone: +49 228 32968 16
E-mail: news@epag.de
