The German registry DENIC is not responsible for the content of websites and other content associated with .DE domain names was the general thrust of a presentation by Jörg Heidrich, a specialist lawyer for IT Law in Germany, told the Domain Pulse conference in Hamburg last month. However service providers are responsible under general German law for information stored on their servers but not obliged to monitor the data transmitted or stored or to search for any illegal activity. If they are made aware of illegal content though, they are then required to act and to make it inaccessible to the public. The general principle, outlined in a number of court cases outlined by Heidrich, is that once DENIC and other parties become aware of illegal content, then they are obliged to take action. But until then, the courts have ruled they cannot be aware of all the content involved. In his presentation, Heidrich noted that DENIC though does have some liability, which has been determined in the German courts. When they are made available of illegal content using a .DE domain name, German courts have found that DENIC has an obligation to act, to in the first instance advise the registrant of the illegal content, and if the content is clearly illegal, taking into account that DENIC is not able to always make decisions on if some content is illegal, DENIC must immediately delete the domain name. In the case involving oberfranken.de, Heidrich explained the Bavarian government complained to DENIC that a company headquartered in Panama had registered the domain name. The plaintiff, the Bavarian government, demanded the registration be cancelled, and a court case to decide ensued. The court ruled DENIC procedures were done in an automated process and so its liability to act at time of registration was limited, using the precedence of an earlier case involving the domain name ambiente.de. Then in a second case involving oberfranken.de, Heidrich explained the court ruled that if the infringement is obvious and noticeable to DENIC, then they must act immediately to delete the domain name. In the case of oberfranken.de the court ruled that even a clerk working for DENIC, who has no name legal knowledge, can see easily that these domain names are a public body and not a Panama-based private company. Hosting providers also have a limited but similar duty when it comes to illegal content. There have been a number of cases involving webhosts in Germany, but Heidrich explained that they are not obliged to check the contributions made by the users in the case of blogs, but once they are aware of any infringement that is easily identifiable, they must then act. The presentation notes are available in German here [PDF] while a video of the presentation, also in German, is available here [228MB] .

PersonalLoans.com is the year’s first reported million dollar sale according to Domain Name Journal. The domain sold for an even $1 million through DomainNameSales who dominated the sales chart for the week to 26 February with ten of the top 20 sales including the second biggest sale for the week, lov.com. It was a quiet week for Sedo on the sales chart, but it still managed to account for the third biggest sale of the week, kboing.com, which sold for $150,000, as well as six other sales. On the types of domains sold, .COM managed to have a good week with 16 of the top 20 sales, while there were three ccTLD sales and the one remaining gTLD sale being a .PRO domain. To see the Domain Name Journal list of top reported sales for the week to 26 February, go to dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2012/20120307.htm .

The Australian ISP iiNet has announced it is applying to ICANN for its own top level domain. The ISP is Australia’s second largest DSL Internet provider and third largest ISP, and is using the announcement to position itself as a leading brand in Australia’s telecommunications market. iiNet has partnered with leading technical provider ARI Registry Services to assist in applying for and operating the TLD. .iinet will allow the company to establish a branded corner of the Internet completely dedicated to its business, products and customer base. The announcement marks the first by an Australian telecommunications or technology provider and follows in the footsteps of the Australian Football League and the Victorian and New South Wales governments. Through its own .brand TLD, iiNet will create a secure, authoritative digital asset capable of delivering online content to specific audiences in an intuitive and trusted manner. iiNet’s Operations Manager, Roger Yerramsetti said the entire online identity centres around the Domain name and the Internet Service Provider is looking forward to exploring the possibilities its own Domain will bring. “We’re champions of the Internet and thrive on innovation, so being the first in our industry opens up a world of opportunity for us and our brand,” Mr Yerramsetti said. The $200,000 cost for .iiNet was a “relatively cheap way to secure a part of the internet,” Yerramsetti told Australia’s Fairfax media. Of other major Australian telecommunications companies, an Optus spokeswoman told Fairfax it was still considering a top level domain, while executive director of Telstra Digital, Gerd Schenkel, recently confirmed the company would not apply for .Telstra. Adrian Kinderis, CEO of ARI Registry Services, welcomed the announcement. “iiNet’s decision to apply for their .brand Top Level Domain perfectly complements their history of constantly embracing emerging technologies for the benefit of the Australian marketplace. With the help of ARI Registry Services, iiNet will inherit a core piece of Internet infrastructure that is theirs to do as they choose – this is something that their competitors and major brands should be envious about,” Mr Kinderis said. “iiNet have shown tremendous leadership with this project and they should be commended for their participation. Other brands that haven’t already decided to apply will have to move fast, as applications close on 12 April and may not open again for several years.” The first new TLDs are expected to go live on the Internet in early 2013, which would be the earliest possible date that consumers will see the .iinet domain live on the Internet.

Bowlingballs.com sold for a very tidy $225,000 in a private sale to top the Domain Name Journal (usually) weekly chart of top reported sales in the fortnight to 5 February as part of a quartet of sales to top the six-figure mark. Second was saturn.pl in a very good sale for a .PL ccTLD, selling for 600,000 PLN ($189,930) followed by ule.com ($145,000), also both in private sales, while airline.com was the fourth member of the quartet, selling for $125,000 through DomainHoldings. There were 28 .COM sales for the fortnight, six ccTLD sales and eight other gTLD sales to round out the top 20. For the seller it was a very quiet fortnight for Sedo in the charts with only nine of the top 42 while Go Daddy Auctions was responsible for 19 sales, including one in cooperation with AfternicDLS. To see the Domain Name Journal list top reported sales for the fortnight to 5 February, go to: dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2012/20120215.htm

For the second week in a row, domain name sales have failed to set much alight in 2012 with the top selling domain being neomobile.com, which sold for $58,500 through Sedo, according to Domain Name Journal’s list of top reported sale for the week to 22 January. Second biggest sale for the week was yolo.com, which sold for $29,000, also through Sedo, while third was clubclass.com, selling for $16,000 through AfternicDLS. Overall Sedo was responsible for 13 of the top 23 sales, with a four-way tie for 20th place. It was a good week for AfternicDLS with nine sales with the only other sale being a private sale. There were 15 .COM sales in the list, only two ccTLD sales while the remaining six were other gTLD sales. For the Domain Name Journal list of top reported sales in the week to 22 January, see: dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2012/20120201.htm

The Domain Pulse evening event at Hamburg’s Fish Auction Hall that brought to a close the first day of the conference meant there were quite a few stragglers at day two’s commencement. But by the afternoon everyone had arrived in time to hear an update on this year’s Registrar Atlas Survey, presented by Thomas Rickert. The Registrar Atlas surveys registrars and resellers in Germany, and in 2012 takes in Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands, and has some surprising preliminary findings relating to DNSSEC adoption and new generic Top Level Domains. The final results for the survey will be presented at the World Hosting Day in Germany in March. One of the worrying findings to date is a surprising reluctance for the registrars and resellers to offer Domain Name System Security Extension (DNSSEC). In Germany, 17 per cent of respondents offered DNSSEC in 2011 and 44 per cent said they expected to offer it within the next 12 months while 28 per cent were not planning to. But in 2012, unexpectedly these numbers had declined. Of those that have responded, the number offering DNSSEC had declined to 12 per cent, 25 per cent said they expected to offer it in the next 12 months while 25 per cent have not planned to. The trend, Rickert explained, is significant. And if the results are confirmed in the final results it would show momentum to adopt DNSSEC has stalled, and is even going backwards. So a question has to be asked is can momentum be created to start moving forward. While the German results are of concern, worryingly 41 per cent of respondents in Austria do not even plan to implement DNSSEC. DNSSEC is critical, giving internet users, both providers of services and end-users, much more secure transactions and interactions online. And it allows users to be certain that data has not been modified in transit. Part of the failure Rickert believes is that the industry, particularly registrars and registries, have not created a demand for DNSSEC. And while many internet users are concerned about the security of their data online, they are unaware of DNSSEC and its role. But DNSSEC is not the only area where registrars are showing a lack of interest in promoting new services. Preliminary results for the Registrar Atlas also show that registrars are going to be reluctant to promote new gTLDs. Of the respondents replying to the survey, just over one in five (22%) of German registrars and resellers planned to offer registration services promoting new gTLDs when they come online, with the first gTLDs probably offering registrations in 2013. Figures for Austria and Switzerland are too small to be significant to date, with no figures available for The Netherlands, but the figures indicate less than one in five registrars and resellers in those countries are preparing to offer registrations in new gTLDs. For new gTLD registries, it appears it could be challenging to get shelf space in registrars and it cannot be expected that registrars will be proactive in seeking out new gTLDs to sell their domain names. However as noted, the Registrar Atlas is far from complete and registrars and resellers, not just in Germany, but also Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands are encouraged to complete the wide-ranging survey that covers much more than DNSSEC and new gTLDs. The survey is conducted by the German internet association eco in conjunction with nic.at (Austria), SWITCH (Switzerland) and SIDN (Netherlands). To complete the survey, registrars and resellers should go to eco-umfrage.de and click on the appropriate link. This article was updated to reflect that the current survey is not only the first survey in which registrars and resellers in The Netherlands has participated in, but also Austria and Switzerland.

A series of six papers from the European Commission “represent a wholesale effort to put governments in charge of the internet” writes Kieren McCarthy. “They would be put in a position to decide how the internet’s underlying naming structure – the domain name system – expands and evolves. “If the DNS evolves in the right way of course, governments won’t need to do anything, they will let others get on with it. But just in case people decide to do something that isn’t in the public’s interest, then governments will be there to firmly but politely inform them that they are not allowed to do that. Well, that’s the theory anyway.” To read McCarthy’s analysis of the papers and the players and what is going on, check out his posting on his Dot NXT site at news.dot-nxt.com/2011/08/31/ec-papers-analysis .

As of 22 August, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center commenced providing .domain name dispute resolution services for both QA and قطر. (Qatar) in accordance with the Qatar Domains Registry Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“Policy”) and Rules for Qatar Domains Registry Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“ Rules ”), and WIPO Supplemental Rules for Qatar Domains Registry Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“Supplemental Rules”). Qatar Domains Registry provides for registration of domain names which utilize the two-letter country code in Latin characters, i.e., .QA, as well as the قطر. IDN ccTLD in Arabic script. قطر. results from ICANN’s IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process which was designed to introduce into the Domain Name System Internet extensions (top-level domains) corresponding to a meaningful representation of a country or territory name in non-Latin (or non-ASCII) script. The Policy, Rules and Supplemental Rules are applicable to disputed domain name registrations within both the Latin script (.QA) and Arabic script IDN (قطر.) ccTLD spaces. The Policy, Rules and Supplemental Rules for .QA and قطر. also feature upgrades based on the WIPO-proposed paperless Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) model, the latter in effect at WIPO since December 2009. This includes paperless filings by parties while retaining the safeguard of hardcopy notification by the WIPO Center. In addition to .QA and قطر. (Qatar), the Center also provides domain name dispute resolution services for both .AE and امارات. (United Arab Emirates).

It appears likely the Saudi Arabian Oil Company snapped up the top reported sale for the week to 17 July according to the Domain Name Journal weekly sales chart. The domain name topping the chart was sadara.com, sold for $71,000 through Sedo. It was a quiet week for big sales with the second biggest sale being nursepractitioner.com, selling for $36,300. Overall there were 12 .COM sales in the top 20 while Sedo also accounted 12 of the top 20 sales. There were also five ccTLD sales in the top 20. To see the Domain Name Journal list of top reported sales in full, go to: dnjournal.com/archive/domainsales/2011/20110727.htm

A cybersquatter has registered a domain name for a charity Amy Winehouse’s father intended to set up in memory of his late daughter. Mitch Winehouse is planning to set up a foundation to help young people suffering from drug abuse, a problem his daughter had, and has already received donations from the public. However Martin McCann bought the domain name amywinehousefoundation.com, hours after Mr Winehouse revealed his plans The Sun reports , and two weeks after Ms Winehouse died on 23 July. McCann also paid £160 to register the Amy Winehouse Foundation Ltd with Companies House on 2 August, The Sun further reported, despite having never met her or Mitch. “I’m not exploiting anything yet,” McCann told The Sun. “I’ve just bought some domain names. Anybody could have. It only takes the click of a mouse. I’m not ashamed or embarrassed. Detach yourself from emotions and think business.” “He is making every effort to hijack this charity to satiate his own needs for the charity. She’s not the only Amy Winehouse in the world.” McCann said he was approached by his internet service provider and asked to hand over the domain name. He added that he wants to “come to an arrangement” with Mitch – but only if he apologises for insulting him on Twitter. McCann, of Uxbridge, West London, said: “I’m not the d***head. The d***head is sitting over there without the name in his possession.”