Every Friday, DomainSherpa.com provides you with a hand-selected, editorially based review of the week. In this summary, you will find the latest articles and videos produced by DomainSherpa staff and contributors. You will also find links to the best news articles in the domain name industry — so you don’t have to spend your time searching for news or reading something that was not worth your time.
This Week’s Articles in Review
This Week’s News in Review
Adult Entertainment Domain Name .XXX Gets The Go Ahead – 19-Mar-15
The .XXX top level domain name (TLD) was today given final approval by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). The approval grants ICM Registry’s .XXX web suffix with the same rights as .com, .net, .co.uk and other TLDs. The only difference being that as a sponsored TLD, .XXX domain names will only be available to the adult entertainment industry. The contract will require anyone registering a .XXX domain to complete an application process endorsed and overseen by the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR).
Sun.com Name Could Fetch Oracle $1 to $2 million – 19-Mar-15
Last year, when Oracle purchased Sun Microsystems, it got a wealth of customers, technologies and personnel for its $7.4 billion. It also obtained one of the choicest domain names on the Internet, Sun.com. The Sun.com domain name could be worth between $1 and $2 million, estimated Jeff Kupietzky, CEO of Oversee.net, a broker of much sought-after domain names.
Openregistry to Provide Technical Backend for .sx Domain Names – 19-Mar-15
At ICANN’s 40th meeting, OpenRegistry and SX Registry SA announce they have entered into an exclusive agreement with the government of the autonomous territory of Sint Maarten to manage and operate its .SX country code Top Level Domain (“ccTLD”).
On Mandated Content Blocking in The Domain Name System – 19-Mar-15
COICA (Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act) is a legislative bill introduced in the United States Senate during 2010 that has been the topic of considerable debate. After my name was mentioned during some testimony before a Senate committee last year I dug into the details and I am alarmed. I wrote recently about interactions between DNS blocking and Secure DNS and in this article I will expand on the reasons why COICA as proposed last year should not be pursued further in any similar form.
Your Company Sucks! Do You Own That Domain Name Too? – 18-Mar-15
So, you own a website. When you were purchasing the website names, you bought the .com, you probably bought the .org, and maybe the .info, but did you buy the .us, .net., and .tv? And what about the domain for your company name plus a combination of your domain and words like “sucks,” “scam,” “fraud,” or “ripoff” for .com, .net, .org, .tv, and on down the line? How about any colorful four-letter words that will fit with your name?
Obama Administration Tacitly Approves .xxx Domain Name Suffix – 18-Mar-15
Unlike the Bush administration, the Obama White House appears to be mature enough to handle the idea of an adult-specific .xxx domain name suffix. Yes, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, is expected to approve the controversial domain on Friday, despite objections from sexually repressed politicians and prudish religious groups.


Oracle Kills Off One of The World’s Oldest Domain Names – 18-Mar-15
Oracle will pull the plug on one of the oldest Internet domain names and shut the Sun.com site down. Sun.com was the the page of Sun Microsystems and was one of the first dot-com domain names to be awarded.
Logicboxes Hits 5 Million Domain Names Milestone – 17-Mar-15
LogicBoxes Hits 5 million Domain Names Milestone. LogicBoxes announced today that it now empowers over 5 million domain names, through 50,000 resellers, across 90+ ICANN Accredited Domain Name Registrars, in 240 different countries. – PR11378891
ICANN Snubs Bulgaria’s Cyrillic Internet Domain Name Again – 17-Mar-15
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has made it clear one more time that Bulgaria has slim chances for registering a domain name in Cyrillic with a “–±–≥” suffix. This emerged during an online discussion, in which Bulgaria was represented by the Deputy Minister of Transport, Information Technologies and Communication Parvan Rusinov.
ICANN Names Compliance Chief – 16-Mar-15
ICANN has found itself a new senior director of contractual compliance, nine months after the post was vacated. Maguy Serad, most recently with Nissan North America, starts April 4, 2011 at ICANN’s headquarters in Marina Del Rey, California.
All.biz Sells for $61,750 – A .biz for Big Bucks – 16-Mar-15
.Biz domain name appears to have sold for big bucks. Yes, I’m scratching my head too. Sedo’s recent domain sales thread shows all.biz selling for a whopping $61,750. I checked the whois history and it appears the domain name just changed ownership, although it’s now protected by a whois proxy service. The buyer appears to be all-biz.info, …
Aspire Acquires Additional Domain Name for Its International Online Shopping Mall – 16-Mar-15
Aspire International Inc. (Pink Sheets:APIT) today announced that it has acquired the domain name www.mygos.com for its International Online Shopping Mall business unit. The online business is currently operating its platform using only the www.mygos.net domain name. In order to better develop business worldwide, it will now be running the platform using both domain names simultaneously.
Domain Name Disputes Could Soon Be a Thing of The Past – 16-Mar-15
The arrival of new top-level domain (TLDs) names this year should lead to fewer online trademark disputes in the future, it has been claimed. Rob Beckstrom, chief executive of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), said the introduction of new domain name suffixes should discourage companies and individuals from fighting over the rights to individual web addresses.
Fixed Income Domains Were Too Good to Be True – 15-Mar-15
The old saying applies to domain names as well. There’s an interesting thread developing at DNForum right now about “Fixed Income Domains” that were offered in the Big Ticket Domains email newsletter. Big Ticket Domains is a domain brokerage with a frequent newsletter run by Kevin Leto. In December 2009 the newsletter started …
Afternic Adds 12 European Domain Registrars to Premium Promotion – 15-Mar-15
Domain sales listing network expands with European domain name registrars. Afternic has signed a deal with three European companies to join the Afternic’s Premium Listing program. The three companies collectively own 12 domain registrars. The domain name registrars will use Afternic’s instant transfer technology. This enables customers to …
More Reasons Why Homeland Security Seizing Domain Names is Unconstitutional – 15-Mar-15
We’ve raised a number of reasons as to why the federal government’s domain name seizures (via Homeland Security’s Immigrations and Customs Enforcement group) are almost certainly not Constitutional. And while we’ve run these arguments by a number of well respected Constitutional lawyers who are extremely interested in these issues (and may be getting involved in various ways), some in our comments have insisted that our points could be ignored because we are not lawyers. And while I’ve asked some of the lawyers I regularly speak to if they would write blog posts commenting on these issues, many are quite busy trying to actually do something about these issues, and that seems a bit more important.
Rod Beckstrom, CEO of ICANN, Talks About New Domain Names – 14-Mar-15
The Internet could be on the verge of opening the doors to a deluge of proposals for new domain names, cyber suffixes that would compete with the likes of .com and .net. The nonprofit agency that oversees the Internet naming system, ICANN, isn’t making any promises or predictions.
Syria Launches Registration for Top-level Domain in Arabic – Global Arab Network – 14-Mar-15
The National Agency for Network Services (NANS) on Sunday launched the registration service on Syrian Arab top level domain (Syria.) so that establishments, companies and individuals could get Arabic titles for their websites.
Groupon Gets Irish Domain Name Groupon.ie – 12-Mar-15
Groupon can move from CityDeal.ie to Groupon.ie. Group buying site Groupon has had some difficulty getting country code domains for "Groupon", but it just picked up one through arbitration: Groupon.ie. .ie is the country code domain name for Ireland. The domain name should be transferred to Groupon within 21 days unless the …
Japan Tsunami brings huge payday to veteran Domainer – 12-Mar-15
The devastation in Japan after the 8.9 magnitude quake is quite unfortunate. Through this ongoing catastrophe there is a small positive element: Sendai has become a highly searched keyword overnight. The lucky holder of Sendai.com is no other than veteran domainer Satoshi Shimoshita, known as “toho” on DNForum and DomainState.
Google’s New Feature Allows Blocking Selected Domain Names From Your Results – 12-Mar-15
Have you ever performed a Google Search, then clicked on a link only realize it was a spam, perhaps even malware-filled site? With a new feature Google rolled out on March 10, you can now block certain domain names from your search results.
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