• Internet Oversight Body OKs Timetable For Domain Names
  The Internet's key oversight body approved a timetable Friday for expanding the online addressing system that could include domain names made up entirely of non-English characters.
  Though Internet users may now register names in Chinese, Arabic and dozens of other scripts, domain names still must end with ".com" or another English string. Domain names are key to finding Web sites and routing e-mail.
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• ICANN to Adopt New Domain Process
  Existing Internet domains like "dot-com" and "dot-net" could get some new company as early as 2005 under a policy adopted by the the group that oversees the Internet's addressing system
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10/29/2003

• Domain name scheme resurfaces
  Domain Names NZ received a formal warning from the Commerce Commission on October 8th for sending out misleading letters to holders of .co.nz domains, soliciting registration fees
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10/28/2003

• Group lobbies for domain buyers' privacy
  Individuals and small-business owners should be able to buy domain names without being required to divulge their mailing address, phone number and e-mail address, an international coalition plans to say in a letter Tuesday evening.
  Currently, the Internet Coalition for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) broadly requires that such details be made publicly available through the "Whois" directories. That policy enables spammers, direct marketers and identity thieves to loot the directory for personal information about domain name owners, the coalition's draft letter to ICANN charges
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10/22/2003

• Global Name Registry announces launch date for .name domain registrations
  The Global Name Registry, the operator of the .NAME generic top level domain, announced today that its standard second level domain name registrations will become available from 11:30AM EST on 14 January 2004. This will enable people worldwide to buy domain names long gone on e.g. com, now ending with the suffix .NAME
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10/20/2003

• Anti-scam site beats domain attack
  Anti-scam website StopECG.org has been vindicated in a domain dispute judgement brought by the subject of its attention - European City Guide.
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• Domain registrar quits under court action
  Domain Registrar Services Ltd and its sister company UK Names won't be selling any more domain names after a successful court action by Nominet
  A UK domain registrar has quit the business after court action was brought against it for cold-calling customers and pretending to be associated with Nominet, the body that governs the .co.uk domain
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10/17/2003

• Nominet nobbles domain name resellers
  Dodgy dealers closed down, but there could still be problems ahead
  Nominet has successfully closed down two domain name resellers, and barred the companies' directors from running such services in the future, following a High Court action
  But the .uk national domain name registry has warned that companies that registered through Domain Registrar Services (DRS) or sister company UK Names could face problems in renewing their name. Any name not renewed can be bought by other companies.
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10/16/2003

• VeriSign sells off domain registrar
  VeriSign said Thursday that it is selling its Network Solutions domain registration business for roughly $100 million, but plans to retain control over the database that directs people to .com and .net addresses.
  The Network Solutions business is set to go to Pivotal Private Equity, a Phoenix-based venture capital firm, in exchange for $60 million in cash and a $40 million senior subordinated note. VeriSign will also retain a 15 percent equity stake in Network Solutions
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• Madrid 2012 Recovers Key Internet Domain Names
  Madrid 2012 spokesperson Javier Gonzalez Kirchner reported to GamesBids.com that key Internet domain names have been recovered after a favorable decision by The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The domain names madrid2012.com, 2m12.com, 2m12.org and 2m12.info will now be transferred to Madrid 2012 S.A.U., the company promoting the Olympic bid
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• State suing resident over Web domain
  The state's tourism agency is suing a Traverse City businessman who snapped up the Web site name travelmichigan.com.
  The Michigan Economic Development Corp., which recently filed the lawsuit in federal court in Detroit, says Travel Michigan is a state trade name, and Paul Steinorth's Web site is confusing the public
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10/12/2003

• Police warn of .eu domain scam
  Beware a firm called Dot Com Avenue, Cambridgeshire Police warned today.
  The multi-service firm is thought to have earnt hundreds of thousands of pounds by offering a pre-registration service to companies for the .eu domain names which are soon to be available. It is also thought that many of the firms that have paid to pre-register are not even eligible for the .eu suffix due to their country of business.
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10/10/2003

• Police warn world of UK domain scammer
  Cambridgeshire Police has taken the unprecedented step of issuing a global warning about St Neots-based Dot Com Avenue.
  Trading as service provider, the company is believed to have raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds by offering to pre-register .eu domain names for companies
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10/08/2003

• Australian company warned over misleading domain name letters
  The Commerce Commission has formally warned Australian company Domain Names NZ over misleading letters it sent to New Zealand businesses earlier this year.
  The unsolicited letters styled as an invoice or renewal notice were sent to businesses that had existing New Zealand domain names similar to those being offered in the letter
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10/07/2003

• MP3.com forgets to renew domain name
  MP3.com owes musician Steve Cox a huge vote of thanks. Because he saved them from disaster.
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• Net Cop: Crime Pays for Web's Domain Name Vendors
  Fraudsters and pedophiles are using lax Web site registration policies to commit an increasingly elaborate web of cyber crime, Britain's top cyber cop said on Monday.
  In an interview on Monday with Reuters, Detective Chief Superintendent Len Hynds, head of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), called on the legion of domain name resellers to stop the "no-questions-asked" practice of selling Web site names
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• No domain price cut
  DOMAIN name sellers look set to sit on a 10 per cent discount on wholesale costs handed to them last week, rather than pass savings on to customers.
  The operator of Australia's central domain name databases, AusRegistry, last week started cutting its wholesale prices by 10 per cent as part of its contract with the self-regulatory body .au Domain Authority (auDA)
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10/06/2003

• American clothing giant fails to force transfer of ‘irreverent’ domain name
  Abercrombie & Fitch (Abercrombie) sought to force Chad Nestor (Nestor) to transfer the disputed domain name ‘aberzombie.com’
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10/05/2003

• Former Philadelphia artist charged with hijacking domain names
  Five years ago, graphic artist John Zuccarini was working for a failing computer-parts company when he began to study traffic patterns on the Internet.
  Zuccarini noticed that Web users often make typographical errors.
  The insight led to what he later called a $1 million-a-year income - not to mention federal criminal charges, two years on the lam and a long line of alleged victims from Nicole Kidman to the Walt Disney Co. to the Wall Street Journal
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10/04/2003

• Domain name company taken to court
  The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is taking action against Domain Names Australia Pty Ltd and its director, Chesley Paul Rafferty, alleging false and misleading conduct
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10/03/2003

• Fabian puts spanner in works of new Internet domain system
  BUSINESSES trying to register a .bm Internet domain have faced weeks-long delays with Government blaming the effects of a computer virus infection and Hurricane Fabian.
  Responsibility for web site domain name services was transferred from Bermuda College to the Intellectual Property Office of the Registry General early on September 1, but one applicant told the Mid-Ocean News the process was slow
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10/01/2003

• com.au and net.au domain registrations exceed 350,000
  The au Domain Administration announced yesterday that the combined number of com.au and net.au domain names had exceeded 350,000, triggering a 10 percent reduction in the price charged by AusRegistry to accredited registrars from today
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