Internet Corp For Assigned Names And Numbers

Bowing to pressure from Congress and the Clinton administration, the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers agreed not to collect a fee of up to $1 from those registering domain names.

Small businesses trying to find new ways to market themselves online may soon tap new branding opportunities, if the organization that regulates Internet domain names expands its offering beyond the traditional .com suffix. The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit group that controls the Internet's naming system — also known as the domain name system — will meet in Singapore this month to decide whether to allow companies or organizations to create unique domain suffixes.

It sounds almost silly to say it, but the Internet is going global. Of course, it's already global. But the underlying technology that makes the Internet run was developed by the Department of Defense 40 years ago, and the federal government continued to have an outsized voice in how the Internet was run. Eleven years ago, as the Internet took off, the U.S. turned over some of its governance to an obscure nonprofit group, the Internet Corp....

It sounds almost silly to say it, but the Internet is going global. Of course, it's already global. But the underlying technology that makes the Internet run was developed by the Department of Defense 40 years ago, and the federal government continued to have an outsized voice in how the Internet was run. Eleven years ago, as the Internet took off, the U.S. turned over some of its governance to an obscure nonprofit group, the Internet Corp....

Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers has finalized the requirements for companies that want to go into business registering domain names such as latimes.com. Companies that want to compete with Network Solutions--the Herndon, Va., company that currently has a monopoly--can submit applications to Los Angeles-based ICANN beginning March 15.

Two new Internet domain names -- ".post" and ".travel" -- could appear online as early as next year as the Internet's key oversight board announced preliminary approval. The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, in advancing the applications for postal services and the travel industry, said it was still considering eight other proposals including ".asia," ".jobs" and ".xxx." Also in the works is ".eu" for the European Union.

The Commerce Department said it would allow an Internet body to continue to oversee the online traffic system but set a one-year deadline for the group to improve its performance. The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, known as ICANN, was created in 1998 to privatize the domain-name system. Since then, the Los Angeles nonprofit has faced accusations that it moves too slowly and favors well-connected insiders at the expense of everyday Internet users. ICANN President M.

A federal judge in Los Angeles has thrown out VeriSign Inc.'s antitrust claims against an Internet regulatory body, saying rivals did not unfairly influence a decision to block a controversial VeriSign search service. Although rivals certainly have a voice in the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, they bear no outsize influence in the international body's affairs, U.S. District Court Judge Howard Matz said. Mountain View, Calif.

One month after pressuring the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers to drop a plan to charge domain name registrars a user fee of up to $1 per registration, U.S. Rep. Thomas J. Bliley (R-Va.) is questioning the nonprofit group's ability to become financially self-sufficient.

The Internet's governing body approved plans to make two new Internet suffixes available, giving Web site owners an alternative to the crowded ".com" domain space. The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers said it had reached agreements to integrate domains ".biz" and ".info" into its addressing system. NeuLevel Inc. of Sterling, Va., will restrict .biz addresses to commercial businesses and Afilias, a consortium of 18 domain registrars, will make .

In addition to the likes of .com and .net, the Internet might soon have Web addresses ending in .fun, .cars and .prettymuchanythingyouwant. Heralding the most dramatic expansion of virtual real estate in 40 years, the international group controlling Internet addresses decided Thursday to let anyone apply to be in charge of new last names for the Web. The Internet Corp.

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers has invited public comment on procedures for creating domain names, the first expansion for general use since 2000. Names added since then have been limited to specific regions or industries. Domain names are key for helping computers find websites and route e-mail. There are currently about 250 domain name suffixes, most of them for specific countries, such as ".fr" for France. General-use names include ".com" and ".net."

Adult content won't get its own dot-xxx address on the World Wide Web because it would force the organization that manages Internet addresses to regulate content. The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names & Numbers, or ICANN, rejected the dot-xxx designation by a 9-5 vote in response to government concerns about offensive content. The action marks the second time in less than a year that ICANN has rejected a proposal from ICM Registry of Jupiter, Fla.

The Commerce Department promised Friday to take more of a hands-off approach to the Internet as it extended for three years its oversight of a Marina del Rey organization that handles network addressing issues. Internet registrars, some foreign governments and other critics of the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have complained about the U.S. oversight role, saying the group sometimes makes decisions that don't reflect the Internet community at large.

The Commerce Department said Wednesday that it would extend its oversight of the Marina del Rey- based organization that handles Internet domain name policies, while finding ways to improve the group's accountability and transparency. John Kneuer, the department's acting assistant secretary for communications and information, said the government's agreement with the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers was working and should continue.

The federal government appeared unlikely to relinquish oversight of the system for assigning and managing website domain names after a Commerce Department hearing Wednesday raised broad concerns about giving an obscure Marina del Rey nonprofit unsupervised control. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers was created in 1998 to run the domain name system under the supervision of the Commerce Department. Domain names are the addresses ending in .com, .

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers has invited public comment on procedures for creating domain names, the first expansion for general use since 2000. Names added since then have been limited to specific regions or industries. Domain names are key for helping computers find websites and route e-mail. There are currently about 250 domain name suffixes, most of them for specific countries, such as ".fr" for France. General-use names include ".com" and ".net."

The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers asked the U.S. government to formally recognize it as the new steward for the crucial Domain Name System. In a letter to Becky Burr, associate administrator of the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, ICANN Interim Chairman Esther Dyson said the group adjusted its bylaws to make it more responsive to the general Internet community and establish a system to appeal ICANN's decisions.

The United States will keep control of the domain-name system that guides Internet traffic under an international agreement, resolving a dispute that threatened to fracture the global computer network. Negotiators at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society said they had agreed to set up a forum to discuss spam e-mail and other Internet issues and explore ways to narrow the technology gap between rich and poor countries.

Two new Internet domain names -- ".post" and ".travel" -- could appear online as early as next year as the Internet's key oversight board announced preliminary approval. The Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, in advancing the applications for postal services and the travel industry, said it was still considering eight other proposals including ".asia," ".jobs" and ".xxx." Also in the works is ".eu" for the European Union.