On the Eve of Yokohama - A Radio Ad Campaign Warning Internet Users about the Damage that ICANN will do if it Stays on its Present Course.
AGN Domain Name Service, Inc (ADNS - http://www.adns.net) today announce that it will be launching a radio ad campaign to educate users about ICANN and the changes that may be coming to the internet as a result of ICANN's policies.
ICANN stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - the organization that is attempting to make policy on the future of the internet. ICANN is holding a conference in Yokohama, Japan on July 13 - 17 and may vote on new domain policy at that time.
John Palmer, president and CEO of ADNS warns all internet users to watch the developments carefully. "Changes are coming to the internet and they aren't all good", Palmer said. "Special interests have hijacked the process and are influencing policy in a way that will be bad for internet users and especially domain holders". Palmer cites the heavy influence of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as an example. "WIPO wants registrars to be burdened with the task of trademark policemen - a task that belongs in the courts, not on the backs of registrars, many of the small businesses with limited resources".
Another seemingly contradictory stand that ICANN is taking is their refusal to recognize the intellectual property rights of Top-Level Domain (TLD) owners. "ICANN seems to be interested in the protection of intellectual property, but refuses to recognize the ownership of TLDs by those who claimed them via the legitimate service mark process, such as ADNS did with EARTH, USA and Z.", Palmer said. He says that the biggest threat to domain name holders however, is that the ICANN process would attempt to have domain holders sign away their rights to use the courts to resolve disputes regarding domain ownership.
Palmer is not opposed to the concept of ICANN. "The concept of an organization permanently assigned to govern the few aspects of the internet that require oversight is a good one, however this particular process has gone horribly wrong and permanent damage to the Internet will occur if it is not stopped and fixed".
The radio ad campaign which will air continuously on several nationally syndicated shows will begin later this week and will run for about 10 days. It will inform users about ICANN and will point them to a website that contains more detailed information. One of the solutions suggested is for ISPs and internet users to point their machines away from the root servers operated by ICANN and to alternative providers who are not under ICANN's control. Instructions for doing this are available at various websites, including that of ADNS.
Palmer also announced today that ADNS's root nameserver, ASLAN, a member of the Open Root Server Consortium, received 763,311 hits in June - an increase of over 40% over May..
"Registrations of domains ending in EARTH, USA and Z are also up to several thousand domain names. We have really seen a growth in registrations in the past month due to our educational campaign", said Palmer. "What's more important is that people are switching to other root server networks in large numbers, showing that they do take notice and are concerned about ICANN".
Each month, ADNS will offer free registration, web hosting service and domain service for those registering a domain in a specific part of the EARTH, USA or Z hierarchy, provided that they promise to develop public content under that domain name. This month, anyone who registers a domain which ends in MISSISSIPPI.USA on July 10th between 4am and 5 am Eastern Time will receive free registration, DNS and web hosting services for one year.