Tuesday, August 18. 2009
In a letter dated August 4, the US Congress is asking for exactly the opposite to what ICANN and the rest of the world wants. Instead of allowing ICANN to strive towards complete independence and to become a truly global governing body, Congress would like to see it permanently placed under the US government's control.
"Rather than replacing the JPA with additional JPAs or Memoranda of Understanding that expire every few years, we believe the time has come for a permanent instrument to which ICANN and the Department of Commerce are co-signatories," says Congress.
The June 4 hearing during which ICANN CEO Paul Twomey faced a grilling by congressmen as he requested an end to the JPA is referenced in the letter, which also lists a series of points the new contract should address.
Included in those are a commitment for ICANN to stay headquartered in the US and the assurance that WHOIS will remain publicly accessible and display complete registrant information. This last request seems particularly out-of-phase with existing local privacy and date protection laws which, outside the US, may require WHOIS databases to display only partial registrant information.
Although ICANN does not legally have any obligation to bow to Congress' demands, an outright end to the JPA (set to expire on September 30, 2009), without any kind of transitional contract to replace it, is looking increasingly unlikely.
Tuesday, August 18. 2009
 DotBayern is championing a new gTLD for Germany's Bayern region.
At the helm are two well-known and experienced new TLD entrepreneurs, Markus Sperger and Dirk Krischenowski. Dirk is one of the founders of the .BERLIN initiative. Markus runs one of Germany's larger registrars.
For .BAYERN, they have gone the same route as .BERLIN in that the project has no official links to the local government. This is undoubtedly something the founders will try to get as they proceed with their work on launching .BAYERN and raising community awareness and support for it.
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