. Stephen Colbert interviews Jonathan Zittrain on his book The Future of the Internet Fresh from being awarded his most recent Peabody award, Stephen Colbert interviews Jonathan Zittrain wants to save the good chaos of the Internet and separate it from the bad chaos that will stomp on everything. http://www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport/videos.jhtml?videoId=174083 2. Analysis: FCC Comcast Order is Open Invitation to Internet Filtering Using words like "misdirection," "obfuscation," "absurd" and "verbal gymnastics," the Federal Communications Commission released its formal decision Wednesday ordering Comcast to stop throttling BitTorrrent traffic, a practice the carrier has repeatedly denied performing. http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/08/analysis-fcc-co.html 3. FCC Order scolds Comcast for changing story on P2P blocking "Surrender, Comcast!" declares the FCC in its Order on P2P blocking. The agency also calls on the public to stay vigilant on the issue and aligns itself more closely with the net neutrality movement. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080820-fcc-order-scolds-comcast-for-c... 4. Telstra tops Canberra lobbyist list Telstra has emerged as the most active employer of Canberra lobbyists in the IT&T field, although others such as Apple and Google also employ external firms to push their agendas with politicians and government workers. ... Another organisation with an A-list roster of tech firms is Government Relations Australia Advisory, which has worked with ARIA, ICANN, Microsoft, eBay and PayPal. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Telstra-tops-Canberra-lobbyist-lis... 5. ICANN to Hold Auctions for Disputes ICANN announced this week that it will handle any disagreements over who wins the right to new generic top level domains by auction. http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/081908_ICANN_to_Hold_Auctions_for_Dispute... 6. ICANN to settle disputes by auction [sun req'd] The body behind the Internet's addressing systems has said that it will settle disputes over who wins the right to new generic top level domains (gTLDs) by auction. http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=200808200827208 ********************** - ccTLD & gTLD NEWS ********************** 7. Govt meddling fears hit .hk domain - ISPs are concerned a new government-dominated structure to administer the territory's .hk domain name will leave end-users without a say. The proposed revamp of the Hong Kong Internet Registration Company will see its number of directors slashed from 13 to eight. http://thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=70535&sid=20270854&con_type=1 <http://thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=11&art_id=70535&sid=20270854&con_type=1> 8. Boosting numbers in .ke domain names Domain names have increasingly become part of our daily lives, but the uptake of the .ke (dot ke) is still lagging behind. http://bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9451&Itemid=5843 <http://bdafrica.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9451&Itemid=5843> ********************** - DNS SECURITY ********************** 9. Cybersecurity and the Law: Dangerous Cybersilence Sometimes no news is worse than bad news. When a company's data is stolen by hackers, affected customers typically receive a disturbing note from the breached firm, warning that they could soon become victims of identity theft. http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/08/19/cybersecurity-infected-software-... 10. Cyberwar isn't a grand struggle - it's a scary prospect of pure chaos When Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, it brought back memories of Soviet-era military conquest - a reminder of the cold war. But whether by accident or design, the fight for South Ossettia appears to have given us a taste of the future as well, with internet attacks on Georgian computer systems resulting in theories about 21st-century warfare spilling out everywhere. The BBC said the situation represented a "virtual echo of battles being fought on the ground", while Slate.com's Evgeny Morozov even enlisted as a Russian cybersoldier to see what was really happening. But while the past fortnight has seen plenty of conjecture, there's been very little hard evidence about the conflict that's taking place in cyberspace. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/aug/21/blogging.internet 11. Cyber war or cyber riot? [ABC Radio audio] The Georgians maintain they've been the victims of cyber-warfare, but there is division within internet security circles about whether what is happening is in fact 'cyber-warfare', whether the Russian government is actually involved and also how significant the event really is. Jart Armin, a London-based internet security analyst, and Gadi Evron, an Israel-based internet security analyst, are interviewed. http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2008/2342237.htm 12. Georgia Cyberwar Overblown [Network World] Last week Russian tanks rolled into South Ossetia while Russian bombers were taking out critical communications infrastructure. But even before the first tank rolled across the disputed borders, another war was brewing in cyberspace. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/150021/georgia_cyberwar_overbl... 13. China Netcom DNS cache poisoning Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker Network has detected that the DNS cache on the default DNS server used by the customers of China Netcom (CNC) has been poisoned. When China Netcom customers mistype and enter an invalid domain name, the poisoned DNS server directs the visitor's browser to a page that contains malicious code. http://www.mag-securs.com/spip.php?article11280 ********************** - DOMAIN DISPUTES ********************** 14. China's Internet chiefs ban names of the Games China's sport authorities have banned the issuing of Internet domain names based on the country's Olympic gold medal-winning athletes to anyone but the medalists themselves. http://english.people.com.cn/90002/94411/95075/6481206.html http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-08/20/content_6954726.htm http://china.org.cn/olympics/news/2008-08/20/content_16281739.htm http://english.eastday.com/eastday/englishedition/nation/u1a3816302.html 15. China limits use of Olympians' names online [AP] China has banned the use of its Olympic gold medalists' names as Internet addresses by anyone but the athletes themselves. The move announced Tuesday came after companies registered the names of winning Chinese athletes at the 2004 Athens Olympics as Web addresses, prompting an outcry by sports fans. http://www.thestate.com/techwire/story/496042.html http://news.smh.com.au/technology/china-limits-use-of-olympians-names-online... http://news.theage.com.au/technology/china-limits-use-of-olympians-names-onl... http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/20/financial/f00335... 16. Max Levchin's Slide Loses Domain Name Challenge PayPal co-founder Max Levchin and his internet widget company Slide have lost a UDRP decision to obtain the domain SlideTV.com and 127 other associated domain names. http://domainnamewire.com/2008/08/19/max-levchins-slide-loses-domain-name-ch... ********************** - IPv4/IPv6 ********************** 17. Addressing the growth of the net Regular commentator Bill Thompson sees no reason to worry about the future of the internet: ... But it's even better if you can focus on aspects of the network's core architecture that few users ever notice, like the unique numerical addresses assigned to every internet-connected device and the complex mechanisms used to move information between those devices. And if you've got an authoritative report from an international body calling for something to be done then you're on to a winner. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7572583.stm 18. Study Shows Glacial Pace of IPv6 Adoption [IDG] A study this week has revealed just how slow is the rate of adoption for IPv6, the next version of the Internet's main communications protocol, and some experts say black markets where companies trade unused IP addresses may be only a few years away. http://www.pcworld.com/article/150013/2008/08/.html http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/081908-study-shows-glacial-pace-of.htm... http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/08/19/Study_shows_glacial_pace_of_IPv6_a... http://computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;883066691 http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9112976 <http://computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9112976> 19. Lots of Foot Dragging on IPv6 The IPv4 address space is near exhaustion, yet a new report claims that traffic on the modernized IPv6 protocol is slow and migration to the newer address spaces is sluggish. In a year-long study of 2,393 peering and backbone routers conducted by Arbor Networks, the majority of respondents (customer and peering interfaces) said IPv6 traffic is a small percentage of overall traffic. http://www.opticallynetworked.com/news/article.php/3766321 ********************** - MISCELLANEOUS ********************** 20. "Wildcarding, the implications for the .au space" – Melbourne domain name seminar A seminar and cocktail party sponsored by Melbourne law firm Cooper Mills Lawyers to discuss the .au domain name space, wildcarding and the implications for .au with special guest Ehud Gavron will be held on Tuesday September 2. http://technewsreview.com.au/article.php?article=5688 http://www.domainpulse.com/2008/08/20/wildcarding-implications-au-space-melb... http://www.domainnews.com/en/general/wildcarding-the-implications-for-the-.a... 21. Melbourne IT Seeks to Diversify to Ensure Future The internet is meant to be a safe harbour from recession. But no harbour is completely safe - otherwise it would be a lake - so domain registrar Melbourne IT is deepening its earnings streams through cyber diversification. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24208902-30538,00.html 22. Melbourne IT warns of slowing economic growth Slowing economic growth and a tight skills market will make it a challenging year for the IT industry, according to Melbourne IT's chief. http://www.arnnet.com.au/index.php/id;975653726 23. Melbourne IT spends up on systems Domain name and hosting specialist Melbourne IT today unveiled plans to embark on a year-long major technology refresh project, targeting everything from its accounting, billing and provisioning systems to its storage network and data centre. http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/communications/soa/Melbourne-IT-spends-up-on-sy... 24. Melbourne IT on track for profit growth [AAP] Domain name manager and online services provider Melbourne IT Ltd says it is on track to deliver a sixth consecutive year of growth in revenue and profit after booking a 20 per cent lift in half year profit. http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=507449 25. VeriSign adds SSLs for internationalised domain names [sub req'd] http://telecom.paper.nl/news/article.aspx?id=226636 ********************** - DOMAINING & AFTERMARKET ********************** 26. Sedo Sells JTR.com for $90,000 Three character domain name leads sales chart for Sedo this week. http://domainnamewire.com/2008/08/19/sedo-sells-jtrcom-for-90000/ 27. Domain parking is dead Why parking domains is dead and what you can do to join the web revolution. http://domaininformer.com/guides/General_Information/articles/080819domainpa... 28. Search Engine Strategies Domain Live Auction We are live blogging the Domain Auction at the Search Engine Strategies conference in San Jose. Please note that these are not the official results and while we do our best to provide correct results, there may make an occasional mistake. See the live results after the jump. http://www.domainnamenews.com/domain-auction/search-engine-strategies-domain... _______________________________________________ AfrICANN mailing list AfrICANN@afrinic.net https://lists.afrinic.net/mailman/listinfo.cgi/africann