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Last Updated: Fri, July 03, 2009

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Current and Newsworthy Headlines

Ninth Circuit Rules on .COM Antitrust Suit
Reverses the districts court's grant of Verisign's Motion to Dismiss, and remands to the district court for further proceedings.

800-888-877-866 YELLOW PAGES: $2.1M
According to SEC filings and news releases, AT&T acquired the four toll free numbers between 2006 and 2008 for $2.1M, after spending $100M in 2004 for YellowPages.com. The disparity in the value of the number and domains is attributable only to archaic regulations over toll free numbers versus the open market in domain names, odd particularly given recent studies that show greater marketing efficacy of toll free numbers over domain names.

Obama Assembles FCC Transition Team
President-elect Barack Obama has named two academics to head his transition team looking at issues and personnel for the Federal Communications Commission.

WILL 800 NUMBERS BE RATIONED - AGAIN?
According to the TAC release, "Telecommunications industry sources now say an unthinkable embargo on new toll free phone service in the United States is a real possibility within the next year. Facing a severe shortage of available 800-numbers, a skyrocketing demand for toll free service and an emerging black market for 800 numbers, insiders say officials feel they are left with no choice but to impose an embargo."

How Safe is your Toll Free Number?

My takeaway points from the story of 1-800-SUICIDE:

(a) beware who you do business with - are you at the end of the day, viewed as just a nuisance middleman?
(b) how useful, really, is your trademark?
(c) be wary who you vote into office - some administrations have more of a "let them eat cake" take on rules, as exemplified by this case.
(d) either way, be wary of government contracts on toll free vanities

McCain, spying and executive power: A complete reversal in 6 months
Anyone who has worked in the belly of toll free numbers knows it's political with many connecting dots, including privacy and questionable theft. We have a keen interest in who leads the next U.S. administration and their telecommunications and privacy policies. We sourced this article from Benton Foundation Communications in the Public Interest, and they from Salon, by author Glen Greenwald.

DOMAIN TOOLS SOLD

... to "mine and monetize its massive database...", or "...to better serve the entire Domain Ecosystem." Depends of course on who you ask.

MISDIAL MARKETING & DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE
Patented, packaged and sold.

IS LEASING TOLL FREE NUMBERS LEGAL?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit weighs in.

1-800-SKI VAIL VALIDATED BY COURT OF APPEALS IN TM LAWSUIT
In the appeal, the Tenth Circuit Court affirmed that Vail Associates could not use its registered trademark VAIL to prevent Eric Hanson from using his registered trademark, 1-800-SKI VAIL(R).

Toll Free CC Docket No. 95-155 FCC ORDER ON RECONSIDERATION
Denies all outstanding petitions for reconsideration with one fell swoop. Affirms all the Commission's rules against brokering, selling, hoarding and warehousing of toll free numbers.

GENERATE LEADS WITH MISSED CALL MONITORING
Tools help businesses optimize media expenditures, generate more leads, and recapture missed sales opportunities.

AUSSIE VANITY PHONE NUMBERS GAINING IN VALUE
"Annualized at the moment I would think it is worth somewhere between $20 million and $30 million," he said. "Forgetting about selling, but just looking at leasing, we expect that to be close to $100 million by the end of 2008, early 2009."

AT&T TRIMS 800 CALL CENTERS
Attributes the cutback to the availability of toll-free numbers on the Internet.

CONTROL AND SECURITY CONTINUE TO PLAGUE ENUM
ENUM was envisioned as a global public service where the customer or the telephone number holder would have to "opt-in" before their information would be listed within the public DNS zone that other users would access. This mode of operation was supported by many government regulators as a natural extension of policy on Number Portability. However, some global carriers have announced plans to "shut off" the PSTN completely and take over subscriber control. This memo was recently sent to the IAB/IESG, and is "must slog through" reading for industry players.

DMA REPORT HIGHLIGHTS TOLL FREE NUMBERS IN DIRECT MAIL
The report found that the second most widely used control in direct mail is toll-free numbers.

INTERNET INFRASTRUCTURE ATTACKED
... was likely a test-run for a potentially larger and more disruptive attack, researchers say.

FCC ORDERS REASSIGNMENT OF 1-800-SUICIDE
Grants emergency request of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a component of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

DOT XXX REDUX
"A revised proposed agreement with ICM providing for designation of a .XXX sTLD registry is published for public comment. The public comment period will be open until 5 February 2007."

GREAT SAVINGS ON WIRELESS, COMPUTER AND BUSINESS PRODUCTS
You get up to 25% cash back every time you shop online at vendors including Apple, HP, VerizonWireless ... over 800 vendors.

ARE URL'S AS EFFECTIVE AS TOLL FREE NUMBERS?
In a relatively short period of time, weâ€™re going to see more innovative integration of DRTV and Web sites, and the impact will be as great if not greater than when 800 numbers changed our industry.

1-800-YELLOW PAGES
AT&T to try free Directory Assistance.

FREE INTERNATIONAL CALLING SERVICE
Ophone.net joins the ranks of other advertising-based free call companies.

DOMAIN NAME REGISTRAR REGISTER.COM HIRES FORMER DUN & BRADSTREET EXEC AS CEO
DOMAIN NAME REGISTRAR REGISTER.COM HIRES FORMER DUN & Prior to his position at Dun and Bradstreet, Mr. Kutscher served as Managing Director of Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs and Co., and spent twelve years at American Express where his last position was as Senior Vice President of Interactive Enterprise Development.

COMMERCE RENEWS ICANN CONTRACT ANOTHER FIVE YEARS
In executing this contract the Department of Commerce has again handed ICANN control of IANA and the "range of functions that are vital to the daily operation of the Domain Name System (DNS) and hence the Internet," said Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN.

TOLL FREE GROWTH IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE INDUSTRY
Toll Free business listings are now answered 74% by voice recognition, up from 37% in 2001.

DNS TRANSITION?
The Commerce Department’s NTIA has published a Notice of Inquiry and is convening a public meeting to seek views on the continued transition of the technical coordination and management of the Internet Domain Name and Addressing System to the private sector. This concept of "privatization" of the internet cannot be viewed, as a practical matter, in the absense of NSA wiretap 'curiosity'. Click through for suggested additional reading.

$30,977,000, ICANN BUDGET FOR FY2006-2007 INCLUDES .TEL REVENUES
... and according to at least one pundit, is $12,168,000 over ICANN's actual incurred costs for FY2005-2006.

IT'S ICANN'S JOB TO LOSE
Submission deadline is June 17th

VANITY NUMBERS: MARKETING 101
Vanity phone numbers, like 1-800-FLOWERS, are proven to pull more responses and generate more leads when used in advertising. In fact, many business owners experience at least a thirty percent increase in ad response, and some are doubling, even tripling their responses.

NEUSTAR TO BUY ULTRADNS
NeuStar Inc. announced on Wednesday evening it will acquire UltraDNS Corp.

AMERICAN IDOL MIX-UP BEGS QUESTION, IS 866 CONSUMER IMBEDDED AS TOLL FREE?
According to a recent Fort Wayne Journal Gazette article, on any given American Idol night, there are voters who dial the seven-digit telephone numbers of some local Fort Wayne residents instead of the toll free 866 numbers announced. Week in and week out. One could conclude that some callers don't want to make a "long distance" 866 call.

CC1 ENUM LLC PETITIONS FCC FOR TEST RESOURCES SANS REPORTING
Pleading cycle established.
DA 06-839
CC Docket No. 99-200
Comments Due: April 28, 2006
Reply Comments Due: May 5, 2006
On March 28, 2006, Country Code 1 ENUM LLC filed a petition for limited waiver with the Commission to allow ENUM LLC to obtain North American Numbering Plan (NANP) numbering resources. The petition requests that the Wireline Competition Bureau grant a limited waiver of section 52.15(g) of the CommissionÂ’s rules, 47 C.F.R. Â§ 52.15(g), to allow ENUM LLC to obtain numbering resources directly from the Pooling Administrator to be used in conjunction with a trial of ENUM technology within the Country Code 1 North American Numbering Plan.

800 DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE: LISTEN TO ADS, ASSISTANCE IS FREE
In eyeing a slice of the $7.2 billion directory assistance market, the start-ups are taking a page from free ad-based search services on the Web such as Google, according to a report in USA Today.

US GOV ISSUES A REQUEST FOR INFO ABOUT IANA SERVICES
NTIA has issued a Request for Information about IANA services. Is an RFP next?

US ENUM TRIAL WEB SITE ESTABLISHED
Find US trial specific meeting information and documentation.

ICANN IS NEVER WRONG
ICANN Bylaws provides that "Any person materially affected by a decision or action by the Board that he or she asserts is inconsistent with the Articles of Incorporation or Bylaws may submit a request for independent review of that decision or action." Brett Fausett, an attorney who has historically given ICANN a great deal of support and latitude, has some interesting observations on how this is working out.

CAN ENUM ESCAPE ICANN? REDUX.
After five years on the drawing board, U.S. ENUM is gearing up for trials - and a Root B operator has publicly accused ICANN of hijacking the .ARPA domain from the IAB.

U.S. ANNOUNCES NEW DOMAIN NAME POLICY
In remarks to the Wireless Communications Association (WCA) on June 30, 2005, Assistant Secretary Michael Gallagher announced U.S. principles on the Internet’s Domain Name and Addressing System.

NEUSTAR SETS IPO AT 25 MLN SHARES, $18-$20 EACH
The area code and telephone number clearinghouse began in 1996 as an operating division of Lockheed Martin Corp. In 1999, members of the senior management team and an investor group led by affiliates of Warburg Pincus LLC acquired the business.

IDENTITY THIEVES TAKE ADVANTAGE OF VOIP
"It's like you've handed people an entire phone network," says Secure Science CTO Lance James in this Silicon.com report. James says he sees such scams on a daily basis. Experts at AT&T say VoIP conversations can be monitored or altered by outsiders.

RULING CONFIRMS VALIDITY OF GENERIC VANITY NUMBER SERVICE MARKS
On January 3, 2005, a small business from Fort Collins, Colorado won a federal trademark lawsuit against skiing giant Vail Associates, Inc. over the right to use 1-800-SKI VAIL. In the lawsuit, Judge Matsch of the U.S. District Court determined that Vail Associates could not use its registered trademark VAIL to prevent Eric Hanson from using his registered trademark, 1-800-SKI VAIL. The small business makes condo, hotel, and resort reservations at a variety of ski area locations through dozens of 1-800-SKI phone numbers ranging from 1-800-SKI ASPEN to 1-800-SKI TELLURIDE.

E-COMMERCE GROWTH FUELING DEMAND FOR TOLL FREE SERVICES
The growth of online services and e-commerce is actually increasing demand for toll free services, says a new research study.

TURF WAR?
Point:ICANN’S Vint Cerf is sure the net will stop being a part of the telephone network. Instead the lucrative telephone network will become a part of the [ICANN regulated] net.
Counterpoint:Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the ITU, says “[T]he E.164 international public telecommunication numbering plan is a politically significant numbering resource with direct implications of national sovereignty. It is also subject to a multitude of national approaches, regulatory provisions, and, in some cases, multilateral treaty provisions.”
Concern: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) warns that attempting to integrate VoIP into an already congested data network "could be disastrous for an organization's technology infrastructure."

HEART OF INTERNET [AND ENUM?] GOVERNANCE
"ICANN is determined not to hand over control of IANA because it is effectively control over the Internet. There has been huge controversy surrounding the change of just a few numbers that will see all requests for certain Internet domains sent to a completely different server." What are the implications for ENUM?

NEW PAYPHONE REGULATORY REGIME IS NIGHTMARE FOR 800 RESELLERS
The "base penalty" for failure to file the required forms or information" is $3,000, but the FCC noted that it can impose penalties up to $120,000 for a single non-payment, and $1.2 million for continuing violations. Editorial by Mitchell Knisbacher, President, 1-800 AFTA

IS 800 OBSOLETE?
ICB has written about red herrings, and this fish still smells; there is also a major food-chain shift clinking on this fish hook, and 800 players are not slated to move up.

FOLLOW THE WHOIS YELLOW BRICK ROAD
It's only taken a few short years to go from Sunrise + 20, that Intellectual Property Constituency supra-legal Wizard of Odd, to this week's news that U.S. lawmakers touted a bipartisan bill to increase jail time and fines for inaccurate WHOIS records.

RULES OF THE GAME
If you are involved behind the scenes in the toll free or telco industry or want to (or should) be, ATIS has issued updated operating procedures for its forums and committees: who can participate, protocols, cost, etc. This is where industry standards and product specs etc. are sculpted. A seat at this table is worth your time and expense.

ICANN RELEASES RFP FOR SPONSORED TLD'S
Always a good fundraiser. This time the application fee is $45,000.

HELL HATH NO FURY
Hell hath no fury like non-U.S. countries scorned, as ICANN president Paul Twomey discovered as he was escorted to the exit of the meeting room by guards after participants suddenly decided to exclude observers.
Twomey, reached by mobile phone outside the conference room, said: "At Icann, anybody can attend meetings, appeal decisions or go to ombudsmen, and here I am outside a UN meeting room where diplomats - most of whom know little about the technical aspects - are deciding in a closed forum how 750 million people should reach the Internet. I am not amused."
To paraphrase ICANNWatch: Pot. Kettle. Black.

ICANN AND BILATERAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
Should governments be subordinate to the decisions of a private corporation, ICANN? Should the legal rights of citizens be decided by ICANN?

NUMBERING FOR VoIP & OTHER IP COMMUNICATIONS
Internet Draft reflects interesting recommendations for non-geographic numbers in ENUM. Use your Back Button to return to ICB.

VolP PROVIDERS SHOULD SUPPORT USF
Active telephone numbers should be the basis for funding USF, says FCC's Commissioner Martin.

MOVING ICANN DOWN THE ROAD OF ECONOMIC REGULATOR?
ICANN President Paul Twomey took another step toward making ICANN an economic regulator of the domain name industry, issuing an advisory asking the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) to "formulate a proposal for a timely, transparent and predictable procedure for the introduction of new registry services, including as to how a reasonable determination of the likelihood that a proposed change will have adverse effects."

TYPOS PAY - LITERALLY
While VeriSign "assesses" and "reviews" in the face of two lawsuits and an ICANN request to suspend its SiteFinder service, VeriSign continues to rack up.

POPULAR ENTERPRISES, LLC v. VERISIGN, INC.
SiteFinder Fallout:
COUNT I: Sherman Act –Sect. 2 – Unlawful Monopoly
COUNT II – Unfair Competition/Lanham Act
COUNT III – Unfair Competition: Common Law
COUNT IV – Tortious Interference
COUNT V – Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices

SMT ADDRESSES USE OF SMS/800 DATA IN ENUM
"Providing query access via IVR or web access to the SMS/800 to non-Resp Orgs who are not subject to the FCC tariff, would not be permitted under the rules outlined in the tariff... would be tantamount to a disregard of the FCC #1 Tariff and the provisions that govern this service... In addition, downloading information to an IVR, web access, or other system on a set time interval other than real-time, would mean that ENUM is utilizing SMS/800 data that is not current and is potentially inaccurate."

LLC FORMATION MEETING MINUTES
There is a proposed $35,000 "capital contribution" buy-in per RespOrg. Missing from these minutes is a list of who attended, referenced only as "several toll free service companies." A routine request for a phone bridge so that more RespOrgs could participate, had been denied.

TRUTH IN DOMAINS, OR MISLEADING LEGISLATION?
"It is a dangerous precedent, from a First Amendment standpoint, to criminalize one's choice of domain names."

ENUM - THE OTHER POINT OF VIEW
"Participants should, in designing policies about ENUM, be aware that there are two points of view about it that have not been well-represented in any of the efforts discussed here. Both the ITU-T and IETF efforts have involved work by ENUM proponents to define a good way to do it given that it is to be done. Neither IETF nor ITU-T have taken a formal position that ENUM (or any other E.164-based scheme for "Internet telephony") is a good idea and should be implemented by member states."

US GOV ON ENUM FORUM LLC CONSIDERATIONS
"It is imperative that any [Tier 1] process that is chosen would ensure competition among providers and operators, allow for interoperability of alternative deployments, encourage innovative services and products, and protect the privacy and security of all ENUM users." Signed, Dept. of State, FCC, and DoC

THREE-DIGIT NATIONWIDE TOLL FREE NUMBER SYSTEM
Abbreviated dialing for one call notification is being pursued by NANC. Wireline and wireless assumptions will be "national in scope and uniformity," and vanity codes are under discussion.

U.S. CELL PHONE USERS SAY KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID
This suggests that callers want wireless to work just like wireline, which would include completing a functional toll free phone call.

WHAT IS A GENERIC TELECOM DATA DICTIONARY?
Will 800 Subscriber Rights fall victim to the GTDD (Generic Telecom Data Dictionary)? Will U.S. ENUM Forum play voodoo switcheroo with potentially policy-impacting language that defines 800 Subscriber rights?
And for heavens sakes, what mass conversion is going on inside ATIS that is so traumatic that requires "Corporate Coaching" to smooth the way?! Facilitators are asked soothing questions like "Where do our inner dialogues come from?" and "Am I willing to be influenced?" (Are you?) They are advised that "Change impacts people... scared, sad, mad, glad ..."!) There is a mass reprogramming going on inside ATIS aka TOPS, and it's not just of the data processing variety.

CHALLENGES FOR NEUSTAR'S KIDS.US
"There is no automated way to differentiate between a glazed doughnut and a suntanned breast."

CALLING ALL RESP ORGS
The LLC will own the Toll Free Database - the Cash Cow. And membership in the LLC would be open to all Resp Orgs, according to Michael Wade of the SMS/800.

ENUM - IT'S ALL IN THE CONSENT
Internet Telephony has published an article, "ENUM -- It's All In The Numbers", that boasts, "There are 400 million telephone numbers and over 130 million Internet customers in the United States... an unstoppable trend ... of which VoIP is now in the center ... the telephony market's brightest star". Aren't these the same people telling the FCC they won't use a lot of numbers, they're not widely deployed, and they're only an info service? ("Many resellers prefer to “fly below the radar” to keep competitors [and who else?] from realizing the potential of this market.")

But scroll down for the real nugget. "The process of ENUM registration may be part of a traditional sale of a PBX system or hosted IP telephony service from a carrier." (Of course they'll let you know they're registering your number "on your behalf", "with your consent", in "the ENUM system.") So this is Opt-in ENUM.

ITU ADDRESSES ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH NON-GEO COUNTRY CODES IN ENUM
This [draft] Supplement provides an overview of the various issues that need to be addressed when including the portion of the E.164 numbering plan corresponding to non-geographic country codes (in particular here, Global Freephone) within the Domain Name System. Its issues are identical to those facing the U.S. ENUM Forum as it proposes to include toll free numbers in the U.S. implementation of ENUM.

FCC'S 3RD ORDER AND 2ND NPRM ON SLAMMING AND RESP ORG CHANGES
"It would not appear that an entity, when providing RespOrg service, is functioning as a ... carrier as contemplated by our carrier change rules." And that's very good news for the Toll Free Industry.

DoC TO RE-AWARD IANA TO ICANN DESPITE VERY VIABLE ALTERNATIVES
BUT "If and when ICANN is broken up into its component functions a year or three from now, this moment will be seen as the turning point in undermining the argument that ICANN is essential, and that there's nothing or no one to replace it. (Questions about this decision may also figure in Congressional hearings, although no hearings are likely until after the present hostilities have passed....)"

US SUPREME COURT NARROWS TRADEMARKS' REACH
In a 9-0 decision, the justices effectively narrowed the scope of a federal trademark law that frequently is invoked in domain name disputes.

INTERNET REGULATION IS AS ENTRENCHED TODAY AS THE DOT IN YOUR DOMAIN NAME.
I've come to the conclusion that someone pulling the strings over at VoIP owns a profitable rose colored glasses franchise.

DoC TO REORGANIZE TECHNOLOGY SECTION
The U.S. Department of Commerce has announced that it will "modernize the structure for the Department's formulation of technology and telecommunications policy," because, according to Secretary Evans, "Convergence is the business model in the digital economy" and, therefore, "it should be the business model in the federal government."
Convergence is a condition - a precarious condition - not a business model. “Convergence may be what the Zeitgeist is riding these days, but it's a condition, not a business model; and surely, if there was one lesson to be learned from the period of the dotcom debacle, it was that that confabulating the two doesn't work very well. If that's the kind of confusion that reigns at the DoC, one can only wonder how that agency will grapple with the same old problems -- consensus, standards, process, jurisdiction, forum, equity (in both senses), and so on.” ICANNWatch editorial by Ted Byfield

BRING ON THE IANA COMPETITORS
By publishing its notice on January 28th, Commerce announced its belief that "the property or services needed by the executive agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of property or services will satisfy the needs of the executive agency." The world has ten days from then -- until the end of this week -- to submit sufficient proof that there's another qualified bidder.

GEOGRAPHIC INTEGRITY TODAY - NONGEOGRAPHIC INTEGRITY TOMORROW?
Is the VoIP issue, number exhaust? To regulate or not to regulate? Or number integrity?

NUMBER OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL
We have a whole pot load of issues to deal with such as “What is the effect of putting billions of numbers into the existing DNS system? Security, authorization, number ownership and control.”

THE DNS IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A BEST-GUESS SERVICE
VeriSign should not be allowed, through its monopoly on the .com and .net gTLDs, to destroy the coherence of the DNS for its own short-term profit.

UDRPlaw.net SPECIAL REPORT
2002 Cases of the Year: UDRPlaw.net reviews some of the more interesting, controversial and relevant domain name decisions of the past year.

I'M NOT A LAWYER
... and I don't play one on tv, but with many of ICB's readers and clients being lawyers, we had to check out a new website "searching for truth & justice (in an unjust world)" ...

THIRD LEVEL DOMAIN TUTORIAL
... by John Berryhill, by way of explanation to the DNSO's UDRP task force. This issue has come up in UDRP disputes, and will no doubt come up in other arenas as well.

EXTRACTING .PROTECTION MONEY
"Even in the gTLDS, the proportion of UDRP-challenged domain names to total domain name registrations is on the order of .02%. Meanwhile, one of the greatest threats to domain registration stability - ICANN's total failure to implement a registrar data escrow program - merits no attention at all, because for some reason we need to obsess over an issue that is relevant to a tiny fraction of domain name registrations."

SHOULD TRADEMARKS RULE THE WEB?
A counselor for the U.S. Small Business Administration and Florida Supreme Court certified mediator named Jeff Davies is asking a U.S. District Court judge to bar ICANN from giving trademark holders preemptive entitlement to domain names before the general public.

CCTLD GOVERNANCE PROJECT
University of Ottawa Law School Professor Michael A. Geist has launched a new website highlighting research into the relationship between national governments and ccTLDs. The site features information from 45 countries including relevant legislation, policy positions, and links to relevant organizations. It also features ccTLD governance news as well as a regular update service.

WHOIS TASK FORCE REPORT RELEASED
Constituency Impact Reviews and extensive comments have been submitted and are worth review relative not only to DNS whois but other databases in various arenas. These are valuable assets with long-term ramifications. Take the time, and read.

NANC TO ADDRESS VOIP IMPACT ON NANP ISSUES
"It’s recommended that the NANC assist the FCC in addressing these numbering issues..." There is also an SGA contribution on Global ENUM TLD Evaluation heading to Geneva that specifically negates the global integrity of E.164 numbering resources in ENUM. Whatever the conflicts over billing issues, isn't there even the slightest risk of the service applications babies being thrown out with the legacy billing bath water?

US ENUM QUANDRY OVER TOLL FREE NANP ISSUES
Recommends "that the agency with plenary jurisdiction over the NANP convene a group of representatives from interested countries in the NANP to evaluate and develop the necessary ENUM implementation specifications." There is more here than meets the eye.

800 STATUS - OR LACK THEREOF - IN US ENUM IMPLEMENTATION
It occurs to this writer that when US ENUM implementation is finalized, it will have been engineered with no thought whatsoever to accomodating the characteristics -- the integrity -- of toll free. How then, will 800 work with the system, after the fact?

MINUTES FROM REGISTRAR CONSTITUENCY MEETING IN SHANGHAI
Interesting dialogue on ICANN Reform, Whois, Transfers, Deletes. Relatively candid.

VERISIGN CONTINUING ITS PUSH INTO TELECOM
It has signed two new carrier contracts for expanded telecommunications services. Commentary inside.

XXX RATED TOLL FREE NUMBERS?
It's not what you think.

TOLL FREE NUMBERS: TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY?
FCC prohibitions notwithstanding, the results attributed to specific toll free numbers can be so compelling that companies continue to acquire them, to the tune of some very major advertising dollars. For example:

PATENT AWARDED FOR TOLL FREE CALL INFO CAPTURE AND REPORTING
In addition to capturing and reporting on call information and advertising effectiveness from toll free numbers, the patent covers other features, such as the ability to send alert notifications to clients in response to a “triggering event.”

STANFORD CYBERLAW CLINIC TO DEFEND DOMAIN NAME OWNERS
The clinic docket currently includes cases regarding fan fiction, anonymous speech, the right to publish information about computer vulnerabilities, open access to broadband Internet services, Internet radio, and digital libraries. CIS Director and attorney Jennifer S. Granick teaches the clinic.

DOMAIN NAME THEFT, FRAUD AND REGULATIONS
There is still abundant evidence that there are inadequate procedures in place to ward off domain name theft. Having retrieved a few stolen domain names myself, I can attest to the truths in Prof. Rod Dixon's CircleID article discussing Domain Name Theft, Fraud And Regulations.

WILL THE REAL INTERNET PLEASE STAND UP
... A Quest to Define the Internet, by Robert Cannon

ICANN AND [IN]STABILITY
CTO of ICANN/DNSO Registrars Constituency and Member of ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee admonishes ICANN Pres Stuart Lynn, "From a technical management perspective ICANN does not appear to be doing its job of managing the root (.) zone. Please update the ccTLD zones per their requests."

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Brad Lipetz, President, 1-800 REPORTER.com
"ICB helps me to run on 'Internet Time'."
Custis F. Dunn, Executive Director, Telecom Institute
"... exceedingly useful and valuable."
Patricia Miller, President, TeleServices, Inc.
"... provides intelligence we consider a critical driver of our business."
Emil G. Michael, Director of Business Development, Tellme Networks, Inc
"ICB is our eyes and ears."
Richard Sapio, CEO, MUTUALS.COM
"... invaluable ... excellent service."
Jill Wade, Director - Strategic Marketing, SBC Operations
"Your service is invaluable."
Paul H. Davis, Operations, The Davis Company
"... great value ..."
Glen Davidson, President, ATG Technologies
"... just keeps getting better and better..."
Scott Richards, President, DIAL 800 Inc.
"... indispensable in keeping up with the toll-free industry..."
Bill Black, Vice President, Fleishman-Hillard International Communications, Inc.
"... the most up to date source for information about the Toll Free ..."
Steve Green, President, Prepaid Media, Inc.
"...impressed at the level of coverage you bring to our industry..."
Saul Wilner, President, 1 800 GRANOLA
"ICB TOLL FREE NEWS is the only up to date, on line information source devoted to toll free service."
J. Walker, Regulatory Counsel, Preferred Carrier Services.
"...critical source of information on the ever-changing 800/888 toll-free industry."
C. Barton, President, Wholesale Carrier Services.
"ICB TOLL FREE is an important resource for any organization that depends on 800/888 service."
Wayne Sachs, Attorney, Los Angeles
"ICB sorts through an unbelievable pile of telecom information and events and tell me what I need to know in an easily understandable fashion."
Phil White, Operations Support, Trimark Investment Management Inc. (Mutual Funds)
"As a former print publisher myself, I am impressed with the breadth and scope of ICB TOLL FREE NEWS."
Rick Rector, Director Business Development, New England 800 Company

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