Starting in mid-November, countries and territories will be able to apply to show domain names in their native language, a major technical tweak to the Internet designed to increase language accessibility.

On Friday, the Internet’s addressing authority approved a Fast-Track Process for applying for an IDN (Internationalized Domain Name) and will begin accepting applications on Nov. 16.

The move comes after years of technical testing and policy development, said the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which held a meeting in Seoul this week.

Currently, domain names can only be displayed using the Latin alphabet letters A-Z, the digits 0-9 and the hyphen, but in future countries will be able to display country-code Top Level Domains (cc TLDs) in their native language. ccTLDs are those that have a two-letter country designation at the end of a domain name.

In reality, the new domain names will be stored in the DNS as sequences of letters and numbers beginning xn-- in order to maintain compatibility with the existing infrastructure. The characters following the xn-- will be used to encode a sequence of Unicode characters representing the country name.

One of the primary concerns with implementing IDNs is the security and stability of the Domain Name System (DNS). That system enables the translation of domain names written with characters and digits into IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, which can then be queried by a Web browser.

ICANN said it would initially allow for a "limited" number of IDNs, which are subject to ICANN’s approval and stability testing. Still, there are likely to be hiccups, ICANN warned.

"The usability of IDNs may be limited, as not all application software is capable of working with IDNs," ICANN said in a59-page proposal dated Sept. 30 that describes the Fast Track process. "It is up to each application developer to decide whether or not they wish to support IDNs. This can include, for example, browsers, email clients, and sites where you sign up for a service or purchase a product and in that process need to enter an e-mail address."

ICANN has set some language restrictions for IDNs: they must be in an official language of a country or territory and have legal status or at minimum "serve as a language of administration."

According to the proposal, ICANN will charge registries US$26,000 for an evaluation processing fee, which can be paid in the local currency. ICANN would also like an annual contribution fee of 3 percent of a registries revenue, which can be as low as 1 percent for low-volume registries. For both fees, registries can request a fee waiver, ICANN said.

The organization that oversees the Internet’s domain name system is going to have to find a new leader.

Today at the opening session of ICANN’s international meeting in Mexico City, Paul Twomey announced his intention to step down as the group’s president and CEO by the end of the year.

Twomey has headed the organization since 2003, following a four-year stint as chairman of ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee. At the request of the board of directors, Twomey said he plans to remain with the group for a transitional period after his replacement is named. During that time, he will serve in the new position of senior president.

Tributes poured in from Internet luminaries in response to Twomey’s announcement.
“I can think of no other person who has had more influence on the course of ICANN’s evolution than Paul,” Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet evangelist and a former ICANN chairman, said in a statement. “We owe him a great debt for long and faithful service and I owe him personal thanks for his counsel during my time on the board. The board will be challenged to find a worthy and capable successor.”

As head of ICANN, Twomey helped set the stage for the most dramatic expansion in the Internet suffixes, known as global Top-Level Domains (gTLDs), since the nonprofit’s inception.

Internet addresses have traditionally been confined to familiar suffixes like .com and .org. But in June, ICANN’s board approved a measure to allow site operators to select their own gTLDs, inviting the potential for a virtual land grab.

“The potential here is huge. It represents a whole new way for people to express themselves on the Net,” Twomey said at the time of the board’s decision. “It’s a massive increase in the ‘real estate’ of the Internet.”

ICANN is planning to open the application period for new gTLDs in the second quarter. Global TLDs are distinct from country-specific suffixes like .ca (Canada) and .au (Australia), which are referred to as country-code Top-Level Domains, or ccTLDs.

Prior to his tenure at the helm of ICANN, Twomey held a variety of tech posts in the public and private sectors, serving as the Australian government’s Special Adviser for the Information Economy and Technology. He was also the founding CEO of the National Office for the Information Economy, the Australian government’s top IT agency.

Immediately before taking over at ICANN, Twomey founded Argo P@cific, an international investment and consulting firm.

In a statement, Twomey said that he had previously expressed his intention to step down, indicating that he plans to continue work on Internet issues, but in a different capacity.

“While I am deeply and personally committed to ICANN and its success, I think this is the right time for me to move on to another leadership position in the private or international sectors,” he said.

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Verizon Communications, the telecommunications company, has been awarded $33.2 million in a lawsuit against an Internet services company that it claimed had registered hundreds of domain names with Verizon trademarks.

The default judgment of $50,000 for each of 663 addresses registered by the Internet company, OnlineNic, was issued last Friday by United States District Judge Jeremy D. Fogel in San Jose, Calif. Judge Fogel froze OnlineNic’s assets and ordered the transfer to Verizon of all identical or confusingly similar addresses.

Verizon sued OnlineNic of San Francisco in June, accusing the company of trademark infringement and illegal “cyber squatting,” or registering addresses intentionally to confuse Web users. Such knockoff names often take users to pages that advertise competing products, Verizon said.

“This case should send a clear message and serve to deter cybersquatters who continue to run businesses for the primary purpose of misleading consumers,” Sarah Deutsch, an associate general counsel at Verizon, said Wednesday in a statement.

Verizon sought as much as $66.3 million in damages over names that included myverizonwireless.com, iphoneverizonplans.com and verizon-cellular.com.

OnlineNic registered more than 900,000 domain names similar to some of the world’s biggest companies, including Google, Adidas, the News Corporation’s MySpace, Wal-Mart Stores and Yahoo, Verizon said in court papers. Verizon accused OnlineNic of using an automated process to register the addresses and employing “numerous means to conceal its true identity.”

OnlineNic’s Web site says the company has been an accredited registrar since 1996 for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, the organization that oversees the functioning of the Internet.

OnlineNic did not immediately respond to e-mail messages seeking comment. Directory assistance could not provide a number for the company. No lawyers for the company were listed on the court docket.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced it will delay shutting down EstDomains, an Internet registrar accused of having ties with spammers.

ICANN sent a letter to EstDomains saying it would pull the company’s accreditation on November 12 and transfer the 281,000 domains under its management to another registrar.

ICANN has the authority to revoke a registrar’s accreditation if an executive of the company has been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor related to financial activities.

EstDomain’s president, Vladimir Tsastsin, was convicted of credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery in an Estonian court on February 6, according to ICANN.

EstDomains is arguing that Tsastsin resigned as president in June and that his conviction is on appeal with Estonia’s Supreme Court.

CEO Konstantin Poltev wrote in a letter to ICANN stating that EstDomains was not required to notify the organization about its executive changes. EstDomains is trying to keep its accreditation and included a document that showed Tsastin’s resignation in June.

ICANN said it is taking more time to assess the merits of the claims and has stayed the termination process.

“ICANN will take all reasonable measures to protect the interests of registrants during the stay period and the subsequent termination process that may follow,” ICANN officials said.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced it will delay shutting down EstDomains, an Internet registrar accused of having ties with spammers.

ICANN sent a letter to EstDomains saying it would pull the company’s accreditation on November 12 and transfer the 281,000 domains under its management to another registrar.

ICANN has the authority to revoke a registrar’s accreditation if an executive of the company has been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor related to financial activities.

EstDomain’s president, Vladimir Tsastsin, was convicted of credit card fraud, money laundering and document forgery in an Estonian court on February 6, according to ICANN.

EstDomains is arguing that Tsastsin resigned as president in June and that his conviction is on appeal with Estonia’s Supreme Court.

CEO Konstantin Poltev wrote in a letter to ICANN stating that EstDomains was not required to notify the organization about its executive changes. EstDomains is trying to keep its accreditation and included a document that showed Tsastin’s resignation in June.

ICANN said it is taking more time to assess the merits of the claims and has stayed the termination process.

“ICANN will take all reasonable measures to protect the interests of registrants during the stay period and the subsequent termination process that may follow,” ICANN officials said.