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[ga] Press Release Warns Internet Users about ICANN


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
 
CHICAGO, July 5, 2000 /BusinessWire/
 
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".
 
ADNS owns the three top-level domains "EARTH", "USA" and "Z" and provides internet
sites with the ability to register a domain under these top-level domains. ADNS
has been providing internet related services since 1993.
 
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.
 
ADNS is part of the Open Root Server Consortium (ORSC - http://www.open-rsc.org ),
a group of individuals and organizations who are all interested in an open, fair
and technically sound global Domain Name System for the internet. ADNS is providing
ASLAN free of charge for the use of the internet community.
 
ADNS  also operates the  internet portal site called http://The.EARTH.
This site is accessible to any computer that is pointing to the new DNS servers.
 
SOURCE: AGN Domain Name Service, Inc.
 
CONTACT: John Palmer, jp@adns.net /  312-849-2753


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