Four companies have had their gTLD accreditations terminated, as ICANN continues to clear up its backlog of long-dormant deadbeat registrars. The unrelated entities are US-based Domus, Finland-based Globis, Hong Kong-based Overcasts, and Wanyuhulian Technology from China. They’ve all lost their ICANN contracts as of May 29. No domains are at risk, as none of the…

Alan Barrett, a member of ICANN’s board of directors and an internet pioneer in his home of South Africa has died, according to ICANN. The Org said that Barrett died of recently-diagnosed cancer yesterday, May 28. An online memorial is being planned, but his family have requested privacy in the meantime, ICANN said. Barrett was…

In what looks like bad news for GoDaddy and Identity Digital, Montenegro appears to be the latest government to demand a bigger share of revenues from its national ccTLD. While already formally delegated to the government, .me is currently managed by doMEn, a partnership between the two American companies and local firm ME-net, but Montenegro…

ICANN has approved 18 more requests for reduced-fee new gTLD applications under its Applicant Support Program. As of last week, the Org said it has conditionally approved a total of 16 requests, up by 13 on a month earlier, and fully approved 27, up by five. “Fully approved” means ICANN has received payment from the…

The World Intellectual Property Organisation has tightened its stranglehold on domain name disputes worldwide, taking over administration of .uk’s Dispute Resolution Service. Nominet said today that WIPO will start to manage DRS, which is similar to UDRP and has been around almost as long, from July 7. It said that the policy, fees, and panelists…

Trying to get hold of a domain registrant via their Whois record? It could be about to get even more difficult following an ICANN advisory that gives GoDaddy a pass for its current practices. The advisory could make it harder for domain buyers to contact the owners of domains they are interested in, and easier…