News

CENTR has published its Report on ICANN68, which took place virtually from 22-25 June.

By Monika Ermert, eLance Journalist - In the last RIPE session, while the DNS operators dug into DNS lockdown data from Europe and around the world, an analyst from Europol warned of rising numbers of phishing, general domain abuse and child sexual exploitation in particular. Two narratives are emerging.

CENTR has just published its Guide to ICANN68, which will take place remotely from 22-25 June 2020. The Guide covers key topics of interest for ccTLD managers in the upcoming ccNSO and GAC meetings, as well as relevant sessions related to the topic of 'abuse'.

In a nutshell: Ten EU Member States expressed their views on the upcoming Digital Services Act. The own-initiative Draft Report on the Digital Services Act by the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) received more than 900 amendments, together with another Draft Opinion from the Legal Affairs Committee. European Parliament’s think tanks published a series of studies on the current legislative framework around intermediary liability online, including further suggestions for the Digital Services Act. The European Data Protection Board published its annual report for 2019. The European Commission has coordinated a screening of fraudulent websites related to COVID-19, in cooperation with the EU consumer protection authorities.

By Monika Ermert, eLance Journalist - RIPE80 was the first ever remote meeting of the European IP address community. Naturally Covid-induced issues in the network were addressed in various presentations, but none of them was more impressive than Raphael Maunier and Benjamin Schilz’ report about how they set up a 100 Gigabit Point of Presence (PoP) for a customer during a complete lockdown.

By Patrick Myles - Businesses across Europe face a new and challenging situation not seen for generations. A mass lockdown of society due to the Coronavirus pandemic, with thousands of businesses having been forced to send employees home. The societal impact is broad and deep. That said, for ccTLD registries, beyond changes to how staff work, other business effects so far seem minimal. One aspect of registry business may however be changing – the volume of registrations themselves. Figures from CENTR show a spike in new registrations in the month of April 2020.

In a nutshell: Europol issued its report on cybercrime and the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Parliament has been busy with numerous committees advancing on their draft reports and opinions for the Digital Services Act. The European Court of Justice ruled that Amazon is not infringing trademark rights by storing infringing goods on behalf of a third-party seller. The Advocate-General of the European Court of Justice issued an opinion in the case of the enforcement of intellectual property rights against YouTube.

By Monika Ermert, eLance journalist - The first RIPE database came into being in 1992. It started as a contact database for the then limited number of Local Internet Registries, but has gradually changed over time. With new EU data protection rules entering into effect in 2018, it is time for yet another iteration. Bijal Sanghani, EuroIX, presented the background and a proposal to move forward at the RIPE Virtual Database Task Force BoF on 6 May.

By Monika Ermert, eLance journalist - Hans Petter Holen, Chair of the RIPE community since 2014, will change roles. Last Friday, the Executive Board formally announced that he had started his role as the new Managing Director of the RIPE NCC. For the upcoming RIPE 80 meeting, which will be held virtually starting Tuesday 12 May, Holen will act as both RIPE Chair and NCC Managing Director, to preside over a reduced, but still pretty packed agenda.

CENTR is excited to share the fist edition of the CENTR Tech Trends Watch, a new quarterly publication written by Amelia Andersdotter. The aim of this publication is to give an overview of current and upcoming changes in technology from a range of standards development organisations and other technology forums, keeping in mind underlying geopolitical and industrial movements and in particular tracing the trends that may have an impact on the addressing and numbering communities.