Internet Corporation for Assigned Names

A global Internet oversight agency is reopening discussions about whether to create a ".xxx" domain name as an online red-light district where porn sites can set up shop away from the wandering eyes of children and teenagers.

Parents would be able to use the system to help block access to porn sites, though because its use would be voluntary, the ".xxx" suffix wouldn't keep such content entirely away from minors. Religious and other anti-porn groups worry that ".xxx" would legitimize porn sites, and the proposal has already been rejected three times since 2000.

Egypt will apply for the first Internet domain written in Arabic, its information technology minister said Sunday at a conference grouping Yahoo's co-founder and others to discuss boosting online access in emerging nations.

Tarek Kamel said Egypt on Monday would apply for the new domain -- pronounced ".masr" but written in the Arabic alphabet -- making it the first Arab nation to apply for a non-Latin character domain. The effort is part of a broader push to expand both access and content in developing nations, where the Internet remains out of reach for wide swaths of the population.

The Internet's key oversight agency is considering a centralized database of trademark holders to cut down on questionable registrations of new Internet addresses.

Officials say the mechanism won't preclude a new Web site from being created at, say, "www.apple.farm" by someone outside Apple Inc. But it would create hurdles. Backers of the idea say it is needed so trademark holders won't have to spend thousands of dollars registering domain names defensively to block someone from registering them and trying to profit -- a practice known as "cybersquatting."

The Internet's key oversight agency is considering a centralized database of trademark holders, to cut down on questionable registrations of new Internet addresses.

Officials say the mechanism won't preclude a new Web site from being created at, say, "http://www.apple.farm" by someone outside Apple Inc. But it would create hurdles. Backers of the idea say it is needed so trademark holders won't have to spend thousands of dollars registering domain names defensively, to block someone from registering them and trying to profit -- a practice known as "cybersquatting."

The Internet agency with key oversight of the monikers behind every Web site, e-mail address and Twitter post named former U.S. cybersecurity chief Rod Beckstrom Friday as its next chief executive.

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved his hiring in a voice vote Friday as ICANN capped weeklong meetings in Sydney, Australia. Beckstrom becomes CEO next Wednesday.

Rod Beckstrom, the former U.S. cybersecurity chief who resigned in March amid persistent turf battles, is the leading candidate to run an international organization with oversight of the monikers behind every Web site and e-mail address, The Associated Press has learned.

The European Commission is making its message to the U.S. Department of Commerce loud and clear. Viviane Reding, European Union information technology commissioner, wants the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to separate from the U.S. department and discontinue its contract with the government when it expires in September.

For the past decade, ICANN has been dealing with top-level domains and managing the Internet address system that connects 1.6 billion Internet users. It has been working under an agreement with the Department of Commerce.

An extraordinary behind-the-scenes struggle is taking place between computer security groups around the world and the brazen author of a malicious software program called Conficker.

The program grabbed global attention when it began spreading late last year and quickly infected millions of computers with software code that is intended to control the infected machines and lash them together into a powerful computer known as a botnet.

Paul Twomey, chief executive of the Internet's key oversight agency since 2003, will step down later this year after a successor is named.

Twomey, 47, said he declined a three-year contract renewal with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, for fear of becoming "Mr. ICANN." Leaving now, he said, would let him take another leadership job in the private or international sector "and really make a difference in another organization."

The announcement came Monday as ICANN opened regular meetings this week in Mexico City.

Bids for new Internet addresses to rival ".com" and other suffixes will likely be delayed until the end of the year as a key oversight agency grapples with trademark and security issues.

Draft guidelines for the new suffixes generated so much comment that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, needs more time to sort out what it terms "overarching issues."