Public Interest Registry - Advocacy

Advocacy

The Public Interest Registry often supports ICANN on policy and privacy issues on the internet. In 2003, The Public Interest Registry wrote a letter to ICANN supporting its opposition of wildcard redirection services that automatically redirect internet users to correct spelling errors and typos. The letter supported ICANN’s request for VeriSign to voluntarily suspend a DNS wildcard service called SiteFinder and asked ICANN to make a policy against similar services across the internet. The Public Interest Registry and other organizations opposed the move by VeriSign, because automatic redirects may affect spam filters and mail servers that rely on error messages from non-existent domains.

The Public Interest Registry reduced domain tasting by charging fees to registrants that cancel 90 percent of their domains in less than five days. In 2007, ICANN used that as a model for a similar proposal to curb domain tasting through non-refundable fees. The Public Interest Registry supported ICANN’s expansion of top-level domain names. The CEO, Brian Cute, commented that internet users will still gravitate towards established domain names, but new domains will target specific communities. The Public Interest Registry has also urged ICANN to address privacy implications of the WHOIS database. The organization is critical of the security of DNS filtering techniques and supports the DNSSEC protocol. It also shuts down .ORG-based phishing scams.