[December 21, 2010]

WorldNames, Inc. Announces the Formation of its Policy and Ethical Guidance Committee (PEG)

WorldNames, Inc., a veteran industry player widely recognized for technology and policy leadership in internet governance circles announced today the formation of the Policy and Ethical Guidance Committee (PEG), organized to support and advocate on behalf of the expanding ccTLD market and provide regulatory and policy support. WorldNames, also the global manager of the .NU Domain, has spearheaded the formation of PEG to formalize a process to give key stakeholders within its communities of interest a larger voice in setting standards to govern privacy and WHOIS disclosure processes, as well as other tasks. Through the creation of this new Committee, WorldNames is positioned to strengthen and extend its leading role as an early innovator in the advocacy and setting of policies and standards in the best interest of the Internet community.

Since its creation in 1997, WorldNames, Inc. has placed a high priority on a strong ethical and moral approach to doing business, and .NU has had a privacy policy in place as well as policies prohibiting major abuses and violations (i.e. abusive registrations, spam, phishing, domain hoarding or auctioning, malware, etc.) for over 10 years. Its creator and renowned Internet pioneer J. William (Bill) Semich notes, "PEG was born out of a recognized need to establish a mechanism and framework to continue the development and implementation of governing policy and ethical policies, and to improve them as Internet use changes over time. Through PEG, regulatory responsibility and policy-setting processes are put in the hands of key stakeholders within the ccTLD industry overall, rather than fragmented by the multitude of different private or governmental groups."

The existing privacy policy for .NU was recently reviewed and improved, to reflect a more open structure to better differentiate btween private, personal domain name users and business users; the new WHOIS policy maintains the privacy of individuals, while now requiring full disclosure of contact information for businesses. It also gives personal users wider options to display none, some or all of their contact information.

The newly-created PEG Committee leverages industry experts and luminaries with whom WorldNames has built relationships over the past 14 years, now bringing them together formally to advise and advocate on issues of privacy, policy, and ethics, both in domain name management and in business practices.

The members of the PEG Committee comprise long track-records as recognized industry leaders and luminaries, and they come together through the Committee to facilitate and share best practices with, and to become advocates and advisors for, registrars within the ccTLD market. The Committee will be responsible for reviewing, modifying and/or developing recommendations for policies and acceptable business practices and standards of behavior for WorldNames, its Registrars, and users of the .NU domain name, as well as the overall ccTLD industry.

The members of the PEG Committee include:

• J. William (Bill) Semich, creator of WorldNames, Inc.
• Per Darnell, Chairman of the IUSN Foundation and Sweden-based Internet industry expert and pioneer.
• Eva Frölich, VP and founder of Frobbit Inc. She is also on the steering board of the Internet Society (ISOC) and is a former board member of The Public Interest Registry (PIR), Sponsor of the .org top level domain.
• Petter Rindforth, Intellectual Property expert at law firm Fenix. He has been pronounced mediator in domain name conflicts by the UN organization WIPO, the American National Arbitration Forum, Swedish IIS and Czech Arbitration Court.
• Per-Anders Hurtigh, founder and owner of Domaininfo, one of the most seasoned and largest companies in the domain industry.
• Anders Rafting, expert in the network security department within Sweden's national Post and Telecom Agency (PTS). Participates in GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee), which is an international advisory committee for ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).

About WorldNames, Inc.

WorldNames Inc., is a Massachusetts-based company that registers Internet domains and web addresses through its flagship product, the .NU domain, a country code top level domain (ccTLD) offering wide availability of attention-getting Web addresses in English and European languages. Since its beginnings in 1997, WorldNames Inc. has continued to be recognized as a secure, technically proficient and reputable company with established connections among all of the major Internet governing bodies. With domain operations located in the US, Sweden and Northern Europe, WorldNames, Inc. also funds the IUSN Foundation, a nonprofit, charitable organization which is a recognized leader in Internet governance. IUSN uses the funds it receives from WorldNames for free Internet and WiFi (News - Alert) services, along with related training, education and other charitable benefits, to the tiny South Pacific island nation of Niue, whose country code domain designation is .nu. To learn more about WorldNames, Inc., visit www.nudomain.nu.

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]