Commerce Department Keeps Icann as Web’s Address Manager
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The U.S. Commerce Department awarded a new contract to the nonprofit managing the Internet’s address system four months after saying the group hadn’t met revised requirements that include a strong conflict-of-interest policy.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers received the new contract as it oversees a program that may add as many as 1,000 Web suffixes to the right of the dot, to compete with .com. The expansion of so-called top-level domains is opposed by some trademark owners who say it will increase their costs, confuse consumers and fuel online scams.