Grandfathered

Neil's News

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.name Grandfathered

10 November 2026

We won!

After a long and expensive battle, news just dropped that Verisign is retracting its plan to terminate 22,000 domain names and email redirects. Although they will be closing new registrations for 3rd-level .name domains, all existing domains (including this website) and email redirects will remain indefinitely.

This was a team effort. It was inspiring how many talented people joined this fight. From Doytchin who kicked everything off, to Jim who flew to Bali to make the case to ICANN in person, to Patrik, Troy, Huyen, Keith, Judy, Erik, and Ryan who wrote formal reconsideration requests, to my lawyers Jan, Flip and Diégo who threw the book at ICANN, to Beverly, Stefan, Vaughan, Irv, Pablo, Larry, Lionel, Daniel, Ori, Markus, Kirk, Ed, Jeremy, Stephan, Matija, Jan, Simon, Mark, and Evan who filed letters of support. I'd also like to sincerely thank selected individuals within ICANN who had the courage to stand up against the bureaucracy. Without exception, everyone I spoke with was a remarkable person.

Legal yada yada: My views do not necessarily represent those of my employer or my goldfish.

Neil Fraser: News: .name Grandfathered