ICANN Withdraws Breach Notice Threatening to Stop .Jobs Domain
The letter (sent by the corporation) said that ICANN concluded that Employ Media was not currently in breach, but instead in good standing under the Registry Agreement. ICANN also said that “it will not seek to impose restrictions on new or existing policy initiatives within .JOBS as long as such conduct is consistent with the .JOBS Charter and the terms of the Registry Agreement.”
The article said that ICANN’s surprising move most likely means that Employ Media will be dropping its Independent Review Panel proceeding against ICANN. The in-person hearings were set to begin next month.
Last year’s breach notice alleged that the registry crossed its intended boundaries when it sold thousands of generic domain names to the DirectEmployers Association to use for jobs listing microsites called .JOBS. The emergence of the .jobs domain, for example Chicago.jobs and/or Houston.jobs, caused a stir of debate in the HR world in 2011.
Many HR professionals, recruiters and job board operators, including CollegeRecruiter.com and SalesGravy.com, were in opposition of Employ Media’s desires to amend its registry contract. The amendment would remove a restriction limiting .jobs registrations to the corporate name of employers, which was an important part of its original commitments.
ICANN’s sudden change of heart is unclear, the article said, but may be because the corporation received a letter December 3 from the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), sponsor for the .JOBS TLD.
The letter said all of DirectEmployers’ domain names currently being utilized are doing so consistently with the terms of the .JOBS Charter.