[gnso-dow123] another comment on preliminary task force report

["Steve Metalitz" <metalitz@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

In addition to the 42 public comments posted in the archive at 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/whois-comments/, the Task Force should also be 
aware of the comment below.  Although (as I understand) it was submitted twice 
before last Wednesday's deadline, for some reason it still does not appear in 
the archive.  Like the great majority of comments that were posted, it argues 
against recognition of formulation 1 of the "purpose of Whois."  
 
Will our next steps on the preliminary report be an agenda item on tomorrow's 
Task Force call?  
 
Steve Metalitz   

________________________________

From: OrtmeierJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:OrtmeierJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2006 9:36 AM
To: whois-comments@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: Comment on Preliminary Task Force Report on the Purpose of Whois and 
of the Whois Contacts 



To Whom It May Concern:

I am intellectual property counsel for the American Red Cross charged with 
protecting the AMERICAN RED CROSS and RED CROSS trade names.  The American Red 
Cross is a non-governmental, humanitarian organization, led by volunteers, that 
provides disaster relief to victims of disasters and helps people prevent, 
prepare for and respond to emergencies.  Since 1905, the American Red Cross 
name has been protected by statute in the United States, now codified as 18 
U.S.C. §§ 706 and 917.  In 1999, the United States Congress protected the 
American Red Cross from bad faith registration of domain names containing the 
RED CROSS name and the trafficking in or use of such domain names on the 
Internet by incorporating the American Red Cross statute (18 U.S.C. § 706) into 
the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 
1125(d)(1)(A)(ii)(III).  The American Red Cross owns and maintains a number of 
websites, including websites containing the words RED CROSS.  The American Red 
Cross' public website is www.redcross.org <http://www.redcross.org/> .  In 
2004, www.redcross.org <http://www.redcross.org/>  averaged over 1.5 million 
successful hits per day with an average of over 904,000 unique visitors to its 
www.redcross.org <http://www.redcross.org/>  website each month in 2004.    

 

Pursuant to its statutory authority, the American Red Cross has actively 
pursued websites, domain name registrations and e-mail campaigns that have used 
the RED CROSS name without authorization, including those directing donations 
to websites other than those authorized by the American Red Cross.  During my 
tenure at the American Red Cross, hundreds of unauthorized third parties have 
registered domain names containing the words RED CROSS.  In particular, 
national disasters like September 11th and Hurricane Katrina or international 
disasters like the Southeast Asia tsunami resulted in significant spikes in the 
number of third parties registering domain names containing the words RED 
CROSS.  By way of example, in the days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall on 
August 25, 2005, the following domain names were registered by third parties 
unaffiliated with and unauthorized by the American Red Cross:

 

o     www.katrinaredcross.com <http://www.katrinaredcross.com/> 

o     www.donateredcross.com <http://www.donateredcross.com/> 

o     www.red-cross-help.com <http://www.red-cross-help.com/> 

o     www.americaredcross.org <http://www.americaredcross.org/>                 

 

This is a very limited sample of unauthorized domain names registered in the 
days after Hurricane Katrina.  Many of the unauthorized websites at domain 
names containing the words RED CROSS fraudulently solicit donations.  As 
another example of the egregious nature of some of these unauthorized 
activities, a third party registered www.american-redcross.org 
<http://www.american-redcross.org/>  in the days after the Southeast Asia 
tsunami and then proceeded to cut and paste the donation page from 
www.redcross.org <http://www.redcross.org/>  to the new, unauthorized web site 
at www.american-redcross.org <http://www.american-redcross.org/> .  The two 
donation pages (one legitimately belonged to the American Red Cross, the other 
was fraudulent) were nearly identical.

 

The American Red Cross uses Whois data to shut down the web sites conducting 
these unauthorized and fraudulent activities.  The owners, once discovered by 
the American Red Cross, will often shut down their web sites within minutes of 
receiving an email from the American Red Cross.  At the height of disaster 
response, the American Red Cross often discovers these unauthorized web sites 
within days of the RED CROSS domain name being registered, and it is not 
uncommon that the American Red Cross can get the web site shut down within 
hours, thus mitigating the number of victims who unknowingly give money or 
personal financial information (credit card numbers, bank account and PIN 
numbers, etc.) to web sites that are not affiliated with the American Red Cross.

 

For the owners that do not willingly (or immediately) shut down their web 
sites, the American Red Cross often notifies the owner's hosting company (found 
through the Technical Contact details of Whois records) and/or the domain name 
registrar to alert them to the unauthorized and/or fraudulent activity being 
conducted by the domain name registrant/owner.  Lastly, the American Red Cross 
uses Whois data to further investigate these unauthorized and fraudulent 
activities and ultimately assist federal, state and local law enforcement.  All 
of these uses of Whois data fall outside the scope of Formulation 1 in the Task 
Force preliminary report.  Without accurate Whois data, the American Red Cross 
is incapable of shutting down unauthorized and fraudulent RED CROSS web sites 
quickly enough so as to minimize the impact on American Red Cross donors, the 
victims of the disasters and the public at large - all of whom are impacted 
when members of the public, intending to support the victims of a disaster by 
contributing to the American Red Cross' disaster relief fund, instead 
unknowingly give their money and financial information to someone perpetrating 
a fraud.

 

If ICANN adopts Formulation 1 as the purpose of Whois and subsequently revises 
its contractual policies to conform to Formulation 1, the American Red Cross 
will no longer have the information it needs to quickly shut down unauthorized 
and fraudulent RED CROSS web sites.  The number of victims unknowingly using 
these unauthorized RED CROSS web sites to donate after a disaster will likely 
increase, and the money will not reach its intended target - the victims of the 
disaster.   In the long run, reduced public confidence in the integrity of 
online donation sites could reduce the ability of the American Red Cross, and 
similar organizations, to use the Internet to raise funds quickly and 
efficiently to help disaster victims and respond to emergencies.   

 

I urge ICANN not to adopt Formulation 1.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Julie A. Ortmeier

Senior Counsel

American Red Cross

2025 E St., N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20006

Phone (202) 303-5356

Fax (202) 303-0146

OrtmeierJ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 

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