Robert, all of us who have sought a fair deal for the
Landrushers owe you a BIG thanks for your contributions these past weeks.You have
been a guiding light with your evolving solutions and wonderful website - and Afilias
and ICANN can never say they weren't shown the way.
When I first started to see
names for which I had bought many Landrush pre-registrations go in the Sunrise phase
to apparent fraudsters, I thought that it was incompetence on the part of Afilias
and ICANN.
I was furious that Afilias and ICANN with all their resources had got
it wrong - so obviously wrong.
By the time that the last of the names at the top
of my wish list had been taken, I had begun to think that the destruction of the
.INFO registry by cybersquatters was not an accident because the powers that be in
ICANN and Afilias have a wealth of experience and had many opportunities to settle
on a rollout strategy that could have prevented the events we have seen and that
had been foreseen - but they didn't.
I would love to be wrong - because I feel
sick in my stomach as I write this - and will probably vomit if Landrush starts without
an equitable solution in place for the Landrushers - but I feel that the principals
behind the .INFO rollout are getting the launch they wanted - although I suspect
they may have underestimated just how many frauds were prepared to join Sunrise and
may have underestimated how bountiful Sunrise was going to be.
While I am sure
that there are honest and ethical people within Afilias and ICANN, it is apparent
through Afilias's failure to anounce an equitable solution for the Landrushers, an
ICANN's three monkeys approach to this affair, that those in control at Afilias and
ICANN don't want or don't see the need to meet the reasonable expectations of the
Landrushers for an "all names in the barrell" Landrush draw.
If Afilias goes to
Landrush without taking account of the Landrush applications for names apparently
fraudulently taken in Sunrise, then my likening the operation of the current ICANN
to that of the former (I hope) IOC where the principals treated the organisation
as a tool for their own self-aggrandisement, unhindered by common notions of honesty,
justice and accountability is supported.
Like you, all I wanted was a chance to
play - on an even playing field with an unbiased referee.
Seems we have neither.
There
is still a window of opportunity for Afilias and for the Landrushers, and if Afilias
doesn't account for the Landrush applicants at Landrush, then I feel that the committees
and courts that will judge the performance of the principals of Afilias and ICANN
will have an unamimous opinion - that when faced with the alternative to conduct
ethical business, or, betray the trust they were given, the principals of Afilias
and ICANN chose to act in a selfserving manner, at great cost to the Internet community.
I don't mean to be a downer, I haven't given up the fight - I am still prepared
to be surprised and delighted when Afilias announce that we are to get a fair deal.
Good
luck Robert. Thanks for your help.