Picture yourself as a honest registrar. This whole Sunrise fiasco happens.
You have a pack of upset customers who pre-registered during the Land Rush.
You might even be one of the poor registrars who thought they would follow the "short-list,
high-price, late-entry" strategy. Then you are really hurtin'.Anyway, there
you are... waiting and waiting for some word from Afilias about how this mess will
be resolved. Nothing. Nada. One registrar even asked Afilias for a list
of names registered in the Sunrise period so that that registrar could try to protect
the good-faith Land Rush pre-registrants from losing their names by only submitting
names that are not registered in Sunrise... keeping the other names in case there
is a Land Rush II. Afilias did not even provide a list of names registered
in the Sunrise period to that registrar. Amazing.
Anyway, there you are as
a honest registrar with angry customers and silence from the registry. What
do you do? Some appear to be washing their hands of the whole mess and purging
the Land Rush pre-registrants... with whatever partial refund applies. These
registrars say to themselves -- "It was Afilias' fault. I heard nothing about
any Land Rush II." Other registrars may be trying to do better by their customers.
It is not easy. I suspect that most registrars are trying to hold out as long
as possible for announcement of a Land Rush II or something by Afilias. They
do not want to hurt their Land Rush customers. Some are offering coupons or
such. The irony is that the Domebase Proposal would solve all of this -- but
it requires action and leadership from Afilias.
If I had to guess what Afilias
would respond to this -- they might say. Hey, this is not OUR problem.
We did not charge pre-reg fees, the registrars did. This is like some computer
that does not work and the software folks blame the hardware folks, and the hardware
folks blame the software folks... no accountability. However, Afilias is accountable.
If today Afilias announced that they would have a Land Rush II for names released
by challenge... along the lines of the Domebase Proposal, then many honest registrars
would immediately follow suit and this problem would be over. But no, folks
trucked on down to Montevideo and left the Land Rush pre-registrants and the honest
Registrars slowly twisting in the wind... I have tried not to use bad language, but
it is really tough to resist in this case.
One more time, here is the revised
DomeBase Proposal. Honest registrars... tired of twisting in the wind?... support
this. IPC lawyers, want another sunrise? support this. ICANN folks,
want to keep control over future TLDs? support this. Afilias, want to
do what is right and profitable (save challenge fees) at the same time? support
this.
Know what? Even Sunrise squatters should support this. Why,
you may ask? Because it is a heck of a lot better to lose the value of
some stupid domain name than to lose something of greater value. Don't take
my word for it, I'm just a bug on the windshield of life. Take the word of
someone with a whole lot more clout in grand scheme of things -- "Food gained by
fraud tastes sweet to a man, but he ends up with a mouth full of gravel."
NEW
DOMEBASE PROPOSAL (revised 8/31/2001)
1. Hold "Land Rush I" as originally scheduled.
2.
Registrars do not submit names in "Land Rush I" that are registered in the Sunrise
Period.
3. After Land Rush I, registrars give their customers the option to:
(a)
cancel name not submitted in Land Rush I and receive any applicable refund... none,
partial or complete, depending on registrar-specific agreement; or (b) have name
submitted in Land
Rush II held after the end of the Sunrise Challenge period
without additional cost.
4. All names registered in the Sunrise Period are entered
into Land Rush II.
5. In addition to people with names postponed from Land Rush
I, new people can pre-register names in Land Rush II. Registrars who accepted
"only one submission per name" for Land Rush I must keep that policy for Land Rush
II to avoid "bait and switch" for Land Rush I
pre-registrants.
6. The "winner"
of a name for Land Rush II: (a) gets that name for a registration fee if the name
has been successfully Sunrise challenged* by Afilias or someone else and not taken
by someone with legitimate trademark rights; (b) gets that name for a registration
fee if it has been voluntarily canceled by the Sunrise registrant; or (c) can Sunrise
challenge* the name and get it if successful (the name is not trademarked) for a
subsidized fee (somewhere between $0 and $295) without having to show a trademark
right in the name (which would be impossible by definition). In this manner, legitimate
trademark holders would not lose any names in Land Rush II, but sunrise squatters
on non-trademarked names would face challenge by either Afilias or the Land Rush
II winner.
*to protect legitimate trademark holders from name loss due to WHOIS
data processing corruption (good data entered, bad data displayed), give original
registrant a specified time-window after challenge to demonstrate that the registrant
holds legitimate trademark for
the name in accordance with Sunrise rules despite
corrupted WHOIS data.
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