I have received some honest correspondence today from Jim Archer, the President of
Registration Technologies. In his mail he condemns the fraud carried out by some
registrars, criticises Afilias, and promises that pre-registrations of Landrush customers
will be held over for future use or refunded if the customer prefers.I have to
say that his mail (and his willingness to let me publish it) is a courageous stand
in the face of an industry that seems unforgiving of dissidents (look for example
at the marginalisation of Robert Connelly when he spoke out against his peers). Jim
Archer has been an accessible registrar throughout this affair, and I for one will
be happy to do much business with him in the future.
His correspondence reads as
follows:
" Hello Mr. Henderson...(theInternetChallenge)
I just wanted to compliment
you guys on the fine job you are doing. As the owner of an accredited registrar who
actually rejected names that were clearly not proper during the Sunrise period, I
have been appalled at the behavior of many other registrars. Of course, we are pushing
Afilias to fix this before landrush.
I only have a small bit of information I can
offer for your site. It has been brought to my attention that John Wb Lee, who you
have listed as having registered fake names through Wooho T&C, is actually a corporate
office of that registrar. So this appears to be yet another case a registrar breaking
the rules and not being dealt with by Afilias.
We will and do take a public stand
against registrars who have abused their status. In short, if I see them breaking
the rules, I'll call
them on it, whether they threaten to sue or not.
As you
know, we have worked hard to navigate the mine field Afilias created in their handling
of their Sunrise period. We have been very vocal with Afilias in expressing our concerns.
In the case of other registrars, we have no problem whatsoever reporting fraud they
have committed when we know about it. I have been appalled and embarrased by the
behavior of several registrars during this period. We feel strongly that the actions
of registrars who took advantage of
the Sunrise period by violating rules and
commiting other fraud have damaged our customers, ourselves, the reputation of our
industry and the value of .INFO.
We also feel strongly that they should be punished
and are not
pleased that ICANN and/or Afilias have apparently failed to deal
harshly with them. We stand in defense of our customers and our industry. As a registrar,
adding our voice to this cause should have some weight and we eagerly do so.
Regarding
submissions for the next land rush, Afilias has not said
when and how they will
release successfully challenged names. We have had many customers request that we
hold their submission for the next landrush, and, if Afilias does have another landrush
for the challenged names, we will do that (if that's what the customer
wants).
Otherwise, we'll honor our refund policy. Whatever Afilias does, we'll try to respond
in a way that most benefits our customers.
Providing a high level of customer
service is what we strive to do. Putting this thing together has been a huge amount
of work and handling the .INFO situation has been very frustrating.
Jim Archer"
THANK
YOU - for that priceless commodity - HONESTY and INTEGRITY
Richy Henderson