I will beg to differ with the opinion of M. Palage.This is not the sort of "business"
- referred to by Untouchable in his/her post that appeared here again yesterday thanks
to DameBase - that the honest Sunrisers and Landrushes wanted to be involved in.
The
business world of Untouchable is one of "do unto others before they do it to you"
assuming that all others are cheats and where there is no one to police non-existant
rules which protect the small against the big, the outsiders against the insiders
and those who may be honest from those who aren't.
I think every Sunrise and Landrush
applicant could reasonably have expected Afilias to be the policeman, given what
was at stake, the first new extension available in years - and the new business opportunities
they represent, and the considerable investments of the customers purchasing preregistrations.
M.Palage
says that “We’re identifying what works, what doesn’t work..", well Michael, I don't
know where you have been all your life, but where I come from, as reliably as night
follows day and gravity sucks, if you advertise you have something of value but have
no security system - then you are gonna get robbed! Hal Lubsen's security firm
could have told you that. I am surprised he didn't wise you up!
Unfortunately
- the greatest incidence of cybersquatting - what - 10,000 cases or more -
are down to M.Palage and the other directors of Afilias and their close buddies in
ICANN - but the greatest costs are being borne by your new customers, customers who
won't quickly forget what Afilias has given them for their investment and trusted
Afilias to be up to the task.
M.Palage is quoted as saying that .."we’re
going to sit there and make sure that the integrity of the process is upheld.”
Which
sort of integrity would that be?
the sort of integrity that has an Afilias director
cybersquatting?
the sort of integrity that has several Afilias approved registrars
cybersquatting?
the sort of integrity that has registrars taking preregistration
fees for names they themselves will take through cybersquatting in contravention
of their RLA?
the sort of integrity that has an Afilias registrar being a
provocateur for would be Sunrise cheats?
the sort of integrity that results in
the new Afilias .info registry having no integrity, for as much as 25% of Sunrise
registrations may be fraudulent?
the sort of integrity that may result in Afilias
effectively purging the thousands of Landrush preregistrations for names fraudulently
taken in Sunrise, rather than purging the frauds and honouring the preregistrations
of the Landrushers?
the sort of integrity that has the Afilias VP Marketing describe
the Sunrise phase as successful?
the sort of integrity that mutes the registry
- "Where the world goes for information"?
the sort of integrity that drives out
the likes of Afilias director Bob Connelly who called the .info Sunrise an abomination?
I
am afraid Landrushers and Sunrise applicants alike - we were naive.
We expected
professionalism, we expected integrity, we expected responsibility and accountability
- where apparently there is none!
PS - I wish all Landrushers good luck in the
lottery for the names that are left - and still hope that the money we spent may
return us something in a Landrush II.