Thanks for highlighting this, Jim.As you will see on Jim's link, in order to "Ensure
Sound Business Practices", Afilias is obliged at section 5.1 to provide ICANN with
"A description of every known violation or alleged violation of the Code of Conduct"
(This may not be disclosed to the public by ICANN until 6 months after it is received.)
The
Code of Conduct states:
"Afilias will at ALL times operate a TRUSTED registry"
and...
"Afilias
recognises that domain names are the means by which businesses etc reap the benefits
of the global Internet. These benefits cannot be fully realised unless DNS resources
are administered in a FAIR, efficient, and neutral MANNER THAT MAKES THEM AVAILABLE
TO ALL PARTIES."
I take the view that, since over 50% of fake submissions came
from Registrars on the Afilias Board or Executive, and since one Board Member has
retained names with falsely applied Trademark details, a large number of names have
NOT been "MADE AVAILABLE TO ALL PARTIES".
I hope that Afilias will report this
fact.
I also note (with despair) the statement: "Afilias and its subcontractors
shall not in any way attempt to register domain names in their own right."
But
the bottom line is: if ICANN is disreputable, and shows no signs of policing abuses
carried out by its registrar friends, then even if Afilias reported themselves to
ICANN, what confidence can the public have that any action would be taken?
Basically,
many people believe that this is almost completely unpoliced, that there is hardly
any accountability, and that Afilias and its executive/board members feel they can
do whatever they choose.
This is symbolized by the fact that Govinda Leopold is
known by all to own - through her company 1stDomainNet - the domain Hawaii.info,
procured with wholly faked Trademark details, and yet the name has not been released
and "MADE AVAILABLE" to the general public.
For an Afilias Board member to flout
the system in this way is wholly unacceptable, but symptomatic of the culture of
"Do-What-We-Like".
Worse than Leopold's blatant flouting of the rules, in my opinion,
is the systematic abuse of Afilias's own systems by Afilias CEO Hal Lubsen and Board
member Mickey Beyer, who through their registrar companies DomainBank and Speednames
accounted for over half of all Sunrise violations. They chose to take the money and
sponsor wholesale frauds.
This also - on a much larger scale - prevented valuable
DNS resources being "MADE AVAILABLE TO ALL PARTIES". The registration of these names
(over 5000 fake Sunrise names) was NOT done in a "manner that makes them available
to all parties."