Since ICANN claims to be working through a proof-of-concept with these new TLD agreements,
and since the .INFO round robin has already resulted in proven corruption and abuse
of the system at the expense of the internet public, I hope that ICANN will now act
(in the light of the concept tested by .info) to BAN charges by registrars for pre-registrations.
This can be done contractually. Since Neulevel inevitably have to revise their paperwork
for this new release of names, ICANN can insist that Neulevel implement a contractual
ban on charges for pre-registrations.What possible justification can there be
for ripping the Internet public off yet again? What exactly is the money for? And
since Neulevel have completely messed up with their first attempt at releasing these
names, ICANN has ample justification for intervention.
What's the point of "proof-of-concept"
if you don't take the lessons that have been learned (in this case, learned through
the .INFO experience) and make sure the same mistakes are not made twice.
ICANN
advised registrars last time NOT to charge for pre-registrations for a round-robin,
and most registrars didn't take a blind bit of notice. This time ICANN must INSIST.
That
way, no-one can claim that this is yet another kind of lottery.
If pre-registrations
ARE charged for, not only is it a complete rip-off, but you could still say that
people were paying (in a convoluted way) for a lottery ticket.
Do I hope or expect
ICANN will act? No of course not. Because they have already shown themselves in my
judgement to be corrupt and in complicity.
I have been silent for several weeks
because you can just go on and on about the same issues. But I am appalled by the
way Afilias has tried to sweep under the carpet these undeniable facts:
1. More
than 50% of all fake Sunrise claims were submitted by the companies of Afilias's
own Board and Executive. That is a disgrace.
2. Those companies charged over $500,000
to knowingly abuse their own Afilias system. That verges on corruption.
3. Individual
Board Members were caught out THREE times gaining a Sunrise name through the submission
of FAKE Trademarks.
4. Those names have now been held illegitimately for almost
FOUR MONTHS, and the Internet community has been deprived of them.
5. ALL the Sunrise
names could have been offered in the Landrush phase using the Domebase solution,
which allowed priority claim to genuine TM holders, but released all the other names.
That would have saved the need for a "third" sale of these names at the so-called
secind Landrush.
6. Afilias Board Director, Robert Connelly, decided he wanted
to resign all his involvements because he saw that Afilias's processes were (in his
own words) "an abomination".
7. Vint Cerf has been repeatedly challenged to post
on this, his own, board to have a dialogue on these and other fair points, but he
has gone to ground. His silence speaks volumes.
Afilias has made recent remarks
about the Sunrise fraud problem, but it was Afilias themselves that created the problem;
that presided over it; that ignored simple solutions; that submitted more than half
the fakes.
It's laughable.
On another note:
I'm sick of keeping www.theinternetchallenge
offline, just because some vested interests threaten legal action (big deal). So
I hope to have the site back up and running in the next few days, as a resource for
the general public, so that we can check that most of the listed names are indeed
being challenged by Afilias.
Though, of course, the outcome will be the same :
more money for registrars who have already benefitted twice.
Congress is now my
focus. I have a simple plan. Every single aspect of this disgrace will be brought
to the attention of all the most influential politicians who share responsibility
for this fiasco. Only it doesn't stop there....
Wait and see
(I'll be e-mailing
a few of you in the coming week about what's happening.)