I'm not saying that the fraudulent
registration of generic domain names during Sunrise was OK, or that Afilias should
not have prevented such an "abomination", or that they should profit from their many
mistakes. My point is that there are some people who checked
the Afilias whois database to see if domain names were taken by someone else during
Sunrise BEFORE submitting a Landrush pre-registration. They knew that a landrush
pre-registration would not be successful if the domain name was already registered
(whether legitimately or fraudulently).
So just because I
did not submit a Landrush application for a domain name does not mean I didn't want
it, or shouldn't have a chance at it if the fraudulent registration is tossed out.
It only means that, based on public information in the Afilias whois database which
showed the domain name was unavailable for Landrush, I decided not to waste time
or money trying to register it under the current rules. If the rules had said
"in the event that the domain name becomes available in the future because the Sunrise
reg was fraudulent, it will be awarded to someone who tried to pre-reg it (even though
it was unavailable) during Landrush", then my decision would have been different.
It
isn't as if the Sunrise fiasco was unknown until after Landrush was over.
The fact
is that if you applied for a domain name during Landrush that was taken during Sunrise,
your registrar, who was happy enough to collect the money for your application, most
likely didn't submit it to Afilias in their Landrush queue, because they knew it
could not be successful and would only cause them to lose a turn.