I have posted on several occassions that I believe that amongst all the registrar
scams in the .info launch, that of Mustard Seed eCommerce/007Names was probably the
worst instance of an ICANN and Afilias accredited registrar acting in a way to disadvantage
members of the internet community participating in the .info launch. 007Names
appeared to be a registrar "open for business" - until you tried to buy a preregistration
from them and then it became apparent that they had made their preregistration process
so difficult and cumbersome as to deter even the most desperate .info preregistrant.
When
the .info Landrush 1 results were posted, it was apparent that only Mustard Seed
eCommerce had registered names through 007Names.
Mustard Seed eCommerce/007Names
had apparently done what every Landrusher could only dream about - submit a short
cueue of their own preregistrations, without any "dilution" of their cueue as they
were not likely to have accepted any preregistrations from the internet community.
It
appears that Mustard Seed eCommerce and 007Names is a partnership, or one is a subsidiary
of the other, which on their .info launch performance, should not now hold either
ICANN or Afilias registrar approval or licences.
I posted recently that I don't
plan to lose more money to Afilias registrars in the .info Landrush 2, as I have
no reason to believe that Mustard Seed eCommerce/007Names, having enjoyed such success
in the first Landrush, will stand aside while the 10,000 challenged names go into
the lottery barrel for the second time.
I am very, very sad that the internet community
has apparently been scammed by 007Names in the .biz launch.
I am infuriated that
the practices of Mustard Seed eCommerce/007Names are acceptable to ICANN and Afilias
Ltd. and that they continue to hold a privileged licence which they are abusing to
scam the public.
All other scams, all other evidence aside, the actions of Mustard
Seed eCommerce/007Names in the .info and now the .biz launches and the fact that
they still hold ICANN and Afilias Ltd. registrar licences demonstrates, I believe,
the corrupt culture that permeates current DNS governance which is not likely to
change until those in authority who permit the likes of Mustard Seed eCommerce/007Names
to continue to scam the public are removed.