Should the day ever arrive that the Landrush applicants learn whether they have won
anything of value in the .info extension - I want all of you who purchased preregistrations
for names that Afilias registered for cybersquatters in Sunrise to think what might
have been, had we been dealing with a responsible and accountable registry and what
names you may have won in an equitable Landrush.I would like you to think about
those business plans you had been refining for heaven knows how long, and how they
and the time and energy you put into them are now for nothing or at leat diminished,
because Afilias was permitted by the regulatory authority to check the bona fides
of the applicants in Sunrise - a restricted period for trade and service mark holders
- after the registrars had checked the TM fraudsters' credit card details and AFTER
the registry Afilias had registered names with often patently fraudulent TM registration
details.
I would like you to think about the exciting challenges and rewards you
had imagined from developing those sites and businesses and the lifestyle changes
you had hoped to avhieve for yourself, your partner and your family.
I would like
you to remember whenever Afilias deign to advise us of the Landrush results, that
the registry has yet to advise us or their registrars for that matter, what steps
if any they are taking to organise a Landrush II, in order that you have a chance
to win those really top names in which you invested so much money, which without
a Landrush II will be just another Afilias bonus to their registrars.
I would like
you to remember that some of the Sunrise fraudsters are now showcasing for sale the
names that may have been yours, had we not had the misfortune to be dealing with
a company like Afilias in an industry with a rugulatory authority like ICANN.
I
would like you to remember the shoddy, no, shameful way in which Afilias has communicated
with its customers once it became apparent that thousands of cybersquatters were
registering the most popular generics in Sunrise, never once mentioning its Landrush
investors, describing instead what a success the .info rollout had been.
I would
like you to remember that on the eve of the much delayed Landrush that Afilias has
not yet given a firm undertaking to retrieve the .info domain names fraudulently
taken in some instances by Afilias staff and registrars, or that it will take action
on behalf of the Landrush applicants who bought preregistrations for the names taken
by registrars, in some instances after the names had been registered to registrars.
I
would like you to remember the the ICANN/DNSO correspondence which indicated that
ICANN was aware of the cybersquatting by Afilias and that it was felt there were
ample grounds to cancel Afilias's registry license, but that that was unlikely due
to the close relationship of the ICANN and Afilias BoDs.
I would like you to remember
that in the Policy Deliverables document - Description of TLD Policies - part of
the bid documents to ICANN that Afilias used to win the right to administer the .info
registry ahead of other companies - Afilias stated that it appreciated that IP abuses
may occur in the event that a new gTLD is not introduced in a responsible manner,
and so to minimise such abuses Afilias would implement and monitor policies which
included "Requiring registrars to obtain true and accurate registration information
from all domain name registrants."
I would like you to remember what SpyProductions
did (and UKreg apparently), namely, announced to the world that Afilias was administering
the .info rollout in contravention of it Policy Deliverables undertakings - and that
as the registry and most registrars would be looking the other way - after checking
credit card details - would assist anyone to commit TM fraud and register Sunrise
names for them, whether or not the applicant bothered to fake TM registration details.
I
would like you to remember PSI Japan's Bob Connelly's resignation from Afilias with
the comments along the lines that the .info rollout was an abomination and that Afilias
apparently cared nothing about its responsibilities to the communities its served.
From my own experience of Bob Connelly, he is the sort of man, who had he been in
charge at Afilias, none of this would have happened and we would have had our Landrush
names - all of them, not just the leftovers - a fortnight ago.
I will finish this
diatribe with the comment that you should not be satisfied with what you win in Landrush
if you spent money preregistering names fraudulently registered in Sunrise; don't
be satisfied with the inevitable spin of Roland LaPlante's summation of the process;
don't be satisfied that Afilias was doing this for the first time and that mistakes
were bound to happen; don't be satisfied that everything will fix itself without
continuing pressure way past Landrush from the likes of the posters that have emerged
at this forum; and don't be satisfied unless you personally make a contribution to
that pressure to bring changes to Afilias and ICANN so that this abomination is never
repeated.
Good luck Landrushers.