* Analogy for purposes of illustration only.

It’s a sensitive area and I can understand where they are coming from but, they should at least give us a basic idea of what we can expect – otherwise it’s a total crap shoot!

If I don’t get any info on this then I won’t be bidding on anything at all! And I think I’m right in saying that that’s the general consensus.

In fact, what they could do is release the stats only to the bidders on each domain, if that were to happen personally I would place a bid right now for a few of them..

That would be Your Obama

By way of political analogy, your comments reminded me of the United States vs. the rest of the world. However, to carry the analogy forward, I’m pretty sure .cm wouldn’t have been openly embraced by a new administration that was intent on changing world opinion.

Which necessarily begs the question:

Where’s our Obama?

I have no problem with your suggestion but here is the problem with it.

Trademark holders have not invited our asked for our participation in any of this process.

The best example was the IRT.

The ICA asked to be part of the process and was told no.

The best Phil could do is get a hour presentation in front of the committee.

I have a large portfolio of very non-infringing domains, and publish a blog which speaks out against infringing domains, yet no one contacted me for my imput.

Trademark holders do not want a fair bill, they want a quick, cheap takeaway bill that punishes domain holders.

Read CADNA comments. There is not one ounce of fairness.

Read all the trademark comments.

They don’t like domainers and do not want them to be part of the process.

Thanks for your comments.

Unfortunately, the relationship between domainer and trademark holder has long been adversarial. It doesn’t have to be that way. No other group is more uniquely qualified to assist trademark holders than the domain industry. It doesn’t have to be “us vs. them.” We can successfully partner. No joke.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT*

DNcentives.com

Monetary rewards, domain name credits and assorted other prizes could await domainers that stumble across domains that clearly belong to celebrities or trademark holders. Daily/Weekly/Monthly competitions. Lots of possibilities. Registrars would provide special codes that are redeemed for free regs and even keep track of the top domainer participants. Domains registered according to this program would be held in a special account for the benefit of the celebrity or tm holder. Don’t worry about particulars – everybody knows how to make rules. That’s what the registrars have lawyers for. They can pretend it’s just another TOS “update”.

DnWrangle.com

Trademark holders can place orders for high traffic domains according to specific criteria that contain their actual trademark. They’re worthless to us, so why shouldn’t we be paid to help round ‘em up. Maybe a flat fee or a bid system. Now we get to make a money doing stuff that previously got us carted off to the woodshed.

“Hold for just a sec…CADNA on line one!”

Cleared4Launch.com

A clearinghouse exclusively for domainers and domain names. We put the best and the brightest minds together to determine a successful process for getting a generic domain names “cleared for launch”. If it passes the DnPreflight inspection, you’re good to go with the support of the domain industry behind you. If up to $1,000,000 protection is available for victims of ID theft, there has got to be an insurance company that will underwrite the reduced risks presented by a domain that has been Cleared4Launch.

DnPatriot.com

A catch-all for anything else that would make both the tm holders and our mothers proud. If it meets this two-prong test, it must be the right thing. Actively partnering with the forces on the other side will change everything about the way we do business and ultimately command the respect of the tm holders when they finally understand the value we bring to domaining.

Just my two cents…

*Let’s get going on this stuff. For those that already checked the whois database: no worries – I’ll contribute the above suggested domains n/c.

“If a splash landing page prominently displays links to both TLD websites (with thumbnails images of each), would this be a satisfactory way to resolve this issue and ensure that visitor traffic is delivered to its intended destination?”

I don’t see a need for a splash screen. Should the holder of the .com or .CN also setup a splash screen ?
What about in a case where someone actually wants to go to loan.com but types in loan.com and ends up at BOA? Should BOA setup a splash screen and asking ?

I remember when Kevin Ham wildcarded .CM lots of peole were calling it a scam, asking for classs action suit and all the BS. Most of the people were jealous, because they could pull it off themselves (I also was jealous, but the better man won). Back then people were screaming it should be open for registration, now as they open people complain again.

Cameroon has the right to let people & companie register the domains. Not only domainers can register also companies can get their domains.

Agreed.

To the extent that hundreds or even thousands of unique visitors per month have the specific intention to visit the website (URL) published at any given TLD, no problem. However, if the primary objective of the domain owner is to profit by knowingly receiving typo traffic intended for another website, this is not about a country’s “right to sell generic domain names.” This is about the propriety of choices being made by domainers.

Hypothetical Questions:

If a bank clerk makes an accounting typo that mistakenly deposits $1,000/month into the wrong customer’s account, is the owner of the account with the unexpected $1,000 monthly windfall entitled to benefit from this mistake?

If a parked page is the recipient of knowing typo traffic that generates $1,000/month for the domain owner, is this domain owner any more entitled to benefit from this mistake than the account owner in the previous example?

If a phishing scam is defined as a sophisticated, proactive marketing scheme for generating misdirected traffic, what do we call “natural” misdirected traffic that leads site visitors to believe they have arrived at their intended destination?

If a splash landing page prominently displays links to both TLD websites (with thumbnails images of each), would this be a satisfactory way to resolve this issue and ensure that visitor traffic is delivered to its intended destination?

Comments please?