Talk about the land of golden opportunity. Less 1/2 hour after touching down on the ground in Colombia, I was walking around with over a million in my pocket. 1.7 Million to be exact after I exchanged $1,000 US Dollars and got back 1.7 million Colombian Pesos. Using Google's current exchange rate I should have gotten around 1.9 million Pesos so I got a good and proper screwing at the … [Read more...]
Beckstrom: ICANN Doesn’t Take Down Websites
Over the last week I have gotten several comments on my various posts on the domain name seizures with people asking what ICANN position is on them. Well Rod Beckstrom CEO of ICANN has written about it on his blog and the answers the question quite clearly: "ICANN Doesn’t Take Down Websites" That is the titled of the blog post which goes on to say: "" There have been many questions in … [Read more...]
The ICANN Meeting That Looked Like A Dud, Is Suddently Looking Like A Battle
When I started asking people a few weeks ago whether they were going to attend the ICANN meeting in Colombia that starts today, the vast majority of the responses I got was something along the lines of: "no I'm not going. Nothing is really on the agenda or going to happen at this one I'm waiting for SF in March". Well all of a sudden after the events of this week, this ICANN meeting looks like … [Read more...]
Breaking News: US Government Opposes Launch of New gTLD Program in Cartagena
ICANN acknowledged on their blog today, that they received a letter today from the US Department of Commerce opposing the introduction of the new gTLD's program in Cartagena. In its letter to ICANN, The Department of Commerce writes: (pdf) "I am concern over the apparent failure of ICANN to carry out its obligations as specified in the "Affirmations of Commitments". The letter goes on to … [Read more...]
ICANN New Guidebook: Terrorists Now Ok: Domainers 3 Strikes & You’re Out
In the new Guidebook issued by ICANN yesterday, (pdf) if you're a domain holder that loses 3 or more UDRP (yes they are so fair and well grounded), you will be in the same class as Convicted Murderers, Rapists and child molesters. Yes it would be a bad joke but its true. Under the new ICANN guidebook (pages 1-17/1-19) if you lose 3 UDRP's you're disqualified from being a "major shareholder" … [Read more...]
Our Take On The ICANN Registry/Registrar Decision: The Big Guys Win/The Small Guys Lose
Yesterday ICANN shocked the domain world when it announced it would not prohibit registrars from owning registries and registries from owning registrars. Up to yesterday all the guidebooks on the new gTLD's and the general consensus was that ICANN would limit cross ownership of registrars and registries by to a certain minority position of somewhere between 2%-15%. (You can read about some the … [Read more...]
WTR: 81% Of Global Brands Applying For New gTLD’s Will Make It, Rather Than The .Com Their Master Brand
According to a study conducted by World Trademark Review (WTR) magazine found that of those brands planning to apply to run a new generic top-level domain (gTLD), 81% plan on making their gTLD their master brand. I think most in the domain industry believe that if global brands apply for their own gTLD they would still use their .com as their main internet presence. However if this study is … [Read more...]