[ga] A Case Study of Domain Reregistrations - 4525 distinct domains that yield "Tina's Free Live Webcam"

["Ben Edelman" <edelman@law.harvard.edu>]

Thanks to all who contributed suggestions and feedback in response to my
inquiry over the weekend re domain reregistrations.

Given the apparent timeliness of the topic, especially for its relationship
with the Redemption Grace Period Technical Steering Group
(<http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-04apr02.htm>) and with
various allegations of confusing mailings to registrants (mailings which no
doubt make it harder to promptly and correctly pay the *actual* bill!), I
thought I'd go ahead with making available my research findings on a
somewhat faster schedule than I had previously anticipated.

My work to date has focused on a single case study -- the "Tina's Free Live
Webcam" site I personally stumbled into earlier this month.  I have
documented a total of 4525 distinct domains that redirect to this site, and
I've assembled extensive information about each (thanks to Google, Yahoo,
and archive.org) to help inform an inference that many of these domains (if
not most or even all) were previously used by other registrants.

The inference of reregistration is imperfect and in some cases uncertain, so
I want to encourage readers to take a look through the list on their own.
To that end, I have posted the entire listing of specific domains that point
to Tina's Webcam as well as the dossier of additional information about
each.  This turns out to be quite an entertaining read -- for Tina has come
to hold domains previously used not just by a bicycle store but also by a
BBB, a French school, several bands, many personal home pages, and all
manner of software companies, ISPs, retailers, and other commercial
interests.

My complete listing & analysis are available at:
   <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/edelman/renewals/?ga>


I'll be interested to hear from those on the list re critiques, helpful
focus areas going forward, possible improvements to methodology and, I still
hope, more examples of other domains with similar phenomenon.  (I'll
continue to review and process submissions from
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/edelman/renewals/submit/?ga>.)




Ben Edelman
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Harvard Law School
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/edelman>

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