[ga] SnapNames and their latest "circle-jerk" petition....

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@yahoo.com>]

Hello,

Apparently, SnapNames is now circulating a petition to try to garner
support for WLS. It has been sent to some clients and "friends" of
SnapNames. However, the powers that be should take any results from it
with a grain of salt because:

1) it's "preaching to the converted"
2) only those in support of the petition were asked to reply to it
3) many folks didn't even receive the petition (I for one must be on
their "black-list", as I still didn't get a copy, despite being a
customer, even though it was sent more than 12 hours ago)
4) it ignores the fact that there is *already* an official avenue of
public input, namely the WLS forum at ICANN, at:

http://forum.icann.org/wls/

There is much more support for a Uniform Deletions Policy, which is a
mandatory *precondition* to any offering even resembling WLS at the
registry level, then there is for WLS itself. 

Indeed, there's more opposition to WLS than support, except mainly for
some special interests looking to "cash out" their already massively
diluted equity stake in SnapNames (see Ron Wiener, in a moment of
weakness, admitting their strategy at:

http://www.sao.org/newsletter/companies/woody01-02.htm

"My goal is for SnapNames to become as attractive as possible to as
many companies as possible, for the biggest possible eventual liquidity
event, as soon as the market turns around. The joke around here is that
we're waiting for when the most obvious acquiring companies can no
longer afford us -- we're holding out for a very large IPO or sale.
When you're making money and you're able to raise money -- we'll close
our first year at over $3 million in sales and next year we predict
about $28 million -- well, there's just no sense for us to sell today
when we can get a much higher valuation in a year or two."

Without WLS, SnapNames wouldn't grow to the $28 million per year level,
at the expense of consumers, registrars, and other market participants.

In conclusion, I'm sure that ICANN and others recognize this petition
as merely a "circle-jerk"*. If SnapNames and Verisign wish to take the
high road, they'd encourage their clientile to post to the official WLS
forum, take part in the DNSO, including its task forces which have been
considering WLS for many months.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.kirikos.com/

*Apologies to those who are offended by the term "circle-jerk". Some
folks at SnapNames have a tendency to copy terms from their opponents
(shows a lack of originality, indeed), and twist them 180 degrees in
the wrong direction. I doubt that will happen with this catch-phrase.










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