Re: [ga] ICANN vs. Reality

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@ntlworld.com>]

I applaud Jeff Davies.

It seems to me that Afilias just made up the rules as they went along.

They allowed people like Jeff Davies to challenge .info sunrise names at
WIPO.

So Jeff Davies duly went ahead and challenged some.

At that stage, Afilias had not clarified that he could not obtain the name
through the WIPO challenge.

Then they spotted the anomaly, and tried to block what he had done, but it
was too late, because he had already "done what he was allowed to do" before
they evolved the rules to stop him.

Then they tried to freeze his names.

It may be true that Jeff Davies was "playing a gap in the system", but that
had more to do with the incompetence of Afilias than anything else. The
Afilias .info fiasco will long be cited at business schools as a model of
ineptitude, corruption and farce.

Meanwhile, I say: if Jeff Davies managed to get one up on the overbearing IP
community, then good luck to him. Anyone else could have done the same.
Furthermore, isn't it time TM rights were confined to a single,
specifically-designated TLD like .reg and time to stop big business annexing
swathes of the namespace just because they're big and powerful enough to do
so?

The English language belongs to all of us and it is preposterous that
generic names in our linguistic heritage should be reserved and the rest of
us are locked out.

Meanwhile... I continue to ask: Where are the Registry Evaluation Reports
due to made available over 6 months ago (according to Appendix U of the
ICANN/Registry agreement)? And why has Dan Halloran refused even to
acknowledge my publicised and substantive questions about fraud and serious
concerns regarding the New TLDs process, even after 200+ days?

Bottom line: a corrupt administration which protects friends and vested
interests but dismally fails to be accountable to the vast majority of
ordinary users. And, of course, they expelled the elected representation
from the ICANN Board.

These statements above are, at least, my personal views. I believe many
other people share them.

Richard Henderson

----- Original Message -----
From: Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>
To: Allan Liska <allan@allan.org>
Cc: <touton@icann.org>; <michael@palage.com>; gen full <ga-full@dnso.org>
Sent: Thursday, December 05, 2002 6:16 AM
Subject: Re: [ga] ICANN vs. Reality


> Alan and all assembly members,
>
> Allan Liska wrote:
>
> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> > Hash: MD5
> >
> > Hello John,
> >
> > Wednesday, December 4, 2002, 11:58:50 AM, you wrote:
> >
> > JBPDJD> L. Touton:
> >
> > JBPDJD> "In fact, the offering of defensive registrations appears likely
to minimize
> > JBPDJD> some of the start-up issues that can arise in a TLD's
introduction. Giving
> > JBPDJD> those with registered trademark rights a simple vehicle to block
conflicting
> > JBPDJD> registrations should minimize the potential for one type of
lawsuit that can
> > JBPDJD> complicate a TLD's introduction."
> >
> > JBPDJD> Reality:
> >
> > JBPDJD> ICANN AND REGISTRARS SUED OVER SUNRISE PERIOD OF NEW TLDS
> > JBPDJD> An Orlando Business Journal report suggests that ICANN and
> > JBPDJD> registrars including Afilias have been sued by a Florida man
> > JBPDJD> over the use of sunrise periods for new TLDs.  The suit
> > JBPDJD> claims ICANN required registrars to include the sunrise
> > JBPDJD> provisions in the new TLDs.  ICANN declined comment.
> > JBPDJD>
http://orlando.bizjournals.com/orlando/stories/2002/12/02/story3.html
> >
> > I don't think those two statements are conflicting at all
>
>   Well I am sure that John, like myself and our legal staff are not
> overly surprised and such a statement from a ill informed layman...
>
> >
> > Specifically, the first quote says "minimize the potential for one
> > type of lawsuit".  It does not state that there will be no lawsuits.
>
>   Indeed true.  However Louis's statement is no less in error
> as to John's comments and reference.  In fact he is showing the
> contrary.  Louis's legal prowess was shown very clearly in
> Karl Auerbach's successful legal action against ICANN, amongst
> a host of other legal actions pending against ICANN's "Accredited"
> Registries, and Registrars and those that have been settled.  The
> introduction of more such legal actions will continue and rightfully
> so as the TLD process as well as the "Accreditation" determination
> is of questionable value or legality.
>
> >
> >
> > Where domains are concerned it seems there are always people willing
> > to file lawsuits, and of course there are always lawyers willing to
> > take people's money -- whether or not the case has any validity (not
> > saying this is not a valid case, I don't really know the details).
>
>   TLD's are TOP Level Domains, not Domains, Allan...
>
> >
> >
> > No matter how a new domain is introduced you are going to have people
> > who don't get the name they want, there is no way to prevent that from
> > happening, and inevitably someone is going to sue -- I hardly think
> > you can blame people's propensity to file lawsuits on ICANN.
>
>   I and it seems that a growing number of others obviously disagree with
> this statement as stated.  It ia also clear that a number of legal
jurisdictions
> both internal to the US and especially outside the US, are also not
> in agreement with what you state here as well.  ICANN can easily
> avoid any legal action and the BoD and Staff know what they need to
> do to so.  Louis's comment above, is not a good method obviously...
>
> >
> >
> > allan
> > - --
> > Allan Liska
> > allan@allan.org
> > http://www.allan.org
> >
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> >
> > --
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> Regards,
> --
> Jeffrey A. Williams
> Spokesman for INEGroup - (Over 127k members/stakeholders strong!)
> CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
> Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
> E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
> Contact Number: 214-244-4827 or 972-244-3801
> Address: 5 East Kirkwood Blvd. Grapevine Texas 75208
>
>
>

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