[LINK] Fwd: Auto-discard notification

[Antony Barry]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: link-bounces at anumail0.anu.edu.au
> Date: 19 March 2007 1:06:53 PM
> To: link-owner at anumail0.anu.edu.au
> Subject: Auto-discard notification
>
> The attached message has been automatically discarded.
> From: cheryl at hovtek.com.au
> Date: 19 March 2007 1:06:28 PM
> To: iamems at isoc-au.org.au
> Cc: link at anu.edu.au, dns at dotau.org
> Subject: Draft Resolution on Domain Tasting (and monitization)  
> ICANN AtLarge Advisory Committee (ALAC)
>
>
> Dear list Members and associates,
>
> Since 2005 the Interent Society of Australia has been a certified  
> At Large Structure (ALS) in the Asia Pacific Regional At Large  
> Organisation (APRALO) please see http://alac.icann.org/applications/
>
> The APRALO in turn feeds into the policy development and processes  
> in the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) within ICANN. please see  
> https://st.icann.org/asiapac/index.cgi?
>
> As a condute therefore for for individual Internet users who want  
> to be involved in issues that affect their use of the Internet's  
> domain name system, we are hoping to elicit your *urgent*  
> responces, comments and feedback on the following *early and  
> provisional draft resolution* which in its however modified form  
> will be on the Agenda for consideration by the ALAC at this months  
> ICANN meeting in Lisbon 26 - 30 March.
>
> We apologise for the short time available to react to this  
> important document, and we will forward, as part of our general  
> reply, links to all articles and archives found within the auDA  
> website which shows the public comment process, the opinions  
> lodged, and outcomes of, our ccTLD's recent review which resulted  
> in the allowance of Domain Monetization as a bon fide business  
> purpose for the licencing of a particular domain name, with the  
> note that under our eligability rules content still must relate to  
> that name ->(which goes in my opinion, a long way towards  
> countering the very negative comments regarding this practice at  
> the end of the draft text, where is it outlined as a sleazy and  
> misleading activity)... So you do not need to cover points and  
> arguments already made in that set of documents.
>
> If possible, could any opinions, reactions or comments on the  
> follwing draft be disussed on these lists and within your  
> constituancies, as a matter of urgency. With final feedback  
> forwarded to me at treasurer at isoc-au.org.au by COB on Wed 21st this  
> week... I will then, on Thursday/ Friday compile a commentry /  
> report to return to Izumi for contribution into the ALAC meetings  
> in Lisbon.
>
>
>
> Kindest regards,
>
> Cheryl Langdon-Orr
>
>
>
> Quoting Izumi AIZU <iza at anr.org>:
> Dear ALAC/RALO/ALS people,
>
> At the last ALAC conference call, I volunteered to write some draft
> resolution for ALAC on Domain Tasting (and Domain monetization).
>
> With my limited knowledge, I rather hesitate, but put forward the  
> following
> as a very crude draft. I owe much part to John Levin's comment (on  
> internal
> list months ago), who unfortunately left ALAC recently. I hope John  
> still
> watch this open list and make further contribution, together with  
> all others.
>
> I repeat this is very very crude, and I am aware that some  
> porposals may not
> be readily accepted by you guys, especially in the area of domain  
> monetization.
>
> I still feel that the speculation is not for the interest of  
> ordinary users,
> perhaps OK with Domainers as new and innovative industry. For that,  
> I really
> like you to come up with clear and convincing ideas and solutions.  
> This draft is just a step stone for that.
>
> Thanks,
>
> izumi
>
>
>
> *Draft Resolution on Domain Tasting
> ICANN AtLarge Advisory Committee (ALAC)
>
> V. 0.8
> Mar 12 2007*
>
> On behalf of the ordinary Internet users, AtLarge Advisory Committee
>
> (ALAC)
> would like to propose the following actions to be taken by the ICANN
> Community on Domain Tasting and Domain Monetization.
>
> *To gNSO Council:*
> Start a Policy Development Process on Domain Tasting. We believe  
> that Domain Tasting is an abuse of existing Five-day Add Grace  
> Period which results
> confusion for the ordinary Internet users and give unfair treatment to
> peculiar speculators. We propose to abandon the five day "Add Grace  
> period".
>
>
> *To Registrars Constituency:*
> Finalize and implement Registrars Code of Conduct that prohibits  
> unfair speculation and exploitation on Domain name registration  
> including the use of five day Add Grace period.
>
>
> *To Registry Constituency:*
> We request the registries to consider how to avoid user confusion  
> and unfair practices by abolishing the five day add grace period.  
> Adding small fee, such as 25 cents per Domain to those registrants  
> who kept their names using add grace period may be one solution,  
> but we are not fully convinced.
>
>
> *To ICANN Board:*
> We request ICANN Board to seriously consider how to prohibit unfair
> speculation, enhance consumer trust to Domain Name registration  
> system, by
> a) Initiating a third party study on the impact of Domain Tasting  
> and Domain Monetization/speculation to the ordinary Internet users.
> b) Initiating review of Registry ? Registrar Contract that will  
> promote the fair trade and restrict unfair speculation.
>
>
>
> *Background and Rationale:*
> Domain tasting uses the five day add grace period to register  
> domains without paying for them. We think they are unfair acts:  
> somewhere between larceny and extortion, because the registration  
> cost is zero and the purpose of these registrations is just to make  
> money taking advantage of automated bulk registration to exploit  
> the domain names which are the public goods in essence.
>
> As many people have noted, it's exploiting a loophole that  
> shouldn't be there in the first place.  There was a great deal of  
> debate both in the ICANN community and on the ICANN board about the  
> deletion grace period, but
> none at all about add grace which was apparently tossed into the  
> package by
> an ICANN staffer without asking anyone. So says Karl Auerbach, who  
> was on the board at the time, and I haven't seen anything to the  
> contrary from any other board member.
>
> As Bob Parsons wrote in his blog:
> *Millions of good .COM domain names ? on any given day over 3.5  
> million and
> climbing ? are unfairly made unavailable to small businesses and  
> others who
> would actually register and use them in ways for which the names were
> intended. Many times businesses accidentally let their domain names  
> expire. When they go to renew them, they find they have been  
> snapped up ? and taken
> away with a huge expensive hassle to follow ? by an add/drop  
> registrar.
>
> *(http://www.bobparsons.com/adddropscheme.html)
>
> The usual explanation of domain tasting says that the registrars  
> register millions of domains, watch the traffic, and then after 4.9  
> days they delete the ones that don't seem likely to make back the US 
> $6.00. Often they just
> delete them all and then reregister what they can a few minutes  
> later until
> they find the ones which produce enough traffic that yields well  
> above $6 cost.
>
> The add grace period is just a mistake. The problem it purports to  
> solve is
> not and never was an important one. If you let an important domain  
> expire,
> you risk losing the entire investment made in that domain over many  
> years. But if one registers a domain by mistake, the most one risks  
> is the ten or
> twenty dollars you paid to register it.
>
>
>
> *On Domain Monetization*
> We note that there is a meaningful difference between domain  
> tasting and
> domain monetization. Monetization is a straightforward arbitrage  
> between the cost of domain registrations and the revenue from as  
> much pay-per-click traffic as the domain owner can get from people  
> who visit web sites in the
> domain. It's a fundamentally sleazy business, since the web sites  
> have no
> useful content and the way they get the traffic is basically by  
> tricking
> people, either via typos or recently expired domains.
>
> We do not think it is appropriate in this case to make ICANN as a  
> regulator
> to watch and prohibit the Domain monetization practice. Instead, we  
> like to
> ask those commercial activities such as Google or Overture to stop  
> paying
> for clicks on pages with no content, thereby dealing with a problem  
> that is
> not limited to typo and expired domains. We've seen click  
> arbitrage, people buying Google ads to drive traffic to pages that  
> are simply other Google
> ads. This kind of self-generating traffic for pay-per-click  
> advertising is confusing and unnecessary for ordinary Internet  
> users and, in the long run, not healthy for the development of  
> Internet as a whole.
>
> END
>
>
> -- 
>                      >> Izumi Aizu <<
>
>             Institute for HyperNetwork Society
>             Kumon Center, Tama University
>                             * * * * *
>              << Writing the Future of the History >>
>                               www.anr.org
>
>
>

phone : 02 6241 7659 | mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
mobile: 04 1242 0397 | mailto:tony.barry at alianet.alia.org.au
http://tony-barry.emu.id.au