Famous people domains
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The first recommendation that I can give to you is to avoid registering domain name of famous people. You can register a famous surname but just if you or any relative of you have it.
If you think in registering a domain name just to score it you provably will have Trade Mark problems. If you have the same name and surname or any of your family, you can register it but you CAN’T put a site about the famous people.
You can’t or don’t have to make any $ with the name of the famous people.
The problem is that you want to make a Fan Site about the famous people. In theory you can but then, you can’t make any $ with that site but provably you will can lose this site.
My tip is: register a generic name like “famouspeople” and make any number of single pages you want about any famous people.
Hawaii cybersquatting law one of the worst
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A politician in Hawaii has bullied a political activist into giving up his domain name.
In May I wrote about a law New York was trying to pass that would protect politicians’ names as domain names. In retrospect, the New York law was not so harsh: it would only punish someone who registered a politican’s domain name with the sole purpose of selling it. Although I don’t think states should regulate domain names, the New York law was rather narrow.
Imagine my surprise today to see that a blogger in Hawaii gave up domain names related to Hawaii state Rep. Bev Harbin. Harbin sent two letters threatening civil lawsuits if blogger Jon Asato didn’t agree to stop using BevHarbin.com and BeverlyHarbin.com. Asato couldn’t afford to defend himself so he gave in.
It has become established precedent in UDRP decisions that celebrity names are protected but politicians domains aren’t.
Harbin threatened Asato using a Hawaii law passed in 2001 that was stronger than the US Congress’ anti-cybersquatting law. The Hawaii law was more restrictive than the US law because it didn’t require complainants to show that a domain was used for profit. According to a Hawaii House report at the time:
“A cybersquatter could cause harm without intending to profit by placing a person’s name on the Internet, along with information that could tarnish or disparage the person.”
Of course, this law was passed by legislators with the sole purpose of protecting themselves. The law flies in the face of first amendment rights. Unfortunately, the American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii couldn’t take Asato’s case because its docket was full at the time. It’s a shame Asato’s story didn’t make it to the domain name community and other first amendment proponents earlier, as I’m sure the community would have stepped in to assist him.
Whois debate continues
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FTC defends availability of Whois, and you should too.
The debate over availability of Whois information continued this week during the Morocco ICANN meeting. FTC Commissioner John Leibowitz presented several examples of how Whois helped the FTC shut down fishers, scammers, and various illegal activities. This is a hot topic, and ICANN CEO Paul Twomey discussed at Domain Roundtable the pros and cons of making this data available .
Most domainers would like to shut down public access to Whois. But there are a number of reasons why the domain community should support open access to accurate Whois information:
1. It allows people to contact you about buying your domains and vice-versa. How many times have you wanted to buy a domain and the only way to contact the owner was to look up the domain in Whois? I’m shocked when people owning quality, generic domains hide behind Whois privacy as it makes it more difficult for buyers to contact them. (Unless they really don’t want to sell.)
2. You can research research buyers and sellers. If you are buying a domain on DNForum, it often makes sense to check the identity of a seller through Whois before completing a purchase.
3. It provides a verification mechanism for domain exchanges like Afternic and Sedo and domain parking services.
4. You can still use a Whois privacy service under the current “open access” policy if you have a true need for protecting your identity. (Privacy services are also being debated.)
There are some obvious drawbacks to having an open Whois system. Perhaps the biggest is the amount of spam and phone calls you get by having your information open to everyone. Sadly, the Whois database is misused by some of the world’s biggest companies, including Yahoo, for sales purposes. But there’s any easy way to fix this. ICANN could create an e-mail forwarding system for Whois e-mail addresses. For example, I could register my domain using my true e-mail address and ICANN would mask it to be domainnamewire-com@icann.org. This masked e-mail would automatically forward to my real e-mail address but allow ICANN to track abuse. You could also change this masking address if it became favorite prey of spambots. ICANN could do a similar thing for phone numbers but this would be expensive. Phone numbers are probably not necessary and could be hidden for use only my law enforcement.
This isn’t a simple debate, but domainers should think through the consequences before jumping on the Whois privacy bandwagon.
ICANN Domain Name Marketplace Workshop
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This week’s ICANN meeting in Marrakech, Morocco will feature a workshop about current trends in the domain name marketplace.
Jothan Frakes of Domain Roundtable/DomainTools.com will introduce the 3 hour workshop. The workshop was organized in response to requests from the ICANN community about the ways value is derived from domain names and questions about the appropriateness of some of these activities.
Among the more controversial subjects to be discussed:
Monetization - this discussion will include domain lawyer John Berryhill and representatives from Yahoo, ALAC, and Verizon. If you haven’t seen a panel with John Berryhill, it’s well worth it. He’s not afraid to speak his mind.
Add-Grace - aka domain tasting or domain kiting, this subject is hot right now. Representatives from GoDaddy, PIR, and Momentous will speak. GoDaddy has been particularly vocal about this subject.
Expiring Names - Network Solutions and Verisign will discuss current expiring domains models.
Long-tail Proposal - I’m not quite sure what this will entail, but eNom CEO Paul Stahura will discuss a “proposal has been introduced to address a variety of monetization activities. This presentation will describe the proposal and solicit feedback.”
The workshop will conclude with a discussion of ICANN policy implications.
The public is invited to comment and inquire about the subject by posting to dn-market-comments@icann.org. Comment archives are available here. I urge you to comment, as this is an easy to way to make your voice heard.