[At-Large] Domain name front-running by Network Solutions

[Brendler, Beau]

I'm guessing many of you have seen this, but if not...

http://www.domainnamenews.com/featured/domain-registrar-network-solution
s-front-running-on-whois-searches/1359

The blog the story references is here:
http://www.domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=85864

Perhaps specifically of interest:

"Front running domain names is a bold move by any registrar as it breaks
a certain level of trust that the general public places in using a whois
search. ICANN SSAC has conducted a "study" on front running recently in
which they wrote "ICANN's Registrar Accreditation Agreement and Registry
Agreements do not expressly prohibit registrars and registries from
monitoring and collecting WHOIS query of domain name availability query
data and either selling this information or using it directly,"
Warehousing domains in order to sell them to "potentially interested
parties" isn't specifically forbidden in the registrar contract with
ICANN but is addressed in points 3.7.9 and 4.2.5 of the contract in
which they leave room for new rules or revisions to the contract." 

-----Original Message-----
From: Maxim Weinstein [mailto:mweinstein at cyber.law.harvard.edu] 
Sent: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 8:57 AM
To: Brendler, Beau
Subject: Domain name front-running by Network Solutions


Hey, Beau. If you haven't already seen this:

http://www.domainnamenews.com/featured/domain-registrar-network-solution
s-front-running-on-whois-searches/1359

you should take a look. This is (or should be) big news.

=Max=

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