[NA-Discuss] Fwd: "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on Network Solutions Home Page

[Garth Bruen at Knujon.com]

Thanks Beau, interesting as always

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Beau Brendler" <beaubrendler at earthlink.net>
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 2:39 PM
To: <na-discuss at atlarge-lists.icann.org>
Subject: [NA-Discuss] Fwd: "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on Network 
Solutions Home Page

>
>   Interesting discussion on the NCSG list sort of pertaining to TLD 
> marketing,
>   I'm guessing they won't mind me cross-posting it.
>   Anybody know these guys?
>   http://www.pfir.org/index.html#info
>
>     -----Forwarded Message-----
>     From: Nicolas Adam
>     Sent: Aug 28, 2011 5:23 PM
>     To: NCSG-DISCUSS at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
>     Subject: [NCSG-Discuss] Fwd: "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on
>     Network Solutions Home Page
>     You'll notice the "Protect Your Brand", in the center. It's not as big 
> as
>     the criticism below make it to be but it's there.
>     Would   it   be   relevant  and/or  feasible  to  'regulate'  (read
>     encourage/constrain ==> through types of means that i will leave open 
> to
>     discussion) the way registrar can market those new TLD?
>     First, it doesn't look good.
>     Second,  while  i  don't  think anybody (except perhaps established
>     registrars) who are in favor of gTLD expansion have a clear view of 
> what
>     the emergent system of naming and names will or should be, i am pretty
>     sure no-one so disposed would care to advocate that this system should
>     establish itself mainly as a protection scheme.
>     Is forcing advertising to depart with the protection rhetoric a step
>     forward? Is it feasible?
>     Just some thoughts.
>     Nicolas
>     -------- Original Message --------
>
>   Subject: [ NNSquad ] "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on Network
>   Solutions Home Page
>   Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2011 12:42:23 -0700
>   From: Lauren Weinstein [1]<lauren at vortex.com>
>   To: [2]nnsquad at nnsquad.org
>
> "Domain Protection Racket" Promotion on Network Solutions Home Page
>
> This "in your face" promotion currently running on the Network
> Solutions home page clearly illustrates how the current top-level
> domains (gTLD) expansion plan is akin to a traditional "Sign up now or
> something bad might, uh, happen to you, buddy!" protection racket.
>
> [3]http://j.mp/ofrzyv  (Lauren's Blog - Screen capture from 
> networksolutions.co
> m)
>
> As you can see, there is no concept of community service, social
> responsibility, or even real "value-added" benefits.  The promotion
> for two TLDs is explicitly about *protection* -- as in protecting
> yourself from someone else grabbing those domains and making you look
> bad, confusing your customers, and worse -- whether you have any real
> interest in those TLDs or not.
>
> And this is *only the beginning*, my friends.
>
> --Lauren--
> Lauren Weinstein ([4]lauren at vortex.com): [5]http://www.vortex.com/lauren
> Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: [6]http://www.pfir.org
> Founder:
> - Network Neutrality Squad: [7]http://www.nnsquad.org
> - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: 
> [8]http://www.gctip.o
> rg
> - PRIVACY Forum: [9]http://www.vortex.com
> Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
> Blog: [10]http://lauren.vortex.com
> Google+: [11]http://vortex.com/g+lauren
> Twitter: [12]https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
> Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
>
> References
>
>   1. mailto:lauren at vortex.com
>   2. mailto:nnsquad at nnsquad.org
>   3. http://j.mp/ofrzyv
>   4. mailto:lauren at vortex.com
>   5. http://www.vortex.com/lauren
>   6. http://www.pfir.org/
>   7. http://www.nnsquad.org/
>   8. http://www.gctip.org/
>   9. http://www.vortex.com/
>  10. http://lauren.vortex.com/
>  11. http://vortex.com/g+lauren
>  12. https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
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