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

[Evan Leibovitch]

On 29 August 2011 16:59, Bret Fausett <bfausett at internet.law.pro> wrote:


> I have more sympathy for the idea that we should do something about the
> "pre-registration" racket, which we discussed in last week's thread, where
> the potential for consumer confusion/fraud is high. Here, we are dealing
> with an advertisement primarily aimed at businesses, so the potential for
> consumer confusion/fraud is substantially lower.
>


As I mentioned earlier, previous forays into convincing ALAC to escalate
this as a policy matter have received some pushback. The obstacles are not
insurmountable, but it's not a trivial selling job and well beyond my
abilities alone.

OTOH, treating this as a public education issue is meeting far less
resistance, A conversation has already started with Scott Pinzon and his
team, who have already produced the "ICANN Start" podcasts and are charged
with having the public to be as well informed as possible as the gTLDs start
rolling out. Scott had already been following the pre-reg issue and is happy
to work with us on an information campaign that alerts to the nature of
pre-registrations and seeks to warn customers away from them.

We may not easily or quickly be able to change regulations or enforcement,
especially if the offenders are not contractually linked to ICANN. But at
least we can do our best to ensure that potential customers go in with their
eyes open.

- Evan