[NA-Discuss] Consumer information on domain "pre-registrations" -- well done
Beau Brendler
beaubrendler at earthlink.net
Thu Sep 1 21:18:49 UTC 2011
I wanted to share with the NA RALO this chain (below) that illustrates some
inspiring co-operation among RALO, ALAC and ICANN staff on communications
about the pre-registration issue.
There may have been a fair amount of to-ing and fro-ing with e-mails and
what not, but positive things emerged:
1. Results.
2. Opening up or strengthening issue communication to Scott Pinzon.
3. Stepping back and setting down some actual procedures for "bottom up"
policy communications.
Thanks Evan, Darlene, Scott, Olivier et al for a semi-grueling procecural
slog that hopefully will cut the work in half the next time around.
Beau
-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Scott Pinzon
Sent: Sep 1, 2011 5:06 PM
To: Beau Brendler , "Thompson,Darlene" , Evan Leibovitch
Cc: Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond , Cheryl Langdon-Orr , Seth Greene , Heidi
Ullrich , Michele Jourdan
Subject: Re: Consumer information on domain "pre-registrations"
Thanks for asking, Beau. The text I reproduced below was already cleared by
ICANNâs Legal Depât, so permission granted from my end.
Best,
Scott
On 9/1/11 1:38 PM, "Beau Brendler" <[1]beaubrendler at earthlink.net> wrote:
This is really great to see (not the bad behavior, of course, but us
working together and being responsive).
I would like permission to forward this exchange to the NA RALO list.
Beau
-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Pinzon
Sent: Sep 1, 2011 3:39 PM
To: "Thompson, Darlene" , Evan Leibovitch
Cc: Beau Brendler , Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond , Cheryl Langdon-Orr , Seth
Greene , Heidi Ullrich , Michele Jourdan
Subject: Re: Consumer information on domain "pre-registrations"
Re: Consumer information on domain "pre-registrations" Wow, and here we go
again:
[2]http://www.key-systems.net/press/next_big_dot_thing.php
(with a link from there to:)
[3]http://www.preorderyourdomain.com/
Nine thousand+ âpre-ordersâ of non-existent domains. Compliance Depât and
the Registrar Liaison have been made aware of this one, too.
I repeat: thanks for surfacing the issue. I will bump up the user
education materials a couple of notches in our lengthy queue of materials
to create.
Best Regards,
Scott
On 9/1/11 11:14 AM, "Thompson, Darlene" <[4]DThompson1 at GOV.NU.CA> wrote:
Thank you to Evan for brining this forward to Scott and thank you so much
Scott for having this attended to so quickly!
Darlene
NARALO Secretariat
Darlene A. Thompson
Community Access Program Administrator
Nunavut Dept. of Education / N-CAP
P.O. Box 1000, Station 910
Iqaluit, NU X0A 0H0
Phone: (867) 975-5631
Fax: (867) 975-5610
E-mail: [5]dthompson at gov.nu.ca <[6]mailto:dthompson at gov.nu.ca>
From: Scott Pinzon [[7]mailto:scott.pinzon at icann.org]
Sent: Thursday, September 01, 2011 1:58 PM
To: Evan Leibovitch
Cc: Beau Brendler; Thompson, Darlene; Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond; Cheryl
Langdon-Orr; Seth Greene; Heidi Ullrich; Michele Jourdan
Subject: Re: Consumer information on domain "pre-registrations"
Hi Evan,
Your United Domains example was really helpful. I have interacted with the
ICANN Compliance Department, who responds in part:
Scott, Thank you for bringing this to my attention. We will work with the
registrar in question to make sure that they address the confusion about
ICANN registrar accreditation and pre-registrations in speculative new
gTLDs. ICANN has not authorized anyone to offer such pre-registrations.
Our compliance and registrar liaison teams will work to make sure that
registrars understand this, and we will be happy to work with the
communications team on ways to better educate the public as suggested by
Evan.
In the spirit of the thread earlier, ICANN will send the word out to all
registrars (not merely United Domains) that they shouldnât offer
âpre-registrationsâ and that claiming one is authorized to do so because
the organization is âICANN-accreditedâ is off limits.
This is not the end of this issue, but itâs a constructive step; thanks
again for putting the issue front and center.
Best Regards,
Scott
On 8/29/11 11:45 AM, "Evan Leibovitch" <[8]evan at telly.org> wrote:
Hi Scott,
Thanks for the quick reply.
So, next step where I would deeply appreciate ALAC help is if you can
provide examples of such pre-registration offers being made. This will
help us know how to outline our educational materials, as weâll know what
kinds of tricks and come-ons are being attempted.
The example of pre-registration which prompted the most recent policy
discussions in NARALO is United Domains
<[9]https://www.uniteddomains.com/ntld/pre-register-new-domains> .
While this is indeed a specific example, I am concerned that concentrating
on one specific instance may simply lead to a game of "whack-a-mole", in
which one effort may go away just to be followed by another. In addition
to specific examples I think it's necessary to alert the public to the
practice in general, as the effort will most certainly appear in
marketplaces outside our direct view.
And thanks, Beau, for offering to share the load on this -- and I hope you
get your electricity back soon. :-)
- Evan
On 29 August 2011 13:49, Scott Pinzon <[10]scott.pinzon at icann.org> wrote:
Hi Evan,
Thanks for reaching out to me with your email.
We are on the same page regarding this issue. I believe that the scope of
ICANNâs communications about new gTLDs should include end-user education
about potential frauds such as you describe. Since ICANNâs official stance
is that no proposed new gTLD can be assumed to exist in the future until
it goes through all the evaluations described in the Applicant Guidebook,
of course reserving second-level domain names under non-existent top-level
domains is improper.
Iâve been keeping half an eye on this issue since I first saw a YouTube
video from a fly-by-night company offering reservations in non-existent
proposed TLDs. By the time I had alerted other ICANN staff about the
issue, the YouTube video had been taken down, and the site it pointed to
was also gone.
So, next step where I would deeply appreciate ALAC help is if you can
provide examples of such pre-registration offers being made. This will
help us know how to outline our educational materials, as weâll know what
kinds of tricks and come-ons are being attempted.
Thanks again for raising the issue, and I look forward to working
cooperatively with At-Large in defense of the Internetâs individual users.
Best Regards,
Scott
On 8/26/11 9:29 PM, "Evan Leibovitch" <[11]evan at telly.org
<[12]http://evan@telly.org> > wrote:
Hi Scott,
Currently in NARALO (the North American region of At-Large) a significant
concern has been raised about the concept of "pre-registrations" ... that
is, some companies are offering to reserve for potential registrants,
domains in TLDs that don't yet exist (but are expected to be approved in
the new gTLD process).
Some in At-Large believe that offering non-existent domains constitutes a
form of consumer fraud, even if no money changes hands initially. Others
are concerned that if the companies doing this are neither registries,
registrars or gTLD applicants and they are beyond reach of ICANN
regulatory mechanisms.
While this issue is currently under debate as related to ICANN policy, I
am wondering if I can interest you in it, as part of your mandate to have
the public better educated about the domain registration process. Would it
be possible to do some kind of public ICANN information that at very least
describes what pre-registration is (and what it is not), from the point of
view of having more-aware registrants? Whether or not there is escalation
for ICANN to do anything at a regulatory or policy level, perhaps we can
at least tackle the educational component of this issue -- whether
pre-registrations are legally fraud or not, they are most certainly (in my
opinion at least) a significant source of registrant confusion. Some
trusted factual information is certainly appropriate as a minimum.
What do you think?
PS: While I an a NARALO member and ALAC Vice-Chair, I am writing this on
my own initiative as a personal request for your consideration based on my
involvement in the issue so far. Should you be interested to pursue this
further there are others far better versed on the issue than I to assist
with the educational process.
Evan Leibovitch, Toronto Canada
Em: evan at telly dot org
Sk: evanleibovitch
Tw: el56
References
1. file://localhost/tmp/beaubrendler@earthlink.net
2. http://www.key-systems.net/press/next_big_dot_thing.php
3. http://www.preorderyourdomain.com/
4. file://localhost/tmp/DThompson1@GOV.NU.CA
5. file://localhost/tmp/dthompson@gov.nu.ca
6. mailto:dthompson at gov.nu.ca
7. mailto:scott.pinzon at icann.org
8. file://localhost/tmp/evan@telly.org
9. https://www.uniteddomains.com/ntld/pre-register-new-domains
10. file://localhost/tmp/scott.pinzon@icann.org
11. file://localhost/tmp/evan@telly.org
12. http://evan@telly.org/
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