Five-day domain name blunder
p2pnet.net news:- A five-day domain name grace period opened a huge window of opportunity, “akin to buying new clothes on a charge card only to return them for a full refund after wearing them to a big party,” says the Canadian Press.
Sharks were able to check out millions of names, “keeping the relative few that might generate advertising revenues and dropping the rest before paying,”
The five days were ear-marked so people could fix legitimate mistakes, such as registrants mistyping the domain name they are about to buy, says the story, going on, “But with computer automation and a burgeoning online advertising market, entrepreneurs have turned the return policy into a loophole for generating big bucks.”
Spammers and scam artists are also thought to have been starting to use the grace period as a source of free, disposable web addresses, says CP.
“The system really doesn’t work to the advantage of people who have legitimate reasons for wanting names,” the story has Frederick Felman, chief marketing officer with MarkMonitor, a brand-protection firm, saying. “It allows people with criminal or speculative intent to dominate.”
But Wang Lee Domains, a company specialising in tasting, said the practice was “perfectly legal” and brings “customers to the companies that advertise,” says the story.
“Critics of the system say VeriSign and ICANN both benefit from the thousands of names that are tasted and kept, collecting fees proportional to the number of names sold.”
The practice, meanwhile, shows no signs of waning, says CP, adding:
“A newer variant, sometimes called ‘kiting,’ involves the same company reregistering the same name every fourth or fifth day to hang onto it in perpetuity, without ever paying for it. Anti-spam experts also suggest that spammers and scam artists are turning to the loophole to register new names every couple of days to avoid detection.”
Also See:
Canadian Press – Entrepreneurs profit from internet domain loophole, February 20, 2007
If your Net access is blocked by government restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the end (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.
rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
