I think that if it is finished soon, we can create handouts and post the full statement on the website, and then do a shorter version for the presentation that just hits the high points.
What about IDNs and Registerfly statements?
Jacqueline
Quoting Siavash Shahshahani <shahshah@xxxxxxxx>:
> Izumi,
> Did you intend this to be for ALAC internal use or a statement to be put
> out? The language suggests internal use. We need a shorter more compact
> statement if Jacqueline is going to present it at the Public Forum.
> Siavash
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Here follows and attached is the third version. I messed up with the
>> wiki, changing the link page title made it impossible to keep the
>> history - thus this is a kind of new page now.
>> I will try to find ways to fix it... in the mean time. I changed
the
>> title from "Comments" to "Statement". We still need
more inputs and
>> reactions from you guys!
>>
>> Thanks,
>> izumi
>>
>> Here is the wiki URL:
>> https://st.icann.org/alac/index.cgi?al_2007_r_1
>>
>> ALAC STATEMENT ON DOMAIN TASTING AND MONETISATION AND THEIR IMPACTS
ON
>> THE INDIVIDUAL INTERNET USERS
>>
>> Version 1.3, Mar 28
>>
>> On behalf of the ordinary Internet users, the At-Large Advisory
>> Committee (ALAC), with inputs from the worldwide At-Large Structures
>> and other friends, would like to make the following statements on
>> Domain Tasting and Domain Monetization.
>>
>> We think Domain Tasting and Domain Monetization are two different
>> issues, though certain areas may have some relationship, and
therefore
>> we like to discuss them separately.
>>
>> The need to articulate the issue first for Domain Tasting
>> We assume that Domain Tasting utilizing the existing Five-day Add
>> Grace Period is an abuse that results in confusion of the ordinary
>> Internet users and gives an unfair advantage to speculators.
>>
>> At this point of time, we feel there still needs more concrete
>> information to prove these problems actually exist and are affecting
>> the ordinary users and their experience in using the Internet.
>>
>> ALAC will draft a formal request shortly to ask ICANN staff to
prepare
>> the Issue Report. At the same time, we like to work together with
>> other constituencies or groups who share the similar concern to come
>> to a consensus position.
>>
>> Upon receiving the Issue Report by the staff, GNSO must make the
>> decision whether a formal PDP is necessary or not.
>>
>> In addition, here are some possible actions you can do voluntarily
now:
>>
>> With the User Consituency, business and non-commercial:
>> Find the best ways to protect the interest of the end users, as
>> registrants as well as just as general users who do not register
>> domain names but just use domain names to communicate each other or
>> find useful information on Internet. How to provide safeguard for
the
>> domain names they registered, what are the rights of the
registrants,
>> for example.
>>
>> With the Registrars Constituency:
>> Finalize and implement Registrars Code of Conduct that prohibits
>> unfair speculation and exploitation on Domain name registration
>> including the use of five day Add Grace period. In case full
consensus
>> is difficult to achieve, some voluntary Code of Conduct or Best
>> Practice or some kind of Self-certification may be a good
alternative
>> to assure user confidence.
>>
>> With Registry Constituency: gTLD and ccTLDs
>> Consider how to avoid user confusion and unfair practices by
>> abolishing the five day add grace period. Adding small fee, such as
25
>> cents per Domain to those registrants who kept their names using add
>> grace period may be another solution.
>>
>> With ICANN Board:
>> We suggest ICANN Board to consider how to prohibit unfair
speculation,
>> enhance consumer trust to Domain Name registration system, for
>> example, initiating a third party study on the impact of Domain
>> Tasting and Domain Monetization/speculation to the ordinary Internet
>> users. ALAC is more than happy to assist such study,
>>
>>
>> On Domain Monetization
>> We note that there is a meaningful difference between Domain Tasting
>> and Domain Monetization. Monetization is a straightforward arbitrage
>> between the cost of domain registrations and the revenue from as
much
>> pay-per-click traffic as the domain owner can get from people who
>> visit web sites in the domain. It's a fundamentally sleazy business,
>> since the web sites have no useful content and the way they get the
>> traffic is basically by tricking people, either via typos or
recently
>> expired domains. More importantly, the presence of such website
makes
>> web-surfing by ordinary users far more difficult and confusing than
>> they should be.
>>
>> We do not think it is appropriate in this case to make ICANN as a
>> regulator to watch and prohibit the Domain Monetization practices
per
>> se. Instead, on behalf of ordinary Internet users, we call upon
those
>> commercial enterprises such as Google or Overture to take
appropriate
>> measures such as to stop paying for clicks on pages with no content,
>> thereby dealing with a problem that is not limited to typo and
expired
>> domains. We've seen click arbitrage, people buying Google ads to
drive
>> traffic to pages that are simply other Google ads. This kind of
>> self-generating traffic for pay-per-click advertising is confusing
and
>> unnecessary for ordinary Internet users and, in the long run, not
>> healthy for the development of Internet as a whole.
>>
>> Since Domain monetization is a relatively new phenomena, the impact
to
>> the ordinary users and the wider Internet community is hard to
measure
>> at this point. It seems clear, however, that it does not improve the
>> user experience at all. We think it is worth to keep watching on how
>> it develops and may seek for specific actions when we have clearer
>> understanding of measurable impact.
>>
>> Background and Rationale on Domain Tasting
>> "Domain tasting" is the term used to describe the use of the
five-day
>> add grace period to register domains without paying for them and
find
>> those domains which generate certain traffic for pay-per-click
>> advertisements. We think these are unfair acts: somewhere between
>> larceny and extortion, because the registration cost is zero and the
>> purpose of these registrations is just to make money by taking
>> advantage of automated bulk registration to exploit the domain
names,
>> which are in essence 'public goods', and not the real property of
>> anyone.
>>
>> As many people have noted, this practice is exploiting a loophole
that
>> shouldn't exist in the first place. There was a great deal of debate
>> both in the ICANN community about the deletion grace period, but
none
>> at all about add grace which was apparently tossed into the package
by
>> an ICANN staffer without asking anyone. So says Karl Auerbach, who
was
>> on the board at the time, and we haven't seen anything to the
contrary
>> from any other board member.
>>
>> As Bob Parsons, CEO and Founder of Go Daddy, wrote in his blog:
>> Millions of good .COM domain names ? on any given day over 3.5
million
>> and climbing ? are unfairly made unavailable to small businesses and
>> others who would actually register and use them in ways for which
the
>> names were intended. Many times businesses accidentally let their
>> domain names expire. When they go to renew them, they find they have
>> been snapped up ? and taken away with a huge expensive hassle to
>> follow ? by an add/drop registrar.
>>
>> The usual explanation of domain tasting says that the registrars
>> register millions of domains, watch the traffic, and then after 4.9
>> days they delete the ones that don't seem likely to make back the
>> US$6.00 registration fee. Often they just delete them all and then
>> reregister what they can a few minutes later until they find the
>> domains that produce enough traffic to yield a return well above the
>> registration fee.
>>
>> The add grace period is just a mistake. The problem it purports to
>> solve is not and never was an important one. If you let an important
>> domain expire, you risk losing the entire investment made in that
>> domain over many years. But if one registers a domain by mistake,
the
>> most one risks is the ten or twenty dollars you paid to register it.
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>>
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>> www.icannalac.org
>
>
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--
Jacqueline A. Morris
www.jacquelinemorris.com
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