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The Lowdown
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November 29, 2007
Post
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Here's the The Lowdown
from DNJournal.com! Updated daily to
fill you in on the latest buzz going around the domain name
industry!
Compiled
by Ron Jackson (Editor/Publisher)
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Dell
Computer has lowered the boom on three
obscure registrars who have been slapped with lawsuits
charging them with using serial domain tasting
tactics to register and profit from |
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domains that Dell says are
clear infringements of their trademark. The complaint
names BelgiumDomains, CapitolDomains and DomainDoorman,
along with nearly a dozen Caribbean "shell
companies" that allegedly served as the entities
registering the domains. The suit also names Juan
Pablo "JP" Vazquez, a Miami
resident who is alleged to be connected to those
companies.
As I have said in the past,
I would like to see the practice of domain tasting disappear
as I believe it has been extremely harmful to this
industry's image and tarred hundreds of honest domain
investors with the cybersquatter brush, even though
they've never engaged in the practice and do not condone
it. Dell's action |
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could drive a nail or two
in the domain tasting coffin, which would be fine by me,
but at the same time I think Dell has gone off course
in trying to bring "counterfeiting" charges
against the miscreants in this case. Dell did that
because the penalties for counterfeiting are far higher
than for trademark infringement - up to $1 million per
name instead of $100,000 - but it seems to be an
exceptionally flimsy application of the counterfeiting
law. Allowing misuse of the law to stand where it is not
applicable would set a very dangerous precedent. Frank
Schilling has some exceptionally insightful analysis
of this story (the kind you will never get from the
mainstream press), on his SevenMile
blog today that shows there are bad actors on all
sides in this case, including some that are not
named in the suit.
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Which leads me to
another comment. The domain business is too
complicated for the average man on the street to
understand, but I don't think it is too much to
ask mainstream journalists to make at
least some minimal effort to learn
something about their subject matter before
they print statements the public wrongly assumes
to be true. Instead they continue to perpetuate false
stereotypes that are hard to dispel. Just
the latest of many examples was an article at CNN.com
Wednesday in which author Kevin Voigt
wrote "The .Asia rollout shows in many ways
how the Wild West days are dwindling for
cyber-squatters - known as "domainers"
- to mine high-value names." Kevin has no
clue what the difference between a
cybersquatter and a domainer is, but that
doesn't stop him from equating them as one
and the same thing at an outlet like CNN.
That is simply unconscionable. Unfortunately,
this kind of ignorance is widespread and
all of us have our work cut out for us to
counteract it. A lot of "professional"
journalists at |
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traditional media
outlets wonder why the public is rejecting them
as "gatekeepers" for the news business
and increasingly turning to blogs - often
written by real experts in a given field, like
Schilling - when they want the truth. The
CNN story is a perfect example of why we are
seeing this seismic shift.
(Posted
Nov. 29, 2007) |
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