ICANN Screwing Up Domain Name System
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on June 21, 2006 at 1:27:10 PM
Yawn. ICANN isn't doing what it can to uphold privacy and to prevent cybersquatting. ICANN and the Domain Name System are both flawed (get rid of the top level domains).
By the way, I really don't care about these cybersquatting things. It is one thing when you own a trademark. It is another when you are suing people for variations or misspellings of a name. Tough, you didn't register it.
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All of these practices are costing honest businesses untold sums. The World Intellectual Property Organization reported earlier this year that the number of cybersquatting cases it handled rose 20 percent in 2005, and the disputes have involved most of the 100 largest international brands by value. Pharmaceutical, hospitality and telecommunications companies--all of which have a large number of customers who are harmed by online scams perpetrated by domain name registrants--are among the most aggressive enforcers of intellectual property online. Identifying, prioritizing and pursuing bad Web site owners already is a resource-consuming task for these companies; any new restrictions on the Whois system would only cost them and, therefore, their customers more.
By the way, I really don't care about these cybersquatting things. It is one thing when you own a trademark. It is another when you are suing people for variations or misspellings of a name. Tough, you didn't register it.