CircleID

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The Death of TLD Front Running

• Comment posted Dec 01, 2011 5:47 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  It's not quite true, Mike, that these front-running games are over, since there are many banana republics out there that can be used. It's amusing to see that theDot Communications is represented by active ICANN participant Mike Rodenbaugh, who is…

Underneath the Hood: Ownership vs. Stewardship of the Internet

• Comment posted Aug 24, 2011 4:08 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  I agree with Dr. Claffy's essay and points. ICANN's processes are clearly broken when the voices of a few self-serving entities outweigh those of the greater public. ICANN models itself after the regime of Muammar Gadaffi, with top-down decisions from…

Kudos to ccTLD Registries for Taking Measures to Improve Security

• Comment posted Aug 11, 2011 4:50 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  It would be nice if CIRA offered this for .ca domain names.

ICANN Hubris Knows No Ends

• Comment posted Jun 19, 2011 5:41 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  It's nice to see that you acknowledge that ICANN's proposal is going to be gamed. The Ascended TLDs Proposal that I put forward would reduce gaming considerably at the top level. The trademark for "SEX" in the class of decorative…

Last Minute Surge of Opposition to VeriSign .NET Auto Renewal

• Comment posted May 17, 2011 1:38 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  It's incorrect to state that "What evidently wasn't apparent at the time — as nobody appears to have commented on it, that the wording in these contracts actually gave them control in perpetuity." I wrote an article on ICANNWatch at…

Who is Wagging Who? Same Dog, New Tale.

• Comment posted May 04, 2011 7:17 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Discussions are pointless, Adrian, if they don't lead to acceptable changes in the proposed policies. ICANN "holds the pen" in terms of drafting proposals, and those self-serving proposals are simply unacceptable. Their own economists were not allowed to consider alternative…

ICANN's New gTLD Double Standard?

• Comment posted Mar 02, 2011 1:18 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  It's time for ICANN to see the writing on the wall, and abandon their current approach. I'm against new TLDs. However, if one was going to go down that path, there are certainly far better approaches that could benefit the…

A Tribute to the STI (Special Trademarks Initiative Team)

• Comment posted Feb 22, 2011 7:56 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  The ICANN Board then went and cut the URS response time from 20 days to 14 days. Where were the comments from the STI and/or its individual members in blasting that decision, which will hurt legitimate registrants? Nowhere. Indeed, some…

On the Introduction of new Top Level Domains into the Domain Name System

• Comment posted Feb 19, 2011 3:04 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Vint: How would you respond to the W3C Technical Architecture Group and Tim Berners-Lee paper "New top level domains considered harmful” (with my notes here)? ICANN appears to have ignored the existence of that paper (which was opposed to new…

Rod Beckstrom, Twiki and the Foswiki fork - ICANN Must "Get Things Right" on New TLDs

• Comment posted Jan 19, 2011 1:27 am PST — by George Kirikos
  We're going around in circles, because in order to get a "consistent" system, there ultimately needs to be just one authority at the very top, one basic parameter that we all agree upon (you even used the word "we"). Instead…

• Comment posted Jan 18, 2011 10:44 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Karl: Thanks for your comment. The two examples you provide of temporal changes and changes via geography/client are both under control of the owner of the domain name. To that extent, there's no problem under the existing single root (i.e.…

ICANN's Governance Conundrum

• Comment posted Dec 04, 2010 6:22 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Of course, precise language is important when it comes to some contracts, e.g. between ICANN and registrars/registries and others who engage in massive gaming. But, when the DOC has a huge stick (termination of the IANA contract), they don't need…

• Comment posted Dec 04, 2010 6:20 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Yes, I agree they've likely been in breach of the AoC on multiple occasions alread, as they've been extremely sloppy in not doing the required cost/benefit analysis for many other decisions besides the one you mentioned. However, implicit in any…

• Comment posted Dec 04, 2010 5:21 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Nice try, Richard, but the complete language is clearly pre-implementation (Michael quoted the full text). What point is there to do analysis only after a decision has already been made, when the proverbial horse has already left the barn? As…

NAF Panelists and Complainants Caught Systematically Copying/Pasting Nonsense Into UDRP Decisions

• Comment posted Oct 07, 2010 10:43 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  I'm wondering whether Section 15.(a) of the UDRP rules would bar would NAF is allegedly doing. In particular it says: 15. Panel Decisions (a) A Panel shall decide a complaint on the basis of the statements and documents submitted and…

• Comment posted Oct 07, 2010 10:20 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  I find it shocking that "in-house staffers" are drafting NAF decisions. Thanks for a glimpse into the "sausage factory", Brett. Does WIPO do the same?

Three Things Registrars Must Do to Enhance Security

• Comment posted Aug 10, 2010 1:02 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  No, I fully appreciate that financially-motivated criminals are ruthlessly economic, and respond to higher operating costs by adjusting their behaviour. The costs of having a criminal create a verified WHOIS would be much higher than that of a non-criminal. For…

• Comment posted Aug 09, 2010 6:16 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Thanks for gently reminding registrars that they need to raise the bar on security in a proactive manner to protect registrants. While SAC040 came out last year, there was an earlier report 5 years ago that covered many of the…

NAF Caught Revising Past UDRP Decisions?

• Comment posted Jun 16, 2010 3:33 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  If you read the decision (and the linked articles), that might bring you up to speed on the issues, Jeff. This was not a mere "typo." This was a "smoking gun" which led to other sloppy cut/paste work being discovered…

For ICANN, a New Path Toward an Old Goal

• Comment posted Jun 02, 2010 8:08 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  CPI

• Comment posted Jun 02, 2010 7:56 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  When you wrote "restrain ICANN's budget growth to 10% per year", I had to laugh. If you think a budget that doubles every 7 years is "restraint", you should study economics instead of law. That's the kind of statement one…

When Registrars Look the Other Way, Drug-Dealers Get Paid

• Comment posted May 13, 2010 5:45 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  <blockquote>Our experience leads us to believe that those who argue as you do have a vested interest in keeping the status quo<blockquote> Once again, you've not been paying attention. You can wordsmith all you like, but the implication is clear.…

• Comment posted May 13, 2010 5:29 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Not true. Verisign is a registry. eNom is a registrar. Different entities, different rules. Wrong again. Both are US companies, subject to US laws. While their ICANN rules are different, they both must comply with US law. We are using…

• Comment posted May 13, 2010 4:51 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Again, whois data accuracy is part of the RAA. No one is arguing that it isn't. WHOIS accuracy is a registrar obligation. The due process (procedures involved) in policing the behaviour of their users is what we're debating, and you…

• Comment posted May 13, 2010 4:40 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  haha Garth. Go back and read what the choices were, they were clearly: (A) illegal (B) legal, but still "bad" Now you're trying say that something was both "illegal" and legal??!!?? I give up trying to convince you of anything,…

• Comment posted May 13, 2010 4:05 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  haha Funny, Bob. "I am sure you do not see any crime committed by eNom (and others) because you do not want to." Do you actually think I'm a *fan* of either eNom or VeriSign? You've not paid attention to…

• Comment posted May 13, 2010 3:59 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Your link to the ICANN article about "Worst Spam Offenders" proved my point, not yours. In particular, the "crux" was the violation of WHOIS accuracy requirements. This had absolutely nothing to do about the use of the relevant domains. ICANN…

The Sad State of WHOIS, and Why Criminals Love It

• Comment posted May 13, 2010 3:19 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Verified WHOIS is the solution. I've been advocating this for years, e.g. see most recently our comments in relation to the WHOIS accuracy study. It's a proactive solution, inexpensive to implement, maintains a level-playing field amongst registrars, and eliminates abuse…

When Registrars Look the Other Way, Drug-Dealers Get Paid

• Comment posted May 13, 2010 3:08 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  lol That's really funny, Bob. "The others have either been terminated or have complied with the RAA." It's doubtful any of them were terminated for activities of their registrant clients, but instead for unrelated issues (e.g. non-payment, etc.). If eNom…

• Comment posted May 12, 2010 7:42 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  I look forward to your sequel re: prostitution and ICANN. "When ICANN Looks the Other Way, Johns Get Laid" (yes, it rhymes, *takes a bow*)

• Comment posted May 12, 2010 7:13 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Now you've trapped yourself. You say above "it's the registrar's contractual duty." There's a simple way for you to make your case. If you believe any registrar is not in compliance with the RAA, there's an ICANN compliance department that…

• Comment posted May 12, 2010 6:12 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Your "reasoning" consists of the following: "If you're not with us, then you're against us." Or alternatively, "If you're not actively going to stop a certain abuse from happening, even when it's not your duty, then you must be a…

• Comment posted May 11, 2010 4:55 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  You don't seem to "get it." Just because they're a registrar doesn't mean they "support" something. If one followed your line of "reasoning" (if one could call it that) a drug dealer or a criminal who shops for groceries at…

• Comment posted May 11, 2010 2:20 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Just for the record, I'm not a Ph.D. (yet!). I completed all the coursework, but never did a dissertation as I got distracted by business ventures. Perhaps one day I'll go back and finish it up. And, this wasn't a…

• Comment posted May 06, 2010 2:46 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  Good point re: the word "sponsor" appearing in the RAA. Whoever drafted the RAA should consult a dictionary, as the lay definition of "sponsor" means something totally different than what they're trying to suggest in the contract. Typical ICANN lack…

• Comment posted May 06, 2010 12:02 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  P.S. Repeatedly calling registrars "sponsors" is a total misuse of the word "sponsor." Ask GoDaddy if they consider themselves a "sponsor" of Knujon.org, or NSI if they are a "sponsor" of sex.com. They're simply registrars.

• Comment posted May 05, 2010 11:55 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  State and Provincial pharmacy boards ARE the enforcement for pharmacy. In this case the enforcement body contacted eNom (DemandMedia) and they didn't comply. If their efforts at "enforcement" stop at letters, then they are toothless. This is the reason why…

NAF Panelists and Complainants Caught Systematically Copying/Pasting Nonsense Into UDRP Decisions

• Comment posted May 04, 2010 10:56 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  The good folks at NAF caught with the old copy/paste again! There was a recent UDRP regarding AdventureRV.com where the complainant not only lost, but was found to have engaged in Reverse Domain Name Hijacking. However, in NAF's index of…

The Domain Aftermarket Redux: Are Domainers "Investors" Yet?

• Comment posted May 01, 2010 4:47 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Docs.com and Today.com were recently acquired by Microsoft. While some might think that domains don't matter, take a look at what the big dogs are doing....their actions speak loudly.

NAF Panelists and Complainants Caught Systematically Copying/Pasting Nonsense Into UDRP Decisions

• Comment posted Apr 27, 2010 9:07 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Martin: With respect, these decisions had the registrants all prevail because by definition the phrase that I was searching for was that specific result (i.e. I only noticed it because the phrase was highly unusual). Clearly, we all know the…

• Comment posted Apr 23, 2010 5:59 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  DomainNameWire is covering the story too. I think NAF and ICANN need to do some explaining.

Domain Registry/Registrar Cross Ownership: A Reality Check

• Comment posted Sep 01, 2009 8:09 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  This entire registry-registrar separation issue is a sideshow, a distraction from the real issue, namely price caps and tiered pricing. When VeriSign owned NSI, .com prices were $6/yr. Now, they've gone higher, even though VeriSign doesn't own NSI anymore, due…

ICANN Blows $4.6 Million In Stock Market

• Comment posted Aug 31, 2009 10:00 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Folks who follow the ICANN Blog will note that I asked why the investment losses weren't updated monthly. Kieren wrote in the comments "That said, I will look into whether the note accompanying the figures is also updated monthly." Instead,…

Advocating for Domain Name Registry-Registrar Separation

• Comment posted Jun 21, 2009 7:03 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  It's clear the incumbent registry operators want to maintain the separation in order to reduce the number of entities who are able to put forth their own new TLD applications (i.e. to prevent eNom, Pool, NSI, GoDaddy and others from…

How is ICANN Spending Your Money?

• Comment posted Jun 19, 2009 2:20 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Being called "incompetent" by someone who doesn't know what they're talking about is a compliment, thank you. Yet again, you have no numbers, no references, no links, no citations. You were upset in the previous thread that you've never published…

• Comment posted Jun 19, 2009 1:04 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  David: I did do the fair comparison. Take a look at the year-over-year salary increases that I linked to, and the numbers are all there to make the comparison. Just because you're not convinced doesn't mean much. If Twomey was…

• Comment posted Jun 19, 2009 12:08 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Once again, David, you've not read what I've written. The numbers are the facts. They speak plainly. Nice dodge of the DomainNameWire.com story of how DomainNews.com works, by the way. What "facts" have you introduced to support your arguments? None!…

• Comment posted Jun 18, 2009 11:34 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Kieren: re-read the links above where you claimed "abuse" before about Mac stories and commentary. You don't play the victim well. If you wish to keep this thread alive, keep replying with your disinformation. Anyone can watch the DC videos…

Most Popular Invalid TLDs Should Be Reserved

• Comment posted Jun 18, 2009 8:56 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Just to followup, if one looks at stats for the K-root server, operated by RIPE, .local is more popular than .org, and .home is more popular than .de, .pl, .it, .uk and other large ccTLDs. .lan is more popular than…

How is ICANN Spending Your Money?

• Comment posted Jun 18, 2009 1:09 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Only you would consider ICANN to be in the same league as the Gates Foundation. Your question has been asked and answered. NTIA/DOC/DOJ, universities, hospitals, and the military are much more comparable. It's you that wishes to put your head…

• Comment posted Jun 18, 2009 5:06 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  Brett: Go watch the testimony in DC linked to above — the politicians brought up the $4.6 million, and they brought up Twomey's salary, and so on. It was a joy to watch (unless one happens to work at ICANN).…

• Comment posted Jun 18, 2009 4:48 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  ICANN staffers don't play the role of "victim" well. Was Twomey experiencing "personal abuse" in DC, by your twisted definition? Whenever someone asks a tough question or points out inconvenient truths, the typical ICANN response is to deny, obfuscate, run…

• Comment posted Jun 18, 2009 4:09 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  What a surprise, Kieren comes to help out David — deja vu all over again. Impress me and find someone not on ICANN's payroll or a consultant or a self-interested party seeking ICANN's favour to defend your views. The Form…

• Comment posted Jun 18, 2009 2:30 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  Robin Gross of the NCUC certainly is familiar with non-profits. She appears to agree with me calling the level of salaries "stunning." While stunning can sometimes be used as a compliment, I don't think she intended it in that manner.…

ICANN Blows $4.6 Million In Stock Market

• Comment posted Mar 12, 2009 8:42 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  You've misread the chart. $4.462 million was not the size of the loss, $4.6 million was, by ICANN's own numbers (now up to $4.7 million if you visit the current dashboard updated as of January 31, 2009 and check their…

• Comment posted Feb 27, 2009 1:55 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  ICANN has sunk to another low. In the main article above, there was a bar chart indicating the $4.6 million loss. In the most recent dashboard (Updated Financials as of January 31, 2009), the bar chart with the investment losses…

Threat of Tiered Pricing Continues in New gTLD Guidebook Version 2

• Comment posted Feb 19, 2009 10:48 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Renewal price caps are a basic protection mechanism, and would be a start towards increased price protection. However, they are not enough. In particular, registry operators would be incented to find ways to get valuable domain names deleted, so that…

Your Comments Front and Center in ICANN New gTLD Process

• Comment posted Feb 19, 2009 7:05 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Nice try, but that's simply saying "trust us, we'll take care of those issues later." I encourage folks to re-read the analysis and comments of the NTIA/DOJ. Page 1 says "ICANN needs to complete this economic study and the results…

• Comment posted Feb 19, 2009 6:12 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  As noted in my article posted today, ICANN has definitely ignored the comments of the public. Even the comments of the NTIA/DOJ were ignored. That is why, for example, registry operators are seeing even more favourable contract terms (e.g. lower…

ICANN Blows $4.6 Million In Stock Market

• Comment posted Feb 12, 2009 12:45 am PST — by George Kirikos
  ICANN has opened up a Question Box for Mexico City's meeting. Here's the question I just asked of them. Why did ICANN use its emergency reserve fund to speculate in financial markets, losing a reported $4.6 million? Emergency reserves are…

• Comment posted Feb 11, 2009 12:04 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Unrealised losses are certainly just as "real" as realised ones, given these are all highly liquid traded securities. The mark-to-market value is real. It's only an ostrich with their head in the sand who would see any difference between them.…

• Comment posted Feb 09, 2009 6:32 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  ICANN posted its Strategic Plan today. Page 6 lists their priorities. Bottom of the list? "Ensure financial accountability, stability and responsibility." They should be comedians.

• Comment posted Feb 06, 2009 3:45 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Lesley: I'm sure John wasn't referring to "cash" in the literal sense of under the mattress cash or non-interest bearing chequing accounts, but instead the broader category of highly liquid and safe investments that would include government insured short-term bank…

• Comment posted Feb 05, 2009 8:53 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  I did a search with Google, and could not find any public comment period or public consultation associated with the Investment Policy. Thus, it would appear the blame falls squarely upon the folks who crafted it and approved it. Going…

• Comment posted Feb 05, 2009 6:50 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  By the way, if the reserve fund is truly for "rainy days" the Board Finance Committee, the entire Board, and the outside financial adviser should not be using a 5-year time horizon when assessing risk. That's incompetence, plain and simple.…

• Comment posted Feb 05, 2009 6:25 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  As you were looking for specific constructive suggestions, there really are only two possibilities: A. Return the funds to registrants (through lower fees), or B. Kill the investment policy, and put all funds into government guaranteed short-term investments. If one…

• Comment posted Feb 05, 2009 3:52 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Mark, if you still have any sway at CIRA, perhaps you can get them to stop making voluntary ccTLD contributions to ICANN that will just be squandered. According to the latest report for the year ending June 2008, CIRA contributed…

• Comment posted Feb 04, 2009 7:24 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Martin, it goes back to the basic premise as to whether the funds were for emergency contingencies (like people who put aside 6 months of expenses in case they lose their job), or are an endowment (like Harvard's endowment, a…

• Comment posted Feb 04, 2009 6:51 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Why doesn't it surprise me that VeriSign alumni are so poor at basic math? The fund started at $25 million. The loss is $4.6 million. 4.6 divided by 25 = 0.184 or 18.4%. 22.54%, by contrast, is the gain that…

Logical Deduction on Why New TLDs Will Not Increase Costs for Trademark Holders

• Comment posted Feb 04, 2009 3:26 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  I find these multiple attempts to suggest that new gTLDs aren't milking defensive registrations very amusing. Indeed, some people openly factor that into their calculations: I have to think you could bump into a couple thousand of those just from…

ICANN Uses For-Profit Companies as "Comparables" in Its Employee Compensation

• Comment posted Jan 13, 2009 4:20 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Joe: It seems some of these folks simply parrot uninformed and poor analysis from sources like 60 Minutes. One can read a complete rebuttal to such garbage reporting from places like Seeking Alpha. These so-called evil speculators that some of…

• Comment posted Jan 12, 2009 9:39 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Jon: I at least attempted to use metrics for the Fellowship program, namely their participation in the issues of the day. You instead propose no metrics, which is they typical ICANN strategy of "declare success, because we don't bother to…

PIR's Anti-Abuse Policy for .ORG Offers No Due Process for Innocent Domain Registrants

• Comment posted Jan 12, 2009 8:32 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Joe: Yes, and that's not the definition of the US government for the CAN-SPAM Act. Whether one agrees or disagrees with that law, if PIR's definition of spam (which is not known, as they've not defined what spam is) deviates…

ICANN Uses For-Profit Companies as "Comparables" in Its Employee Compensation

• Comment posted Jan 12, 2009 8:10 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  ICANN might want to take note of the brouhaha over at the California Avocado commission where folks are up in arms over $1.5 million in questionable spending. "It's incredibly blatant," said Mike Reardon, who has 140 avocado trees in Fallbrook,…

• Comment posted Jan 12, 2009 5:39 am PST — by George Kirikos
  What happened is an example of moral hazard, due to poor policy decisions by the Fed, combined with bad government policies and lax regulation. The Fed had a history of lowering interest rates far too low when things got bad,…

• Comment posted Jan 12, 2009 4:37 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Jon: Lower prices benefit all consumers. We're not talking about $5, but $400 million in aggregate, per year. If someone builds a "bridge to nowhere" that cost $400 million, that's "only" $1.33 per US citizen in your eyes. By your…

• Comment posted Jan 11, 2009 11:55 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  $7/yr is certainly exorbitant when under competition (i.e. tender process for management of .com or any registry, as the US Department of Justice recommends would maximize consumer benefits) fees would be $2/yr or even less. As for oil speculators, didn't…

• Comment posted Jan 11, 2009 8:30 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Some folks use the phrase "domaineer", but there's no pidgeonhole that really fits. Is CNET a domainer for owning Kids.com that is parked? Or Yahoo a domainer for owning contests.com that is parked currently? If they don't want to sell…

ICANN's gTLD Proposal Hits a Wall: Now What?

• Comment posted Jan 11, 2009 7:15 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  I doubt think ICANN has that level of sophistication to have engaged in such deep thought as "reaching for the concept of “multistakeholderism” advocated by the United Nations." It's more likely they simply see new gTLDs as a new cash…

ICANN Uses For-Profit Companies as "Comparables" in Its Employee Compensation

• Comment posted Jan 11, 2009 2:29 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  We're not "domainers" (although some folks falsely classify us that way, it appears including you). We own domains used for development of websites now and into the future. Even "domainers" are entitled to low cost registrations, just like any other…

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 11:51 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  ICANN staff has so much spare time on their hands, they spend it researching my political beliefs about Obama.

PIR's Anti-Abuse Policy for .ORG Offers No Due Process for Innocent Domain Registrants

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 8:02 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Right, EFF would be concerned if a political site (Democrat or Republican or probably anyone) got shut down if it sent out 10 billion bulk emails to people around the world. That's not "spam" in their eyes. Others feel that…

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 7:36 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Right, Joe. I was actually talking about this to someone earlier today about this topic. From an article in Forbes ""There's no legal definition," says Danny O'Brien, a spam law analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Spam is in the…

2008: A Historic Year for DNS

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 5:06 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Alexa: I responded to your comment in the other topic thread where you made the identical comment (perhaps best to take up the discussion there instead, or feel free to email/phone if you'd ever like to discuss the actual language,…

PIR's Anti-Abuse Policy for .ORG Offers No Due Process for Innocent Domain Registrants

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 4:56 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Alexa: With all due respect, the language of the new policy is overly broad (see all the comments above, and on the linked forums). I'm familiar with 3.6.5, and thankfully that provision is not in the .com agreement, but was…

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 5:20 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Well, nothing's stopping PIR from participating in a discussion. The fact they just thrust it upon registrars without seeking any input from the public says it all. They didn't even have the courage to post about it on their blog…

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 5:00 am PST — by George Kirikos
  I do agree that a properly worded policy could and should be in place, just like we have the UDRP and other policies. If it would only apply to "bad" registrars (e.g. it would never be applied to GoDaddy, NSI,…

2008: A Historic Year for DNS

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 4:40 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Alexa: You mention the Kentucky case, and the dangerous precedent it creates. Yet, PIR is adopting an anti-abuse policy that gives itself the same powers as Kentucky has asserted. Where are the safeguards and due process in that anti-abuse policy…

PIR's Anti-Abuse Policy for .ORG Offers No Due Process for Innocent Domain Registrants

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 4:14 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Suresh: You're preaching to the choir here. I'm against spam and other abuse as much as you are, probably more. Even today someone sent a XSS/phishing email to me. I got the site shut down almost instantly reporting it to…

• Comment posted Jan 09, 2009 3:27 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Suresh: I rely upon the words in the actual policy, legal contracts that spell out one's rights and responsibilities. I don't rely upon the sole discretion of a registry operator who says "trust us." The registry operators take great care…

ICANN Uses For-Profit Companies as "Comparables" in Its Employee Compensation

• Comment posted Jan 08, 2009 12:46 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Suresh: Correct, David missed my "punchline" which was the next sentence, in the context of SiteFinder, namely "At least with the ITU, we don't have paid jingles appearing when we misdial a telephone number.” Given the recent analysis of Deborah…

ICANN's gTLD Proposal Hits a Wall: Now What?

• Comment posted Jan 07, 2009 10:49 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Kieren: You're simply an apologist for ICANN at this point, trying to be a spin-doctor. People can see through that. Is Michael a troll now for saying above that "In the private sector, someone would have already lost their job…

• Comment posted Jan 07, 2009 9:47 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  I don't always often agree with Michael, but in this case he makes a good analysis that I generally agree with (with a few minor differences). If Kieren's attitude of denial in this regard is typical of ICANN staff and…

ICANN Uses For-Profit Companies as "Comparables" in Its Employee Compensation

• Comment posted Jan 07, 2009 8:28 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: You've made my point for me. You said they "MUST include all factors including salaries AND other conditions." I'm not disputing that at all --- that's what I'm arguing for! And the factor that MUST be included is whether…

• Comment posted Jan 07, 2009 8:02 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: You speak as if ICANN workers are in some deep coal mine shaft, in some "really bad conditions" that are so unique that they've never been encoutered before. That's simply a joke, as anyone can attest. They work in,…

• Comment posted Jan 07, 2009 7:25 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: You're making the assumption that I'm trying to convince you. This is false. You've already said "we'll never agree." I'm speaking above you to the audience that is reading this debate, and they don't have the blinders on that…

• Comment posted Jan 07, 2009 7:01 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: Are you pretending to be obtuse, or is this some form of denial? Eventually, you'll reach the point of "acceptance", passing through the various stages of grief over a losing position. The only thing that has been "pointless" is…

• Comment posted Jan 07, 2009 3:08 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Has Kieren changed ICANN, or has ICANN changed Kieren? You used to enjoy rants, espeically about ICANN. I read a wonderful one by you written about ICANN before you joined their payroll. Your original is still on your blog, but…

• Comment posted Jan 07, 2009 2:05 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: Are you saying they don't have webmasters at universities, hospitals, NTIA, DOC, DOJ? They don't have policy makers at the USPTO who go to conferences all over the world on intellectual property? ISI wasn't doing much of the work…

• Comment posted Jan 07, 2009 1:33 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Kieren: You should re-read your personal blog post from 2 years ago, when you decided to take the job at ICANN. Especially the part: I also feared that taking a job with ICANN would be a cop-out. I have seen…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 11:10 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Frankly, it's an insult to many fine universities, government agencies and other non-profits to compare them with the utter failure that is ICANN. ICANN staff pay should be in the bottom quartile of that range, reflecting their history of low…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 8:18 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Bernard: According to the Terms and Conditions of the Fellowship program, "Each Fellow is required to submit a summary report to ICANN within two weeks following the end of the Fellowship." ICANN has never posted those reports — I expect…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 6:20 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  McTim: You appear to be confused about the meaning of percentile rank. These are not percentage discount rates — when one is in the 50th to 75th percentile, it means one's pay is in the top half of comparable salaries.…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 8:55 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: I've seen your technewsreview.com.au site — my info is so superior to that, I have no need to even monitor your site or subscribe to its RSS feed. Thank you Google Alerts plus a personal network that sends me…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 8:16 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Nice try, David, I've more than demonstrated the quality of my research, both here and in the past. You're continuing to argue religious beliefs, instead of economic reality that the comparables should have been the non-profits (like universities, government agencies,…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 7:32 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: According to your profile at DomainNews.com: Since 2002 David has operated an online media monitoring service dealing with internet governance issues, and in particular domain names. Clients include ICANN and a number of registries and registrars around the world.…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 5:09 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: You're essentially making religious and moral arguments that for-profit and non-profit compensation should be the same. Wake up and smell the coffee, they're not. Whether they "should" be is out of scope and is best left to philosophers. You…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 4:30 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: I don't have to work on a farm to know that if you leave a box of cookies open in a pig pen, the pigs will eat every single last one. These are not "second-class" citizens working in India…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 3:55 am PST — by George Kirikos
  David: Clearly you see this as an emotional and moral issue when you toss in terms like "not worthy" or "second class citizens." This is simple economics, that's all. Everyone can argue that so-and-so "deserves" more (indeed, Marx wrote about…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 3:09 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Kieren: The self-serving comments of a handful of prospective new gTLD operators who want to go "faster" before the public's views are expressed fully doesn't achieve a "consensus." Anyone can read all the comments that were posted and determine what…

• Comment posted Jan 06, 2009 1:42 am PST — by George Kirikos
  Kieren, your response is laughable. Let's take a few of them on: 1) To describe a non-profit using for-profit comparables when determining compensation practices as "standard" is beyond belief. It would be "bizarre, bordering on silly" to NOT expect criticism…

• Comment posted Jan 05, 2009 10:48 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Just as a quick followup, to give some quantitative numbers, the differences between for-profit and non-profit salaries can be quite significant. For example, see the bottom of the article at: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/Careers/05/16/cb.profit/index.html for profit salaries are: Attorney: 78% higher than non-profit…

Will VeriSign Be Able to Engage in Tiered Pricing for .com Soon?

• Comment posted Oct 24, 2008 9:48 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  ICANN should not be presenting half-baked proposals that re-open settled issues, and leave it up to volunteers to find all the loopholes. How many lawyers are on ICANN's payroll, including contractors like Jones Day, who should have reviewed it first,…

• Comment posted Oct 24, 2008 6:50 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Your "correction" was to simply state in the amended document that sponsored gTLDs have not had price controls. However, my previously stated concerns have NOT been addressed, namely that this draft agreement opens up existing unsponsored gTLDs (i.e. .com, .net,…

• Comment posted Oct 24, 2008 2:53 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Just as a followup, I find it disturbing that the ICANN staff who prepared the draft agreements stated that for the existing 2005-2007 gTLD agreements for Section 7.3 (see page 11 of the Section 7.3 PDF above): (ICANN’s unsponsored gTLD…

Not a Guessing Game

• Comment posted Jul 17, 2008 3:45 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  So, is it possible that one might pass the above "dig" port test (i.e. receive a "GOOD" or "FAIR" result), yet have a false sense of security because one is still vulnerable to the DNS cache poisoning attack? Or is…

• Comment posted Jul 15, 2008 8:21 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  You're right, I just tested 4.2.2.1 and .2 from one of my dedicated servers that had been using those in its configuration, and only got a "FAIR" result, thus it appears that not all of their (anycasted) systems have been…

• Comment posted Jul 15, 2008 6:38 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Oddly, it was the 4.2.2.1 and 4.2.2.2 nameservers that I had been using previously (as they have a great reputation for speed), and which gave me the "poor" result, before I switched to OpenDNS. I just switched back to them…

• Comment posted Jul 15, 2008 4:51 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Just a quick followup, I changed the DNS settings on both my cable/DSL router and on my LAN clients behind its NAT firewall to OpenDNS, and now I get: (IP Address) is GOOD: 26 queries in 2.3 seconds from 26…

• Comment posted Jul 15, 2008 4:02 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Thanks for posting the test, Paul. I appreciate that it's nice and straightforward, as many other people's descriptions have been very technical and less than clear. That's something that everyone can easily run from the command line, to see if…

• Comment posted Jul 15, 2008 2:49 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Just to be clear, would regular clients (Macs, Windows, Linux) behind a NAT firewall (e.g. a Netgear, Linksys or similar routers used for sharing a network connection) be vulnerable if they have DNS set to a non-vulnerable external server in…

Potential Danger Ahead for Registrants: dot-info Abusive Domain Use Policy

• Comment posted Jun 22, 2008 1:18 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  Just to followup, according to a post by Patrick Jones of ICANN, one can submit public comments on this issue at any time by sending an email to registryservice at icann.org (you'll then receive a confirmation email which you need…

ICANN Unleashing Single-letter and Single-digit Domain Names, Seeking Best Method

• Comment posted Oct 16, 2007 10:36 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Interestingly, I was just having a conversation on this very topic with someone recently, so you can see my proposed allocation methods that I just posted.

Radio Interview Discusses Domainers and Domaining

• Comment posted Sep 15, 2007 12:25 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  The interviewee failed to really distinguish between the parking of generic domain names (i.e. non-trademarked terms, e.g. like contests.com which is parked by Yahoo or Kids.com which is parked by CNET) compared with TM-squatting. It would be more valuable to…

Microsoft Files Three More Cybersquatting Cases

• Comment posted Sep 13, 2007 11:12 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  It looks like the above lawsuits are just the tip of the iceberg, the first 3 out of a much larger number. According to Network World and INTA Also today, INTA members Dell Inc., Microsoft Corp., Time Warner Inc., Wal-Mart…

iREIT Drops TM-Typo Domains?

• Comment posted Aug 29, 2007 5:55 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  To clear up any uncertainty, this was not a simple expiry of the domain name, as the domain was set to expire in 2009 when iREIT was the registrant, as noted in the cached WHOIS history linked to from above:…

BMW Goes After BMW.cat

• Comment posted Aug 20, 2007 2:21 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Just to followup, Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, the auto company, was successful in its UDRP case, according to the WIPO decision.

VeriSign Announces Increase in .Com and .Net Domain Name Fees

• Comment posted Apr 05, 2007 11:21 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  See VeriSign's press release where they mention that they receive 30 billion queries per day, making it sound like a large number. One need only look at: http://system.opendns.com/ (1 billion queries/day lately, operated free) to know that 1 billion isn't…

When Domain Names Aren't Enough

• Comment posted Apr 02, 2007 5:33 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  It's not just a Japanese trend, though. I've seen US television ads from big companies like Pontiac where they say "go to Google (or Yahoo) and search for Pontiac." Very odd. On the other hand, you've got savvy people who…

ICANN Asked to Adopt Specific TLD for Banks

• Comment posted Mar 31, 2007 9:20 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  .safe would be a very poor choice of a string (.bank would be fine — I've even offered to run that TLD, if ICANN would hand it over to me!). Having a .safe would imply that if you don't use…

Why I Voted for .XXX

• Comment posted Mar 30, 2007 9:51 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  While that's an option, it's also true that: (1) Ali might not want to toot his own horn, but CircleID gets considerably more traffic than most personal blogs (I'm sure that's why it's posted here, to get that bigger audience;…

• Comment posted Mar 30, 2007 9:16 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  All of Susan's posts to CircleID, if you view her profile (click her name), are blog entries, with exactly ZERO comments to other people's posts. It's this "talking down to us from a high mountain" that ICANN's Board needs less…

Registerfly Victims Are Really Stuck Now

• Comment posted Mar 29, 2007 7:30 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  I hope the attorneys for the victim will make public all the documents they get during the discovery process, so we can examine what role ICANN had in the matter, and help pinpoint what can be done to improve policies…

An Alternative to .XXX: IANA Adult Port Assignments

• Comment posted Mar 18, 2007 2:57 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  I believe it is port numbers above 49151, not 1024, that you refer to, see here, and note that there is a section "The Dynamic and/or Private Ports are those from 49152 through 65535." Those between 0 and 1023 are…

• Comment posted Mar 17, 2007 7:20 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  As a followup, after I submitted the above article I read about: http://www.cp80.org/content/solutions/community-ports which is a very similar idea (derived independently; I guess great minds think alike, or fools seldom differ).

XXX Comes to a Head

• Comment posted Mar 09, 2007 10:08 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Milton: I think you quoted Brandon there, not me. I didn't type that.

• Comment posted Mar 09, 2007 9:49 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Milton: I agree with you that ICANN dropped the ball on this one, as usual. This doesn't mean that ICM should get .xxx out of "pity", for having "endured so much." Endurance alone doesn't justify getting a TLD (Christopher Ambler…

• Comment posted Mar 09, 2007 8:49 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  You wrote that "Of course .xxx isn’t supported by everyone. One of the major problem with .xxx is that the so-called "24 major adult companies" supporting the application have been kept secret. This goes against the very nature of transparency.…

Social Networking and Web 2.0 Creating DNS Performance Issues for Carriers

• Comment posted Mar 08, 2007 7:35 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Amongst the various root server operators, several of them provide MTRG graphs, e.g H, K, and M. If more of them did this, providing graphs that went back further in time, and if TLD operators did the same, it would…

Domain Aftermarket Overdue for an "Asset Repricing"

• Comment posted Mar 01, 2007 4:25 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  The Marchex deal was for $164.2 million, $155.2 million in cash and $9 million in stock. I agree that the end of the world is nigh. For those wanting to sell their soon to be worthless domains, feel free to…

Help! My Domain Name Has Been Hijacked!

• Comment posted Jan 24, 2007 4:48 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Another reason not to keep your domain name masked via a registrar proxy service is that you don't lose valuable time in the event of a UDRP or other legal process. If the registrar is slow or negligent in forwarding…

Google's Top-10 Search Terms Dominated By Trademarks

• Comment posted Jan 16, 2007 4:50 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  One can use the Google Trends tool to get a better sense of the popularity of the generic terms that are scrubbed from the Zeitgeist annual report. For example, "Bebo" has a long way to reach the popularity of "sex".…

• Comment posted Jan 16, 2007 12:59 am PST — by George Kirikos
  I think the author doesn't understand that Google scrubs the raw data, to come up with their annual list, as discussed in this Official Google Blog entry: we do not simply retrieve the most frequently-searched terms for the period —…

Help! My Domain Name Has Been Hijacked!

• Comment posted Jan 12, 2007 10:04 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Good summary of the standard "best practices" for securing one's domain names, Brett. I'd disagree with the need for WHOIS Privacy services, though. I believe that can work against you. People who use the "WHOIS History" feature of services like…

Earthquake in Asia, Spam Plummets

• Comment posted Dec 28, 2006 11:30 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  I'm seeing 25% less spam the past couple of days (typically more than 1000 spams/day here). However, it's already creeping back up, as spammers route around the damage.

Huge Increase in Spam in October Email

• Comment posted Nov 06, 2006 6:57 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Postini publishes spam stats. According to them, 90% of all email is spam these days. I've seen more spam than usual the past month too, unfortunately. Harsher penalties are sorely needed. Western Canada seems to be a big source of…

Another View of the New ICANN-DoC Agreement

• Comment posted Oct 07, 2006 7:36 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  By the way, I consider secret lists of .xxx supporters as legitimate as VeriSign's lists of SiteFinder supporters. If folks can't go on the public record, then their support doesn't count. It's not as though ICM has much to lose…

• Comment posted Oct 07, 2006 7:13 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  From Twomey's comments after the vote: Twomey said the board took the porn sites' concerns as a sign ICM did not fully represent the industry, a criteria required in the current round of domains.

• Comment posted Oct 07, 2006 5:58 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Kieren, I don't see how you can say that ICM Registry had "most people in the adult industry agreeing with .xxx". I don't think they ever produced a public list of supporters. If you have such a list, feel free…

• Comment posted Oct 02, 2006 7:08 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  While it may be true that US government assistance/politics helped to kill .xxx, if ICANN simply followed its own rules for a sponsored TLD, that assistance was not required. ICM Registry didn't have the support of major organizations in the…

• Comment posted Oct 01, 2006 6:09 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Proponents of .xxx who feel that the US Government is to blame for the rejection of the TLD conveniently fail to mention that the public comments were for the most part in opposition to the creation of the .xxx TLD.…

ICANN and the DOC

• Comment posted Sep 29, 2006 10:34 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  WHOIS was a divisive issue, and there was no real consensus. While privacy advocates are well intentioned, they were unrealistic to expect that anonymous registrations would exist that increase costs for law enforcement, while increasing the protection for scammers, phishers,…

Response to Inaccurate .travel Wild Card Assessments

• Comment posted Sep 21, 2006 4:04 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  By the way, the words "virtually nothing" were used when describing the amount of money to be made by users clicking on ads. If that's so, why are there ads on CNBC marketing search.travel today? Certainly Tralliance doesn't expect to…

• Comment posted Sep 21, 2006 3:48 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  With theglobe.com's stock price hovering around 10 cents per share, ICANN should make sure there is an adequate data escrow in place for .travel in the event theglobe.com (owner of Tralliance) ceases to exist. As I'd mentioned in my .asia…

ICANN Confirms: Tiered Pricing Not Forbidden in New .BIZ, .INFO and .ORG Contracts

• Comment posted Sep 11, 2006 7:44 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  ICANN has posted a draft summary of the public comments. In addition, they noted "Staff reported during the Board meeting that negotiations with the registries are already underway regarding clarification of the issues surrounding differential pricing."

Summary Judgment Denied in a Case of Creative Typosquatting

• Comment posted Sep 06, 2006 6:02 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  801.soldwatercreek.com 802.solhouettes.com 803.soluionscatalog.com 804.solurionscatalog.com 805.solutiomscatalog.com 806.solutionsatalog.com 807.solutionscaalog.com 808.solutionscaralog.com 809.solutionscatalogs.com 810.solutionscataolog.com 811.solutionscatolag.com 812.solutioscatalog.com 813.sompusa.com 814.soneystyle.com 815.sonistyle.com 816.sonustyle.com 817.sonyatyle.com 818.sonystule.com 819.sonysty.com 820.sonystylestore.com 821.sonystylle.com 822.sonystylr.com 823.sonystyly.com 824.sonysyyle.com 825.soonystyle.com 826.sortsmansguide.com 827.soultionscatalog.com 828.spegle.com 829.spieggel.com 830.spiegil.com 831.spiegol.com 832.spiehel.com 833.spiergel.com 834.spiewgel.com 835.spiigel.com 836.spirgel.com 837.sportshalet.com 838.sportsmandsguide.com 839.sportsmansguid.com 840.sportsmansguise.com…

• Comment posted Sep 06, 2006 5:59 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  601.newporetnews.com 602.newport-nerws.com 603.newport-newa.com 604.newport-newsa.com 605.newport-nrews.com 606.newport-nwes.com 607.newportmews.com 608.newportne.com 609.newportnees.com 610.newportnewa.com 611.newportnewes.com 612.newportnewsw.com 613.newportrnews.com 614.newporynews.com 615.newpportnews.com 616.nflix.com 617.nicelodeon.com 618.nickletalk.com 619.nirdstrom.com 620.nnetzero.com 621.noedstrom.com 622.noordstrom.com 623.nordestrom.com 624.nordrom.com 625.norhterntool.com 626.normthempson.com 627.nornthompson.com 628.norrtherntool.com 629.norsdstrom.com 630.nortdstrom.com 631.northerntoll.com 632.northerntoo.com 633.northerntoolsandequipment.com 634.northerntoolsequipment.com 635.northerntoos.com 636.northrentool.com 637.nortrom.com 638.notzero.com 639.nursarydepot.com 640.nurserdepot.com…

• Comment posted Sep 06, 2006 5:58 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  401.htblock.com 402.ibris.com 403.ice-jerseys.com 404.illumations.com 405.imest.com 406.improvements-catalog.com 407.intervidio.com 408.intervido.com 409.janesemour.com 410.jchwitney.com 411.jcpeny.com 412.jcshitney.com 413.jcwhetney.com 414.jcwhhitney.com 415.jcwhienty.com 416.jcwhitnee.com 417.jcwhitneey.com 418.jcwhity.com 419.jcwjitney.com 420.jessicalondan.com 421.jeveen.com 422.jeveene.com 423.jocartoon.com 424.josabanks.com 425.josbanks.com 426.jotsens.com 427.jouno.com 428.juino.com 429.jumplin.com 430.kaaplan.com 431.kalpan.com 432.kanebryant.com 433.kaplaan.com 434.kaplain.com 435.kaplam.com 436.kaplane.com 437.kaplann.com 438.kaplean.com 439.kaplen.com 440.kaplian.com…

• Comment posted Sep 06, 2006 5:58 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  201.dell2me.com 202.deoll.com 203.deomestications.com 204.designinreach.com 205.dharmony.com 206.dicblick.com 207.dickbick.com 208.dickblck.com 209.dickblicks.com 210.dickblock.com 211.dicklbick.com 212.dicks-sporting.com 213.dicks-sportinggoods.com 214.diclblick.com 215.dicscovery.com 216.digitialcity.com 217.dineystore.com 218.disneysore.com 219.disneysotre.com 220.disneystor.com 221.disneystroe.com 222.dockblick.com 223.domesticaitions.com 224.domesticatio.com 225.duthcgardens.com 226.duthgardens.com 227.eagle-optics.com 228.earmony.com 229.ebebooks.com 230.ebggames.com 231.eddibauer.com 232.eddiebayer.com 233.eddirbauer.com 234.edenvelope.com 235.edibauer.com 236.ediebauer.com 237.edwinwatss.com 238.eelisabeth.com 239.ehamrony.com 240.eharleqiun.com…

• Comment posted Sep 06, 2006 5:57 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Nice find. Although, perhaps Lands' End should not be the only corporation concerned. If one uses the Reverse IP feature of DomainTools.com to see which other domains are hosted at the same IP address as landswnd.com: http://www.domaintools.com/reverse-ip/?hostname=landswnd.com one finds: 969…

Tiered (Variable) Pricing Compromise?

• Comment posted Aug 31, 2006 3:56 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Suppose you have a consulting contract with a registry, for $300/hr that ends in 3 years. You come to them in 2006, before the term of the contract is over, that you want $750/hr, and that you want to perpetually…

• Comment posted Aug 31, 2006 10:27 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  Keep dreaming — no compromises on this issue. The registries keep asking for "more, more, more", and the public has kept saying "no, no, no." Indeed, if there's an incentive for a registry to earn more money from a domain…

ICANN Confirms: Tiered Pricing Not Forbidden in New .BIZ, .INFO and .ORG Contracts

• Comment posted Aug 28, 2006 3:52 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  There is at least 1 supporter of the proposed .biz/info/org contracts....Chuck Gomes of VeriSign!! See here: Ensuring the continued security and stability of its infrastructure is critical to the continued growth of the Internet. That is why VeriSign supports the…

• Comment posted Aug 25, 2006 7:17 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  If you register the name as a trademark, it's typically only in one country, in a small number of business categories. Almost every dictionary word has a trademark of some sort already. However, the owner of a particular generic domain…

• Comment posted Aug 25, 2006 3:58 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Network Solutions has posted their official comments arguing strongly that the contracts should not be renewed at this time. Many others have also posted their comments in opposition to the contracts if one reads the archives.

Nation of Cameroon Typo-Squats the Entire .com Space

• Comment posted Aug 07, 2006 6:02 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Google.cm is a top 100,000 Alexa site (which likely means 5,000+ visitors/day). Extrapolate that to all domains, and I would not be surprised if that traffic is worth at least $3 million/yr.

• Comment posted Aug 06, 2006 2:37 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  This was discussed at DomainState too. I imagine .om and .co will be next. When thinking of new gTLDs, I want first dibs on .coom, .cmo and .como. :)

VeriSign Director Charged with Securities Fraud

• Comment posted Aug 02, 2006 11:41 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Reuters is reporting that he has now resigned from the VeriSign Board.

Domain Tasting Target of US Federal Cybersquatting Lawsuit

• Comment posted Jun 04, 2006 2:32 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  This was inevitable. Most folks who have been ethical and registering their domains in good faith don't have to worry much. Those who have been crossing the lines need to step back a bit and reassess their business models. Bret…

Wall Street Journal Article on Whois Privacy

• Comment posted Apr 28, 2006 10:03 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  Forwarding addresses wouldn't be a great solution to WHOIS spam. I wouldn't want emails intended for me being monitored by ICANN or passing through their servers. ICANN wouldn't be able to do much about spam, even if they did know…

A Day Which Will Live in Infamy: ICANN Board Approves VeriSign Settlement

• Comment posted Mar 01, 2006 2:28 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  There are so many things wrong with this settlement agreement — see www.cfit.info for an archive and compilation of them. Perpetual price increases (in an industry where costs are falling), perpetual renewal without competing tenders, non-disclosure of the Appendix W…

VeriSign and ICANN Settle Lawsuit

• Comment posted Oct 25, 2005 5:20 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  My comments are at: http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/ga/msg02847.html If ICANN was negotiating for the USA during the Cuban Missile Crisis, we'd all be speaking Russian today. It's my hope that the GNSO will vocally oppose this proposed settlement which is not in the…

Hijacking of Panix.com: A Call for An Emergency Rollback Procedure

• Comment posted Jan 17, 2005 8:49 am PST — by George Kirikos
  The Panix.com theft wasn't even the biggest theft this weekend. Some adult sites (and mainstream too) were also hijacked, with traffic exceeding 500,000 unique visitors/day (i.e. Alexa top 2000 site, whereas Panix's traffic is much smaller, probably 5000 to 10,000…

The Site Finder Reprise

• Comment posted Jul 23, 2004 5:04 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  Security isn't an absolute concept — it's a relative one. I'm entirely happy with a system that would cost on the order of $6*(37)^60 per year (or more) to "break", just as I'd be happy with a $10 bicycle lock…

The Site Finder Report: Dr. Stephen Crocker, Chair of the Committee

• Comment posted Jul 15, 2004 5:44 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  One other thing — has there been any effort exerted by ICANN to get back the money VeriSign received from their abuse of wildcarding?

• Comment posted Jul 15, 2004 5:42 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  Keep up the good work, Steve. Don't let the paper tiger VeriSign try to bully the committee. One point VeriSign likes to attempt to make is that the report lacked "data" to back its positions. However it was very clear…

Recent WHOIS Report Overlooking Fundamental Issue?

• Comment posted Jun 17, 2004 12:04 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  The author didn't understand DNS when he wrote "According to domain name registry, Verisign, the domain name database system — called the WHOIS service directory — receives well over 11 billion queries per day in just two top-level domains." Those…

Why WIPO Does Not Like the UDRP

• Comment posted Dec 05, 2003 9:39 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Well said, Wendy. Their modifications of UDRP would amount to expropriation without compensation.

Market Forces Should Control Registry Services?

• Comment posted Dec 02, 2003 9:12 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  There's a consensus against SiteFinder, and also against WLS. Consensus *is* possible to achieve — getting ICANN's inept board members to take their head out of the sand would be a step in the right direction, to recognize when the…

NAT: Just Say No

• Comment posted Nov 09, 2003 7:43 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  I agree with you 100%. What really, really bothers me is that in the past 25 years of the PC revolution, computers are still so hard to use. Was it the same 25 years after the telephone was invented, or…

• Comment posted Nov 09, 2003 6:08 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  I agree with you, Phil. The key is, as you said, "given a correct firewall configuration". When IPv6 rolls out here, I'd likely take advantage of it properly, as I can be pretty confident about having a correct firewall configuration,…

An Unsanctioned Whois Database

• Comment posted Nov 07, 2003 6:26 am PST — by George Kirikos
  I posted a similar idea last winter, in a post on the GA list — see here, i.e. a "whois.txt" like a robots.txt file. I don't see it as a replacement to WHOIS, though (I like the status quo), just…

NAT: Just Say No

• Comment posted Nov 05, 2003 2:51 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  Right, I didn't mean to imply it was the ultimate in security — "security through obscurity" never is the best choice. But, if all IP addresses were "public", would that be better, rather than having the option to obscure things…

• Comment posted Oct 26, 2003 7:01 pm PST — by George Kirikos
  NAT is useful for security, and need not be a bad thing, even if IPv6 is widely deployed. I'd rather have my company's PCs behind a firewall/router that exposes only 1 IP address, instead of having a situation where the…

Can VeriSign Sue You Over SiteFinder?

• Comment posted Oct 03, 2003 8:31 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  In a business law course I took years ago, the Professor gave the following example: Every day, Cindy takes a jog around High Park. Observing this, Chuck says to Cindy "My dog is for sale for $100. If you jog…

Go Daddy Sues VeriSign Over Site Finder

• Comment posted Sep 22, 2003 8:43 pm PDT — by George Kirikos
  I'm pleased to see that the registrars are growing cajones, and not putting up with the Verisign abuse. They're setting the example for what ICANN should be doing. I find it very interesting that the Intellectual Property Constituency of the…

Petition Against Site Finder

• Comment posted Sep 20, 2003 1:21 am PDT — by George Kirikos
  I've had to update the petition site, as the prior site was broken. Please now link to: http://www.whois.sc/verisign-dns/