Paul Twomey is the president and CEO of Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the big kahunas who run the domain
system. So, their view of domaining is obviously somewhat important.Now we hear from Mr Twomey that domaining is bad. In fact, it’s not only bad, it’s as bad as cybersquatting and typosquatting.
Here’s Mr Twomey’s words (emphasis mine):
While many would welcome the ability to have domain
names in their native languages, there is a number of downsides, Twomey
said, including cyber-squatting, typo-squatting and domaining.Cybersquatting is the practice of registering a website that
contains a trademark, and then holding it hostage from the legitimate
trademark holder in the hopes of a payoff. Typo-squattering involves
registering websites that contain misspelling of trademarks, such as
Googel.com, with the hope that the trademark owner will also pay to own
the misspelled site.Domaining, which is technically legal, is still somewhat
controversial. Domainers purchase non-trademarked domain names in the
hopes of either reselling the name at a profit [sic]. Some websites
have resold for millions of dollars. Other domainers “park” the domain
in order to generate advertising revenue. A parked site usually
reroutes users to a website that contains ads.While a number of international laws and internal procedures discourage squatting, domaining is going to be an issue, Twomey said.
Source: Gulf News
Source: Domain Bits
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Well, Sahar, everybody knows that all domainers are cybersquatters just like all SEO’s are spammers :.)
Idiots like Mr Twomey really help drive home a key point about the world we’re in …. developing is key.
Aside from the ICA, its going to provide the strongest pre-emptive legal defense.
I am the media advisor here at ICANN. I have discussed this news report with Paul Twomey and he has asked me to clarity that the Gulf News article incorrectly suggests that he has concerns with domainers.
As he said to me: “When asked to look ahead at what might happen on the Internet, I did say it was likely domainers would move increasingly into the ccTLD space. In no way did I say or suggest that domainers were a negative force in any way and certainly did not refer to them as “a downside.” The many domainers I have met and chatted with at meetings across the globe will know I would never say such a thing.
As I noted in my closing remarks at the Dubai meeting, the marketplace has evolved and domainers are a part of the robust domain name market that exists today.”
I am going to step up publicly defend Paul Twomey on this one. He just would not say such things.
Having had conversations with him, he sincerely appreciates that there is a large silent majority of good actors in the domainer community, he respects that there is legitimacy to the domain marketplace, and he would not make such statements as are being quoted in the article.
The editor of the article is clearly making editorial opinion and it is unfortunately not clearly deliniated between where that is happening and Paul’s actual quotes exist so it all appears as Paul speaking.