What Do You Do With a dotSUCKS Domain Name? (video)

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What do you do With a .Sucks Domain Name? - The launch of the ".sucks" domain back in March sent a wave of panic through company public relations teams, fearing brand names could be tarnished by cyber-squatters unless the companies themselves coughed up around $2,500 per year to take control. Despite claims the firm that manages the registry, was holding brands to ransom, more than 6,000 of the domains have been snapped up. While most have been bought for damage limitation purposes and simply parked, inventive companies are exploring more creative uses of .SUCKS. Source: Bloomberg

See also: Why the .Sucks Domain Doesn’t Have to Suck - Bloomberg Business: "... Brand protection company NetNames.com filed a complaint with the European Commission, saying Vox Populi had created a “predatory pricing model” in a “blatant attempt to extort revenues from brand owners.”..."


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dotSUCKS Dead End? Canada's "Big John" Rebuffs ICANN, Now What?

Akram Attalah, President of
ICANN's Global Domains Division

UPDATE: Close of the TMCH Sunrise Period for dotSUCKS domain names is June 19th at 00:01 UTC. General Availability* starts June 21st at 00:01 UTC -- source: dotSucks Domain Name Registry

*'[Registry] operators are free to make their domains available to the public; a period called General Availability.'--source: Dawn of a New Internet Era | ICANN New gTLDs by Akram Attalah, President of ICANN's Global Domains Division (see photo--photo source: ICANN) @AkramAtallah

For information on where to get dotSUCKS domain names starting June 21, 2015: https://www.registry.sucks/registrars
Industry Canada, Big Data, and John Knubley, Deputy Minister of Industry (Canada), who is simply known as "Big John" around Ottawa according to Domain Mondo's Canadian sources, discusses the government's adoption of big data and focus on promoting education in the academic disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), in the video above, published April 17, 2014.

Canada's "Big John" Knubley is a busy man--photo above:
John Knubley shakes hands with Kathleen Merrigan USDA
[2012 USDA photo by Bob Nichols]

The brain trust at ICANN came up with the bright idea of trying to pass off the dotSUCKS controversy to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Canada's Office of Consumer Affairs (OCA). See: The dot SUCKS Conundrum: ICANN, FTC, OCA, New gTLD Domains. ICANN received a letter in response from Edith Ramirez, Chair of the FTC, who reminded ICANN it had ignored all the sound advice the FTC had given ICANN about the new gTLDs program, and then proceeded to rub salt into the wound by lecturing ICANN on how to protect consumers. See: Dot SUCKS: FTC Lectures ICANN On How To Protect Consumers

ICANN's last remaining hope was Canada-- 

Great #CoffeeandConversation with @industrycanada employees pic.twitter.com/iUqDmRTrkD

— John Knubley (@JohnKnubley) March 6, 2015

Whatever the ICANN brain trust was looking for from Canada's Office of Consurmer Affairs (OCA), Domain Mondo is pretty sure they didn't get it--below is the body of the letter that Canada's Deputy Minister of Industry, John Knubley, sent back to ICANN's General Counsel--Big John is obviously an experienced government minister who has mastered the fine bureaucratic art of "responding without responding" and wasn't about to endanger his career nor risk public embarrassment or humiliation by getting sucked into ICANN's dotSUCKS problems:

Above: Canada's "Big John" Knubley's Letter Responding to ICANN re: dotSUCKS

This appears to be a modified form letter sent in order to close the file and move on to more important matters--John is obviously a busy man and has more important things to attend to (see video, photo, tweet above, and tweet, video below).

Busy week ahead: heading to Intl Paris Air Show and then #BIO2015

— John Knubley (@JohnKnubley) June 12, 2015

What Now ICANN?

See also: Frank Schilling's Uniregistry Is An Investor in New gTLD dot SUCKS

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Internet Governance, ICANN, IANA Transition, Congress .SUCKS (video)

Domain Mondo reviewer: If you can tune out everything that comes out of the mouths of Nevett, Thrush, and Hedlund--none of whom are credible, in my opinion--and focus on Mueller's and Miller's comments, this may be a video worth watching if you follow Internet governance issues. Congrats to Professor Mueller on his upcoming move to Georgia Tech (which he announces on the video). Note the following--

• New York Times (2012): "Eyebrows were raised last year when Peter Dengate Thrush, former chairman of ICANN and a fan of the domain name expansion [new gTLDs] joined a company that invests in domain names."
• Peter Dengate Thrush - ICANNWiki: "Mr. Dengate Thrush left ICANN [as Chairman of the ICANN Board of Directors] in June, 2011, about a month later it was announced that he was joining Top Level Domain Holdings Ltd. as its Executive Chairman. Top Level Domain Holdings Limited is the parent company of Minds + Machines. The move was greeted by ... allegations of misconduct, given the move from approving new gTLDs to effectively selling them... his detractors claim that he compromised ICANN's integrity via a conflict of interest." (emphasis added)

• "We think of the new TLDs almost like vanity license plates."-- Jon Nevett, Donuts co-founder and executive vice president of corporate affairs.

Thrush and Nevett--what a pair! Throw in ICANN apologist Jamie Hedlund, and you've got a real threesome there.  Couldn't the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus get a higher quality panel?

Internet Governance, ICANN and Congress.Sucks: Where is Control of the Internet Going? Presented by the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus, Washington D.C., on June 5, 2015. Internet Governance, ICANN, and Congress, the IANA stewardship transition and dot SUCKS and other new gTLDs--the panel below discussed the latest developments in the international drama that is Internet governance--the U.S. government’s decision (NTIA) to transition its historic stewardship role to the global multistakeholder community, which involves control of key Internet functions performed by ICANN, the enhancing ICANN accountability process now underway, attempts by international organizations such as the U.N. to exert greater control over Internet decisions in fora like WSIS+10, and numerous ICANN controversies such as the .SUCKS domain names controversy.

Panel of Speakers:

• Jamie Hedlund, Vice President, Strategic Programs, Global Domain Division, ICANN (Bio)
• Michelle Sara King, President & CEO, King Consults (Bio)
• Cheryl Miller, Director, International Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Verizon
• Milton Mueller, Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies (Bio)
• Jon Nevett, Co-Founder & EVP, Donuts Inc. (Bio)
• Peter Dengate Thrush, former Chairman of the Board of Directors, ICANN (Bio)
• Sally Shipman Wentworth, Vice President of Global Policy Development, Internet Society (Bio) moderator

NetCaucus | Internet Education Foundation


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