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ICANN has been asked by its formal advisory body, the Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC), to investigate Vox Populi Registry Inc. for alleged wrongdoing in regards to the ".sucks" gTLD.
According to the BBC:
Specialist online website Domain Incite reports that actor "Kevin Spacey, Microsoft, Google and Apple have already bought up '.sucks' sites in a bid to protect their reputations". This practice is known as "defensive registering".
Icann granted Vox Populi permission to sell the ".sucks" names but is now concerned at the price levels the Canadian company has set. Kevin Murphy, from Domain Incite, told the BBC two key elements of the way Vox Populi was handling the sale were causing concern.
"They are charging a $2,000 'sunrise' premium to those wishing to register '.sucks' addresses early, before the addresses go on sale to the general public [next month]," he said. "Also they are using a list of words or names that have been defensively registered in the past, for which they are charging the top amount."
Mr Murphy said the company was working from a list of keywords that had been part of web addresses bought up early on in similar new domain web address sales and using that to decide which ".sucks" addresses to charge more for.
Although ICANN has been urged to end the shakedown by the likes of US Senator Jay Rockefeller, the CEO of Vox Populi has defended .sucks, claiming that the pricing strategy was intended to strike a balance between the rights of trademark holders and the ability of critics to lampoon people and brands, as originally intended by Ralph Nader when his group Consumer Project for Technology proposed the TLD back in 2000.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tramii on Tuesday April 14 2015, @03:56PM
How exactly is this "shaking down" anyone? We aren't talking about a coordinated smear campaign. We are talking about some domains names. Who cares if somebody registers yourcompany.sucks? Big deal. Do you think it's going to actually make any real difference? The only way I can imagine it being a problem is if your company actually pisses off a LOT of people, like say Comcast. Then it might actually hurt you, because now all your pissed off customers can actually band together more easily. And if that's the case, then I don't really care. That isn't a shake down. That's you trying to do damage control. That's you trying to keep your angry customers in the dark and preventing them from making any changes that might hurt your bottom line.
If you are doing something wrong, then the info is going to get out anyways, whether there is a .sucks website or not. And if you aren't doing anything wrong, then sure there will always be a few angry/crazy customers, but in general they will be ignored and it doesn't matter what domain name they register for their crackpot website.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday April 14 2015, @05:28PM
How exactly is this "shaking down" anyone? We aren't talking about a coordinated smear campaign.
It would be a shame if this TLD, designed for the purpose of smearing people, were used to smear you. Pay us $$$ and that won't happen.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Tramii on Tuesday April 14 2015, @05:52PM
Which should hold about as much weight as someone threatening to bad mouth a company on their Tumblr page.
(Score: 2) by tathra on Tuesday April 14 2015, @09:56PM
its pretty much the definition of extortion. you know, "Nice windows ya got here, bub. Be a shame if somethin' was to happen to 'em..." except in this case its, "Look at this great persistent smear against your company. Be a shame if one of your competitors was to get their hands on it..."