Former CEO of Pool.com Bashes .cm and Icann

[Sarcle]

The .CM Scam

Michael Arrington

usiness 2.0’s Paul Sloan has been digging into the .CM domain name scam. A domain name broker managed to convince the government of Cameroon, which controls .cm, to do a deal where any mis-typed domain name, like Google.cm (instead of google.com), takes the visitor to an advertising-filled landing page (the ads are served by Yahoo).

The .CM pages are served based on a wildcard. If the domain has not been registered, the user is redirected to agoga.com. Since the redirects are taking place via a wildcard, and domains are not actually being registered, there is little trademark holders can do to fight this (other than register the domain themselves).

This is actually one of the cleaner scams occurring in the extremely dirty domain name business. ICANN, which oversees top level domains like .com, .net and .info, has no oversight or regulatory powers over the two-letter country code domains like .cm. It’s up to the individual countries to decide what is ethical and what isn’t. And when money is thrown at these small countries, it seems that they have little hesitation in giving control of their namespace to a relatively unknown speculator

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/22/the-cm-scam/#comments

Doesn't pool auction and sell tm domains? And he's talking about ethics?

I love domainers that think that once they made their millions in tm domains that their ass doesn't stink because they no longer deal with them. There are a few other big players like this as well.

 

[AlienGG]

He's just jealous.

 

[Sarcle]

He's just jealous.

No, he's not jealous. He's very rich from dealing in tm domains. He's a hypocrite. Frank Shilling summed it up best with his post to that blog.

Frank Schilling

May 22nd, 2007 at 7:59 pm

I agree with a few others here Michael. You make yourself look foolish when you unfairly and inequitably malign an entire industry because of the actions of some.

A few short years ago you made your living in the dirty domain industry. While I understand that your employment tenure in the industry may have shown some unsavory facets and your exit from the Canadian company you worked for may not have been to your satisfaction, calling the entire industry ‘dirty’ makes you no friends and garners you no respect by those trying to shape it in a positive way.

I look at all the worthless bags of smoke that you pump on this forum, all the investors you sell down the river in these Web 2.0 jokes. Who’s dirty Michael?

 

[tekz999]

"and domains are not actually being registered, there is little trademark holders can do to fight this (other than register the domain themselves)."

Gray area.

 

[Poker]

well, with all this news coming out we may on the verge of a TM purge...sure hope not, but once it becomes mainstream knowledge, the party is usually over...

 

[Sarcle]

well, with all this news coming out we may on the verge of a TM purge...sure hope not, but once it becomes mainstream knowledge, the party is usually over...

So what, the former TM holders become the Kennedy's and the Bush's of the internet while TM holders today get the raw end of the stick that the former "runners" started and bitch about now? These kinds of people are incredulous.

His latest comment on the blog is laughable.

Michael Arrington

May 23rd, 2007 at 2:22 am

Wow Frank. I didn’t know there was bad blood between us. Good to know I guess.

Um, earth the Micheal. You basically started the process of profiteering on tm domains, and now you call the entire industry shady? That takes a lot of balls dude.

Don't get me wrong I love reading his blog and about the new tech and websites coming out, but he pissed in the pot he help create.

 

[bdss]

the word hypocrite comes to my mind...

 

[hugegrowth]

The more I think about that .cm scenario, the closest thing it compares to is a registrar putting up a parking page with ppc links on domains that customers register and leave parked there. The registrar doesn't own the domains but could still be profiting from them if they get traffic. They don't have to put up a ppc page but they do, and it's a default for all their customers domains that remain parked. It's a grey area but seems legal from what that article says. Cameroon can't help that they were given .cm as a country code domain, they are just monetizing all that traffic that is mistakenly coming their way. A little different than a person going out and regging a TM domain on purpose and profiting from the traffic. Sure, Cameroon could turn it all off, but would you if you were them?

 

[GAMEFINEST]

.cm idea is and was brilliant

 

[groundctrl]

i'm loving reading that thread. frank is kicking the shit out of arrington and i'm enjoying it.

 

[Sarcle]

i'm loving reading that thread. frank is kicking the shit out of arrington and i'm enjoying it.

Wow. Frank got under his skin BIG time. That's awesome. I just tried to put in a response but he has closed it to comments. Pisses me off too, I had a great one.

 

[typist]

http://digg.com/tech_news/TechCrunch_Michael_Arrington_loses_it

 

[Sarcle]

http://digg.com/tech_news/TechCrunch_Michael_Arrington_loses_it

Dugg it! :lol:

 

[groundctrl]

dugg

 

[Sarcle]

dugg

Great this really needs to make the front of digg! Come on domainers show Mr. Arrogant that he's a hypocritical ass.

P.S. I don't get digg. It already is beating the bottom two upcoming stories and isn't on the list. What's up with that?

 

[maroulis]

Great this really needs to make the front of digg! Come on domainers show Mr. Arrogant that he's a hypocritical ass.

P.S. I don't get digg. It already is beating the bottom two upcoming stories and isn't on the list. What's up with that?

14 dugs only ?!!! Come on GUYS - this is about OUR industry - DIGG NOW!

http://digg.com/tech_news/TechCrunch_Michael_Arrington_loses_it

 

[Sarcle]

14 dugs only ?!!! Come on GUYS - this is about OUR industry - DIGG NOW!

http://digg.com/tech_news/TechCrunch_Michael_Arrington_loses_it

It's moving up. And yes this is our industry and was his that made him tons of money. Back talking SOB.

There are a few domainer's blogs this needs to be posted to most notably Frank's blog at sevenmile.com

I see it made news here: http://blogs.business2.com/sloan/

 

[H2FC]

The more I think about that .cm scenario, the closest thing it compares to is a registrar putting up a parking page with ppc links on domains that customers register and leave parked there. The registrar doesn't own the domains but could still be profiting from them if they get traffic. They don't have to put up a ppc page but they do, and it's a default for all their customers domains that remain parked. It's a grey area but seems legal from what that article says. Cameroon can't help that they were given .cm as a country code domain, they are just monetizing all that traffic that is mistakenly coming their way. A little different than a person going out and regging a TM domain on purpose and profiting from the traffic. Sure, Cameroon could turn it all off, but would you if you were them?

Your Registrar making PPC money on your domains is another thing that ticks me off to no end. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't make it so time consuming to continuely check, recheck, direct, and redirect your names all the time to keep them from cheating you.

The Cameroon thing wouldn't be so bad either except for the fact they put the extremely high registration fees and other requirements on their domains so that very few are actually registered. That leaves the vast majority to be used in the unethical scheme set-up with the Cameroon crooked officials and billionaire(soon to be if not already) Ham guy. The common people of Cameroon, the ones who are supposed to be benefiting from the .cm extenstion, probably don't even know they're being cheated. And if they do know it there is nothing they can do about it.

 

[Sarcle]

14 dugs only ?!!! Come on GUYS - this is about OUR industry - DIGG NOW!

http://digg.com/tech_news/TechCrunch_Michael_Arrington_loses_it

It has 23 now it's better than the bottom four up coming top stories and still isn't on the list why the heck is that? Anyways, get your diggs in!