Michael Geist (lawyer) berates the small allowance of trade-mark holders being able to obtain the identity of a confusing domain name holder.
(Article http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/451461 ) A response was posted:
"Horrible Policy
CIRA's hidden whois is a horrible overreaction to imaginary problems, and ONLY benefits deliberate squatters and lawyers. There is (was) a neglible amount of spam from CIRA's previous whois (CIRA could have used a graphically generated email field to eliminate bots), and people could always shelter their phone by using the Alternate Phone field. People could use their business address, or use, FOR FREE, the privacy service of namespro.ca and domainsatcost.ca (the 2nd and 3rd least expensive registrars), which only left the registrant's name disclosed. Only a lawyer would think it reasonable that a trade-mark owner can't conceal his identity, but that another party abusing that trade-mark , or otherwise slagging it on a website, can conceal his identity. The trade-mark owner then has no choice but to hire a lawyer, at a minimum of $10,000, instead of being able to try to mitigate things himself."
Indeed, the ONLY winners of CIRA's privacy policy are the lawyers.
Is anyone here surprised, then, that 2 of the 8 candidates for CIRA director ( https://elections.cira.ca/2008/finalslate/list/en ) are trade-mark lawyers???
I need some coffee, lots of it!
(Article http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/451461 ) A response was posted:
"Horrible Policy
CIRA's hidden whois is a horrible overreaction to imaginary problems, and ONLY benefits deliberate squatters and lawyers. There is (was) a neglible amount of spam from CIRA's previous whois (CIRA could have used a graphically generated email field to eliminate bots), and people could always shelter their phone by using the Alternate Phone field. People could use their business address, or use, FOR FREE, the privacy service of namespro.ca and domainsatcost.ca (the 2nd and 3rd least expensive registrars), which only left the registrant's name disclosed. Only a lawyer would think it reasonable that a trade-mark owner can't conceal his identity, but that another party abusing that trade-mark , or otherwise slagging it on a website, can conceal his identity. The trade-mark owner then has no choice but to hire a lawyer, at a minimum of $10,000, instead of being able to try to mitigate things himself."
Indeed, the ONLY winners of CIRA's privacy policy are the lawyers.
Is anyone here surprised, then, that 2 of the 8 candidates for CIRA director ( https://elections.cira.ca/2008/finalslate/list/en ) are trade-mark lawyers???
I need some coffee, lots of it!
