Whats steps can WE take to help prevent the "Snowe Bill" from being passed? Thoughts?

[draggar]

I know some people here poo-poo MySpace but it is still a very powerful tool. I think I'll start a campaign on there tonight.

 

[Donald Aquilano]

So what organization looks out for the interest of domainers? ICA?

 

[Seraphim]

Look, Rockefeller made a mistake listing "traffic beneficiaries" in the petition author title [that's an automatic -1 credibility point]. If this movement against the Snowe bill is serious, someone needs to scout out a reputable petition sponsor [a non profit organization], we should also have a reputable lawyer write a point by point legal summary of how and why this bill affects a domain registrant's rights negatively. From there, pressing Adam Dicker and Monte Kahn to issue an email notice to general domain registrants of their respective companies would be an excellent starting point. Anything less in my opinion is waste of time.

I'm willing to do some foot work if folks here are serious about fighting it. Doc Com and Focus seem dead serious on fighting this bill, you guys can PM me if you want to organize a game plan [consider me in].

 

[draggar]

MySpace campaign has started, feel free to copy this as is.

"The Anti Phishing and Consumer Protection Act of 2008"

I love it how our government loves to name bills that are not completely relevant to what the bill actually is. In the commercial world we call that false advertising and is illegal.

Olympia Snowe has introduced the “Anti-Phishing consumer protection act of 2008”, one hell of a name but only a small part of it is anti-phishing and consumer protection and will not do anything to protect consumers.

<a href=”http://commerce.senate.gov/public/_files/SnoweStevensAntiPhishing.pdf” target=new>The Full Bill</a>

The statistics say that 70% of phishing is hosted in the US, while that may be true, the vast majority (>99%) of the phishers are outside of the US and out of US jurisdiction. Sure, the site can be closed but they can quickly throw up another one, possibly hosted outside of the US. Plus, it is already illegal under US law (fraud). No protection here.

Typo-squatting is another one where someone uses a domain name that is the same or confusingly similar to a registered trademark (DellFinancialServices.com is such a name, or was) and consumers click on ads on the site where the owner gets paid. This is also against ICANN and WIPO policies and is enforced strongly. No added security here, either.

This bill though does allow reverse cyber-squatting and reverse domain hijacking. All a company needs to do is register a trademark and then they can go after anyone with a similar domain, even generic words such as laptops.com

For example:

Say I own Laptops.com (I do not) and had a successful site with thousands of clients. I spent years building up a client base using reviews, sales, links to companies, support, drivers, articles, etc.. This is a lot of work and requires a lot of money.

Some big computer company can trademark “laptops” then file a claim and sue me to get the domain plus damages. Therefore, the large company is going to profit off of my hard work while then I have to pay them for damages and “lost revenue” because people went to my site and not their company to buy their laptops. This can happen even if the site is up for YEARS before the trademark is filed.

The corporations who have been the most active to get this bill going are companies like Dell who have already gone after real cyber squatters but it will not stop there. NOTHING will stop them from legally stealing domains from small businesses across the country stealing their customers and web presence. This is a clear cut case of reverse cyber-squatting and if this bill passes it will be perfectly legal for large corporations to do this.

Small businesses (the back bone of the US’s economy, BTW) will suffer from this. Even now, the US government is shutting down sites for other countries that offer things like tourism to Cuba so we know this bill will not stop in the US borders. No one is safe in any country as long as a contact email, the registrar, the host, or any of the DNS settings are in the US, they will have the right to snatch your domain with no consequences. This also includes web designers, any domain owner (including MySpace), graphic artists, and anyone with a web site.

I urge everyone who reads this to send a message to their senators and congressmen not to pass the “Anti-Phishing Consumer Protection Act of 2008”. It will be a hard sell (we all know how competition loves to draw misleading attention to the name of an act, not what it actually does). Also, feel free to pass this along to anyone.

Useful links:

<a href=”http://domainnamewire.com/2008/03/03/senate-anti-phishing-bill-or-reverse-cybersquatting-in-disguise/” target=new>Senate Anti-Phishing Bill (or Reverse Cybersquatting in Disguise)</a>

<a href="http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/snowe-bill-threatens-domain-name-registrants-and-internet-commerce" target=new>Petition to Stop The Snowe Bill</a>

<a href="http://www.internetcommerce.org/Snowe_Bill_Threatens_Domain_Name_Registrants" target=new>ICA Article</a>

 

[Focus]

Again, excellent work...the more people that know about this the better...and let us not forget how they are attempting to group domain parking and phishing together..thats like mixing coca cola and pepsi or chevy & ford for that matter...two totally different animals

 

[Rockefeller]

Look, Rockefeller made a mistake listing "traffic beneficiaries" in the petition author title [that's an automatic -1 credibility point]. If this movement against the Snowe bill is serious, someone needs to scout out a reputable petition sponsor [a non profit organization], we should also have a reputable lawyer write a point by point legal summary of how and why this bill affects a domain registrant's rights negatively. From there, pressing Adam Dicker and Monte Kahn to issue an email notice to general domain registrants of their respective companies would be an excellent starting point. Anything less in my opinion is waste of time.

I'm willing to do some foot work if folks here are serious about fighting it. Doc Com and Focus seem dead serious on fighting this bill, you guys can PM me if you want to organize a game plan [consider me in].

Agreed and removed.

 

[karter9977]

Adam, the email is working real well. About 50 more people signed the petition in the last couple minutes alone.

 

[draggar]

I got the email, good job with it.

 

[Seraphim]

Agreed and removed.

I wasn't trying to call you out Justin, you're a well respected remember here. I just think we should really sharpen our game if we plan to fight this thing head on. Like I said, if anyone is looking for a foot soldier, feel free to PM me.

 

[Focus]

I'm watching the signatures go up really fast...I think the goal should be 5k, no reason we can't all run banners on our sites and such and get ALOT of signatures...we need as much clout as possible to fight this monster. If this Bill passes it will be one of the greatest injustices in American history towards the free market and the pursuit of happiness for consumers & small business owners. I literally will move to another country. If you have been waiting for a purpose or reason to get involved the time is upon us brothers & sisters. We have to act fast and we have to be unwavering in our fight for global freedom, we can make this thing go away and we can stop it dead in it's tracks, all of us united are a VERY powerful force to be reckoned with.

 

[CyrusL]

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/02/24/75-threatening-to-move-to-canada/

 

[Rockefeller]

I wasn't trying to call you out Justin, you're a well respected remember here. I just think we should really sharpen our game if we plan to fight this thing head on. Like I said, if anyone is looking for a foot soldier, feel free to PM me.

It's one of my company names which is why it was in the author title.

 

[karter9977]

Personally I think we should send a group of people (domain industry reps kind of) to Washington. Like have one person that is just self employeed with domains, one person that runs a registrar. one person that runs a parking company, one person that runs a domain company and so on. This way we can show things from all sorts of perspectives. Show washington how it will truly affect the economy. Im sure we could raise the cash to do something like this. Not sure if its worth doing or not but just came up with the idea.

 

[Focus]

Count me in!

 

[karter9977]

I could send some hot south florida chicks to win over the creepy old senators

LOL.

 

[Focus]

Keep posting in this thread to keep it up on DNF...actually it should be a sticky by now..

PLEASE SING THE PETITION if you have not already..and don't be afraid to sign it and DON'T sign it anonymously...I don't think those count. Use your name and real info! Be PROUD to defend your freedom & future and help us unite together for a common & just cause!

 

[H2FC]

We all want to do everything we can to fight this thing to save our industry and I believe we all agree its best to get this information out to as many as possible and encourage them to join in the fight....but here's another problem we may face....when everybody knows about this what will it do to our domain sales? Will buyers still be willing to put big bucks in names that could potentially be taken from them later?

I'm concerned sales may hit rock bottom until this bill is either changed or pulled. The big auction guys should be especially concerned about this...as well as the rest of us....Comments?

 

[Seraphim]

We all want to do everything we can to fight this thing to save our industry and I believe we all agree its best to get this information out to as many as possible and encourage them to join in the fight....but here's another problem we may face....when everybody knows about this what will it do to our domain sales? Will buyers still be willing to put big bucks in names that could potentially be taken from them later?

I'm concerned sales may hit rock bottom until this bill is either changed or pulled. The big auction guys should be especially concerned about this...as well as the rest of us....Comments?

Frank Schilling blossomed during the .com bust era. :approve: Anyone have any domains they want to sell me?

 

[Focus]

Just broke 400 signatures...growing fast now...also #1 in google for snowe bill

 

[Johnn]

We need a graphics designer who can design a couple of banners so all of us can put on our websites and link to the petition site.