For Sale Zak Muscovitch for CIRA Directorship - SUPPORT ZAK!!!

[A D]

I have known Zak for a number of years and would love to have him on the CIRA board of directors, he is a great lawyer but a better guy, please help get him elected.
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DNFORUM SUPPORTS ZAK MUSCOVITCH , YOU SHOULD AS WELL!

Letter from Frank Michlick:

Dear DOAC Member, dear people interested in the DOAC,

The DOAC needs your help urgently. CIRA Board elections are underway. The only way that the interests of domain name owners can be effectively heard at CIRA is to have a person on the Board. Many of you know or are familiar with Zak Muscovitch, a domain name lawyer, who has represented domainers for over the past 10 years. Zak has resigned from involvement with the DOAC in order to run for a directorship. Zak Muscovitch is seeking a seat on the Board and we can count on him to ensure that our voice is heard loud and clear. We would therefore encourage you to show your support and vote for Zak. DOAC fully endorses Zak's candidacy and we hope that we can count on your support as well.

In order to show your support and vote however, you must be a CIRA member. Many of you have CIRA logins as .ca owners, BUT THAT IS NOT THE SAME THING AS BEING A CIRA MEMBER. Becoming a CIRA member involves a separate application. You can become a CIRA member by registering here:

https://member.cira.ca/en/member.html

PLEASE NOTE THAT CIRA HAS BEEN VERY SLOW IN PROCESSING MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATIONS, SO PLEASE ACT NOW TO REGISTER, WITHOUT DELAY. It will take you five minutes and we suggest you scan and upload your ID rather than use the I.D. guarantor option, since we believe that your registration will be processed sooner this way. If you have a domains under a corporation and/or personal domain names, you may be eligible for a number of votes.

To be included on the Final Members' Slate, Member Nominees must receive the support of at least 20 CIRA Members. Members will be able to Show <https://elections.cira.ca/2010/en/support.html> Support from August 26, 2010 at noon (ET) until 6:00 p.m. (ET) on September 9, 2010. Voting will
take place between September 22 and 29, 2010. Results will be posted on CIRA's web site on October 6, 2010. Voting can be done online or at the CIRA Annual General Meeting. You can register to attend the Annual General Meeting here: https://agm.cira.ca/en/registration.html

We will follow up with you several times to make sure that you have registered to become a member and to vote.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact any of the below DOAC executives.

Rick Silver, [email protected]
Harold Simpkins, [email protected]
Jeffrey Behrendt, [email protected]
Larry Franschman, [email protected]
Peter Maxymych, [email protected]
Frank Michlick, [email protected]


You can contact Zak Muscovitch at [email protected]


We welcome your continued support and involvement in the DOAC, which is at its beginning stages. Please do not hesitate to contact any of us with questions or to become more involved. We wil be holding an annual meeting in conjunction with DomainConvergence ( http://DomainConvergence.com/ ) in Montreal, September 23-24, 2010.

Please feel free to forward this email to anyone who you think could be interested - more information about the DOAC can be found at http://doac.ca/ .

Yours truly,
DOAC

 

[poing]

Thank you Adam for posting this here.

/Frank

 

[6sons]

Irex can confirm the positive work Zak has done over the years working on domainers cases including our own. We fully support Zak.

It is wise to get set up right away as Cira is dealing with bugs in this member creation system that can be overcome with a phone call if necessary. Remember that the "show of support" is Aug 26th.

 

[Zak Muscovitch]

Thank you to everyone who has pledged their support. Remember there is an aggravating registration process to vote, so please do not delay, and register to vote right away! Deadline is August 30, 2010. You can click here to vote:

https://member.cira.ca/en/member.html

I would be very pleased to answer any of your questions and to hear your comments.

As you know, we need to get the voices of domainers heard at the CIRA Board and put some issues on the agenda. Some issues which I am very concerned with:

1. How difficult it is to transfer .CA's.

2. How we need to invest heavily in marketing .CA's.

3. How much red tape there is; i.e. the "Canadian Presence Requirements".

And of course there are many other issues as well. If I get on the Board I will likely be a lone voice, but at least I WILL PUT THESE ITEMS ON THE AGENDA AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY.

Every vote counts. This election will be won with a handful of votes so don't think for a minute that I don't need your single vote. I really do.

 

[msn]

1. How difficult it is to transfer .CA's.

What is your position on the mooted conversion to an EPP transfer system?

2. How we need to invest heavily in marketing .CA's.

Why? Should not the .ca registry focus on being efficient, which would lower costs to us, and leave more money with us to do marketing if we so chose? CIRA has not proven itself to be a wise marketer.

3. How much red tape there is; i.e. the "Canadian Presence Requirements".

How about enforcing the CPR instead? It is not undue to expect .ca domains be used for Canadians, and not for primary domainers who hold tens, or hundreds, of thousands of domains on a global basis, and who are able to afford to sit on strategic domains and thereby impede development of a market to end-users.

As any agency will tell you in Canada, clients have ad budget numbers which are a fraction of the U.S. offices, while 'major' domainers hold out for .com level prices.

If more agencies could score quality domains in the .ca space for $3K to $5K instead of $10K to $20K, we would then see the big ad accounts' adoption of .ca domains take off in a big way.

How about bringing us more transparency along the way, with webcasts of all board meetings and full transcripts of every committee meeting, AGM, and board meeting, including conference calls? A yes or no will suffice.

Lastly, would you ensure continued support of the province and territory level as it exists now, unchanged, or would you permit CIRA to make the changes it so far has failed to disclose to the public?


°°°°°°°

 

[hugegrowth]

I just joined today and you'll have my vote Zak. Will also repost the letter on my blog if that's ok.

 

[BobDiGiTaL]

Frank Michlick, [email protected]

now that's a cool email address.

 

[Zak Muscovitch]

Hi msn,

Thank you so much for your questions. From your questions I can see that you take a keen interest in these issues and are very well versed in CIRA issues. I hope that people such as yourself will be welcomed to contribute more directly to the discussion and exploration of policy alternatives. I am sure that I and others have a lot that we can learn from your knowledge and from your opinions.

We have to be realistic that even if I do get a seat on the Board, I may be a lone voice out of the 14 other directors, so many of your great questions and concerns should be directed at them as well. I can only do my utmost to make sure that people such as yourself get heard. From my perspective, it is my intention to voice the concerns of domainers as best I can.

Regarding the transfer to the EPP system, I am not an expert in this area, but it is my understanding that it's long overdue and as far as I know the implementation is quite far along already, so it appears to be beyond the "discussion" stage. As far as I understand, the registry is switching to the EPP (extensive provisioning protocol) for its registrars later this year. It will make it easier for registrars to connect to CIRA by switching to a/the international standard used by many registries in the world. I have yet to hear of any planned changes to the "transfer of ownership" process, but I think that the switchover to EPP would not change the current procedure as the standard really only pertains to how registrars send commands to the registry. The transfer of ownership process is extremely cumbersome and the bane of many .ca owners existence.

Regarding your point that 'the .ca registry [should] focus on being efficient, which would lower costs to us, and leave more money with us to do marketing if we so chose? CIRA has not proven itself to be a wise marketer', this is an interesting perspective and one which I had not considered. As a general principle, I always tend to feel that less regulation and 'government involvement' is best, so on one hand I agree with you. On the other hand, there are some things perhaps that an organization such as CIRA is uniquely able to do on behalf of all .ca owners, which is extensive branding and marketing. I would really like to see more of this. You can read an article from yesterday on the subject, here: http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/ca-red-tape/141381

Regarding the Canadian Presence Requirements, I think that these need to be carefully reevaluated. They have been around for close to ten years and they are due for reconsideration. If the goal of the CPR is to keep .ca's "Canadian", they have totally failed. Anyone can register a .ca, no matter where they are in the world, by merely incorporating a business here at the cost of about $350. So what so "Canadian" about a guy from Arkansas spending $350? This requirement just favors large corporations who easily afford this entry fee, and prejudices the small domain name investor or web developer who can contribute to Canada's internet presence and online commerce activities. Many domainers I know have lost deals for .Ca's because of the futile and cumbersome CPR. Which leads me to your other point about enforcement. There is no way to effectively 'catch' foreign registrations by non compliant registrants. IT would just be too much work to do so effectively. This is another reason why we need to revisit this and perhaps explore what other ccTLD's are doing, such as merely require a Canadian nominee or office address in care of the registrar.

Regarding your point about transparency, I could not agree more. Not only the aspects raised by you in your post, but also what goes on behind the scenes such as rejections of bona fide applications to become a registrar. These do not get disclosed and are very problematic. Also, the voting system is a real problem. It is a real pain for people to register to become a member, and I am seeing that first hand now!

Regarding provincial and territory support, I have honestly not been concerned with this issue at all, and if you feel it is important, I would like to learn why and what you feel should be done.

Once again, the odds of me making a difference even if elected are slim to none, but I would at least like to get the debate going and try to contribute to policy changes. Thanks again for your input and your questions.

Best Regards,

Zak


Why? Should not the .ca registry focus on being efficient, which would lower costs to us, and leave more money with us to do marketing if we so chose? CIRA has not proven itself to be a wise marketer.



How about enforcing the CPR instead? It is not undue to expect .ca domains be used for Canadians, and not for primary domainers who hold tens, or hundreds, of thousands of domains on a global basis, and who are able to afford to sit on strategic domains and thereby impede development of a market to end-users.

As any agency will tell you in Canada, clients have ad budget numbers which are a fraction of the U.S. offices, while 'major' domainers hold out for .com level prices.

If more agencies could score quality domains in the .ca space for $3K to $5K instead of $10K to $20K, we would then see the big ad accounts' adoption of .ca domains take off in a big way.

How about bringing us more transparency along the way, with webcasts of all board meetings and full transcripts of every committee meeting, AGM, and board meeting, including conference calls? A yes or no will suffice.

Lastly, would you ensure continued support of the province and territory level as it exists now, unchanged, or would you permit CIRA to make the changes it so far has failed to disclose to the public?


°°°°°°°[/QUOTE]

---------- Post added at 10:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:25 AM ----------

I just joined today and you'll have my vote Zak. Will also repost the letter on my blog if that's ok.

Thank you SO MUCH for your support, hugegrowth.

Best Regards,

Zak

 

[msn]

we have to be realistic that even if i do get a seat on the board, i may be a lone voice out of the 14 other directors, so many of your great questions and concerns should be directed at them as well. I can only do my utmost to make sure that people such as yourself get heard. From my perspective, it is my intention to voice the concerns of domainers as best i can.

It would be a start at least.

Regarding the transfer to the epp system, i am not an expert in this area, but it is my understanding that it's long overdue and as far as i know the implementation is quite far along already, so it appears to be beyond the "discussion" stage. As far as i understand, the registry is switching to the epp (extensive provisioning protocol) for its registrars later this year. It will make it easier for registrars to connect to cira by switching to a/the international standard used by many registries in the world. I have yet to hear of any planned changes to the "transfer of ownership" process, but i think that the switchover to epp would not change the current procedure as the standard really only pertains to how registrars send commands to the registry. The transfer of ownership process is extremely cumbersome and the bane of many .ca owners existence.

Currently the seller needs to approve a transfer out, the buyer the transfer in, and the registrar also gets a kick at it. If the EPP system goes in without the protection of the registrar acting as a 'failsafe' to make a secondary check before execution of a transfer, we may see a surge in attempts to steal domains and faked 'from CIRA' transfer requests aimed at newbies.

Regarding your point that 'the .ca registry [should] focus on being efficient, which would lower costs to us, and leave more money with us to do marketing if we so chose? Cira has not proven itself to be a wise marketer', this is an interesting perspective and one which i had not considered. As a general principle, i always tend to feel that less regulation and 'government involvement' is best, so on one hand i agree with you. On the other hand, there are some things perhaps that an organization such as cira is uniquely able to do on behalf of all .ca owners, which is extensive branding and marketing. I would really like to see more of this. You can read an article from yesterday on the subject, here: http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/ca-red-tape/141381

The .de registry is more successful, with lower costs and a better profile. A number of national registries could be seen as 'better' on a number of benchmarks. If number of domains is your goal, the Netherlands have a far higher per capita registration level than most of the world, and they were not blowing money on USB sticks as giveaways.

As to promotion, .be gave away domains, .cn lowered prices to under a dollar to build domain demand, .info does 99 cent offers and so on. Highly efficient results came without massive spending.

Domainers would be better served with a $6 instead of $8.50 wholesale registration cost, and CIRA could do that today.

regarding the canadian presence requirements, i think that these need to be carefully reevaluated. They have been around for close to ten years and they are due for reconsideration. If the goal of the cpr is to keep .ca's "canadian", they have totally failed. Anyone can register a .ca, no matter where they are in the world, by merely incorporating a business here at the cost of about $350. So what so "canadian" about a guy from arkansas spending $350? This requirement just favors large corporations who easily afford this entry fee, and prejudices the small domain name investor or web developer who can contribute to canada's internet presence and online commerce activities. Many domainers i know have lost deals for .ca's because of the futile and cumbersome cpr. Which leads me to your other point about enforcement. There is no way to effectively 'catch' foreign registrations by n compliant registrants. It would just be too much work to do so effectively. This is another reason why we need to revisit this and perhaps explore what other cctld's are doing, such as merely require a canadian nominee or office address in care of the registrar.

I would suggest enforcement through a transparent RIV process with feedback to the reporting/declaring party. Right now it is a black box, just like RAR applications.

An 'out there' idea could be a $5 bounty which would have countless people checking on the propriety of specific registrations.

If we are talking about premium domains, or for that matter, anything over $2000, $350 is less than 20% of the sale price, and in some cases is only a rounding error after legal, escrow and commissions.

Few realize the true size of the money pool and I have yet to hear how this would support an active and vibrant end-user business, which should be the goal, instead of warehousing domains in 'portfolios'.

Until and unless end-users see .ca domains as affordable - see my comments earlier - we will continue to have stagnation despite the changes around the edges.

Regarding your point about transparency, i could not agree more. Not only the aspects raised by you in your post, but also what goes on behind the scenes such as rejections of bona fide applications to become a registrar. These do not get disclosed and are very problematic. Also, the voting system is a real problem. It is a real pain for people to register to become a member, and i am seeing that first hand now!

Sunshine is the best disinfectant.

I think we would like to also confirm the holdings in the hands of CIRA employee family members.

Regarding provincial and territory support, i have honestly not been concered with this issue at all, and if you feel it is important, i would like to learn why and what you feel should be done.

There is a good thread on this in this forum, and after digesting that, let me know.

Once again, the odds of me making a difference even if elected are slim to none, but i would at least like to get the debate going and try to contribute to policy changes. Thanks again for your input and your questions.

You - and we - will not know unless you try.

 

[hugegrowth]

If you get in Zak it would be good if you provided an update here at DNF once in a while about what is going on at CIRA.

 

[Zak Muscovitch]

If you get in Zak it would be good if you provided an update here at DNF once in a while about what is going on at CIRA.

That is a great idea and I will do that! Lets try to get me on the Board first though! Its a tough haul ahead with me against 38 candidates ...for a single seat....And that's not including the CIRA preselected candidates (8 for four spots). So EVERY single vote counts big. Domainers wont be able to properly complain if we don't take this opportunity to try and be heard!

"Shows of Support" can now be made on the CIRA site at:
https://elections.cira.ca/2010/support/login/en

But you need to register to vote first...

https://member.cira.ca/en/member.html

---------- Post added at 03:34 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:24 PM ----------

msn,

Thank you for your thoughtful and informative comments. It is so refreshing to hear new ideas and this is a learning opportunity for me...

Regarding the elimination of provincial and territorial support, I read the thread and can see both sides of the issue, however the issue that I cannot see both sides of, is how this was done with none of us knowing about it until it was a done deal. Maybe we were not paying attention or maybe we were not properly informed, but that is very upsetting.

Regarding the cost of incorporating, I would point out that it is the maintenance of the corproration (filings, taxes, etc.) that are an ongoing and unattractive burden to small foreign domain name and web site investors. CIRA's CPR regulations even forbid joint ventures with foreigners in most situations, e.g. having a foreigner develop the site for you and use it while paying a royalty or rent etc...

Regarding your suggestion of a transparent RIV process, I and others have often thought that the uniquely Canadian auto whois protection provides an undue shield to some from compliance with the CPR....Your suggestion of a bounty is very original and as far as I am concerned, all ideas should be on the table.

Your points about lowering the cost of .ca's has a lot of interest to me. I would like to push for that if it is possible as well.

Thanks for taking the time and stay in touch.

Zak

 

[msn]

Regarding the cost of incorporating, I would point out that it is the maintenance of the corproration (filings, taxes, etc.) that are an ongoing and unattractive burden to small foreign domain name and web site investors. CIRA's CPR regulations even forbid joint ventures with foreigners in most situations, e.g. having a foreigner develop the site for you and use it while paying a royalty or rent etc...

Regarding your suggestion of a transparent RIV process, I and others have often thought that the uniquely Canadian auto whois protection provides an undue shield to some from compliance with the CPR....Your suggestion of a bounty is very original and as far as I am concerned, all ideas should be on the table.

Your points about lowering the cost of .ca's has a lot of interest to me. I would like to push for that if it is possible as well.

Thanks for taking the time and stay in touch.

Zak

Hello Zak:

I am almost done with you!

This all leads to MarkMonitor: they hold thousands of non-qualifying registrations of behalf of their non-resident customers. I see this as an affront to the CIRA policy and a disservice to the legal community as many of these clients are large enough to file proper trade mark applications or place these in care of the local subsidiary in Canada.

What is troubling is that CIRA chooses not to enforce its own policy with respect to that arrangement.

A large Ottawa law firm set up a numbered company to hold domains for use by their U.S.-based client, thus avoiding CIRA and GST at the same time. I see that as contrary to the spirit of the policy and contrary to good corporate citizenship by the law firm itself.

Again, CIRA looks the other way which goes to the heart of allegations of selective enforcement by CIRA.

We need total and absolute transparency from CIRA and at voting time this will be an overarching issue for my clients.

I welcome your efforts in this direction and would support you when I would see your commitment to a completely open organisation.

Your candidacy is a good start to improving CIRA and I thank you for your service.

 

[fwdtech]

The .de registry is more successful, with lower costs and a better profile. A number of national registries could be seen as 'better' on a number of benchmarks. If number of domains is your goal, the Netherlands have a far higher per capita registration level than most of the world, and they were not blowing money on USB sticks as giveaways.

As to promotion, .be gave away domains, .cn lowered prices to under a dollar to build domain demand, .info does 99 cent offers and so on. Highly efficient results came without massive spending.

Domainers would be better served with a $6 instead of $8.50 wholesale registration cost, and CIRA could do that today.

Zak, this is a VERY important point.

CIRA was mandated to run things on a "cost recovery" basis.

I don't know the exact wholesale price to number of domains registered ratio, but the price HAD BEEN, originally, falling as the number of registrations increased, which is only rational.

I do believe that the original wholesale price in 2000 was around $20.00 and at around 200,000 domains, it fell to $15.00.

I believe it was at $8.50 before 1,000,000 domains. With an additional 450,000 domains registered, that's an additional $3,825,000 in the ANNUAL budget that SHOULD HAVE gone into further wholesale price reductions, à la ".de"

(If anyone knows the price / registration number history, could they kindly post it?)

NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING would increase .ca reg's and usage as would continued wholesale price reductions.

CIRA's decision to use this surplus to self-aggrandize instead of proceed on their mandated cost-recovery basis is nothing short of shameful megalomania.

 

[Spex]

Signed up last night and showed my support this morning

 

[Zak Muscovitch]

Thanks so much for the heads up fwdtech. I know very well just how burdensome annual maintenance of .ca's are, and anything that can be done to lessen this burden is a major priority. This can be accomplished through cost cutting or revenue growth, or both. I am uncertain of the degree of cost cutting possible at this point, but I would very much like to find out. I am very certain however, that revenue growth can and should be achieved through exponential growth of registrations. This should help the price come down.

 

[A D]

I have now voted for Zak, make sure we all do.

-=DCG=-

 

[msn]

Thanks so much for the heads up fwdtech. I know very well just how burdensome annual maintenance of .ca's are, and anything that can be done to lessen this burden is a major priority. This can be accomplished through cost cutting or revenue growth, or both. I am uncertain of the degree of cost cutting possible at this point, but I would very much like to find out. I am very certain however, that revenue growth can and should be achieved through exponential growth of registrations. This should help the price come down.

Do not get this wrong, please, but CIRA has more than covered the operational costs and sees this excess of funds as a reason to increase salaries of all involved and expand staff, start small projects and hire various consultants at high costs.

When CIRA was created it was allowed a higher fee which was to be used in part to repay UBC for its costs of setting up and running the .ca structure up until the point it was transitioned to CIRA.

Not only are these costs long since paid and forgotten, but more importantly on the revenue side, CIRA has seen a surge in registration levels, and each additional registration has a marginal cost of close to zero. That means, as we say in business school, they are swimming in money.

I would suggest that if CIRA does not now take this opportunity to return to basics, lowered registration cost and complete transparency included, there will certainly soon be outside pressure put on CIRA and that will not be on their terms.

Your full-throated declaration of support for these three elements would be most welcome.

 

[Zak Muscovitch]

msn, Thanks for your post. I think that you can tell from my background and from what I have posted in this thread so far, that I am your best, if not only hope, to even raise a voice at CIRA .....so please make sure to show your support and cast your vote(s) right away so that we can take up these issues with CIRA. Many thanks!

 

[msn]

msn, Thanks for your post. I think that you can tell from my background and from what I have posted in this thread so far, that I am your best, if not only hope, to even raise a voice at CIRA .....so please make sure to show your support and cast your vote(s) right away so that we can take up these issues with CIRA. Many thanks!

I already have hope: I am looking for your commitment.

 

[Ilze]

I had my entire family EACH, sign up, and show support with 3 votes. Zak will certainly be the one person on the panel that knows what we domainers need. I certainly hope that EVERYONE who has posted on this thread has signed up to vote. We need to give Zak our Commitment to VOTE!!!