Important: help stop an unfair bill that will hurt small businesses from passing!

Hi all,

I've just received an interesting thing in my e-mail from another forum... Please read below and sign the petition if the future of online small businesses is of interest to you. This could really have a horrible effect on the whole online industry.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/snowe-bill-threatens-domain-name-registrants-and-internet-commerce

For more details, please see the e-mail pasted below:

 

thanks for posting this, also digg it.

http://digg.com/politics/Snowe_Bill_Threatens_Domain_Name_Registrants

http://digg.com/politics/Do_you_own_a_domain_name_The_Govt_Wants_to_Take_it_From_You

ICA is preparing statements for you to send to your congressman too I believe.

 

If that's all this is about and nothing more, I don't have a problem with it. I would love to see all the misspelled product/celebrity/company websites filled with ads disappear. The potential problem I could see with this is someone with a legitimate domain name having it taken away because it's similar to a big companies trademark. I've already seen ebay go after a website with tbay in the name (tbay = short form for Thunder Bay, ON and probably Tampa Bay). If this gets rid of all the crap parked sites like gogglle . com, then I'm all for it.

 

a) its supposed to be about stopping phishing. There is already trademark law to handle this: see ACPA.

b) it threatens many domain holders: think geo domains, where you own city.com and the city (part of govt) suddenly decides they want it. Or eBay example. Big corps already have ways to handle domain disputes, they just want to circumvent the court system to screw you out of it. This whole thing is being put on by CADNA which you can go research about if you really want. They are slimey, trying to weaken your rights to domain names while trying to hawk you theirs at ridiculous prices (pharmacy.com 50mil? lol)

 

Thanks for posting that. I'm reading up on CADNA now.

.ca (Canada) domains are already like this in regards to not allowing just anyone to register a trademark name (unless, of course, you own the trademark) or registering a city/county/municipal name. I can't even register my last name as a .ca because there is a county with the same name. They don't even use the domain but it's still held for them in case they decide to use it in the future. I think they should have first dibs on the domain but if they decide not to use it, it should be opened up. It probably wouldn't be a problem to do that if there wasn't so many people who specifically register names in hopes of getting a ransom fee for it.

 

Signed up at petitionsite. The bill will certainly hurt the domainer industry as a whole and will let big businesses
have an unfair advantage.

 

I can't believe this thread has only gotten like 5 replies on a forum this size. Are folks here unaware of the gravity of the situation or are they just apathetic?

 

I got the email also, I think this poses a serious threat to the domain industry and it would mean companies would be able to dominate the entire market. If you ask me this bill is a breach of human rights, we lawfully purchased the domains and lawfully own them (most of us at least) why should we turn over what we worked our asses of for just because some big company says so.

 

Petition Signed!

Another example of how the gov't uses one situation as a scare tactic to pull the shades over Americas and the rest of the worlds eyes while the hidden agenda benefits the people/corporations with the most $$

 

polititians obviously dont make very good domainers lol, or know what it's like to be out here in the front line, so to speak.

 

I just called both of my senators to file my displeasure with this bill. Please do the same:

https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml

 

Yes, this bill is almost ok, till you get in to about page 6 or 7. Anybody with the means could look around for good domains and make a case to grab them. It's not just trademarks, brands and cities... it's any business or "other entity." The lawyers can make hay with this and small internet businesses and domainers will suffer.

the Bill's Sponsor's

Snowe, Olympia J.- (R - ME)
154 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5344
Web Form: http://snowe.senate.gov/contact.htm

Nelson, Bill- (D - FL)
716 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-5274
Web Form: http://billnelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)
522 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
(202) 224-3004
Web Form: http://stevens.senate.gov/public/ind...SenatorStevens

 

ransom fee? This isn't someone kidnapping a person, this is people investing in domain names.

http://www.associatedcities.com/

Long list of developed .com city/place names. Think they are just holding out for a ransom fee? It's this sort of ignorance which hurts legitimate domain owners.

 

Great.... Senator Ted (bridge to nowhere) Stevens is a sponsor. It will be tough to get any sense into his head.

 

Thank you for your replies folks, and thank you very much for signing the petition.

To answer everyone's questions about "how bad is this" -- once you read the bill thoroughly you will realize that they are already getting into some very very shady legal territory with this bill....

For example, let's imagine you register a domain name like TheBay.TLD. It partially matches eBay's trademark, so it already falls into the "unlawful" territory according to this bill. This can and will hurt many people whose businesses are not really related to trademarks. Think for yourself: would you like to own TheBay.TLD or The-Bay.tld? No one will remember your domain name with dashes, while if this bill will pass, eBay with its legions of lawyers WILL be able to take your site down.

And it gets more complicated when it comes to small "fan" domains. For example, what if you own a domain name dedicated to Nissan car owners? Let's say MyNissan.TLD. So this means at this stage Nissan can come down HARD on you and shut you down.

Let's take it a bit further. What if you hate Microsoft and you register MicrosoftSucks.TLD where you explain why it sucks. If this bill was to pass, Microsoft will have FULL RIGHT to shut you down, therefore intruding on free speech rights.

I really suggest everyone to sign this petition, forward knowledge about it to friends, post it on other forums, Digg/Reddit it, call/e-mail your senator.

Only if we are united we can stand up to it. It's clear that senator Snowe is acting on behalf of corporate interests, to whom no one can stand up alone. But if we DO manage to make a big fuss about it and let HER realize that she will lose votes in next elections, we might still have a chance.

Good luck to all of us, good luck to small businesses, good luck to freedom of speech.

 

Not surprising, is it?

 

I see yet ANOTHER, ADDITIONAL problem with this idea.

What if the celebrity's name partially or fully matches your name? Does this mean that if your name is Brian Spears you cannot register the domain name bspears.tld because that dumb bitch happened to have the same last name and first letter of first name as you? And What if your name is William Gates, and you're NOT the owner of Microsoft? That means that if you register BillGates.TLD you have to surrender it since HE is the celebrity, and not you? ...I apologize to all American members of this forum, but I DO NOT BELIEVE in American courts protecting the little guy from the big guy. Or do you want to give American courts the ability to choose who is the "real celebrity" and who deserves his family name more?

Now, what if your business is selling APPLES?! You know, apples you eat? So if you register Apple.TLD, Apple, as in the company, can take over you????

And what if your business is selling GOGGLES.... Does it mean that GOOgle can take over your GOGgle.tld? That can easily be classified as a misspell.

If you will take just 10 minutes to consider what high-paid lawyers could do with this you will come to a post-apocalyptic scenario.

P.S. There's a firm called Dennis Publishing out there in the UK. My first name is Dennis. Does it mean that when I'll try to register MY OWN PERSONAL NAME --that existed for thousands of years, and which I had since I was born-- they can take it away from me?

P.P.S. I would not mind this bill if it had CLEAR provisions for it is legal and what is not. For example, if you register Google.am or some other weird TLD while pretending that YOU are Google, take down the site, I'm all for it. But there must be CLEAR provisions, with restrictions ONLY for impersonators that try to pretend they're another company.

 

I'm afraid this goes deeper. Two of the authors are Republican, which additionally have a history of supporting corporate interests. And then there's Mr Stevens as one of the sponsors.

I'm not sure if anyone remembers the "safe ports act" that was passed a year and a half ago. Named "safe ports act" it made all online gambling illegal in the USA. Passed by republicans as well -- written at the end of a really vital bill that would increase security in USA ports.

This seems to be a very similar attempt.... They've found something that could be of value (=anti-phishing) to attach their corporate interests to.

I want to know who lobbied this bill.

 

That's kind of the point I was making with the ebay / tbay example. If it's your actual name (ie Brian Spears vs Britney Spears), you would obviously have govt documents showing that it's your legal name and therefore, (you should be) entitled to it.

Personally, I don't see any difference between Google going after someone who registered Goooooogggle.com than some guy named Dave who registered ArnoldSchwarznagger.com.

But, I do see a problem happening with websites that have a generic keyword for the domain. How can you judge what's legit and what isn't? Would we have to register a trademark for every single domain we have registered? And who should have the authority to determine what is fair game and what isn't? As usual, it'll come down to who has more money to spend or who throws more money towards the right political party.

 

Follow the money. Trademark and intellectual property lawyers. Well, that's my guess.