[gnso-rpm-wg] Action Items, Slides and Notes from the Working Group call held earlier today

[George Kirikos]

By that argument, all the HOTEL.TLD and HOTELS.TLD domain names
registered by Dirk, or all the other examples by "domain name
speculators" abusing the sunrise periods could have just as easily
have been bought by those registrants legitimately as "premium
domains" too! The registry operators were "too smart" to let
Flowers.TLD go through in sunrise to 1-800-Flowers.com, without a
premium sale, but were "too dumb" and let all those other desirable
names slip through the cracks to be registered by "speculators".
Implausible.

So, by Georges' argument "we'll just never know" the truth, because it
can be explained away by some unlikely scenarios, and we shouldn't dig
any deeper, because this working group (or the positions of some
members) is better off in ignorance of the truth. Perhaps some people
can't handle the truth.

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_wise_monkeys

We shouldn't be turning a blind eye to what's wrong, but instead, as
Bret suggested, use all the brain power here to fix things.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
416-588-0269
http://www.leap.com/

On Tue, Apr 11, 2017 at 12:53 PM, Nahitchevansky, Georges
<ghn at kilpatricktownsend.com> wrote:
> I think you are right that these were likely premium names.  Many registries, including Donuts and Minds & Machines offered names for sale in advance of a landrush at a premium (and some even after general availability periods started).  If free speech is really the "concern" here then how does premium pricing not chill speech or skew the marketplace of ideas by favoring the rich over the poor.  As an aside, on the flowers example, 1-800 Flowers obtained  a number of their names well after the sunrise periods ended (e.g., flowers.london, flowers.today, flowers.country and flowers.website).  Moreover, a bunch of flowers extensions have either been registered to other parties or are still available (e.g., flowers.xyz, flowers.guru, flowers.nyc, flowers.domains, flowers.pet, flowers.photography, flowers.photo, flowers.place, flowers.poker. flowers.property, flowers.republican, flowers.repair etc.)  It hardly seems like there has been a conspiracy to take out common words. At best you have a trademark owner that registered and acquired some domain names (including flowers.com) that correlate to its legitimate business of ordering and delivering flowers, gift baskets etc.