<html><body><span style="font-family:Verdana; color:#000000; font-size:10pt;"><div>Thanks George. Whether or not you have ties to the registry doesn't affect whether or not your proposed solution results in an even bigger ($1 billion!) shakedown of brand owners. Since your latest email doesn't add anything substantive to your prior email, I'll just end my engagement with you on this thread with reiterating my prior "no thanks" except this time, "no thanks times 1 billion).</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div>Paul</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
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-------- Original Message --------<br>
Subject: Re: [gnso-rpm-wg] A Brave New World Without Sunrises or the<br>
TMCH<br>
From: George Kirikos <<a href="mailto:icann@leap.com">icann@leap.com</a>><br>
Date: Fri, April 14, 2017 12:25 pm<br>
To: "<a href="mailto:gnso-rpm-wg@icann.org">gnso-rpm-wg@icann.org</a>" <<a href="mailto:gnso-rpm-wg@icann.org">gnso-rpm-wg@icann.org</a>><br>
<br>
Hello,<br>
<br>
On Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 1:15 PM, <<a href="mailto:policy@paulmcgrady.com">policy@paulmcgrady.com</a>> wrote:<br>
> I will have to say "no thanks" to dismantling the RPMs so that they can be<br>
> reassembled to ensure that every Sunrise is an auction-based dollar squeeze<br>
> of brand owners. I understand certain registries may be unhappy with how<br>
> few Sunrise registrations trademark owners bought in the first round as many<br>
> were financially dependent on trademark owners showing up to purchase them<br>
> (even though we all warned applicants not to count on it).<br>
<br>
I'm not a registry, nor am I associated with any. As I've said, I have<br>
no interest at all in registering new gTLDs. If I was to act in my own<br>
personal interests, I'd say "keep the status quo", since the status<br>
quo has helped kill new gTLDs (i.e. .com has thrived). It would be<br>
hard to design a worse new gTLD program than exists at present.<br>
<br>
> I was secretly hoping that the "dismantle the RPMs" campaign had some<br>
> free-speech motivation that, after several weeks, had yet to locate its<br>
> rationale. Clearly, this is just about money for certain registry<br>
> operators (its almost always about money...sigh). One good thing - at least<br>
> the free speech-ish veneer is gone.<br>
<br>
See above. In a capitalist society, once the "first dibs" is<br>
eliminated by killing sunrise, and it's straight to land rush, then<br>
willingness to pay (auction) is an entirely fair method to allocate a<br>
scarce resource.<br>
<br>
If a registry operator wanted to set a $1 billion/domain price in<br>
sunrise, that would be a quite effective method of eliminating the<br>
negative effects of sunrises, a legal way to comply with their<br>
obligations to ICANN (while thumbing their noses at the bad policy).<br>
If I was running a registry, and wanted to promote registrant-friendly<br>
policies that reduce gaming, that's exactly what I would do, to<br>
eliminate the inherent unfairness and gaming. Let folks with real<br>
disputes solve it in court or UDRP or whatever, post-registration.<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
George Kirikos<br>
416-588-0269<br>
<a href="http://www.leap.com">http://www.leap.com</a>/<br>
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