Tina Dam / Is It time for an ICANN Class Action Lawsuit for IDN Aliasing

[GO1]

For years ICANN presented IDN Aliasing as the future solution
for owners of IDN generic TLD's such as .COM and .NET

This was a primary reason many IDNers renewed thier domains.
Registrars received millions of dollars in revenue based on information
presented by ICANN.


If Tina Dam's recent comments were not taken out of context and the possibility exist
that IDN.IDN Aliasing will not be implemented as IDNer's were led to believe,
we could see a major Class Action Lawsuit Brewing from millions of
disenchanted IDN owners.


I hope I am wrong about this. But ICANN does need to clarify it's position ASAP
regarding IDN.IDN aliasing for gTLD's - if ex-employee Tina Dam's comments are accurate.

I hope I am wrong about this!

(FYI - Save all of your ICAAN information, such as Test-Bed Info, documents etc)


Tina Dam comments:

In terms of fast-tracking Internationalized translations and transliterations of existing gTLDs –
I agree with you that this would seem reasonable or an easy task if the right to these
IDN TLDs existed and was agreed upon. However, the GNSO decided early
on in the gTLD process discussions that there should be no pre-rights for IDN translations or
transliterations of existing gTLDs, and that these also
would not be automatically delegated, but needed to be applied-for in the
same manner as everyone else. One of the counter-arguments to your suggestion
is of course that the process is here to increase competition, not provide more monopoly.
This is also why I many times have mentioned that being registrant
for an idn.tld does not automatically gurantee getting idn.[idn-tld].
One of the main issues around this discussion was the difficulty
in translating the existing gTLDs. It was and is not a unique one-to-one mapping.

[Gerry]

Whoa! Damn Tina! That is huge news and contrary to what has been published.

should be no pre-rights for IDN translations or
transliterations of existing gTLDs, and that these also
would not be automatically delegated, but needed to be applied-for in the
same manner as everyone else.

This is not the position of ICANN about a year ago.

---------- Post added at 01:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:35 PM ----------

I personally do not see any effort by ICANN to get or be serious about IDN.IDN no matter what anyone says.

There is no money in it for ICANN if names are to be "awarded" based on some criteria.

Therefore, IDN.IDN will NOT be the focus of ICANN in the immediate or near future.


Again, the reason is money.

I posted an article elsewhere on the forum about the craziness and feeding frenzy ongoing in the new TLD applicants.

There is an expected 1000-5000 new names to be applied for by the deadline (January 12th?).

Once names are approved, it is expected that ICANN will release (this is not a typo) 500 new extensions per year.

This is the money grab and the money grubbers of ICANN. And lets not forget...this is the same non-profit ICANN and the same ICANN that moved its headquarters to Switzerland to avoid prosecution and class action lawsuits primarily from the Reg Fly debacle.

IDN.IDN was once thought to be on the fast track. But the money whores of ICANN have got to have their fix of an influx of new cash. And they will get it (just not from IDN.IDN).

[GO1]

Tina Dam presented IDN aliasing as the solution for many years at ICANN

How can she now pretend she didn't - Purchases were made based on IDN aliasing moving

forward. ..............So many time lines were created and

now it's all gone .........poof.

If Tina Dam's comments are accurate ........ Then we were we mislead throughout the testbed process

for years on end!



Again - I hope I am wrong!

[katherine]

If Tina Dam's recent comments were not taken out of context and the possibility exist
that IDN.IDN Aliasing will not be implemeted as IDNer's were led to believe,
we could see a major Class Action Lawsuit Brewing from millions of
disenchanted IDN owners.

On which grounds ?

You gambled and you want a bailout ?

[James Jean]

On which grounds ?

You gambled and you want a bailout ?

Agree with Katherine! No one forced you buy or renew any idn.idn. As an example- I invested in .mobi consciously knowing it wouldn't succeed. I made my profit margin then I left the scene. You have to give due diligence and know how to interpret trends in this industry.

[GO1]

There are no grounds yet.

However if ICANN does not allow owners of exisiting IDN.IDN 's

some type of opportunity (maybe a time period)

to purchase the completed IDN's strings in the native languages as outlined

in countless ICANN reference documents, there will be grounds for action at that point.

They can't keep saying there is no definitive TLD equivalent to .com in say Japanese or Hebrew.

when they (ICANN) are the ones who completely mapped out the IDN.TLD Landscape, and pitched the

Native Language Eqivalents, in the first place.

The only thing IDNers asked for was the right of first refusal or to 'turn on aliasing'

when ICANN finally was able to complete the IDN.IDN Conversion/Transformation.

ICANN can solve this issue easily with a 90 day or 6 month sunrise / grace period for current

IDN Owners, which is not a lot to ask of them at this point in the process.

That would be a fair and acceptable resolution for all parties involved - for the current IDN Owner

holding a half completed domain, to new owners of the IDN TLD's such as Verisign.


But thanks for your comments.

[GO1]

ICANN Class Action Lawsuit - posted from closed thread

ICANN has already set a precedent for dealing with potential lawsuits based on multiple ownership

claims for the same domain when new top level domain (TLD's) are implemented.

The .XXX implementation provided a 'sunrise period' that appears to be fair to all parties

presenting a claim.

If IDN aliasing is a dead concept for ICANN and current IDN Owners, a solution similar to the .XXX

sunrise would probably work for most IDN Owners - and the new TLD Owners as well (i.e Verisign).

LINK INFO: http://www.mvalaw.com/news-publications-118.html

Article:

Approval of the .XXX Extension:
On April 1, 2011, ICANN approved the .XXX extension for delegation. ICM Registry, the entity that will own and oversee .XXX, initially applied for the extension as part of a “proof of concept” round of applications for new gTLDs in 2000 as a gTLD intended to benefit the Adult Entertainment Industry.

The application was widely criticized by both opponents and supporters of the industry and only just won ICANN’s approval.

The extension is currently scheduled to launch in September of 2011 with two Sunrise periods, Sunrise A and Sunrise B beginning September 7, 2011 and extending through October 28.

Sunrise A is directed to trademark and domain name owners within the adult industry and will provide such owners the opportunity to register domains corresponding to their existing trademark registrations or domain names with a .XXX extension.


Sunrise B is directed to trademark owners who desire not to be associated with the .XXX extension. Any entity with trademark registration of national effect in a jurisdiction where the applicant conducts substantial bona fide commerce in connection with the mark will be able to apply for inclusion on a reserved list. The trademark must be registered before the beginning of the Sunrise period and must correspond to the exact mark or textual portion of a word and design mark to the domain name to be added to the reserved list. The cost to apply to add a trademark to the reserved list will be set by individual registrars but will be between $200 and $300. This fee is intended to be a one time fee, and if the applicant is successful, should reserve the domain for at least as long as ICM Registry runs the .XXX extension (guaranteed for 10 years).

[GO1]

Asking Tina Dam the correct question?

Does Tina Dam (personally) now support providing a sunrise period for existing IDN.COM owners so that

the domain names 'they' purchased could be converted to complete IDN.IDN TLD extentions.

From Tina's bio:
[I was indeed in charge of the ENTIRE IDN Program at ICANN. As with any staff person at ICANN this does not mean that I got to make decisions on policies and processes. These are build through ICANN's bottom-up consensus processes, which means that what the community agrees on is what is put in front of the ICANN Board for decision. Sure the Board can decide to go against the community, but need a very good reason for it. Sure the staff, including me, is assisting the community in for example what can be implemented or not. ]



The question now becomes: Is Tina Dam willing to do you a favor, and publicly support a provisional sunrise period

for existing IDN.COM owners to allow a fair resolution to an existing 10 year old problem?

(Very kindly please keep out: health reasons or 'The ICANN/Verisign connection does not know what the IDN.TLD's really should be points?)

IDN Owners need to take action and Tina Dam's true position could be extremely helpful to IDN Owners at this point.


Based on her firsthand knowledge as the chief officer at ICANN for development of IDN gTLD's,

Tina Dam should publically acknowledge what all IDN Owners already know:

IDN's today are still stuck in the final 'test bed' phase and are still incomplete by anyone's standards.

[Gerry]

So you believe that you should own the kosher equivalent of every extension simply because you own the IDN.com?

Seriously?

Do you think you should have rights to more than 280 ccTLD extensions once they go IDN?

Have you been led to believe by owning the .com you will automatically get the word kosher in every language? ICANN is just going to hand it to you?

Portuguese, Spanish, Korean, Hebrew, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, German, French, Italian...all of the IDN equivalents are your first rights?

[GO1]

Gerry I can see where you are coming from.

There might be a misconception pertaining to what IDN Owners are asking for:


IDN Owners are only asking for a single (1) TLD - The TLD that would complete the IDN string in the native language

which has been an ICANN deliverable for the past 10 years. (More facts to follow)

This means if I have a hebrew IDN that is half complete (IDN.COM) it should resolve to (IDN.IDN)

as part of the natural hebrew language. ICANN Engineers have been working on this path with IDN Owners for over

10 years, the stated final outcome was complete implementation if IDN.IDN.


We've passed many testbeds together to get to this point.

If ICANN is an entity based on setting or implementing fair business standards, then they will

understand the importance of implementing a Sunrise Period for current IDN Owners before

approving the deal to let Versign take possession of the same IDN's TLD's.

IDN Owners are only asking for a single 1 domain - The one that was documented over 10 years ago.


And not even the 1 domain - Just the right to pre-register, for a short period of time, the (finally) completed native /

natural language version of the domain - the same or similar to ICANN's Implemention of the .xxx domains.