This time, jamaica.com

[Anthony Ng]

The Jamaica Tourist Board is going after jamaica.com. Thanks to Bret Fausett, here's the story:

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news...500_37298_OBS_JTB_GOING_AFTER_JAMAICA_COM.asp

 

[pljones]

The Jamaica Tourist Board will face the same fate as the NZ Gov't if it brings this case. It should consider developing Jamaica.info into a portal or Jamaica.jm from its own country-code. Jamaica.ws is still available too (or was a few minutes ago).

 

[crabby]

They can't get jamaica.info, it's reserved for ICANN, according to the Afilias whois. To give away jamaica.info to ANY entity without allowing others an equal chance for it is playing favorites ... not a good idea.

 

[pljones]

Read the minutes of the ICANN Board from Sept. 10, 2001: http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-10sep01.htm

"Resolved [01.92], the General Counsel is directed to take appropriate action to preserve the Board's ability to take action with respect to the registration in .info of names of countries and distinct economies contained in the ISO 3166-1 list , including exercising ICANN's contractual power to instruct the Registry Operator for .info to maintain the registration of such names that have not yet been registered during the Sunrise Period, and any other such names that are returned to the database following a successful challenge by the Registry Operator, for a period to extend through ICANN's March 2002 meeting, unless that period is shortened or extended by further Board action;..."

I believe that the Jamaican government could negotiate with ICANN for Jamaica.info and have it transferred to them for use by the JTB.

 

[crabby]

So true ...

I think Afilias will do anything it wants to do with the name, regardless of any rule(s) or agreements. After all, we're talking about an ethics-challenged registry here, one whose own board member resigned in disgust, while other board members gorged themselves, sometimes fraudulently, on prime .info names. I believe I read that Afilias's CEO is also part of an ICANN-accredited registrar, accepting thousands of fraudulent sunrise reg's from one person.

I read about this all over the internet ... it's really out there, everywhere, and doesn't bode well for the extension.

 

[pljones]

Many claims have been made about Afilias, and you can choose whether to believe those claims or not. ICANN mandated that Afilias reserve these country names, and I assume that if asked by the government whose name is identical to one of those on the list, Afilias and ICANN will make that name available to that country. That was the purpose for reserving the names.

Jamaica.info seems to be a logical choice for a site about Jamaica (see http://www.cancun.info for a .info in use). The Jamaican Gov't and their Tourist Board should be trying to use that extension (or their own .jm country code), rather than pursue a .com that has been in legitimate use by another company for two years.

 

[PACKERGARE]

waste of taxpayer money

 

[Mizzoula]

"We are very anxious to get jamaica.com because it is the most intuitive domain name we could use; more powerful than the current JTB Website at jamaicatravel.com," one JTB spokesperson said last week.

Well, if they'd have been "intuitive" enough to grab the name in the first place, they wouldn't be dealing with this envy. It seems cases like this are more and more prevalent when all they could do is probably outright offer and buy the domain from the owner. Of course, it seems their first line of action is to seek a lawsuit.

 

[dtobias]

Since this tourist board is (apparently) a noncommercial organization (part of the Jamaican government?), the .com name never made any logical sense to begin with. If only the marketing types of the world could get cured of their dot-com-itis and seek more sensible addresses for their sites...

 

[draqon]

the .com is the perfect address even for a noncommercial tourism entity because the .com will receive large amounts of typeins from people who are interested in Jamaica. Just cuz the organization is non-profit, doesnt mean its interests would be best served .org or .info.

 

[namedropper]

Just because its interests would be best served by having Jamaica.com doesn't mean that they have any legal right to take it away from the current owner, of course.
--
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