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Hello Evan,<div><br></div><div>I am glad that you have brought up the issue of the Registration Abuse Policies Working Group because I have also been hearing things about it working to make anonymous online speech more difficult over concerns of trademark infringement and the like.</div><div><br></div><div>But we need to get more people in this group - which has been operating under the radar of much of the GNSO, but I think would concern the GNSO if they knew what they were up to. We need quite a few smart techies in this group who can cross swords with dozens of highly paid business lobbyists. And we should coordinate our strategies to the extent possible.</div><div><br></div><div>The issue that I would like for this group to explore is "trademark lawyer abuse" and how overzealous trademark lawyers abuse the system, often over-state their claim, and take over domain name registrations in a "bullying" fashion. </div><div><br></div><div>And from what I've heard, this RAP working group wants criticism on websites to be considered per se "abuse" of a domain name! </div><div><br></div><div>So I think there may be many important issues we should look into with respect to this RAP WG and this could be a good opportunity to collaborate on issues. </div><div><br></div><div>Let's talk further and find our members who want to work on this group.</div><div><br></div><div>Thank you,</div><div>Robin</div><div><br><div><div>On Jul 6, 2009, at 6:48 AM, Evan Leibovitch wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"> Hello all,<br> <br> At the Sydney ICANN meeting I had the opportunity to attend a session of the "Registration Abuse Policies Working Group", which I believe is a GNSO subcommittee that encourages participation from outside GNSO.<br> <br> Well, that's the theory. What I found at that meeting was a room full of vested interests and contracted partied, determined to report to ICANN that the only real form of registration abuse is that of trademark abuse.<br> <br> When I dared mention at the Sydney session that some people consider domaining and domain speculation to be a form of "abuse", I received what I believed to be some abuse of my own. While Beau and Patrick were also at the meeting, I was left alone to take the multi-voiced attack from those who seemed insulted that I should even raise the issue.<br> <br> Now, I know that not everyone within At-Large is an opponent of domain speculation. But I would like to get some guidance -- or some opinions -- regarding whether this voice needs to be maintained within this group. I am especially astounded that there was nobody from NCUC at the group, leaving the At-Large people -- and me specifically, in this particular case -- trying to make the case that not all registration abuse is trademark related.<br> <br> As I get ready to participate in a conference call of this group for which I am ill prepared (just got home yesterday after a second conference I had that followed Sydney), I would like to hear some feedback. Am I wasting my time here? Does ALAC have its own position of the issue of registrant abuse?<br> <br> I am fully aware that I am not acting as an At-Large, and as such speak there for nobody but myself. However, it would be helpful if I could be guided by previous At-Large policy and current At-Large sentiment.<br> <br> Is the statement "domain squatting and speculation constitutes a form of registrant abuse" accurate to anyone here? Or should I be advancing issues related to other forms of registrant abuse? Or should I even bother? I have better uses of my time than being at the end of a verbal firing squad.<br> <br> I'd also like to hear some perspectives from Beau and Patrick, the only other "user" minded people in the room that day.<br> <br> - Evan<br> <h2 class="loginTitle" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 25px;"><br> </h2> </blockquote></div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div>IP JUSTICE</div><div>Robin Gross, Executive Director</div><div>1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117 USA</div><div>p: +1-415-553-6261 f: +1-415-462-6451</div><div>w: <a href="http://www.ipjustice.org">http://www.ipjustice.org</a> e: <a href="mailto:robin@ipjustice.org">robin@ipjustice.org</a></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></div></body></html>