hughesa said:
Say for example names like business.eu, mobilephones.eu, football.eu soccer.eu, etc. Who will register these first?
Speculators using dodgy Belgian fast track trademarks to claim prior rights. That's the simple answer. The same kind of activity (well financed speculators targeting premium domains using dubious methods can be seen in any Sunrise).
The .eu case was special because the registry was run by incompetent fools who shouldn't have been allowed within an ass's roar of a TLD. But their buddies, those well known domain industry experts in the European Commission thought that these morons were best equipped to run .eu ccTLD.
The phantom registrar issue involved hundreds of front company (LLC) phantom registrars. The morons in EURid were informed of this problem as hundreds of these registrars started appearing before the landrush. They took no action and were, in the eyes of the European domain industry, negligent on a scale that is almost criminal. How these morons ever got to run a registry should be investigated. But since the European Union is associated with fraud, waste and corruption, so there will be no investigation. There will be no justice.
You want names? We got names:
Michael Berkens. (UK front company: Malls Ltd)
Jay Westerdal (Nameintelligence /domaintools.com)
Ray King (ex-CEO Snapnames.com)
(Both of the above used UK Front companies: Aphrodite Ventures Ltd, Hanoki Ltd, Lexicon Media Ltd, Name Battery Ltd, Vintisia Ltd, World Online Endeavours Ltd, Lehigh Basin Ltd, Fienna Ltd)
Marchex (Used Irish front company)
Enom
Pool
etc
You want the domains targeted and the domains they registered?
We have them too.
Regards...jmcc