.tv Ding Dong Daddy: Bob Parsons' Dot TV Warning.

[MicroGuy]

The latest from Bob Parsons soothsayer to the stars.....

http://www.bobparsons.me/1stAnnualDingDong.html?watch=1&wnow=1

Looks like he's using .ME now instead of .TV. :td:

 

[snoop]

Thinking about it, I wonder if this is even legal?

Who is making the decisions to allow .WS to be promoted as "Web Site" and .ME to be promoted as "Me"..?

Is it VeriSign?
VeriSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSN) is an American company based in Mountain View, California that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet's thirteen root nameservers, the generic top-level domains for .com and .net, one of the largest SS7 signaling networks in North America, and the RFID directory for EPCGlobal.

Did they get the permission from all of the people of these countries?

What about Samoa and Montenegro???

They have a contract with the government of those countries.

 

[jeffoverman]

mcb brings up some valid issues and in depth issues as well... i agree with him on this and len also brought up some good points..

 

[qO_Op]

They have a contract with the government of those countries.

Ah, I see... but it is still unethical.

What happens if the government changes? What happens if the PEOPLE want their domains back??

 

[snoop]

Ah, I see... but it is still unethical.

What happens if the government changes? What happens if the PEOPLE want their domains back??

How is it unethical, aren't these countries making a heap of money from these deals? Secondly if you truly think it is unethical why do you buy these names?

 

[jeffoverman]

the islands are sinking, give me all your geo.tv and porn.tv and sexo.tv for free...the values of these will tank 90 percent, lol

 

[qO_Op]

How is it unethical, aren't these countries making a heap of money from these deals? Secondly if you truly think it is unethical why do you buy these names?

Whose domains are these, the governments or the people of these countries? What is the point of country code domains?
I own only a handful of .TVs that I purchased a few years ago, no .WS, no .MEs, I'm not allowed to own any .US because I'm not an American :/, I own .co.uks because I live in the UK.
I only really started thinking about this after .ME was released, TBH...
What is going to happen in the future? Are we going to see loads more so called 'country code' extensions being promoted as 'vanity' extensions?
IMO, country code extensions should ALL be treated as EQUAL. .US means United States, .UK means UK, .ME means Montenegro, etc. and registrars should not be allowed to irresponsibly/unethically promote these extensions as anything else. VeriSign should not even be asking for 'permission' from the governments in the first place.

 

[prague7]

.UK means UK, .ME means Montenegro, etc. and registrars should not be allowed to irresponsibly/unethically promote these extensions as anything else. VeriSign should not even be asking for 'permission' from the governments in the first place.

I think the governments of these countries are more than happy for them to be promoted as vanity domains - for a tiny country like Tuvalu it becomes a good source of income to boost what I imagine is a very limited economy. I doubt very much that the 12,000 inhabitants are upset that they don't have priority over the rest of the world on registering PimpMyWhatever.tv and the like.

It would've been nice if Bob Parsons used the opportunity to continue to promote .tv to highlight the plight of Tuvalu - which stands a very good chance of becoming the first country/population to succumb totally to rising sea levels - generally raise awareness and maybe help boost the income of the island to help the inhabitants through sale of .tv, instead of joking about the fact the island is "sinking" with a barely-disguised smarmy grin on his face. I personally found it quite distateful...

 

[snoop]

Whose domains are these, the governments or the people of these countries? What is the point of country code domains?

The government represents the people, it is one in the same. The "people" don't decide on every decision that effects them, that is why they elect a government.

I own only a handful of .TVs that I purchased a few years ago, no .WS, no .MEs, I'm not allowed to own any .US because I'm not an American :/, I own .co.uks because I live in the UK.
I only really started thinking about this after .ME was released, TBH...
What is going to happen in the future? Are we going to see loads more so called 'country code' extensions being promoted as 'vanity' extensions?
IMO, country code extensions should ALL be treated as EQUAL. .US means United States, .UK means UK, .ME means Montenegro, etc. and registrars should not be allowed to irresponibly/unethically promote these extensions as anything else. VeriSign should not even be asking for 'permission' from the governments in the first place.

That just isn't how is works in practice. People can promote something differently to its original intention. I really doubt there is much legal standing for what some are suggesting. Imagine if registrars were forced to tell people .net means ISP, .org means non profit and .com is for commercial entities. Extensions evlove over time. .us is another good example, it is the country code of the US only in a very technical sense.

Regarding the comments by some about the people should have full control of this extension, what do you think a third world country would rather have, ownership of all the domains in a country code extension or royalities from the leasing of those names totally 3X their annual GDP? The revenue from the Verisign deal is a massive chunk of this countries income from what I can see of it.

 

[qO_Op]

The government represents the people, it is one in the same. The "people" don't decide on every decision that effects them, that is why they elect a government.

That just isn't how is works in practice. People can promote something differently to its original intention. I really doubt there is much legal standing for what some are suggesting. Imagine if registrars were forced to tell people .net means ISP, .org means non profit and .com is for commercial entities. Extensions evlove over time. .us is another good example, it is the country code of the US only in a very technical sense.

Regarding the comments by some about the people should have full control of this extension, what do you think a third world country would rather have, ownership of all the domains in a country code extension or royalities from the leasing of those names totally 3X their annual GDP? The revenue from the Verisign deal is a massive chunk of this countries income from what I can see of it.

Good points.

Okay, if someone wants to buy a .WS domain and use it as a "Web Site" OR a .ME and use it for their personal site, etc., I don't really see a problem with that. It is a free world and these extensions are currently open for the world to purchase them. But for registrars to actually promote these extensions as vanity extensions, when they are not really, then it is not right. This one example of how Bob and GoDaddy can just change their mind about .TV, just like that, says it all really... (like a lot of people have been saying in this thread already).

The issue IMO is one of fraudulent marketing on behalf of Godaddy. Sure, Bob can say whatever he wants as far as his opinions. It is also clear about his vested interest in the .me TLD which in and of itself is fine.

However, the manner in which he is choosing to be vindictive could be leaving him and his company legally responsible in the following way. For a longtime Godaddy was marketing and selling .tv domains based on the Godaddy statements that .TV means "TV" and "video" and that is the reason to buy the domain. Godaddy had a marketing campaign for this specific purpose that has been prominently featured for a long time. It is fair to say when the largest registrar tells you in good faith that this is the description and meaning of the product you are buying then it goes into the logical decision making process of buying the product. Furthermore, based on Godaddy's statements, it can also be concluded by a logical person that these statements reflect the overall value of what you are buying, which is based on Godaddy's proclamations as to what the TLD means and how it is used. These factors clearly have a direct effect on the decision to chose and buy a TLD. Simply put, it is logical that many people bought .tv domains in part due to the marketing. statements, and usage by Godaddy as to the meaning and value of the product they were buying. Godaddy's huge market position and influence cannot be ignored in terms of the weight that the above actions carry.

Now, after spending a great deal of time and money marketing this message, Godaddy is telling its very same costumers that were in effect mislead by the former product description and marketing campaign. In fact, the .TV domain is simply a country code that is in danger of being swept away. Now, if you try to reg a .tv domain, it shows you .me and gives reasons why .TV should not be used to mean "Video" and that in fact .tv is actually a country code, pushing the message that it in no way is really suppose to mean "TV" or "Video". Godaddy is saying that .TV is not intended to mean the very exact thing they have been telling costumers that it does mean and based their reason for buying the TLD.

Whether they want to claim .me is for video is up to them, but to go out the way to change the meaning and value of the product their costumers have been buying BASED on Godday statements and usage, to me cries out for a class action lawsuit. Bob himself was using .TV to mean video on his blog as part of the marketing campaign. This was a reason some felt comfortable buying .TV domains. Now instead of simply changing to .me which he is entitled to do, he is claiming his use of .TV was a fraud from day one. Clearly he mislead his customers based on what he is now saying.

To be clear, I am not an attorney, but I welcome any thoughts on this matter from any out there. My point in posting was to focus on the real issue here which is the fraudulent marketing of .TV IMO and the harm it is doing to its own customers, while Bob seems blinded by some personal vendetta.

MCB said it best

This is going to get messy in the future unless some ground rules are in place.

I would have thought that it would have been best for country code extensions to remain country code extensions and then have seperate vanity extensions but who knows what VeriSign is thinking...

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

As far as I'm concerned, all the rules went out the window when the .tv registry held back premiums and started charging outrageous yearly premium fees.

Greed will kill .tv, not Parsons per se (he doesn't sell PREMIUM .tv's, enom does). And if .me starts pulling the same stunt, it will suffer the same fate as .tv.

In advertising, all is fair game; unless someone is selling poisoned baby formula, it's pretty much caveat emptor before buying.

*

 

[qO_Op]

I think the governments of these countries are more than happy for them to be promoted as vanity domains - for a tiny country like Tuvalu it becomes a good source of income to boost what I imagine is a very limited economy. I doubt very much that the 12,000 inhabitants are upset that they don't have priority over the rest of the world on registering PimpMyWhatever.tv and the like..

I can understand about Tuvalu but Montenegro with a population of 678,177 is a bit different, IMO.

Anyways, just some thoughts I had to get off my mind.

Good luck to everyone.

 

[gr8trfoo]

i should be glad ding bat bob chose to take out his frustrations the way he did. the spectacle is quite entertaining, its not often you get to see the chief executive of a substantial company see how far down his own throat he can jam his foot.

his rant will serve to dampen some of the already damp speculative fervor driving a small percentage of domainers away. it will also sow confusion in the minds of thousands of consumers but it will hardly kill off ,tv. might keep the resale prices lower than they would have been and for longer too.

Owning 500 .tv names only serves to make someone else rich.

eh? by that logic dosnt owning 500 .com's only serve to make someone else rich? domaining is not and should never be about quantity - only quality. 500 crap domains are worth the same as 50,000, why carry a single one?

In 2009 start thinking smarter. Don't hoard. Sell when you get the chance, and above all. Think .com

.com may remain the top domain. probably will. but nothing is written in stone. myself i'm only thinking "dot what are people in the future going to think". i like .tv because my intuition tells me that as more and more people's primary source of video comes over the net, as more tv sets are produced with browsing and capturing capabilities built in, then a name ending in .tv will make more and more sense. can i prove it? not really, but i couldnt prove 10 years ago that the .coms i was grabbing were going to be any good today. guess what.

as far selling and not hoarding didya ever try to buy a name from frank s? when does he ever sell? hoarding was always central to his plan. selling a good domain is rarely a problem. selling a gold-plated turd on the other hand...

everyone has their own reason for selling and thats fine but the path to wealth is not to sell the gold-egg laying goose, only the eggs. and just like any living thing a TLD needs the time and the proper conditions to mature. .tv may die on the vine but it may also become the hottest name on the web. i'm betting on the latter and that someday i'll recover daily every dime spent buying .tv up till now. time, and only time, will tell.

meanwhile dingbat bob can kma.

 

[recluse99]

dot TV is the future for Domainers, Bob P.is not a domainer. He is a promoter for his business, if that means selling puppy corpses for profit then that is his means for biz...
He seez more $$$ in DOT ME's than DOT TV, just biz, like the Romans killing Jesus,"hey, the Jews wanted HIM gone" , MONEY < MONEY MONEY>

 

[jeffoverman]

i am trying get chef patrick here and do a post...he isnt on the board as much...

we shall see if he comes over here... he is always good at finding info and a great guy...

j

 

[Kate]

Greed will kill .tv, not Parsons per se (he doesn't sell PREMIUM .tv's, enom does). And if .me starts pulling the same stunt, it will suffer the same fate as .tv.

Well put.

 

[jeffoverman]

i will be behave lol and edit my post..

 

[StoneRoses]

Originally Posted by Ms Domainer,Greed will kill .tv, not Parsons per se (he doesn't sell PREMIUM .tv's, enom does). And if .me starts pulling the same stunt, it will suffer the same fate as .tv.

Well put.

This is not another thread about premiums, it has been done to death, but exactly what fate would that be?, a widly used and accepted extension that is being used by many end users?.

And for the record we all know that is probably part of the problem and is precisely why Bob is bitching, because he can't get the premium .tv contract.

 

[jeffoverman]

perfectly said to them bob....

 

[gr8trfoo]

EXACTLY!

.ws is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Samoa NOT "web site"!

It's absolutely ridiculous how registrars are being allowed to promote OTHER PEOPLE'S country code domain extensions for their own personal agenas. It shows no repsect for the people of these countries. If I were Samoan, Montenegran, etc. I'd be very pissed off.

Does .us stand for "Us" or the United States? It's absolute BS!!

The question is not what something "stands for" but rather what something means to those who hear/speak/use it. Words and other symbols shift and change their meanings over time, some more slowly than others. This is well known.

Efforts to brand .ws as "web site" have not been very succesful, primarily because ws never meant web site to begin with in anyones mind. .US could never be made to mean "us" becasue US already means United States to too many people. .FM gets a little play for radio-centric sites anyone seeing 993.fm or realcountry.fm has a definite preconcieved notion of what they'll find there and it has nothing to do with brown ladies in grass skirts. .LA gets a little play too becasue it has no established overwhelming prior meaning - so a nightclubs.la promoted in the california region seems like it would have everything to do with the city of the angeles.

.ME will probably be well accepted as "me" in english speaking regions. I doubt they will become generally valuable in a wide commercial sense but a lot of the youtube generation will find them useful and they may well trade for decent sums in the years to come. Some particular examples may become worth a lot, millions, but those will be the exception.

.TV has already found wide acceptance globally as a video destination signifier. If anyone doubts this then they arn't looking around very hard or very well. TV means television just about everywhere on earth.

So enough with the BS'g about non-issues. If you dont like .tv then dont use it. Nobody's twisting your arm.

 

[qO_Op]

The question is not what something "stands for" but rather what something means to those who hear/speak/use it. Words and other symbols shift and change their meanings over time, some more slowly than others. This is well known.

Efforts to brand .ws as "web site" have not been very succesful, primarily because ws never meant web site to begin with in anyones mind. .US could never be made to mean "us" becasue US already means United States to too many people. .FM gets a little play for radio-centric sites anyone seeing 993.fm or realcountry.fm has a definite preconcieved notion of what they'll find there and it has nothing to do with brown ladies in grass skirts. .LA gets a little play too becasue it has no established overwhelming prior meaning - so a nightclubs.la promoted in the california region seems like it would have everything to do with the city of the angeles.

.ME will probably be well accepted as "me" in english speaking regions. I doubt they will become generally valuable in a wide commercial sense but a lot of the youtube generation will find them useful and they may well trade for decent sums in the years to come. Some particular examples may become worth a lot, millions, but those will be the exception.

.TV has already found wide acceptance globally as a video destination signifier. If anyone doubts this then they arn't looking around very hard or very well. TV means television just about everywhere on earth.

So enough with the BS'g about non-issues. If you dont like .tv then dont use it. Nobody's twisting your arm.

I understand. I like .TV, I even like .FM. But fact remains that they are not vanity extensions, they are 'officially' country codes. I dunno what to think really. What happens to .FM if something happens to the States of Micronesia? Does that mean that .FM doesn't mean radio anymore? How can registrars claim that .WS is "Web Site" (it clearly says this at GoDaddy) when if something happens to Samoa then there wont be anymore .WS? (or will there still be a .WS?)

Here's what VeriSign say about .TV:
http://www.verisign.tv/what/index.html

.tv is a 'top-level domain', just like .com or .net. Your Web address works the same with a .tv extension as with any other top-level domain name, but the .tv extension can add much more to your site. Since .tv is distinctive and unusual, your Web address will be highly memorable. .tv is also closely associated with dynamic video content, making this top-level domain name uniquely suited to any site tied to rich-media. A .tv domain name is also much more likely to be available, enabling you to better control your presence on the Web.

.tv you can trust
The .tv domain name is powered by VeriSign, one of the biggest players on the Internet. As the authoritative directory provider of all .com, .net, .cc, and .tv domain names, VeriSign operates intelligent infrastructure services that enable and protect billions of interactions every day across the world's voice and data networks. So with a .tv address you can rest well knowing that you are backed by one of the Internet's best—VeriSign.

No mention of Tuvalu whatsoever.

 

[Len]

I understand. I like .TV, I even like .FM. But fact remains that they are not vanity extensions, they are 'officially' country codes. I dunno what to think really. What happens to .FM if something happens to the States of Micronesia? Does that mean that .FM doesn't mean radio anymore? How can registrars claim that .WS is "Web Site" (it clearly says this at GoDaddy) when if something happens to Samoa then there wont be anymore .WS? (or will there still be a .WS?)

Here's what VeriSign say about .TV:
http://www.verisign.tv/what/index.html



No mention of Tuvalu whatsoever.

What need's to be pointed out here is that Tuvalu effectively leased their country code right's to Verisign for a certain period of time. Verisign therefore can brand .tv however they choose as it is technically not the ccTLD for Tulavu during the lifetime of this lease.
That is why when you type in your browser www.nic.tv you are redirected to www.tv - Verisign! This doesn't happen with other ccTLD's, www.nic.us, www.nic.me etc.

 

[Mobineer]

I love .TV -- I own a pretty solid portfolio with some great TV names;however, I also admit the extension hasn't really reached its usage for critical mass - interactive TV and PC TV or pervasive/immersion entertainment via digital TV - it will, if Tuvalu does not sink -- I hope not -- I've been there and love the people there
Per Me -- Bob Parsons is a maverick -- one of the best marketers on the web -- this guy knows how to sell -- he's a combo Steve Jobs and Hugh Hefner -- this guy makes business fun and he has a solid brand -- he's promoting DOTME because he knows the extension is hot and has great potential; of course, Go Daddy has a stake in this extension --- as it registered most of these names during landrush

Go TV, Go ME --- even though I've been a dotcom guy for many years ---

all the best to all of you for 2009!

 

[jeffoverman]

.tv is doing amazing things in the uk and europe. The USA market is behind some

So to say .tv hasn't taken off is not exactly the right term to use. Parts of the world it all ready has taken off by learning things from my uk friends here and doing some google searches on the market.

I'm in this extension for the long haul. That's the view point on some of the most respected .tv owners here.

In a few years from now, a good core group will read these old threads and laugh at all the trolls here, the .com people coming here thinking they know .tv and what exactly it stands for.
J

The .com remark was a general statement.

 

[lincolndsp]

it gets even worse LOL!

I cant believe how quickly he changes suit just to sell more .ME LOL! .me is a bubble away from bursting, its all a massive marketing ploy IMO!

And I quote

LOL!!!!



LOL!

Here are my 2 cents. .tv is a great brandable TLD for many television-related
sites and businesses. It is also a ccTLD like .me. .Me is great for branding in the natural way, as .tv is for its type of businesses.
So the success of both tlds is backed by creativity primarily. So I would not name .me a bubble with .tv not.

 

[exsedo]

The thing I would like to know is this. When you build a site with dotME google targets Montenegro automatically, is it the same with dotTV, is it automatically targeted to Tavula Islands ?