question Is ICA your friend?

[capybara]

As reported by TLDInvestors.com (as a follow up to https://www.namepros.com/threads/wi...n-the-u-s-court-on-behalf-of-the-ica.1178011/), the Internet Commerce Association is acting in favor of the Booking.com's attempt to have "booking.com" trademarked.

Should the Booking.com succeed, they are going to be significantly empowered to fight anyone who also happens to have a ...booking.com domain name, like NYВооking.соm or ТоkуоВооking.соm or ТоtаlВооking.соm etc. (no affiliation with the mentioned domain names or their owners, names are masked from index, these are only for the sake of example)

Its not hard to understand why the ICA supports this – most of their members are fat cat domain investors who have some of the very best single word .com domains, and if the big business sees the opportunity for monopolizing certain industries in this, the value of such single word domains is going to rise dramatically.

However, not so much benefit to the owners of prefix+word.com or word+word.com domains and the like.

 

[ProfitMaker]

feel like we’re making a breakthrough here

take your negativity elsewhere.

This is as open as i’ve ever seen them.
Special thanks to @jberryhill who went out of his way cleared up a few things.

Samer

You'll recognise it yourself, friend.

 

[ProfitMaker]

Being registered as a non profit in the District of Columbia.
Being registered as a non profit helps in avoid taxes and also the directors and the controllers of the association can draw fat salaries, an entity in itself is just a shell. It's the people controlling give it meaning.
If you read carefully it also serves the interests of the service providers and also advocates for their rights.
How can you be sure that they are not receiving kickbacks from big companies.
Have you seen their financials and income sources?
The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) is a non-profit advocating for the rights and interests of domain name owners and related service providers.

 

[ProfitMaker]

https://www.internetcommerce.org/about-us/people/
Look their board members are from Sedo, Godaddy and other organisations.

 

[ProfitMaker]

Zak Muscovitch, General Counsel. Zak Muscovitch has practiced Internet domain name law since 1999. Zak was lead counsel in numerous precedent-setting court cases, including the Toronto.com case (2000), wherein he successfully defended against one of the first attempts in Federal Court to obtain an interlocutory injunction against a domain name registrant. Zak was defence counsel in the Sweetsuccess.com case (2001), one of the first decision to establish the convenient forum for international domain name disputes. Zak was instructing counsel for the registrant of the defendant domain name in the Technodome.com case (2002), which was the first in rem decision under the United States ACPA. Zak was counsel in one of the first court case overturning an ICANN UDRP commenced by Molson in the Canadian.biz case (2002). Zak represented the owner of CheapTickets.ca (2008), wherein he defended a descriptive domain name by successfully obtaining the cancelation of a plaintiff’s trademark for “Cheap Tickets”.

Zak has represented clients from all over the world, in countries such as China, England, Australia, the United States, Brazil, Turkey, Belgium, South Africa, Korea, and Canada, in numerous ICANN domain name disputes. Among many notable decisions, Zak represented the registrant of Shoes.Biz in the first “.biz” Reverse Domain Name Hijacking case (2002). Zak represented the registrant in the first ever successful defence of a CIRA CDRP Complaint over the domain name, Cheaptickets.ca (2003). Zak represented the registrant in the first CIRA Reverse Domain Name Hijacking finding and costs order in the Forsale.ca case (2009). Zak represented the respondent in the first case of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking in an IDN (Chinese language) domain name dispute over 長江.com (LongRiver.com), a complaint brought by Hong Kong billionaire Le Ka Shing to the ADNDRC and then at WIPO. Zak successfully defended Groovle.com in a case brought by Google, and successfully resisted two additional attempts by Google to use the UDRP to obtain domain names in two other cases.

Zak is the author of several articles on domain name law, such as “A Guide to ICANN Procedure and Policy (2000). Zak wrote, “Taxation of Internet Commerce” (1996). It was the very first published legal treatise on the taxation of Internet commerce. Zak has served as a consultant to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority on updating and revising the Canadian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. Zak is frequently consulted by the media on Internet related legal issues, including by Wired magazine.

Zak is a trademark agent practicing before the CIPO and the USPTO. Prior to his appointment as General Counsel he served on the Board of Directors of the ICA.


If you look at the ICA staff. You can see Zak is a Domain name attorney. Also practicing before CIPO and USPTO.
Can you be sure that ICA is not front for client recruitment.

Don't fall for the marketing and advertising. These shill organisations usually seem to good at masqurading themselves as sheep, while being a wolf.

 

[ProfitMaker]

This is same Pepsi or Coca-Cola trying to show themselves as a fitness company by starting an arms length organisation

 

[bmugford]

https://www.internetcommerce.org/about-us/people/
Look their board members are from Sedo, Godaddy and other organisations.

You mean the board members are people involved in the domain field. OMG!

Brad

 

[trelgor]

Being registered as a non profit in the District of Columbia.
Being registered as a non profit helps in avoid taxes and also the directors and the controllers of the association can draw fat salaries, an entity in itself is just a shell. It's the people controlling give it meaning.
If you read carefully it also serves the interests of the service providers and also advocates for their rights.
How can you be sure that they are not receiving kickbacks from big companies.
Have you seen their financials and income sources?
The Internet Commerce Association (ICA) is a non-profit advocating for the rights and interests of domain name owners and related service providers.

Can we agree that innocent until proven guilty is a pretty good principle? Assumptions are of little value.

 

[ProfitMaker]

You mean the board of members are from people involved in the domain field. OMG!

Brad

You are an ICA member. Vested Interest in defending them?

 

[bmugford]

You are an ICA member. Vested Interest in defending them?

Dunning Kruger.

Brad

 

[ProfitMaker]

Dunning Kruger.

Brad

Cognitive Dissonance.

 

[ProfitMaker]

And stop using these important psychological phenomenons as a way of trying to manipulate and put down the real argument.

 

[Zak Muscovitch]

Please post if you are interested in an interactive webinar. We can do it if we have enough interest from Namepros members. Or you can message me.

 

[jberryhill]

What are your reservations or concerns?

They are irrelevant to the subject of this thread. I've never known a person or an organization with whom I agreed 100% of the time on every question. Ultimately, the case will be decided one way or the other, and that's simply out of my hands. The planet does manage to spin without my input.

That there would be an anonymous newbie on a message forum casting aspersions on the ICA is also no surprise.

 

[trelgor]

They are irrelevant to the subject of this thread. I've never known a person or an organization with whom I agreed 100% of the time on every question. Ultimately, the case will be decided one way or the other, and that's simply out of my hands. The planet does manage to spin without my input.

That there would be an anonymous newbie on a message forum casting aspersions on the ICA is also no surprise.

You can’t learn anything without perspectives, but I respect your position.

 

[oldtimer]

They are irrelevant to the subject of this thread. I've never known a person or an organization with whom I agreed 100% of the time on every question. Ultimately, the case will be decided one way or the other, and that's simply out of my hands. The planet does manage to spin without my input.

That there would be an anonymous newbie on a message forum casting aspersions on the ICA is also no surprise.

You are correct about this case being out of yours and everyone else's hands in the domain Industry at this point, but it's not the case itself that is being discussed here (perhaps that's a good subject for another thread) , but rather how ICA is involved in this case and whom it is advocating for.

We are not trying to persecute any one person here, but rather to make sure that ICA as an organization stands true to its mission when it comes to protecting the rights and interests of all registrants and in that regards your perspective on the way that ICA should handle itself going forward is appreciated and can help set things on the right track by making sure that there is a better mechanism put in place for reaching important decisions and choosing the right goals than just relying on the judgment of one person in this organization.

As a respected attorney in the domain Industry perhaps you and other trusted members can help make ICA a more effective and transparent organization by making sure that it's not just a one man operation.

IMO

 

[biggie]

is ICA your friend

the question, if any, should be....

are they your enemy?

are they against, the same things... that you are in favor of?

That there would be an anonymous newbie on a message forum casting aspersions on the ICA is also no surprise.

lol,
and the reaction to it, was so representative, of it.

imo...

 

[ProfitMaker]

ICA is fake

 

[ProfitMaker]

And gotta give credit for not censoring the comments. Even the one's against NP itself.

 

[jberryhill]

As a respected attorney in the domain Industry perhaps you and other trusted members can help make ICA a more effective and transparent organization by making sure that it's not just a one man operation.

You mean like being on the ICA's legal advisory group? That sort of thing:

https://www.internetcommerce.org/wh...aint-has-been-filed-against-your-domain-name/

https://www.internetcommerce.org/ica_ky_amicus/

I've been doing that for years along with several other attorneys in this space. There is, incidentally, no money involved. I appreciate your input on how I should be spending my time, though.

That's my contribution. What's yours?

 

[oldtimer]

is ICA your friend

the question, if any, should be....

are they your enemy?

Why should there be any questions to begin with,

It's like asking if your Doctor is your friend or your enemy,

Your Doctor should advocate for your health and ICA should advocate for the health of the domain Industry at large (and not for any special interest).

IMO

 

[ProfitMaker]

Why should there be any questions to begin with,

It's like asking if your Doctor is your friend or your enemy,

Your Doctor should advocate for your health and ICA should advocate for the health of the domain Industry at large (and not for any special interest).

IMO

ICA is like the doctor who overprescribed opioids to the unsuspecting.

 

[ProfitMaker]

Why should there be any questions to begin with,

It's like asking if your Doctor is your friend or your enemy,

Your Doctor should advocate for your health and ICA should advocate for the health of the domain Industry at large (and not for any special interest).

IMO

Friend, Be more analytical of their rhetoric.

 

[ProfitMaker]

Friend, Be more analytical of their rhetoric.

There's literally five guys from the ICA defending themselves.

 

[bmugford]

ICA is like the doctor who overprescribed opioids to the unsuspecting.

“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

Mark Twain

 

[Pay.My.id]

ICA is important, nobody know when they engage in any situation to solve complicated problem