The team that would eventually become CyanogenMod got their start by releasing a ROM for the G1 over three years ago. Back then, the team’s public face, CyanogenMod.com, was bought by a third party and donated to them. The person responsible for buying the .com domain remained a member of the team and handled the team’s Web presence.

The team claims that this person began to impersonate another member of the team to make money off of referral deals. The CyanogenMod team confronted the impersonator and asked for the domain back. Unsurprisingly, the answer was no.

Now, this is where things get weird. The person responsible for the .com domain is now demanding $10,000 for control of the domain. Understandably, the CyanogenMod team refused to be extorted. So they took to their social media accounts and removed all permissions that pertained to the guy who owned the .com domain. Unfortunately, he still owns the team’s Google Apps for Business account so all of the team’s email accounts have been deleted. They also warn that any emails from @cyanogenmod.com are to be disregarded until further notice.

To make maters worse, the owner of the .com domain has also taken down all the CyanogenMod Web sites that he could. That means the original .com domain is no longer available for use. The team has moved to their own .org domain, but are now going through ICANN to get their .com domain back.

The team will still be working on quality Android ROMs, but there might be some delays in releases. They obviously have to sort out all the legal matters that have suddenly exploded in their collective faces.

Besides FacebookOfSex.com, Facebook is seeking damages in the amount of $100,000 and control from FaceSounds.com, Killfacebook.com, moneywithfacebook.com, friendsonfacebook.com and eighteen other domain names that are treading on the brand’s name. According to the Facebook usage guidelines, when asked the question, “Can I used Facebook in my business name or domain name?”

The answer is, “No. Use of the Facebook trademark or something confusingly similar in your company name or domain name, even in connection with goods/services that are arguably unrelated to those offered by Facebook, can both create consumer confusion as well as dilute the distinctiveness of the Facebook brand and weaken Facebook’s trademark rights.”

You may remember yesterday when we reported that Jotform.com was suspended by the federal government for apparently no reason. When the Jotform team attempted to contact the Secret Service as to why their Web site had been taken down, they were told that the government was too busy to look into it.

It’s a good thing then that the Jotform.com domain was returned today. The business can keep operating under their original domain and everything can go back to normal.

Hold on there, not everything can go back to normal just yet. Techdirt requested comment from the Secret Service as to why Jotform.com was taken down. What a great response they got:

“We are aware of the incident and we’re reviewing it internally to make sure all the proper procedures and protocols were followed.”

In response to this, a post went up on Hacker News that details what U.S. Web sites can do to protect themselves from the overreaching arm of the U.S. government.

Today’s sysadmin todo list:

0. Get corporate membership with EFF.

1. Identify all applications with user-generated content.

2. Move all associated domains to a non-US based registrar.

3. Migrate DNS, web serving and other critical services to non-US based servers.

4. Migrate yourself to a non-US controlled country.

I’m sorry for US sites and users. Your government is hell-bent on turning the internet into a read-only device like TV, easily regulated and controlled. The population will be required to sit quietly and keep their eyes glued on the screen so they don’t miss the ads, with any infringers deemed terrorists and pedophiles and thus deserving of summary punishment by DHS squads.

Hopefully the internet will route around the damaged segment, and the rest of us can continue to enjoy the amazing interactivity it has brought our society.

Is it a little extreme? Yes, but it highlights what is slowly becoming reality in the U.S.

The United States keeps on saying that it wants to help startups and small companies succeed, but you can see with the example of Jotform that the government can take whatever they want when they want.

Are you a small business owner who uses the Internet? What do you think about the Jotform debacle? Will you be moving your business? Let us know in the comments.

GoDaddy, on and off again supporter of SOPA, joined the other sites participating in the blackout today. The only issue is, where is it?

Can you see the blackout? I couldn’t see it at first. Then you can see at the very bottom left, in a cute little corner, a black box that says, “Go Daddy & many other Internet leaders oppose SOPA & PIPA.

Clicking on the link takes you to a support page with a brief explanation of their opposition that apparently only started when everybody else complained about it.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was with the U.S. House Judiciary Committee when an uproar erupted on the Internet. An overwhelming majority of the Internet community voiced strong opposition to SOPA legislation. Go Daddy joined to oppose SOPA.

On Jan. 16, U.S. Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) stopped action on SOPA.

Companion legislation, known as PIPA, is still up for debate in the U.S. Senate. Go Daddy opposes current PIPA legislation, as do many other major technology companies and users.

Do you think Go Daddy has done enough to voice their opposition to SOPA? Or is it just the “me too” mentality to avoid losing more domains?

Now, you can put a claim into a .xxx domain, so long as you’re a member of the adult sponsored community. ICM is handling the process in various phases. Their “Sunrise A” and “Sunrise B” phases allowed trademarked companies to apply for the domains; reversely, companies were allowed to prevent their company from appearing on .xxx addresses as well.

As of November 8th, we’re now in the “Landrush” phase. Meaning, there are no trademark or pre-ownership rights requirements. Beyond being a member of the adult entertainment community, all bets are off. The Landrush phase will last until November 25th. Afterwards, on December 6th, the domain will be available to the general public.

The argument over the domain generally concerns the reasons behind its need. Many believe providing pornographic sites the option to have a .xxx domain, will provide internet users a distinct signal that there is adult material on the site. Others believe the domain won’t act as that great of a filter, specifically within search engines.

The real question is whether or not .xxx is a top-level domain which can actually take off and make a dent. Most top-level domains never gain the traction to necessitate use. Why use .me when .com has better credence?

According to a recent press release, over 80,000 applications for .xxx domain names were received. That’s just during the Sunrise phases, so the number is expected to exponentially increase going into Landrush.

Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, said this of the numbers, “We couldn’t be happier about the success of the Sunrise period. There is always a risk with a new TLD that you may build it and nobody will come. We are thrilled that over 80,000 applications came! In fact, the .XXX Sunrise period results far exceeds those of any other new sTLD, including .mobi, .asia and even that of .co that re-launched last year with a significant marketing campaign. We look forward with great anticipation to Landrush, opening next week and General Availability on December 6, which is when the fun really starts.”

All of the domain registration companies are accepting .xxx domains at this time: GoDaddy, name.com, register.com, and more.

It will be interesting to see what impact .XXX will have in the world of top-level domains. Will pornographic sites start to shift to the domain, simply for the prospect of having the “xxx” on the end? Will search engines tweak their results to compensate for the domain inclusion?

ICANN has managed internet domain names since 1998, but up until now had been closely tied to the US Department of Commerce. Going forward ICANN will…

…operate as a more independent entity. Other governments and the private sector will now have a greater say in how domains will be managed. The Commerce Department will continue to hold a seat on ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee, but it’s influence will now be on par with that of other members of the organization.

Those other members are so excited that they, well, forgot how to speak in plain English. If this statement from Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media, is any indication of the future of ICANN, we can likely expect continued bureaucracy–just not all US biased:

ICANN will now commit to a “multi-stakeholder, private sector led, bottom-up policy development model for DNS technical coordination.”

Yeah, what she said.

Now we just need to wait and see what comes out of ICANN, now that there are not as many political pressures. For example, the proposed .xxx TLD for adult sites, was shot down after pressure on the US government by conservative advocacy groups. Could .xxx domains now be back on the table?

Comments

Failed registrations and multiple registrations of the same .me domain name cast a pall over GoDaddy’s .me debut. The new domain, being sold for $19.99 per year with a required two-year purchase (privacy option extra), should end up a profitable venture for the company.

However it will be a bit of a joyless slog getting there. ]]> http://www.webpronews.com/domain-me-dotted-with-problems-2008-07/feed 6 http://www.webpronews.com/israelcom-bidding-starts-at-55-million-2008-05 http://www.webpronews.com/israelcom-bidding-starts-at-55-million-2008-05#comments Thu, 15 May 2008 23:54:59 +0000 WebProNews Staff http://www.webpronews.com/?p=45484 Moniker.com plans to part with a number of domain names at auction on May 23rd. One of the domains will be Israel.com, with the highest starting bid in the group.

A number of premium domain names hit the auction block next week. Moniker.com plans to sell a bunch of them, including the aforementioned big ticket domain, Israel.com.

Moniker disclosed a lengthy list of domains to be auctioned during the T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East conference in Orlando. Several intriguing names reside on the list, though none will start with a higher bid than the Israel.com domain.

Pay.com should be of interest to someone in the financial world. Three-letter domains have been bought up for years, and an actual word possesses even more value. It’s an instant branding boost to whoever buys it.

Some of the million-dollar and up domains include yachts.com, AffiliateProgram.com, and Portfolios.com. Moniker CEO Monte Cahn expects to see these domains in the $1 million to $5 million range.

Another domain, Partner.com, could draw much more interest than its $250,000 to $500,000 range. We think interest in this could come from several sectors, like legal, insurance, and financial companies.

If the show’s fortunes were as strong as they have been in prior years, we think Idol.com would be a lock to draw interest from Fox and American Idol. Many of the domains may be found on Moniker’s site.

Google needs content. Without it, there are no search results, and no multi-billion dollar contextual ads feeding the bottom line (which they will talk about today after the market closes.)

Sometimes a site publisher picks up a new domain and needs to make sure visitors, and search engines, don’t get lost with the move. The Google Webmaster Central blog discussed that topic, starting with the essential 301 redirect.

Using 301 redirects serve as a way to get people and crawlers to the new domain. It also serves a higher purpose: helping webmasters avoid potential duplicate content penalties to their rankings within search results.

It’s a work-intensive process, but can be automated as shown on Wikipedia.

Google included in its suggestions the idea that a change for rebranding or redesign purposes might be accomplished best in two phases: site move first, redesign second.

"This manages the amount of change your users see at any stage in the process, and can make the process seem smoother. Keeping the variables to a minimum also makes it easier to troubleshoot unexpected behavior," Google’s Ríona MacNamara said.

Part of your online identity, for a start.

Have you registered a domain in your own name? If not, have you checked whether someone else has? And if they have, do you know what they’re doing with your name?

Naked Conversations author and FastCompany TV presenter Shel Israel knows what’s happened to his name which someone else snapped up to register as a domain.

Now ShelIsrael.com is up there as a parody site. Uncomfortable though that site may be for Shel, it could have been a lot worse.

Do yourself a favour – check your name online. If a top-level domain is available – that includes .com, .net, .org, .eu, .co.uk, etc – go ahead and grab it.

Even if you do nothing with it, the fact that you have registered it legally prevents anyone else from doing so.

You can use the WhoIs search feature. Or a domain name registrar such as GoDaddy, the company I use.

But do it now, before someone else does who may have intent other than just parody.

Comments