Dear ICA Members:
As this is my first letter to our entire membership list, let me begin with a short introduction. My name is Jeremiah Johnston and my day job includes working for Sedo.com as General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer. I was chosen to represent Sedo on the board of directors for the Internet Commerce Association at founding and assumed the role of organization President in late 2007. While I have tried to stay out of his way as Michael Collins has moved the ICA forward as our Executive Director, I also believe it’s my duty to speak on important matters on behalf of our membership.
The ICA is beginning to mature as a trade association and we are learning to deal with the unique issues that arise as an industry develops. As a group of companies that are often maligned in the press, for example, I’d like to ensure that the ICA family of companies stand as beacons of ethical business practices and that we do what we can to help resolve issues among ourselves before airing concerns or allegations in public, where we might all be associated with whatever message is being conveyed.
After returning from a successful week in Paris where the ICA was a prominent voice at ICANN and we took great strides toward expanding our mission to Europe, I was surprised to learn of concerns regarding the handling of expiring domain auctions at member company Tucows. A lot has been written on various blogs about this issue so I will not try to replicate the facts here.
What’s difficult about this situation is that I applaud our members for acting as a watchdog to make sure every company in the domain space, whether an ICA member or not, is operating in a transparent and ethical manner. At the same time I must share my disappointment that grievances among members were shared publically before the dispute could be examined internally. It’s my hope that future causes for concern are shared with your ICA leadership so that positions can be explained before grievances are posted publicly. Not only do I believe in the sincerity of our members’ commitment to the ICA code of conduct, but I believe fair resolution is best facilitated by quiet diplomacy.
After reviewing the dispute from several angles and taking into account Tucows’ long reputation as an ethically run business, it’s my belief that Tucows made an innocent error and did not intend to mislead auction participants or take advantage of their position as auction provider. This belief is reinforced by Tucows’ long-standing plans to outsource their auctions to Afternic as a third party auction provider and their published auction rules which outline the circumstances under which Tucows’, as the domain registrant, had the right to cancel the auction sales.
Tucows asserts that expiration of the domains, and their subsequent submittal to the auction platform, was entirely accidental. I believe this was the case, and as such, it would not be reasonable to expect prior disclosure that Tucows was the registrant under these unexpected circumstances. I am not aware of any accusation that the company made a regular practice of listing its own domains in its auction and then reversing sales, and Tucows has assured its customers that such errors are not likely to occur in the future.
Having spoken directly with Ken Schafer and Bill Sweetman at Tucows I am convinced that they are deeply sorry for the frustration their mistake caused other ICA members and the domain community as a whole. Ken also said that, in hindsight, their attempts to explain their side of the story were too "clinical and corporate" and lacked the empathy and shared frustration that should have been at the heart of the message.
Tucows has posted a detailed explanation of the error on their website and I appreciate their efforts to explain how the situation was caused. As transparency and fairness to consumers is a cornerstone value of the ICA, I would simply ask that Tucows, and all ICA member companies, make these values a core element of our communication within the industry and beyond. Trust is not absolute, and it must be maintained by consistent reference to an organization’s guiding principles. As members, ICA companies carry the torch for the domain industry and we must collectively fight any claims of impropriety through leadership by example.
Best regards,
Jeremiah Johnston, President
Internet Commerce Association