On February 4th I departed my home in Alexandria, Virginia for the ICANN 52 meeting in Singapore. I arrived at my hotel’s reception desk 28 hours and +13 time zones later.
While my 777 was traversing the Arctic Circle, ICA dispatched a letter to ICANN CEO responding to remarks he made during the annual gathering of the top tenth of the “One Percent” at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. In those remarks, Chehade appeared to accuse domain portfolio owners of “hogging names” and equate them with “cybersquatters”, a term generally understood to mean intentional trademark infringers. (Note: The ICA letter was subsequently posted to ICANN’s Correspondence page.)
My seven days in Singapore consisted of a never ending series of working meetings, including those associated with my new role as GNSO Councilor. On Tuesday the 10th I came upon a DomainIncite article reporting on a Singapore press conference the day prior where, according to the article’s headline, “Chehade declines to backtrack on domain “hogging” comments”.
That article reported that, when asked about his Davos remarks, CEO Chehade responded:
“I think the statement I made to a different media outlet about that was conflated to signify I was including in this all those who are in the domain name business. And that’s not true. There are those that do this as a business and do it very well and actually enhance the market and there are those that do it and make the business and the market less attractive and less desirable. So I think any insinuation that that statement engulfs everyone that is in this business is not true. As you know very well I’ve a very big supporter of the industry groups and was one of the people who was frankly very happy when the Domain Name Association was created and I attended their first formation meeting. This is where we stand and we continue to feel good about how this market is evolving and how these players are making this a good market that serves the public interest.”
Now the DNA does a good job on behalf of its members – who are primarily new gTLD registries and some registrars – but it does not purport to represent registrants, much less professional domain name investors and developers. Only ICA plays that role.
The author of the article opined about CEO Chehade’s indistinct distinction:
“Who is Chehade talking about when he draws a distinction between those who “enhance the market” and those who “make the business and the market less attractive”?
Is the line drawn between the trademark infringers and the legitimate investors, or is it drawn somewhere else?
Why did Chehade go on to express his support for the DNA, a sell-side trade group funded largely by registries and registrars? Was he drawing the line between regular second-level domainers (hogging) and those that in many cases are essentially just top-level domainers (enhancing)?
Chehade was given the opportunity to backtrack and he didn’t take it.”
Those are good questions and observations.
As the ICANN Public Forum approached on Thursday, February 12th, presenting an opportunity to address the ICANN Board as well as the CEO, I felt that some further response was required to the Singapore press conference remarks. But what should be its substance? The ICA letter already constituted a powerful, fact-based response to the Davos interview.
Rather than continuing in a combative tone, I decided to take the high road and emphasize that ICA members are also among those in the domain industry who ‘do it very well”.
Here is the transcript of what I said that day in Singapore, captured from the raw transcript of the Public forum:
>>PHILIP CORWIN: YES, GOOD AFTERNOON.
PHILIP CORWIN AGAIN AND APPEARING THIS TIME NOT ON BEHALF OF THE BUSINESS CONSTITUENCY BUT IN MY ROLE AS COUNSEL FOR THE INTERNET COMMERCE ASSOCIATION AND THE PROFESSIONAL DOMAIN INVESTORS AND DEVELOPERS WHO ARE ITS MEMBERS. ALTHOUGH I WOULD NOTE THAT ICA HAS BEEN A B.C. MEMBER SINCE 2007. THE OTHER DAY CEO CHEHADE NOTED THAT THERE WERE MANY WHO DO IT WELL AND ENHANCE THE MARKETPLACE. I’M HERE PRIMARILY TO ASSURE YOU THAT ICA AND ITS MEMBERS ARE AMONG THOSE WHO DO IT RIGHT.
SHORTLY AFTER ITS FOUNDING, WE ADOPTED A CODE OF CONDUCT TO ESTABLISH BEST PRACTICES FOR OUR SECTOR OF THE INDUSTRY. IN PARTICULAR TO PROHIBIT INTENTIONAL TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT KNOWN AS CYBERSQUATTING. AND OUR MEMBERS PRIDE THEMSELVES ON THEIR BEST PRACTICES. THEY OWN AND MANAGE APPROXIMATELY 10% OF ALL EXISTING DOMAINS. AND THEY’VE BEEN INVOLVED WITH THE NEW TLD PROGRAM IN A WIDE VARIETY OF ROLES, INCLUDING AS REGISTRANTS. I ALSO WANT TO NOTE THAT PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS, SO-CALLED DOMAINERS, ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES WITH LARGE PORTFOLIOS. IN FACT, THE WORLD RECORD FOR A DOMAIN NAME SALE IS HELD BY VODAFONE, A PUBLICLY TRADED COMPANY WITH A 90 BILLION PLUS MARKET CAP AND A PORTFOLIO OF OVER 40,000 DOMAIN NAMES. SO IN CLOSING, WITH THE NEW TLD PROGRAM, WITH NEW BUSINESS MODELS COMING INTO THE MARKETPLACE EVERY WEEK AND WITH A WIDE VARIETY OF PRICING AND OTHER BUSINESS MODEL ASPECTS, THERE’S NO LONGER ANY SCARCITY IN THE MARKETPLACE. AND THAT’S A GOOD THING TO HAVE ALL THESE BUSINESS MODELS.
AND ICA AND ITS MEMBERS ARE ALWAYS ABLE AND WILLING TO ENGAGE WITH ICANN STAFF TO DISCUSS BEST PRACTICE IN OUR SECTOR AND HOW TO ROOT OUT THOSE PARTIES WHO ENGAGE IN UNETHICAL OR ILLEGAL PRACTICES.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
Thirty-six hours later, with a sense of satisfaction that our message had been heard, I left that hotel to begin the long trip home.