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“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they
do not want to hear.” ― George Orwell

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UPDATE: MY PARTICIPATION RIGHTS HAVE NOW BEEN ELIMINATED AT ICANN WORKING GROUPS

Just to followup on the earlier blog post of today, I received the following
email from Keith Drazek (GNSO Council Chair),

> Dear Mr. Kirikos,
> 
> Receipt of your letter is acknowledged.
> 
> We note and regret that you have elected to not accept and agree to abide by
> ICANN’s Expected Standards of Behavior (ESOB).
> 
> As such, per the notice provided in the Council Leadership Team’s letter of 29
> March, you will be placed in observer status in the RPM PDP WG and any other
> GNSO-related forum until such time we receive the necessary communication
> confirming acceptance of the ESOB, or until such time the ICANN Ombuds rules
> that you may return to member status following any appeal.
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Keith Drazek
> GNSO Chair (on behalf of the GNSO Council Leadership Team)

So, unless I “bend the knee” and “swear an oath of fealty” (or unless the ICANN
Ombudsman says I can return), I’m forever banished. Is that reasonable and
proportionate?

And, this affects participation for all working groups (not just the RPM PDP),
even though there’s no issue in the IGO PDP!

 

Author George KirikosPosted on April 5, 2019April 5, 2019Categories domain
names, ICANNTags ICANN
Featured


ICANN THREATENS TO RESTRICT PARTICIPATION RIGHTS OF CRITIC GEORGE KIRIKOS

ICANN, in an affront to free speech and due process, has threatened to restrict
my participation on important domain name policy issues, and I think it’s
crucial that these topics be brought before the public for debate. Continue
reading “ICANN Threatens to Restrict Participation Rights of critic George
Kirikos”

Author George KirikosPosted on April 5, 2019April 5, 2019Categories domain
names, ICANNTags ICANN
Featured


HELLO, WORLD!

I have launched this new blog today at FreeSpeech.com, in order to better
educate the public about domain names, internet governance, ICANN, free speech,
and other topics. Continue reading “Hello, World!”

Author George KirikosPosted on April 5, 2019Categories domain names, ICANNTags
ICANN, UDRP, Verisign


DID GALAXY DIGITAL ACQUIRE THE GALAXY.COM DOMAIN NAME FOR $1.8 MILLION?

[UPDATED ON JANUARY 30, 2022: Based on additional information from the buyer’s
broker, it’s now unclear whether the transaction price for the Galaxy.com domain
name was USD $1.8 million, so we’ve adjusted the headline and text below
accordingly.]

A new SEC filing by Galaxy Digital has disclosed that they purchased a domain
for USD $1.8 million last year. See page F-25 of the filing, which states:

> During the third quarter of 2021, the Company purchased a website domain name
> for $1.8 million.

While the SEC filing didn’t reveal the actual domain name, Galaxy.com was the
likely candidate for the domain name upgrade, given that their current primary
domain name is GalaxyDigital.io. The Galaxy.com domain name is under WHOIS
privacy, which doesn’t assist us in proving the ownership of that domain. And
there is no active website at present for Galaxy.com. However, there are other
clues which point to Galaxy Digital as the new owner of the Galaxy.com domain
name.

Continue reading “Did Galaxy Digital acquire the Galaxy.com domain name for $1.8
million?”

Author George KirikosPosted on January 29, 2022January 30, 2022Categories domain
namesTags domain transactions


FORGE.COM DOMAIN NAME ACQUIRED FOR $2.2 MILLION BY FORGE GLOBAL

Forge Global, a private securities marketplace, revealed in a recent SEC filing
that it had acquired the forge.com domain name in the third quarter of 2021 for
USD $2,202,000. This was documented on pages F-96 and F-97 of the filing.

Forge Global announced in September its intention to go public in a $2 billion
SPAC deal.

Author George KirikosPosted on December 18, 2021December 18, 2021Categories
domain namesTags domain transactions


I SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT I AM UP TO NO GOOD

ICANN has a public comment period that ends today for “Proposed Revisions to the
ICANN Documentary Information Disclosure Policy.” Below is a PDF of my full
submission, which begins as follows:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear ICANN org,

In the Harry Potter series of books and films, access to the Marauder’s Map was
granted by saying the phrase “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good” after
tapping the map. I imagine that the ICANN staff who crafted these proposed
changes to the Documentary Information Disclosure Policy (DIDP) had that quote
in mind, either explicitly or implicitly, when they sat down to edit the
existing version of the DIDP.

[read the rest in the following PDF]

Submission of Leap of Faith Financial Services Inc. to ICANN Regarding Proposed
Revisions to the ICANN Documentary Information Disclosure Policy

Author George KirikosPosted on December 13, 2021December 13, 2021Categories
domain names, ICANNTags ICANN, Verisign


ICANN RESPONDS TO MY OPEN LETTER REGARDING IGO PROTECTIONS

In mid-October, I sent an open letter to the ICANN Board regarding IGO
protections.  Today, they responded with the following letter (which should find
its way to the ICANN Correspondence page shortly):

Maarten Botterman letter to George Kirikos Dated December 9, 2021 re:
PROTECTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS

In response, I wrote the following:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BY EMAIL ONLY

December 9, 2021

Dear Mr. Botterman,

I have received your letter of today, responding to my prior correspondence.

I am encouraged by your statement that “it will not be appropriate to
provide greater protection to IGOs than what exists under
international law”. However it’s a fact that current policy already
provides greater protection to IGOs than what exists under
international law. Similarly, the current EPDP’s work threatens to go
much further, thereby harming domain name registrants’ rights by
providing IGOs with greater rights than exist under international law.

If your statement that “it will not be appropriate to provide greater
protection to IGOs than what exists under international law” is
correct (and it’s a statement I agree with), then ICANN should
terminate the EPDP and roll back the policies that exceed the actual
rights of IGOs under international law.

As for the “Reply Period Public Comments”, it is not correct that
their discontinuation in 2014 represented any “improvement” of the
process. Furthermore, that change continues to violate the Bylaws,
which literally require a reasonable opportunity to reply to the
comments of others. If a comment is submitted on the final day, for
example, or even in the last 30 minutes of a comment period, it is
unreasonable to require the public to respond within that same day or
within 30 minutes, as the case may be. Indeed, your own reply to my
short correspondence took nearly 2 months, which demonstrates that the
public generally needs weeks to read and consider their own responses.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
416-588-0269
http://www.leap.com/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Author George KirikosPosted on December 9, 2021Categories domain names,
ICANNTags ICANN, UDRP


FINAL CALL TO SUBMIT COMMENTS TO ICANN TO PROTECT DOMAIN NAME OWNERS’ RIGHTS

After a Herculean effort, I’ve managed to complete my company’s comment
submission to ICANN, to respond to the dangerous proposal from its working group
which would have severe negative consequences for domain name owners. My
company’s comment can be read below:

Comments of Leap of Faith Financial Services Inc. submitted to ICANN on October
23, 2021

The deadline for comments is Sunday, October 24, 2021 at 23:59 UTC, and can be
made by going here.  That’s less than 24 hours from the time of this blog post.

You can read the comments of others (16 at the time of this blog post, including
one by the Internet Commerce Association) here. It takes only a few minutes to
sign up for an account to endorse/support the comments of others (that’s what
some of the IGOs have done, to support the comments of WIPO).

Past blog posts on this topic can be read here, here, here, and here.

If the proposals are adopted without any changes, there would be great risk for
consequence free reverse domain name hijacking. I urge people to take this
seriously and to submit comments opposing the changes.

 

Author George KirikosPosted on October 23, 2021Categories domain names,
ICANNTags ICANN, UDRP


UNBALANCED ICANN WORKING GROUP PARTICIPATION HARMS DOMAIN NAME OWNERS

In a blog post last week, I sounded the alarm about a dangerous proposal from an
ICANN working group which would have severe negative consequences for domain
name owners, allowing IGOs (intergovernmental organizations like the United
Nations) to engage in consequence-free reverse domain name hijacking.



To understand what led to such a report, I decided to look at the actual
participation of working group members, as per the mailing list activities and
on the weekly calls (transcripts are available on the GNSO Calendar page). The
shocking results [visible on the web via a published Google Spreadsheet, with
graphs) clearly demonstrate why such one-sided proposals were arrived at by the
working group. In particular, the IGOs (through the GAC) had far greater
participation, via Brian Beckham of WIPO and others, with only Jay Chapman of
Digimedia (participating on behalf of the Business Constituency) as a voice for
domain name owners. It is clear that the output of the working group reflects
capture.

Continue reading “Unbalanced ICANN Working Group Participation Harms Domain Name
Owners”

Author George KirikosPosted on October 20, 2021October 22, 2021Categories domain
names, ICANNTags ICANN, UDRP


IF ICANN CREATES AN ARBITRATION SYSTEM, IT COULD NOT BE LIMITED TO JUST DOMAIN
NAME DISPUTES

In a blog post last week, I sounded the alarm about a dangerous proposal from an
ICANN working group which would have severe negative consequences for domain
name owners, allowing IGOs (intergovernmental organizations like the United
Nations) to engage in consequence-free reverse domain name hijacking.

After additional research and contemplation, it’s actually even worse than I
imagined, and not just for domain name owners. It could create a system whereby
an ICANN-developed arbitration system would handle employment disputes,
trademark cancellation disputes, environmental disputes, sexual misconduct
disputes, defamation actions, whistle-blower retaliation cases, copyright cases,
and any other potential court actions, as long as an element of  the overall
dispute related to domain names and alleged cybersquatting.  Continue reading
“If ICANN Creates An Arbitration System, It Could Not Be Limited To Just Domain
Name Disputes”

Author George KirikosPosted on October 19, 2021October 20, 2021Categories domain
names, ICANNTags ICANN, UDRP


AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ICANN BOARD REGARDING IGO PROTECTIONS

Earlier this week, I sounded the alarm about a dangerous proposal from an ICANN
working group which would have severe negative consequences for domain name
owners, allowing IGOs (intergovernmental organizations like the United Nations)
to engage in consequence-free reverse domain name hijacking.

I noticed that the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) of ICANN wrote a letter
to the Board that was published earlier this week which is highly misleading as
to the nature of IGOs’ rights, and wrote a letter to the ICANN Board in
response. I’ve published it below to show how ICANN policymaking has been held
hostage via misinformation from the GAC and IGOs.

[Edited on October 15, 2021: I made 3 changes: (a) changed the date to October
15, (b) added a section on page 2 about Louis Touton’s similar analysis from
2001, which came to light after some Twitter discussions in the past day; (c)
amended to note that they’ve not agreed to extend the deadline; it’s now a PDF]



Letter to ICANN

Author George KirikosPosted on October 14, 2021October 15, 2021Categories domain
names, ICANN, UncategorizedTags ICANN, UDRP


DUPLICITOUS ICANN WORKING GROUP JEOPARDIZES DOMAIN OWNERS’ RIGHTS

A duplicitous ICANN Working Group has issued a report that is open for public
comments that would have severe negative consequences for domain name owners. 
In particular, it would tilt the playing field in a domain name dispute (i.e. a
UDRP or the URS) involving IGOs (intergovernmental organizations like the United
Nations) in such a manner that it would be nearly impossible for domain owners
to have their dispute decided on the merits by the courts. This would encourage
consequence-free reverse domain name hijacking. Rather than accept the findings
and recommendations of the prior working group, which reached a consensus, this
new working group instead had tunnel vision and focused instead on ramming
through an alternative recommendation (involving arbitration) for which there
was an express consensus against in the prior working group!

Continue reading “Duplicitous ICANN Working Group Jeopardizes Domain Owners’
Rights”

Author George KirikosPosted on October 12, 2021October 12, 2021Categories domain
names, ICANN, UncategorizedTags ICANN, UDRP


NFT.COM DOMAIN NAME ACQUIRED FOR USD $2 MILLION

According to a Canadian securities filing, the NFT.com domain name was acquired
for USD $2 million.

Continue reading “NFT.com domain name acquired for USD $2 million”

Author George KirikosPosted on September 29, 2021Categories domain namesTags
domain transactions


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