Very well put, Tom. I knew of the arbitration process but also had no idea it was that costly.<div>No wonder there's sooo many cybersquatter. :(</div><div><br></div><div>--miguel<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 3:45 PM, Emerson, Tom (*IC) <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:Tom.Emerson@wbconsultant.com">Tom.Emerson@wbconsultant.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">A little more follow-up -- closer reading of the ICANN policy indicates<br>
that the COMPLAINANT [that would be us] must pay the "fees" for<br>
registering a complaint. Now, when I first heard of this and remembered<br>
that there was an arbitration process in place, I was under the<br>
impression that there were little or no fees, and if there was a fee, it<br>
was relatively small.<br>
<br>
According to the website I looked at, the "fee" for a single domain<br>
complaint is $1,300.<br>
<br>
Along with the "grace period" that someone mentioned, it sounds like<br>
cyber-squatting is a rather low-risk/high-reward business to get into --<br>
register a $1.99 domain at go-daddy or something, "extort" $100 to<br>
$1,000, depending on what you think your "mark" will pay, and if they<br>
pay -- PROFIT :) [if they decline, go back to go-daddy and say "just<br>
kidding -- I want my money back"] Since "no one in their right mind"<br>
would pay $1,300 or more to force arbitration when you're only asking<br>
for $100, you're fairly well insulated from arbitration. (of course,<br>
when you run into someone who will pay $1300 "for the principle" of<br>
this, well, then you're out the cost of the domain -- at $2, big<br>
deal...)<br>
<br>
I've sent an e-mail to the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) asking if<br>
the fee can be "waived" for [effectively] a non-profit group. I pointed<br>
out that we'd like to reverse the trend and make the risk greater than<br>
the reward, but as we don't collect any money, we have nothing to fight<br>
with...<br>
<br>
> -----Original Message----- of Emerson, Tom (*IC)<br>
<div class="Ih2E3d">><br>
> I'm sure this will get some discussion tonight, but in the<br>
> mean time I'd suggest a look at this page:<br>
><br>
> <a href="http://www.icann.org/en/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm" target="_blank">http://www.icann.org/en/udrp/udrp-policy-24oct99.htm</a><br>
><br>
</div>[...]<br>
</blockquote></div><br></div>