Re: [ga] GoDaddy gets patent on proxy Whois service

["kidsearch" <kidsearch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dena, you bring up good points there. Registrars becoming registrants is a 
whole other can of worms. If they convince consumers at some point they 
don't need to be the registrant and should just use the name, then 
registrars will in effect control some very valuable virtual real estate. 
Perhaps this is the plan VS the good attempt to separate the issues.

Remember, no matter how much they protest, domain parking was the beginning 
of domain tasting. Domain parking in itself was not evil. It just led the 
way to the idea of domain tasting using the parking services out there. 
GoDaddy is no stranger to the beginning of this phenomenon. Not sure even 
google believes in their do no evil motto and don't remember godaddy or 
other registrars pledging anything similar to that.

Chris McElroy aka NameCritic
http://www.articlecontentprovider.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dena Whitebirch" <shore@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2006 3:35 AM
Subject: Re: [ga] GoDaddy gets patent on proxy Whois service


> In the mid-90's we registered some domain names for clients using their 
> real name as the 'registrant' after which all the other info such as 
> address and phone were 'c/o' ours.  In the case that someone legitimately 
> needed to contact the registrant, we relayed the information to them.
>
> There has lately been some 'buzz' on the net discouraging registrants from 
> types of proxy registrations where the registrar actually has 'become' the 
> registrant.  I might wonder whether there would be potential legal issues 
> for a registrar who essentially becomes the registrant of a domain then 
> allows a client to 'use' it.  At best, even if disallowed by a user 
> agreement, cases of alleged trademark infringement or other abuse of a 
> domain name would seem to me to have the potential for many headaches and 
> expense to the registrar as 'registrant'.
>
> Perhaps this patent is part of an overall attempt to separate (and 
> document) the responsibility of the registrar from that of the end user?
>
> Dena A. Whitebirch
> @quasar Internet Solutions, Inc.
> http://quasar.net