Its been reported that a woman in the UK has become the first person to change her name by Deed Poll to a domain name.

24 year old Claire Forshaw changed her name earlier this week to Princess-Rainbow.com.

“I knew that if ever I got the chance I would change [my name] to a web domain, to hopefully become the first. My boyfriend has always told me it cost hundreds of pounds to do, so I just forgot about it”

“When I realised it actually cost as little as £10 my boyfriend said that Princess-Rainbow.com was ideal for me because I am mad on rainbows!”

“My dream has always been to sell my artwork to a wider audience and after studying art at college, me and my friend who has an art degree, said that we would love to go into business together selling our creations. Changing my name has given me that kick-start into pursuing my dream and the new site will feature everything from paintings, textiles, 3D work and jewellery.“

“My name change is great and although my friends have started referring to me by my new name, and my place of work have changed all of the paperwork to include my new name, both my boss and my mum are refusing to call me Princess-Rainbow.com!”

Commentary

To be honest, I’m surprised that certain egos individuals in the domaining industry haven’t changed their name! Perhaps this will spark a new trend?

I’m going to change my name right now to:

“domaining wire king journal acro elliot whizzbang parked chef”

What do you think? Like my new name? Ohhhh…. what’s that? I can hear the ka-ching of UDRP’s coming!

Sources: Independent and PRUrgent.

Since MJ died, there have been 3,459 .com domain names registered with the word “michael” in them. Don’t believe me? Well, here is the list I compiled (please give me credit if you use it) and a few extracts of interest:

• michaelisstillalive.com
• michaeljackson-conspiracy.com
• michaeljackson911tape.com
• michaeljacksonautopsy.com
• michaeljacksonconcertrefund.com
• michaeljacksonisfaking.com
• michaeljacksontributetour.com
• michaeljacksonwasmurdered.com
• whopoisonedmichaeljackson.com

In light of this registration frenzy, I’d ask the media, not to “tar and feather” the entire domain name industry with the actions of a few people who lack morals / ethics in this area.

Having said that, newspapers, TV and other sources “profit” from this as well. What do you think? Have you registered a MJ domain?

If you look at the House of Reps grilling of ICANN, there was an underlying theme of “security”, so this appointment doesn’t exactly come as a shock.

Beckstrom spent less than 12 months in the Department of Homeland Security, where he was the Director of the National Cybersecurity Centre. Now ICANN is plugging him as an Internet Security expert! Oh, give me a break!

I don’t believe that less than 12 months in a bureaucratic job puts you in the “expert category”, particularly when you  resign after  “after learning that orders were canceled for computers, network equipment, furniture and office space in Arlington slated for his group.”

While Beckstrom officially reported “to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Beckstrom said he has not yet had a meeting with her.” Here is his resignation letter.

Fast forward another 4 months to today, where he goes on the record saying “I do want to really understand how the IANA (Internet Assigned Names Authority contract) works, how the DNS system works.” Ummmm… this does not exactly inspire confidence! Shouldnt you know this already? But you are supposed to be an Internet security expert and you don’t know how DNS works! WTF?

Beckstrom is touting himself as this honest, straight talking guy, so lets see if he does the right thing and cancels these proposed gTLD’s. Action speaks louder than words.

The unintended star of the site, Sharra Ferbrache, brought her case to court in Maricopa County, claiming the content shared between Mandarich and herself should have remained private.

Ferbrache is apparently seeking to have the sight shut down in addition to damages for invasion of privacy, emotional distress and other charges.

Source: CourtHouseNews Service

The plan allows owners of vehicles getting less than 18 miles per gallon to receive a voucher worth up to $4,500 when they ditch their cars and opt for newer, higher–mileage vehicles. The program endeavors to raise overall efficiency of the nation’s vehicles.
While the government and auto makers are looking for ways to clear up customer skepticism about the plan, NHTSA planned to launch a website called cars.gov that would explain eligibility requirements.

In addition, Ford Motor Co. anticipates launching a site next week. According to a spokesman, the site would advertise qualifying Ford vehicles while outlining the program.

Sonic Automotive Inc., which operates 159 dealerships around the country, purchased the domain name cashforclunkers.com earlier this year. Their site, which is set to launch next week, will feature a frog becoming a prince. Lovely!

Via: WSJ

Questions by the court arose when attorneys representing the Commonwealth of Kentucky filed a late response to the Internet Casino case. The Motion for Enlargement which would allow the late filing failed to give a reasonable excuse, implying the reason was the state thought it was due the day after. In addition, the large number of parties involved may have caused the delay. According to the motion, they had “calculated a due date for the filing of a Reply Brief in this action on Thursday, June 18th.”

The next step involves the court reviewing the briefs to decide whether the case merits further judicial review. If the verdict stands, however, the order will be dismissed.

Via: OnlineCasinoAdvisory

September 30 will be a decisive day, as the agreement between ICANN and the US Department of Commerce will expire. The result may result in a more open and independent governance of the internet – or not.

I’d note this ICANN “Return for organisation exempt from income tax” which lists “Paul Twomey (CEO), $691,610 ($255,649 contribution to employee benefit plans)”. Like many people, I think that’s a bit too much for a not for profit. However, the theory goes, that if you want to attract the best talent, then you have to pay the big $$$. I did say theory didn’t I?

Via: VUNET

What Happened?

It was quite entertaining. See for yourself; we have preserved this historical grilling session here:

Feel free to rate the video and post comments.

Documents

Chair Boucher’s Opening Statement

Chair Waxman’s Opening Statement

Testimony of Fiona Alexander, Associate Administrator, Office of International Affairs, National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce

Testimony of Paul Twomey, President and CEO, ICANN

Testimony of Kenneth J. Silva, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, VeriSign

Testimony of Christine N. Jones, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, The Go Daddy Group, Inc

Testimony of Sarah Deutsch, Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Verizon Communications

Testimony of Thomas M. Lenard, President and Senior Fellow, Technology Policy Institute

For the record, I disagree that “now is the right time”. Of course, I don’t know if there are financial issues/reasons behind the sale. However, if there were no issues, I’d hold onto it given the environment.

For those people who are “strapped for cash” and need to sell, feel free to get in contact and I’ll take those little gems off your hands. In a strange coincidence…. while typing this post I was sent a portfolio of 400+ domains looking for a new home.

What do you think about wealth.com? Should they auction it off?

• biggestlooser – $8,000
  rebate – $60,000
  tonightshow – $15,000
  sexvideo – $17,000

All these names are available at assetize.com, a site for buying and selling accounts including Facebook, Twitter, GMail and Wordpress. People seem to be buying accounts; one recent sale for a Twitter account called m*r with 7,851 followers apparently sold for US$1,250.00.

What do you think about this practice? Is it “socialsquatting”, the result of a free and open market? Is there really any value to having that niche keyword on a social media site?