A few more hours remain before 2011 draws to a close, and then 2012 begins. To say it’s been an “interesting” year is probably an understatement.
A bunch of events have occurred that involve domain names. Some weren’t so bad, others got lots of people riled up enough to pay attention.
I won’t really be able to list them all. Thus, I’ll mention those that either: a) got lots of online media mileage, or b) can potentially affect domain owners like you and me.
In no particular order, here are some domain name news or events that since passed in 2011:
1. The .XXX domain extension
Ah yes, the .xxx domain extension. Honestly, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you see an extension like that?
Lots of online sources have talked about the .xxx domain extension. DomainNameWire once reported how the ICM Registry – the one charged with overseeing .xxx – acquired 300,000 pre-registrations as of March 2011.
Eventually, .xxx officially launched in December 2011. I gather lots of entities have registered them to especially defend against possible cybersquatting or those seeking to exploit their names.
Personally, I don’t see much value in .xxx except as a “defensive” registration or to promote something…adult. Time will tell how .xxx will stand on its own.
Next up:
2. Domain name seizures
It actually began since 2010. But the year 2011 has seen more domain name seizures occur and especially reported online.
DotWeekly was among the first to report about this. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security – through its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sub-agency – has seized control of certain .com domain names firstly for allegedly advertising and distributing child pornography.
A couple of seizures have since occurred, the more recent one by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of over 130+ domain names in November 2011. DOJ took these domain names for online piracy and counterfeiting.
On the surface, it arguably seems reasonable. These domain names’ content went against certain U.S. laws, namely on child pornography (as mentioned above), streaming copyrighted material without their respective owners’ consent, or selling counterfeit material.
As sources like TechDirt eventually reported, however, such attempts have due-process issues. Specifically, such seizures make it practically difficult (if not impossible) for especially non-U.S.-based domain owners to dispute them, especially those made without actually a valid claim.
Maybe in part due to these seizures, 2011 has seen another event that potentially affects domain owners like:
3. The SOPA / Protect-IP Bills
Especially lobbied for by media companies with deep pockets, U.S. Congress has seen attempts to address online copyright infringement and selling counterfeit material via the Stop Online Protection Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the Protect-IP bill. Because there are hardly any specific laws on seizing domain names owned by non-U.S.-based parties allegedly involved in said infringing activities, SOPA and Protect-IP are seen as ways to solve that problem.
As eventually seen, SOPA especially is fraught with problems. Namely, it’s too broad or not specific enough to address specific issues within what it’s “intended” to handle, and there are too few (if any) practical due-process measures for non-U.S. domain registrants fighting invalid claims.
Although it’s (again arguably) anecdotal, certain parties like TechDirt has since reported some possible implications if SOPA or Protect-IP were to be signed into law in their current forms. TechDirt’s Mike Masnick wrote a piece on the Dajaz1.com as one scenario on what might happen, much of which isn’t (I’m sorry to say) acceptable.
Needless to say, SOPA has gotten a lot of backlash. Of course, suggestions were made to send one’s thoughts to U.S. Congress on their respective web sites (if any), as well as make and sign online petitions to show how many people actually oppose SOPA.
Along the way, someone in Reddit mentioned that a domain registrar was among those who helped craft the bill and support it. That leads us to the next one:
4. Go Daddy’s Double Whammy PR Nightmares
As events later showed, Go Daddy was among the SOPA bill’s list of supporters. Many people felt that if they’re not going to make any headway with congressmen, next best thing is to express that sentiment against those who actually support it by boycotting them.
As of this post, Go Daddy has since experienced (and still is) many of their customers transferring their domain names away to other registrars like Name.com and NameCheap. There are certain sites reporting how many domain names Go Daddy has lost, but I’ll blog more about that next month.
In all my years of working with a domain registrar and since watching the domain registration business from afar, I’ve never seen anything like this before. Much more on as massive a scale as this one!
The boycott has arguably worked, though. Go Daddy has since publicly withdrawn their support for SOPA and said they’re (supposedly) opposing it now, although many people are understandably skeptical towards that.
That skepticism was, in part, due to Go Daddy’s CEO (now Chairman) Bob Parsons’ publicly showing his elephant kill last March 2011. What made things worse is Mr. Parsons virtually bragging online about it, and arguing against those who disagreed with him or expressed their outrage at his behavior.
As I later blogged around April, Go Daddy’s domain registration stats actually went down for roughly two weeks coinciding with that elephant-shooting incident. They didn’t exactly experience, say, losing more domain registrations than gaining new ones, but rather their growth temporarily dropped before it grew again.
Speaking of which, Go Daddy is since experiencing that “slump” again. Although I doubt we’d get any accurate numbers, those sites listing how many moved out since then at least give a “more or less” picture how this is affecting Go Daddy.
So there you have it. Again, there are other events, but the ones I mentioned here are (give or take) the ones most talked about and the ones with arguably the most impact among online users.
I want to thank you all for having checked my blog, and kudos to the sources below. If I missed anyone, please accept my thousand pardons.
Alright, this will be my last post for 2011. As we all leave 2011 behind, let’s look forward to a new (and better!) year in 2012.
As always, feel free to share your thoughts below or spread the word online. I’ll just be around. 
Sources: Go Daddy, TechDirt, DomainNameWire, DotWeekly, Department of Homeland Security, TorrentFreak, Salvatore Vuono
Check Out These Other Posts:
Domain Name Events Of 2011
A bunch of events have occurred that involve domain names. Some weren’t so bad, others got lots of people riled up enough to pay attention.
I won’t really be able to list them all. Thus, I’ll mention those that either: a) got lots of online media mileage, or b) can potentially affect domain owners like you and me.
In no particular order, here are some domain name news or events that since passed in 2011:
1. The .XXX domain extension
Ah yes, the .xxx domain extension. Honestly, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you see an extension like that?
Lots of online sources have talked about the .xxx domain extension. DomainNameWire once reported how the ICM Registry – the one charged with overseeing .xxx – acquired 300,000 pre-registrations as of March 2011.
Eventually, .xxx officially launched in December 2011. I gather lots of entities have registered them to especially defend against possible cybersquatting or those seeking to exploit their names.
Personally, I don’t see much value in .xxx except as a “defensive” registration or to promote something…adult. Time will tell how .xxx will stand on its own.
Next up:
2. Domain name seizures
It actually began since 2010. But the year 2011 has seen more domain name seizures occur and especially reported online.
DotWeekly was among the first to report about this. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security – through its Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sub-agency – has seized control of certain .com domain names firstly for allegedly advertising and distributing child pornography.
A couple of seizures have since occurred, the more recent one by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) of over 130+ domain names in November 2011. DOJ took these domain names for online piracy and counterfeiting.
On the surface, it arguably seems reasonable. These domain names’ content went against certain U.S. laws, namely on child pornography (as mentioned above), streaming copyrighted material without their respective owners’ consent, or selling counterfeit material.
As sources like TechDirt eventually reported, however, such attempts have due-process issues. Specifically, such seizures make it practically difficult (if not impossible) for especially non-U.S.-based domain owners to dispute them, especially those made without actually a valid claim.
Maybe in part due to these seizures, 2011 has seen another event that potentially affects domain owners like:
3. The SOPA / Protect-IP Bills
Especially lobbied for by media companies with deep pockets, U.S. Congress has seen attempts to address online copyright infringement and selling counterfeit material via the Stop Online Protection Act (SOPA) and its Senate counterpart, the Protect-IP bill. Because there are hardly any specific laws on seizing domain names owned by non-U.S.-based parties allegedly involved in said infringing activities, SOPA and Protect-IP are seen as ways to solve that problem.
As eventually seen, SOPA especially is fraught with problems. Namely, it’s too broad or not specific enough to address specific issues within what it’s “intended” to handle, and there are too few (if any) practical due-process measures for non-U.S. domain registrants fighting invalid claims.
Although it’s (again arguably) anecdotal, certain parties like TechDirt has since reported some possible implications if SOPA or Protect-IP were to be signed into law in their current forms. TechDirt’s Mike Masnick wrote a piece on the Dajaz1.com as one scenario on what might happen, much of which isn’t (I’m sorry to say) acceptable.
Needless to say, SOPA has gotten a lot of backlash. Of course, suggestions were made to send one’s thoughts to U.S. Congress on their respective web sites (if any), as well as make and sign online petitions to show how many people actually oppose SOPA.
Along the way, someone in Reddit mentioned that a domain registrar was among those who helped craft the bill and support it. That leads us to the next one:
4. Go Daddy’s Double Whammy PR Nightmares
As events later showed, Go Daddy was among the SOPA bill’s list of supporters. Many people felt that if they’re not going to make any headway with congressmen, next best thing is to express that sentiment against those who actually support it by boycotting them.
As of this post, Go Daddy has since experienced (and still is) many of their customers transferring their domain names away to other registrars like Name.com and NameCheap. There are certain sites reporting how many domain names Go Daddy has lost, but I’ll blog more about that next month.
In all my years of working with a domain registrar and since watching the domain registration business from afar, I’ve never seen anything like this before. Much more on as massive a scale as this one!
The boycott has arguably worked, though. Go Daddy has since publicly withdrawn their support for SOPA and said they’re (supposedly) opposing it now, although many people are understandably skeptical towards that.
That skepticism was, in part, due to Go Daddy’s CEO (now Chairman) Bob Parsons’ publicly showing his elephant kill last March 2011. What made things worse is Mr. Parsons virtually bragging online about it, and arguing against those who disagreed with him or expressed their outrage at his behavior.
As I later blogged around April, Go Daddy’s domain registration stats actually went down for roughly two weeks coinciding with that elephant-shooting incident. They didn’t exactly experience, say, losing more domain registrations than gaining new ones, but rather their growth temporarily dropped before it grew again.
Speaking of which, Go Daddy is since experiencing that “slump” again. Although I doubt we’d get any accurate numbers, those sites listing how many moved out since then at least give a “more or less” picture how this is affecting Go Daddy.
So there you have it. Again, there are other events, but the ones I mentioned here are (give or take) the ones most talked about and the ones with arguably the most impact among online users.
I want to thank you all for having checked my blog, and kudos to the sources below. If I missed anyone, please accept my thousand pardons.
Alright, this will be my last post for 2011. As we all leave 2011 behind, let’s look forward to a new (and better!) year in 2012.
As always, feel free to share your thoughts below or spread the word online. I’ll just be around.
Sources: Go Daddy, TechDirt, DomainNameWire, DotWeekly, Department of Homeland Security, TorrentFreak, Salvatore Vuono
Check Out These Other Posts: