DNCruise sets sail this October.

The domain name industry is getting its first floating domain name conference — a cruise this October.

Patrick Ruddell of ChefPatrick.com is organizing DNCruise, taking off from Miami October 11. The cruise will make stops in Key West, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico, before returning October 15. It is timed nicely for people attending the TRAFFIC in South Beach October 17-20.

Although the conference will have some structured events and speakers, it will obviously take advantage of the cruise atmosphere. Four sponsors have already signed up for the event.

Chef Patrick has reserved 66 cabins for the event, holding up to 132 attendees. Interior cabins are $429 and exterior (view) cabins are $489, assuming double occupancy. Prices include all boarding fees, taxes, gratuities, room, food and most cocktails. Many of the exterior cabins have filled up already.

Always a lover of video, “the Chef” is cooking up personalized video invitations to a couple hundred of his contacts. But the event is open to everyone in the industry.

Survey finds little support among domain community.

Support for ICANNs “current plan” of introducing new top level domain names is still limited — although the ice may be thawing.

In the 5th Annual Domain Name Wire Survey, 26% of respondents said they were in favor of ICANN’s current plan to introduce new top level domain names. This is up from 20% last year. An additional 22% are in favor of the plan, but only with regards to IDN top level domains.

Although the survey was open to everyone in the domain industry, the majority of respondents identified themselves as “domain investors”.

ICANN has already started its “fast-track” process for IDN country code top level domain names, which allow certain countries to get a top level domain name in their native script. However, generic IDN top level domain names are currently slated to be rolled out with other generic top level domains.

As pressure mounts from all sides trying to mold the new top level domain debate, satisfaction with ICANN is waning. Will 2010 be the year applications are finally accepted for new TLDs? Don’t bet the house on it.

See more survey results here.

Domain names registered for attack on global warming.

Looks like the Republicans — perhaps the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) — are getting ready to ask the question “Who Cares About Global Warming?”

WhoCaresAboutGlobalWarming.com, .net, and .org were all registered last Friday to Smartech Corp, which happens to be the favored web hosting company for NRCC.

Last month the NRCC used Smartech Corp to register the names of many of its Democratic foes, followed by the word “Facts”. (e.g. ZackSpaceFacts.com). So far those domain names resolve to pages that state “NRCC Microsite. This site is down for maintenance. Please check back again soon.”

Smartech was the official hosting provider of the 2008 National Republican Convention, and has hosted such gems as HillarySpendometer.com, HopelessHillary.com, and BarackNotReady.com. Smartech’s customers took proactive measures to capture potential Democrat campaign domains for previous elections, such as ClintonKerrey.com.

(To show I’m not biased here, if anyone knows where the Dems prefer to host their domains, let me know.)

…for some domains, anyway.

A lot of the talk around new top level domain names is the lack of pricing controls on providers. A company that launches a new TLD can set prices however they wish, and owners of existing TLDs worry that this idea would then be applied to their domains. Have a successful domain? You could get hit with a $1,000 renewal bill.

But let’s look at the other side for a moment. My guess is VeriSign would like to offer variable pricing — on the downward side. There are literally millions of .com domain names that could earn pay-per-click revenue each year, but not enough to cover the $6.86 (plus 18 cent ICANN fee) to justify registering the domain name. As a result, instead of getting at least some of the value, VeriSign gets $0 from these unregistered domains.

What if VeriSign could offer some of these domains for less than $6.86 (or $7.34 starting in July)? It could capture the value from these millions of domains, even if it’s not the full amount. If a domain makes $4 a year, it could sell the registration for $2. It could even work out a revenue share deal with registrars.

Think this is crazy? Well, one domain name registrar (that has its sights on the registry market) has received a patent on this idea. Demand Media, owner of eNom, got a patent last year for such a system.

In Demand Media’s model, there would be multiple tiers of registration. So if I’m paying $2 for a low tier registration, and someone comes along willing to pay full price, they could get the domain. But in the mean time, the registry is earning $2 and I’m earning $2+ in pay-per-click.

Of course, the politics of this may make it difficult for VeriSign to pull this off. If they can offer one type of .com domain for $2, couldn’t they offer all domains for that price? More likely would be “volume” deals with certain registrars, as most registries offer today. Or perhaps another variation on this model would be less controversial.

Domain owner sues pool equipment company to block transfer after unfavorable WIPO ruling.

Earlier this month we wrote about a WIPO panel awarding the domain name Hayward.com to a pool company called Hayward Industries, even though Hayward.com is the name of a city in California and the domain didn’t show any links related to pool equipment.

Now the owner of the domain, WebQuest, has filed a complaint (pdf) in federal court against Hayward Industries in order to keep the domain name. The suit requests the court find declaratory judgment that WebQuest is the rightful registrant of the domain name and to block the transfer to the pool company, and requests attorneys fees.

In the lawsuit, WebQuest claims:

In the UDRP proceeding underlying this action, WIPO panelists found that WebQuest was a bad faith actor based on a combination of fabricated evidence, tortured logic, and a speculative and unsubstantiated domain name valuation. It is shocking and appalling that WIPO panelists, without any expertise in domain name valuation, would strip a domain owner of a six figure asset because they deemed its auction reserve to be
too high.

WebQuest repeats its allegation that, in order to show competing links on the domain name, Hayward Industries merely used the search box on Hayward.com to search for competitive terms.

(Hat tip George Kirikos.)