Company wins dispute over FacebookLive.com domain name

A National Arbitration Forum panelist has awarded Facebook the domain name FacebookLive.com.

The domain name was originally registered in 2006 but its whois record was protected by a proxy service. The whois proxy was lifted in 2009, revealing Domainstand.com LLC as the owner. After the dispute was filed the registrant’s name was changed to CT nice Homes LLC. The domain owner didn’t respond to Facebook’s allegations.

“Facebook Live” is the name of a live video streaming channel about Facebook. The Facebook Live page has 1,124 likes. If Facebook is on top of its domains it should start forwarding the domain to this page as soon as it is transferred.

This is the 13th dispute Facebook has filed under the uniform domain name dispute policy. It hasn’t lost yet.

FTC says adding just 22 new TLDs would be “aggressive”.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has sent a letter (pdf) to ICANN asking it to significantly curtail its plans for new top level domain names.

The FTC believes the mass introduction of new top level domains will lead to more fraud on the internet including phishing and malware distribution.

It is asking ICANN to run a pilot program of new TLDs. How small of a pilot?

We strongly believe that ICANN should substantially reduce the maximum number of new gTLDs that could be introduced in the initial round to a much smaller number. Indeed, doubling the number of existing gTLDs in one year
would be an aggressive increase.

I read this as suggesting a pilot program should include fewer than 22 new TLDs.

Of course ICANN is referring only to gTLDs, not the hundreds of existing ccTLDs. That’s a point that shouldn’t be overlooked, as adding just 22 more gTLDs is only a minor expansion when compared to all of the existing TLDs.

While I disagree with the FTC’s notion that new TLDs will lead to more phishing, I also disagree with new TLD proponent’s pitch that new TLDs will reduce phishing. Arguing that people will feel more secure at .bankofamerica suggests that they actually recognize the URL they’re on after clicking a link on an email. Given the number of phishing victims, that’s clearly not the case.

The FTC also pushes for ICANN to improve whois accuracy, citing obviously fake records it finds such as Mickey Mouse and Bill Clinton. It reminds me of how ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom had fake whois information before he became ICANN’ CEO.

Largest domain name registrar gets big financial backing.

GoDaddy is now (partly) private-equity owned.

The company finally closed on its investment from KKR, Silver Lake and Technology Crossover Ventures today.

Bob Parsons remains the single largest shareholder, which should assuage concerns of what can happen when a company is owned by investors only interested in the bottom line.

With the closing Parsons is no longer CEO. He is now Executive Chairman & Founder. Warren Adelman moves into the CEO post, although I suspect that won’t involve much of a change in job description.

I expect the company will quickly start hunting for overseas growth with the investment.

The company currently has 50 million domains under management and has over 5.2 million web hosting accounts.

Manwin changes terms of service of affiliate program.

Manwin isn’t going to protect its trademarks in .xxx by paying anything to ICM Registry, so it’s asking its affiliates not to register them, either.

A Domain Name Wire reader sent me a communication from one of Manwin’s programs, MofosCash.com (NSFW):

Hi All Webmasters,

It is very important that you read and understand the below change. If there are any questions, do not hesitate to contact your affiliate manager

Change to Section 9 of the Affiliate terms and conditions

9) Affiliate acknowledges and agrees that they shall not be entitled to a commission or referral fee for any and all referrals, which are in breach/violation of the terms of this agreement. Affiliate also acknowledges and agrees they shall not be entitled to a commission or referral fee from MofosCash.com or any subscription, which MofosCash.com in its sole and unfettered discretion determines, is the result of possible fraudulent activity. More specifically, Affiliate acknowledges and agrees that bidding on or purchasing any online paid advertising schemes or acquiring any domain names or URL’s in XXX that incorporate or are confusingly similar to any of MofosCash.com’s trademarks, service marks, or URLs including, but not limited to words or URLs such as “Mofos”, “Brazzers”, “Wicked” and/or “Twisty’s “, “RealityCash” or any other related trademarks, service marks, or URLs as determined by MofosCash.com’s in its sole discretion from time to time is hereby expressly prohibited. By way of example, such prohibited advertising schemes include pay-per-click models, sponsored links, search engine keywords, AdWords, or similar advertising schemes. In the event, that Affiliate does not comply with Section 9, MofosCash.com shall be entitled to reduce or cease the payout or payment amount otherwise due to Affiliate accordingly. In addition, family members and employees of the affiliate are not eligible as sign ups and any attempt to refer ineligible individuals to the program will result in immediate account termination.

NOTICE TO AFFILIATES

In accordance with your Affiliate Terms and Conditions Agreement, this notice is intended to confirm that acquiring any domain names or URL’s in XXX that incorporate or are confusingly similar to any of MofosCash.com’s trademarks, service marks, or URLs including, but not limited to words or URLs such as “Mofos”, “Brazzers”, “Wicked” and/or “Twisty’s “, “RealityCash” or any other related trademarks, service marks, or URLs as determined by MofosCash.com’s its sole discretion from time to time is expressly prohibited. In the event that you do not comply with this notice MofosCash.com’s shall be entitled to reduce or cease the payout or payment amount otherwise due to Affiliate accordingly.

Notice that it doesn’t say anything about affiliates not linking to its sites from .xxx. I’d kind of expect a ban on linking from .xxx sites based on what Manwin has told the press.

Company offers to buy up to 6.5 million shares of its stock.

Tucows, which owns the world’s third largest domain name registrar, announced a Dutch auction tender offer to repurchase up to 6,500,000 shares of its common stock. That’s up to 12.2% of Tucows’ outstanding shares.

The company has frequently bought back shares in its company as it feels it is the best use of cash right now.

Tucows CEO Elliot Noss explained, “We continue to believe that the repurchase of our shares at this price level is an attractive investment and that their repurchase by Tucows is a prudent use of cash that is consistent with our long-term objectives to create shareholder value and return capital to shareholders.”

The company will buy back shares for between 73 cents and 77 cents each. Shares today are up 1 cent to 76 cents.