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7Up and March Madness – DNW Podcast #228

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Hear the story of 7Up.com’s launch in March Madness 1996.

dnw-podcastMy guest on today’s program created the original 7up.com website when he was in his early 20s working at an advertising agency. Archie Smart was fresh out of school when he pitched the soda maker on a campaign to drive people to 7up.com during March Madness 1996. He talked them into printing the domain name on the side of soda cans, on the basketball court and using it in a major media buy.

Then, just days before March Madness, they ran into a problem.

Also: A true-crime thriller with a domain name angle, Radix’s revenue, 864.com and SyFy

Mentioned on this episode: the spinning 7Up can

This week’s sponsor: DNAcademy. Use code DNW for $50 off.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:52 — 21.5MB) | Embed

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Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)

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Samsung tries to hijack GalaxyStore.com domain name

by — Policy & Law 2 Comments

Samsung files abusive cybersquatting complaint in an effort to get GalaxyStore.com domain name.

Logo for Samsung Galaxy Store

Samsung renamed its app store Galaxy Store but doesn’t have the matching domain name.

Samsung has been found guilty of reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name GalaxyStore.com.

The electronics company changed the name of Galaxy Apps to Galaxy Store earlier this year and wanted the GalaxyStore.com domain name. However, the owner of GalaxyStore.com registered the domain name in 2004, at least five years before Samsung adopted the name Galaxy for its smartphones and tablets.

In other words, there’s no way the domain registrant registered the domain name with Samsung in mind. Nevertheless, Samsung filed a cybersquatting complaint under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) at Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Centre.

Because the domain registration pre-dated Samsung’s use of the Galaxy brand, the case was dead on arrival.

The domain owner’s counsel, Zak Muscovitch, warned Samsung’s counsel at Bae, Kim & Lee LLC IP Group about this critical fact and invited Samsung to withdraw the case. It didn’t, and the three-person UDRP panel found (pdf) Samsung to have filed the case in abuse of the policy, aka reverse domain name hijacking.

 

 

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How to get your domains out of Alpnames – Fast!

by — Domain Registrars 5 Comments

Customers can access their account through LogicBoxes.

Domain name registrar Alpnames has imploded, leaving hundreds of thousands of domain names temporarily stuck in purgatory. Thankfully, there is a solution for customers that want to access their accounts and move domains to another registrar.

Alpnames used the registrar platform LogicBoxes to manage its domains and you can still log into LogicBoxes’ system to access your domains.

The Alpnames Logic Boxes control panel is at apal516804.myorderbox.com. Choose “customer” from the dropdown box and enter your Alpnames credentials.

Alpnames login on LogicBoxes

A new registrar will eventually take over Alpnames accounts, but it’s worth transferring at least your best domains for safe keeping.

It should give Alpnames customers some relief to know that a third party was managing Alpnames’ backend.

Thanks to InfoClicks for the tip.

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ICANN shuts down Alpnames domain name registrar

by — Domain Registrars 17 Comments

ICANN takes emergency action after Alpnames seemingly shutters.

Error page at Alpnames.com

This is all that’s left of Alpnames.

Domain name overseer ICANN has shut down registrar Alpnames after the registrar seemingly went dark.

I received an email from a customer about a week ago complaining about not being able to log in to his account. Kevin Murphy at DomainIncite has done a good job tracking the situation at Alpnames.

The termination will be a good test of the mechanisms ICANN put in place after RegisterFly was shuttered many years ago. Yes, other registrars have been terminated, but Alpnames is fairly large in terms of domains under management. It is the ninth-largest registrar for new top level domain names. At one point it had some common ownership with Famous Four Media, which offered its domains at cut-rate prices.

It was also shut down without warning.

Let’s hope that Alpnames was properly escrowing its domain ownership data.

Just last year in February, the company put out a press release stating that “Iain Roache has increased his ownership of AlpNames a leading domain registrar and web hosting company by acquiring a further 20% of the Company’s share capital for a consideration (including combined costs) of £3.9 million with a view to growing the business into a Tier 1 registrar.”

That didn’t work out.

The demise of Alpnames is another reminder to choose a domain name registrar you trust to be in it for the long haul.

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The Mastermind created his own domain registrar to run his criminal enterprise

by — Uncategorized 13 Comments

Paul Le Roux found a workaround to domain name suspensions: create his own ICANN-accredited domain name registrar.

Book cover for The Mastermind about Paul Le RouxI just finished reading Evan Ratliff’s book The Mastermind about Paul Le Roux. Le Roux ran a lot of unsavory and illegal businesses starting with an online pharmacy business called RX Limited.

Le Roux used a lot of domain names to sell pills online to U.S. consumers. In addition to operating an illegal service, many of the sites were promoted with spam. He knew that domain registrars would terminate his domain names for doing this so he found a workaround: create his own ICANN-accredited domain name registrar.

Le Roux created domain name registrar ABSystems using someone else’s identity and registered his domains through the registrar.

ICANN terminated the registrar in 2013. ICANN works with another registrar to transfer domains when it shuts down a registrar. Registrars look at this as a way to grow their business; in this case, EnCirca got stuck holding a bag of bad domains.

The detectives who chased Le Roux used Whois and DomainTools to connect the dots.

The Mastermind is a fascinating book in which domain names play a large role.

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