The Pirate Bay Takes Over Anti-Piracy Domain : IFPI.com
In yet another snub to anti-piracy efforts, infamous Swedish BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay has taken over IFPI.com, a domain formerly owned by the recording industry group by the same name. IFPI, previously known as the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, pushes for anti-piracy enforcement in 75 countries.
The Pirate Bay, the world’s largest torrent tracker has taken up a surprising new residence. The site, which hosts over 630,000 torrents, moved aboard the domain ifpi.com, which formerly belonged to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
While many may be unfamiliar with the IFPI, its work is familiar to many. The IFPI is the parent organization of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).
The IFPI has been a champion of lawsuits against internet pirates, increasing the scope of copyright laws and developing DRM technologies to stop users from copying their songs or media. Its actions have been mirrored by its lower level affiliates such as the RIAA.
The group, one of the world’s leading BitTorrent trackers, has hoisted its flag over the IFIP.com domain.
The address was, until recently, owned by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an industry body representing the recording industry worldwide.
In an interview with the Torrentfreak blog, the Pirate Bay team said it would use the domain to host a site for the International Federation of Pirate Interests (alsoIFPI), a newly formed organisation dedicated to spreading the word about piracy.
December 3rd | Legal Issues | Comments (0) |
iPhone Domainers Beware : Apple might get you
Founder and chief editor of MacRumors.com recently wrote this in his blog ..
After Apple’s aggressive defense of the iPod-related domain names, it seemed obvious they weren’t going to let people get too comfortable with the many iPhone domain names.
Vincent Nguyen of MyiPhone.com writes that he was excited to meet Steve Jobs at D: All Things Digital, but that excitement quickly turned to a sickening feeling:
Turns out, Steve isn’t such a great fan of MYiPhone as we are about the phone itself. His comment to me about the site was “I recommend you changing the name, we have a team of lawyers to go after that kind of stuff.” Well, you could’ve knocked me over with a Mac mini. He mentioned that we should change it to anything other than iPhone in the name.
Apple has been aggressively pursuing commercial websites using the “iPod” as part of their domain. The most prominent move was iPodLounge moving to iLounge. While I have no official confirmation that Apple “forced” this particular move, Apple’s interest in the iPod name was certainly a factor.
I personally don’t thing that the name could do any harm to apple as whole website was related to iPhone and indirectly promote iPhone ….. on second thought, why would they need anymore popularity 
.
July 26th | Apple, Legal Issues | Comments (0) |
ICA Warns Domain Name Industry
The Internet Commerce Association (internetcommerce.org) recently addressed more than 50 domain name owners at the SedoPro conference in New Paltz, New York to discuss potential threats to the value of domain names.
Phil Corwin, a representative of the ICA, says the domain community should try to prevent the disorder the private equity industry faces right now due to the introduction of a bill to tax private equity profits at a higher rate. Corwin says mainstream press has already brought attention to the wealth the domain name industry has been creating, which could get the attention of legislators in Washington and cause a similar situation. However, he says it’s not too late to influence policy making.
In his presentation, Corwin mentioned a few specific threats to domain names including domain name classification as a property versus a license. He says the ICA wants domains to be classified as property and the domain industry should take the lead on getting this position solidified. Another issue is the fact that many registrars are retaining the best expiring domain names, which creates a conflict of interest.
July 2nd | Legal Issues, Domain Names | Comments (0) |
RegisterFly Update March 31 : Not a ICANN accredited registrar
This is an update on the termination of RegistrFly as an ICANN accredited registrar.As was previously advised ICANN sent a notice of termination to RegisterFly effective 31 March 2007. Under the agreement RegisterFly can initiate arbitration challenging the termination. RegisterFly has decided to do that and has notified ICANN. That means the termination has to be stayed by at least an additional thirty days. Consequently there will be no bulk transfer to another Accredited registrar until further notice. This clearly does not help registrants. It is another example of RegisterFly putting its own interests ahead of its customers.
April 1st | Legal Issues, Domain Names | Comments (0) |
$5.5 million fine for spamming in australia
Wayne Mansfield faces financial ruin after Federal Court Justice Robert Nicholson yesterday fined him $1 million and his business seminar company Clarity1 Pty Ltd $4.5 million in a 19-page judgment.
Clarity1 sent more than 213 million commercial emails, 41 million of them to 5.6 million addresses illegally “harvested†from the internet, between April 2004 and April 2006.
The nature of the breaches of the Spam Act, enacted in April 2004, was “flagrant and unapologeticâ€, the judgment said.
Australian Communications and Media Authority anti-spam team manager Bruce Matthews said it was the first successful prosecution under the Act. “We are very happy with the decision because we think it sends a very strong message to potential Australian spammers that we will vigorously enforce the Spam Act,†he said.
November 15th | Legal Issues | Comments (0) |
Internet gambling ban added to U.S. port security bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congress was pushing on Friday to finish legislation that would boost security at U.S. ports, but at the last minute lawmakers added provisions to prohibit Internet gambling.
Rushing to finish their work by the weekend to go home and campaign for elections in which control of Congress is at stake, lawmakers were linking up unrelated measures in an effort to get them approved.
The House passed an Internet gambling ban earlier this summer, but the bill had difficulty moving in the Senate. However it was a priority of Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, and attaching it to the popular port security bill appeared aimed at insuring its passage.
September 29th | Articles, Legal Issues | Comments (0) |
EurID puts all Ovidio .eu domains ON HOLD or QUARANTAINE
After the recent suspention of 74,000 domains EurID has recently changed the status of a certain number of registered .eu domain names. The status of about 74.000 .eu domain names has been changed from “active†to “ON HOLD†or “QUARANTAINE”.
As a consequence of this action from EurID, the number of active .eu domain names has dropped below the 2 million figure (figure that was reached earlier on this month). According to the EurID stats there are now 1.980.059 registered .eu domains.
It appears that EurID might be investigating the .eu domain name registrations of some Chyprus based companies (Ovidio Limited, Fausto Ltd and Gabino Ltd). It seems to be that they registered 74.000 valuable .eu domain names in “landrush 2″.
July 28th | Legal Issues, Domain Names | Comments (1) |
New York Passing New Domain Name Law
In a move that flies in the face of established international guidelines, the New York Senate is pushing through a bill that would forbid registering the name of a living person with the purpose of selling the domain to that person.
The New York Senate’s bill is called “domain names cyber piracy protections act†and is championed by State Senator Betty Little (S2306).
Generally speaking, registering a person’s name solely to sell the domain to that person is a losing cause in UDRP arbitrations.
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May 26th | Legal Issues, Domain Names | Comments (0) |