Thursday, March 5, 2009

Front Running------

For the past week I have been busy researching and writing articles for Digital. It has been interesting so far but very taxing. I learned a lot about the importance of domain names, how it has turned into such an expensive commodity, as well as the abuses committed due to the demand for easy-to-recall domain names.

I came across a class law suit designated as McElroy v. Network Solution wherein, the plaintiff in behalf of himself and those similarly designated alleges that Network Solution Incorporated, a licensed registrar by ICANN, has been committing practices of front running. ICANN was also joined as a party.

Front running occurs when a prospective registrant (customer) searches the availability of a domain name (i.e. coolname.com) in the domain name registry through the registrar (i.e. Network Solution), if the prospective registrant does not register it immediately (even within minutes) the registrar takes the searched name and blocks it, it cannot be used by anyone except if the prospective buyer or anyone is willing to buy it at a more expensive price. In the complaint the price was increased at around 200%, from $9.99 to $39.99.

The lawsuit however is likely to be dismissed as the practice of front running is hard to prove. Even ICANN in its report (SAC 24) on front running has admitted that their has yet to be substantial evidence to prove the existence of front running. I however, do not want to preclude the court decision on the matter.

Anyway, earlier I have already finished writing the article on front running. Hopefully it's going be useful and informative. Indeed, there are so many things that one could learn and through Digital I was able to write and learn more about information technology.

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Baguilat, Raymond Marvic "Ice" C.
06-78921

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