World’s Second Richest Man Ousts Cybersquatter
January 15, 2009
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has won a legal dispute with a cybersquatter who held his name for ransom on the web.
The UN intellectual property agency says current owner Ahmad Rusli of Indonesia was wrong to register the web address http://www.carlosslimhelu.com and demand up to $US55 million to hand it over.
Don’t miss the photo of the guy they’re calling “Slim”.
GoDaddy’s TDNAM.com Now Called GoDaddy Auctions
January 14, 2009
by Ron Jackson
GoDaddy’s TDNAM.com aftermarket auction site has undergone a name change. The domain sales platform is now called GoDaddy Auctions. Those who type in the old address, TDNAM.com, or the new name, GoDaddyAuctions.com, will be redirected to a redesigned site operating from a subdomain at Auctions.GoDaddy.com. The move makes a lot of sense. Everyone knows the GoDaddy name, but TDNAM draws blank stares when you mention the name to anyone outside the industry.
Ex-eBay Head Whitman Aims To Claim Domain Names
January 9, 2009
By W. David Gardner
InformationWeek
Ex-eBay CEO Meg Whitman, a Republican, hasn’t officially thrown her hat in the ring for the California governor’s race and she’s already embroiled in a nasty fight with a Democrat over Internet domain names.
Tom Hall, a Santa Monica man who says he collects domain names as a hobby, has registered several domain names based on Whitman’s name. Whitman, who has been preparing for a run for the governor’s seat, has detailed attorneys to fight the latest batch of domain names in a lawsuit filed recently in Federal District Court in San Jose.
Why Online Ads Are Weathering the Recession
January 7, 2009
by Jeffrey F. Rayport
It hardly matters what sector of the economy you’re in—it’s none too soon for 2008 to be over. In the advertising business, the pain has proved especially acute, compounded by the latest estimates of where ad budgets are heading in 2009.
Just last week, Barclays Capital (BCS) lowered its projections for U.S. ad spending to a negative 10% next year and a positive 1% in 2010. Every one of the traditional media platforms is getting hit, with newspapers (no surprise) taking the brunt of the pressure, with a drop of 17%, followed by TV (minus 15.5%), magazines (minus 15%), and radio (minus 13%). While other researchers aren’t offering prophesies quite so dire, one thing is clear: This is already no typical ad recession. In 1991, ad spending dropped a mere 1.9% from the prior year, while in 2001 it fell only 6.2%.
The only bright spot this time is online advertising, which, despite a series of downward revisions, is still expected to grow between 6% and 10% next year over 2008 levels.
Verizon’s Cybersquatter Based in China
January 6, 2009
by Richard Adhikari
OnlineNIC, the cybersquatter against which telecommunications giant Verizon was awarded a record $33.15 million judgment recently, is one of the largest domain name registrars in China, InternetNews.com has learned.
According to the records of ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages the assignment of domain names and IP addresses for the Internet, OnlineNIC, headquartered in Xiamen, China, was accredited by ICANN on October 21, 1999.
The documents show that OnlineNIC has registered more than 300,000 domain names. ICANN did not return calls for comment by press time.
However, Verizon may not be able to collect on the judgment because it has not been able to locate any of OnlineNIC’s U.S. offices, although the company is registered in San Francisco.