Frank Michlick (member candidate)

[Alex]

Frank, do you know that, if elected, while you may come with extensive and formidable knowledge of the domain industry, that you wear the same t shirt as all other board members. In other words you do not represent any industry but work in the best interests of the corporation.

[Frank]

I do understand that, @Seby (Alex) . I meant “the knowledge” of the domain industry. I’ve been part of the leadership teams, an advisor to the board and a consultant for a number of companies, and I will always work for what’s best for the organization itself.

And if there are any votes to be made that would directly affect me, my employer etc, I would, of course, recuse myself. Just like when working in ICANN workgroups in the past.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by  Frank. Reason: fixing Alex' name

[Alex]

Given your expertise in the industry, what do you make of the following as CIA promotes itself as providing world class leadership.

· Over 50% of domains under management (DUM) are dormant, bought for possible resale.

· Denic, who operates the ccTLD in Germany (pop 83M), manages 17,533,796 domains with a staff of about 110.

· Belgium (pop 12 m) manages 1,744,450 domains with a staff of about 35

· Netherlands (pop 18 M), a world class ccTLD leader, manages 6,304,312 domains.

· With over 153 million ccTLD domains registered worldwide, Canada – CIRA – does not rank in the top 10!

[Frank]

Alex, thank you for your question. It would be helpful if you could provide sources and context for your numbers to clarify your questions.

Some comments for now:

· Over 50% of domains under management (DUM) are dormant, bought for possible resale.

I don’t think that domains that are considered dormant are necessarily always bought for resale only. Domains are the virtual real estate of the Internet and buying domains for resale is a legitimate use of domains, so I’m not sure I see a question here.

· Denic, who operates the ccTLD in Germany (pop 83M), manages 17,533,796 domains with a staff of about 110.

· Belgium (pop 12 m) manages 1,744,450 domains with a staff of about 35

· Netherlands (pop 18 M), a world class ccTLD leader, manages 6,304,312 domains.

· With over 153 million ccTLD domains registered worldwide, Canada – CIRA – does not rank in the top 10!

The registration of .CA is restricted to Canadian entities and entities having a business interest in Canada. The other ccTLDs do not have restrictions like this, so the comparison is not entirely equal. Keeping the restrictions in mind, I would not expect .CA to rank in the top 10 for domain registrations world wide. If you rank countries by population Canada is far from the top 10 as well.

That being said, a large part of Canadian business still run on other TLDs, like .COM due to their international clientel and our closeness to the US. CIRA has been running ad campaigns to help promote the .CA TLD and should continue to do so.

How much staff you need to run a registry does not just depend on the amounts of domains registered.

[Alex]

Buying something for resale is perfectly legal. There are quite a lot of owners who have ‘000s of such names in inventory. I believe one person even owns about 10,000 domain names. All legal. Good revenue source.

Some Canadians however object to cyber squatting. For example, I incorporated a company federally and then found out someone had registered that name as a domain and of course wanted to sell it to me for “000’s. Not sure if that is a false economy or not (like buying a lottery ticket which I occasionally do).

<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>I look at a domain name as “crown land” that I use, as long as I keep renewing year to year. Do you agree with that analogy? Or when Ticket Master – or equivalent buys up all the tickets and then resells them at </font>inflated<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> prices. Somewhat legal, some dodgy if you really want to see </font>Taylor<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> Swift etc. </font>

The other point is that your operations – the processing of the ‘DUM’ – is reduced by half because 1/2 the DUMs are not in use.

Finally I would like to know what the marketing costs have been for each of the past 5 years to see if those costs are greater than the revenue. We might be surprised with the answer!

Finally finally, do you have any comments about the other stats which show that CIRA is at the back of the pack when compared to other European ccTLD registries.

[Frank]

Some Canadians however object to cyber squatting. For example, I incorporated a company federally and then found out someone had registered that name as a domain and of course wanted to sell it to me for “000’s. Not sure if that is a false economy or not (like buying a lottery ticket which I occasionally do).

I look at a domain name as “crown land” that I use, as long as I keep renewing year to year. Do you agree with that analogy? Or when Ticket Master – or equivalent buys up all the tickets and then resells them at inflated prices. Somewhat legal, some dodgy if you really want to see Taylor Swift etc.

I think the lines are pretty clear. Registering domains for investment or resale purposes does not constitute cybersquatting. To fit the definition of cybersquatting, there has to be an infringement of someone else’s rights, like in your example above. In those cases, the CDRP applies and can and is used to resolve those conflicts.

With the appointed resolution providers for .CA the decisions seem to generally favour the complainant, but that’s a separate problem, that should potentially also be addressed.

The other point is that your operations – the processing of the ‘DUM’ – is reduced by half because 1/2 the DUMs are not in use.

If you’re saying that domains not being actively used make a direct difference to the CIRA’s operational cost, I don’t quite see that. The amount of records managed is the same, the only potential difference is that inactive domains may potentially receive fewer DNS queries.

Finally I would like to know what the marketing costs have been for each of the past 5 years to see if those costs are greater than the revenue. We might be surprised with the answer!

You can at least find part the information you’re looking for in the Financial Statements on the CIRA website.

Finally finally, do you have any comments about the other stats which show that CIRA is at the back of the pack when compared to other European ccTLD registries.

I think I provided the comments in my previous reply – let’s compare apples to apples unless we want to discuss potentially removing the restrictions as to who can register .CAs. I’m not saying we should remove this, but I know people have asked for it in the past.

[Alex]

While i do not have your level of expertise in the domain industry i do note that the Oxford dictionary defines the term cyber squatting as “the practice of registering names, especially
well-known company or brand names, as internet domains, in the hope of reselling them at a
profit.”

[Frank]

While i do not have your level of expertise in the domain industry i do note that the Oxford dictionary defines the term cyber squatting as “the practice of registering names, especially
well-known company or brand names, as internet domains, in the hope of reselling them at a
profit.”

It looks like the definition you quote is from “Oxford Languages”, I’m not sure if this is identical to the “Oxford Dictionary”.

I disagree with this definition, and most courts and dispute resolution providers would likely see it differently as well. What is missing is the “in bad faith” component.

Here’s what Wikipedia says:

Cybersquatting
(also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering,
trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith
intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone.

The UDRP and CDRP are also more specific:

CDRP:

1. why the Registrant’s dot-ca domain name should be considered as
Confusingly Similar to a Mark in which the Complainant had Rights prior
to the date of registration of the domain name and continues to have
such Rights;
2. why the Registrant should be considered as having no legitimate
interest in the domain name as described in paragraph 3.4 of the Policy;
and
3. why the Registrant should be considered as having registered the
domain name in bad faith as described in paragraph 3.5 of the Policy.

WIPO (UDRP):

The UDRP requires a
complainant to establish three elements, namely, that: the domain name
is confusingly similar to the complainant’s trademark; the registrant
has no rights or legitimate interests in the domain name; and that. the
domain name has been registered and is being used in “bad faith”.

• This reply was modified 2 months ago by  Frank.

[Alex]

Apples and oranges aside, CIRA claims to be a leader in the ccTLD industry whereas my stats shows that they are at the back of the class. are my facts in dispute or just CIRA’s puffery?

Are you challenging my stats?

[Frank]

Apples and oranges aside, CIRA claims to be a leader in the ccTLD industry whereas my stats shows that they are at the back of the class. are my facts in dispute or just CIRA’s puffery?

Are you challenging my stats?

You have not provided stats, you provided excerpts and still, I can’t compare registries that follow different models.

I would see CIRA as a well-run registry that can still improve in some areas. I personally would also prefer if they focussed more on their core offering as a registry.

I am concerned about this year’s price increase and hope that we don’t see any additional ones, as the technology to run a registry should generally speaking get cheaper as time passes.

[Alex]

so the following are not stats? Just verifiable numbers? If so which numbers do you question? Lets not quibble about how to measure population either. The DUM numbers are real; I didn’t make them up.

• DENIC, who operates the ccTLD in Germany (pop 83M), manages 17,533,796 domains with a staff of about 110.
• Belgium (pop 12 m) manages 1,744,450 domains with a staff of about 35
• Netherlands (pop 18 M), a world class ccTLD leader, manages 6,304,312 domains.
• With over 153 million ccTLD domains registered worldwide, Canada – CIRA – does not rank in the top 10!

While you assert that CIRA is well run, is that evidence based or “hope” (aspirational) based? How do you really know?

While we had an other increase do you care/know how many times the CEO salary has increased and what it is? Do you know if your fees (mine as well) are cross subsidizing acquisition of “.ie, kiwi etc.? Or travel costs, no doubt always flying business class?

[Alex]

re cyber squatting.

“Google’s English dictionary is provided by Oxford Languages. Oxford Languages is the world’s leading dictionary publisher, with over 150 years of experience creating and delivering authoritative dictionaries globally in more than 50 languages. Oxford’s English dictionaries are widely regarded as the world’s most authoritative sources on current English.”

<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>You choose to use </font>Wikipedia<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> as the </font>definitive<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> source which I get. </font>

<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>The OED states: “</font>The practice of registering as an internet domain name a well-known company, brand, or personal name, or a name likely to be confused with one, in…”

<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>Many CIRA members register names – many have over ‘000s in the hope for a resell. </font><font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit” style=””> One’s that are based on tradenames are a no-no. However many have also taken such </font>prospective<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit” style=””> names – wannabe tradenames – in anticipation of selling at a profit later on. </font>

<font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”>Methinks it deserves more of a </font>discussion. <font color=”rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)” face=”inherit”> </font>

[Frank]

Alex, in many of your posts, you mix a lot of different topics, which actually ends up destroying a lot of the discussion. What does the CEO compensation have to do with this topic?

While you assert that CIRA is well run, is that evidence based or “hope” (aspirational) based? How do you really know?

I can compare them to the other registries I work with a supplier, they work well, and their systems work well as well. The only complaint is that, on occasion, their support seems to be taking a long time to respond, and I’m not sure if registrar support is actually available on the weekends and/or after-hours.

[Alex]

Well run implies 3 broad criteria; efficiency, effectiveness and service level. I am guessing that you don’t know the full cost of the 8 executives ( my guess well in excess of $2m) nor the full cost of the Board (well in excess of $500K0 L

I did provide some basis stats – you call those numbers excerpts – when compared to other ccTLD registries – that shows that CIRA is not performing as well as it claims.

Finally how tough a job is it to run a registry which many feel is a commodity and a monopoly?