[VereinDE-l] Fwd: domain donation, cybersquatter, our copyright

From: Jens Ropers <ropers(a)ropersonline.com> Date: 11 August 2004 19:05:11 GMT+02:00 To: foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org Subject: Re: domain donation, cybersquatter, our copyright Hi, this is my first mail to this list, to which I've just subscribed. I understand the below discussion has been moved here?

The discussion in question concerns various issues I described in detail on a password-protected area of my website (as there were problems w/ list members receiving the relevant HTML file containing my writings). I would invite list members here to also read this page. From a previous email I sent: capitalization matters on the URL, btw. In case people have commented on this issue already, I would be very grateful to be forwarded copies of any relevant emails. I would not have received them previously as I wasn't a list member till now. In response to my email, Angela_ responded as follows: On 11 Aug 2004, at 16:29, wikien-l-request(a)Wikipedia.org wrote: True, but that confusion is already there. People /are/ accessing wikipAEdia domains. I did. Also, as I observed in my wikipaedia.html paper above, Dr. Schlabeck is actively furthering that confusion by impersonating us and linking to us in a confusing (non-working) way. (See Gripe #1, #3 and #4.) We're not helping ourselves by avoiding the battle and "yielding ground". We should claim and hold what ground is rightfully ours and systematically pursue our claims on the domains Dr. Schlabeck currently controls. (Sorry about the militaristic lingo. Couldn't think of a clearer way to put it.) I would also suggest that things get implemented as follows as far as DNS servers: 1. Make wikipaedia.net /redirect/ to wikipedia.org, so that users hitting wikipaedia.net will find themselves looking at the Wikipedia, /with/ a wikipedia.org URL in the address bar. (And let's /not/ put in one of those silly 5-second-delay-to-redirect, "please change your bookmarks" pages. Those are pretty friggin useless anyway. 2. Configure the DNS boxen in such a fashion that, say, a URL of http://en.wikipaedia.net/wiki/Charlie_Muffin will automatically redirect to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Muffin. This may be slightly controversial in that there's the downside that such a "forgiving" behaviour might encourage people to keep using the "wrong" URL. On the other hand, as long as it fully redirects to the correct .org address, there shouldn't be much to worry about as people will realize very quickly that our "main" URL is wikipedia.org. And it's not as if we had to fear loosing wikipaedia.net anytime soon. I've also email Jimmy on this -- no reply yet -- because I wanted to do the actual turning over of the domain directly to him, to avoid any possible issues, say, with someone untrustworthy reading this list, grabbing the domain and sodding off with it. In the meantime, the suggested DNS changes could already be implemented! :) I don't have a DNS server and I don't have the option to directly enter a redirection URL with my domain name registrar (i.e. they're not offering DNS services for this domain-name-only account). What I can enter are DNS server addresses. So if the appropriate Wikipedia admins (Jimmy?) were to include the appropriate records with their name servers (possibly zwinger.wikipedia.org and gunther.bomis.com?), I could then enter these server addresses into the wikipaedia.net domain control panel and things should be working, even before the actual domain ownership gets formally transferred to the WP Foundation. True, it can't hurt to ask -- and it's The Right Thing™. However, I still have my doubts, because Dr. Schlabeck is not only cybersquatting on us but also impersonating us and infringing our copyrights (see Gripe #1, #2, #3 and #4). To top things off, he seems to be a truly "remarkable" serial cybersqatter (see Gripe #5). I think what'll happen is this: 1. He'll claim ignorance on the content copyright infringement and impersonation issues ("I thought it was free!"). 2. He'll demand cash, and not only cash but extortionate sums for the wikipaedia domains he currently controls. But -- true enough -- it can't hurt to ask. It actually strengthens our case. As regards the VereinDE-l mailing list, well, actually, I happen to speak German. So I'll join the VereinDE-l ML (any minute now...) and see what can be done there. (I was actually hoping others to take over the baton from me with these things, because I've already spent quite a bit of time on this. ;-) Anyhoo, the wikipaedia.de and content infringement issues are probably better dealt with by the German Verein (because the domain and content in question are German). BUT: I would still suggest tackling the wikipaedia.com and wikipaedia.org issues from our end, because these issues concern us more than our German Verein. Plus, we don't even have to sue: It is /perfectly sufficient/ to pursue our claims on these gTLD domains under the ICANN UDRP! (And, IANAL, but the way I read the UDRP we're pretty much /guaranteed/ to win there. The only semi-legitimate "claim" Dr. Schlabeck could put to the domain is to say the -paedia bit stood for Paediater (German for pediatrician) --- but he's a psychiatrist, not a pediatrician!) Anyways, if needed I could translate agreed-upon Schlabeck-addressed correspondence to German (if it's not too long.) Besides, IMHO we needn't necessarily worry about a language barrier from our end. -- It is quite reasonable to expect holders of gTLDs to respond to related correspondence in English. Thanks and regards, Jens Ropers There are two types of IT techs: The ones who watch soap operas and the ones who watch progress bars. http://www.ropersonline.com/elmo/#108681741955837683