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:
I have thus now posted my "little paper" on my website, at: http://www.ropersonline.com/Area_51/wikipaedia.html
capitalization matters on the URL, btw.
Note that Area 51 is restricted access only. Please log on as follows: user name: guest password: 1ns4nI+y The clear text password is of course only a modest precaution -- I just don't want to give the rascal I'm exposing there easy opportunity to sue me. Please feel free to pass these account details on to other *trusted* Wikipedians.
_Please, PLEASE DO have a look at it and read it!_
Please, let's start tackling these issues! If there is a better place to take this, please tell me so! -- I am still fairly new and chances are I'm just not aware of it. I really do want these issues addressed!
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@Wikipedia.org wrote:
Message: 2 Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 22:59:25 +0100 From: Angela_ beesley@gmail.com Subject: [WikiEN-l] Re: domain donation, cybersquatter, our copyright To: foundation-l@wikimedia.org Cc: wikien-l@wikipedia.org Message-ID: 8b722b800408101459821267b@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
(moving thread from wikien-l to foundation-l. Please reply there)
Jens Ropers wrote:
- I am seeking to donate the wikipaedia.net domain name (which I have
registered) to the Wikipedia Foundation.
Thank you for offering us this. My only concern is that confusion could arise if we own wikipaedia.net but not the other wikipaedia domains. If we don't own any of them, it's more obvious that wikipaedia is nothing to do with us.
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.
- A particularly bad serial cybersquatter is controlling
wikipaedia.org, wikipaedia.com and wikipaedia.de. We really should get these domains off him (and would be able to do so).
I asked in the German IRC channel about this. Maybe I'm assuming too much good faith, but I think we ought to approach that site owner in a friendly way at first before we get too heavy handed. Sansculotte is going to take this to the VereinDE-l mailing list and discuss it there. Hopefully someone who speaks German can contact the site about this. We might well get no reply, but at least we can say we tried before taking this any further. It is worth noting that Akl was successful in getting the wikipedia.ch and wikipedia.at domains back, so perhaps this can be successful too.
Angela.
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
I've now also notified DENIC.de about this issue. I did NOT /complain/ to DENIC about Dr. Schlabeck -- I sent them an expressly "information-only" email, purely to notify them of what's going on (as I think that hundreds of, or a thousand domain names are somewhat unusual). I did not lobby them to take any action whatsoever. See below.
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
On 11 Aug 2004, at 13:47, Jens Ropers wrote:
Dear Sir/Madam of Denic,
I have recently conducted an extensive investigation into the activities of a person I personally consider a cybersquatter. My investigation was triggered by perceived (by myself and others) infringement of Wikipedia (http://wikipedia.org) copyrights and interests.
During my investigation, I found out about an extraordinarily large extent of questionable activity within the .de ccTLD.
Because of the large extent of the related issues, I am now emailing you about them. At this time, I am NOT making any claims as regards the legality of the activities in question. I am NOT asking you to take action of whatever sort and I am aware that it may not be within your brief to do anything, even in cases like this. I am merely emailing you on an information-only bases, simply because I feel it might be helpful for you to know of these issues.
On this basis, I would now like to invite and encourage you to read the results of my investigation at:
http://www.ropersonline.com/Area_51/wikipaedia.html The only issue I expect to be of concern to you is the "Gripe #5" item, which I could imagine you to find of great interest. Note that Area 51 is restricted access only. Please log on as follows: user name: ----- password: ----- The clear text password is of course only a modest precaution -- I just don't want to publicly reveal my results at this time (since I don't know whether doing so would put me at risk to get sued).
Please treat this information as Denic confidential and do not pass on the said login details.
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
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org