[Foundation-l] Re: domain donation, cybersquatter, our copyright

[Jens Ropers]

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 at Wikipedia.org wrote:

> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 10 Aug 2004 22:59:25 +0100
> From: Angela_ <beesley at gmail.com>
> Subject: [WikiEN-l] Re: domain donation, cybersquatter, our copyright
> To: foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> Cc: wikien-l at wikipedia.org
> Message-ID: <8b722b800408101459821267b at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>
> (moving thread from wikien-l to foundation-l. Please reply there)
>
> Jens Ropers wrote:
>
>> 1. 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.

>> 2. 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&trade;.
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

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