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Shambles at the .Pro Registry
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The Fine Print:
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them.
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We cannot respond to the multiple misstatements, mischaracterizations and errors put forth by Mr. Henderson as to the facts surrounding Encirca's ProForwarding program. We only note that:
1. All EnCirca .pro registrations have verified credentials prior to the activation of their domain name
2. All registrations are in conformity with the RegistryPro/ICANN contract (http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/pro/).
We direct you to our response to ICANN on ICANN's website:(http://www.icann.org/correspondence/barre tt-to-cole-16mar05.pdf)
We want to emphasize that there are NO provisions in the Registry Agreement regarding use - Jones Day can register jonesday.law.pro and use it to sell ice cream. They may also register icecream.pro and use it to sell..ice cream. Encirca is the only registrar to voluntarily adopted a policy that prohibits misrepresentation of licensed credentials
"Licensee may not, in connection with use of the Domain Name, explicitly or implicitly misrepresent professional credentials, including but not limited to levels of training, certification, education, licensing or membership in a professional organization."
(from http://www.encirca.biz/html/proforwarding.shtml)
Sincerely
Thomas Barrett
President
EnCirca, Inc
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[ Reply to This | Parent
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.PRO is Just a Market Trial
ICANN was formed by the U.S. Government to run
some Proof-of-Concept Market Trials.
It is very much like what happens when a new
company is formed. There is sometimes a
Subscription Agreement. It is used to attract
shareholders with the understanding that if
not enough are attracted the company is not
launched. .PRO is just trying to attract some participants
in a market trial. Those participants can then
find each other and work together to create a
real TLD with a real Registry, backed by owners.
If you have that, not even ICANN can make the
TLD go away.
With escorts and ladies of the evening flocking
to the .PRO TLD, it should be interesting to see
how the .XXX market-trial(s) will evolve.
All ICANN cares about is a piece of the Action,
or a piece of something else.
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[ Reply to This | Parent
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“The Registrar must require applicants for registration of Registered Names to provide evidence of qualification for a domain name in the .pro TLD.”
“The Registrar must verify evidence of such qualification pursuant to the policies of the Registry Operator.”
“The Registrar must also provide digital certificates and other digital security services associated with each Registered Name through a commercial certificate authority approved by Registry Operator ("CCA").”
Registry-Registrar Agreement. Appendix F. Exhibit E. Section IV.
Can I ask which commercial certificate authority (approved by RegistryPro) did EnCirca use to provide digital certificates for their registrants (such as f**k.pro and c**t.pro)?
Also, did EnCirca check with ICANN at any stage when they said:
“The .pro domain currently supports only lawyers (law.pro, bar.pro and jur.pro), accountants (cpa.pro, aca.pro), doctors (med.pro) and engineers (eng.pro) from the U.S., Canada, UK and Germany. EnCirca now can provide a .pro domain to licensed professionals worldwide in other categories previously not supported… EnCirca now supports registrants from all licensed professions anywhere in the world. As a result, applicants no longer need to wait until their profession or country is supported by the registry to secure desirable .pro domains names for their industry.”
“The issues with .pro, until now, were that the cost was often prohibitive and the requirement to validate the registration with credentials of being a licensed professional was restraining,” said Tom Barrett, president of EnCirca. “The pace of supporting new professions and countries has been too slow to satisfy demand. Now, EnCirca is resolving the cost and registration obstacles, enabling all licensed professions -- no matter where they reside -- to quickly and easily acquire a memorable .pro identity and effectively compete online.”
“These professional groups include: architects, educators, public relations professionals, realtors”. Small businesses too may apply, said Thomas Barrett.
http://express-press-release.com/11/EnCirca.pro%20 Web%20Service%20Creates%20New%20Online%20Marketing %20Opportunities%20For%20All%20Licensed%20Professi onals%20and%20Small%20Businesses.php
Is this ICANN policy or has EnCirca decided on this policy for themselves? And precisely what certification supports all the domain speculators who have registered hundreds or thousands of .pro names? As this certification is supposed to be in the possession of RegistryPro before any domain is activated, perhaps RegistryPro could answer that question too?
Yrs,
Richard Henderson
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[ Reply to This | Parent
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"the presumption with a .pro registration is that everyone in the .pro TLD is a credentialed professional"
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[ Reply to This | Parent
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I've received a description of how a .pro domain was gained this month through EnCirca. He mails me as follows:
"I would ask for some discretion. I would prefer that you’d not list my name in conjunction with this.
Straight up, I basically registered four .pros.
There was absolutely no verification performed by Encirca as part of the process. It was simply sign up, pay $49, and 'viola'. "
My contact had been drawn to the EnCirca system by an article here:
http://www.webhostdir.com/news/articles/shownews.a sp?id=11643
which then led to here:
http://www.encirca.biz/html/proforwarding.shtml
which set out how they would get "your domain":
"How EnCirca's ProForwarding Service Works
Your domain is registered in the name of EnCirca's ProForwarding Service, so that we can submit and maintain the professional credentials required for .pro domain names.
You retain the FULL BENEFITS of domain registration. As Admin, Technical and Billing Contact: You can sell, renew or cancel your domain; set-up the nameservers for your domain; and resolve disputes involving your domain.
Domains maintained by EnCirca's ProForwarding service may be transferred in a private sale to a third party at any time. Owner transfer is accomplished via EnCirca's free Account Move utility
EnCirca reserves the right to cancel any registration suspected of trademark infringement,spamming, or other illegal activity. To clarify prohibited use, we have amended the ProForwarding terms as follows:
Licensee may not, in connection with use of the Domain Name, explicitly or implicitly misrepresent professional credentials, including but not limited to levels of training, certification, education, licensing or membership in a professional organization."
* * * * * *
This seems to place the responsibility on the applicant, effectively saying: it's your own fault if you're not who you claim to be. This is a million light years away from the requirement of the ICANN Registry Agreement that claims should undergo a process of scrutiny to verify them.
In the case of my correspondent, not a single enquiry was made, even of what kind of professional (if any) he was before the name was registered and activated.
I suggest (but leave ICANN to decide) that this was in clear contravention of the ICANN Agreement and specifically Appendix L.
Yrs,
Richard Henderson
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[ Reply to This | Parent
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Thomas Barrett on this page:
"All EnCirca .pro registrations have verified credentials prior to the activation of their domain name"
EnCirca Registrant:
"There was absolutely no verification performed by Encirca as part of the process. It was simply sign up, pay $49, and 'viola'."
Excuse me Thomas, but how do you square that circle. The registrant's .pro domain was registered and activated. His credentials were not checked at all.
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[ Reply to This | Parent
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As I expected, the Registry are laying down the challenge to ICANN, and defying them to stop them from 'evolving' .Pro into what is effectively a new and opened up gTLD:
http://www.registrypro.pro/forum/
"It has come to the attention of RegistryPro that some .pro name holders are licensing their domain names to parties who may not themselves qualify for a .pro domain name."
"Once a .pro domain is appropriately purchased, RegistryPro does not assume control over the use of that name. This includes the secondary market and licensing programs referenced above."
What RegistryPro is saying in this message is that they know perfectly well that EnCirca is registering thousands of names in EnCirca's own name, then selling ownership of these domains to the general public without any checking of individuals' credentials whatsoever (although the intention of setting up the .Pro Registry was that it should only be open to people whose credentials had been rigorously checked)...
And then RegistryPro appears to be saying that once they've got their share of the money, they will allow this opening up of .Pro to the general public to continue. They seem to be saying that, without consultation with ICANN, they are going to take the money, and preside over the dismantling of the intent and purposes of the .Pro Agreement as set out by ICANN.
To this extent, RegistryPro and EnCirca appear to be in complicity. At the very least, you would think that the .Pro Registry would turn to ICANN and ask for their view on this effective re-writing of .Pro.
Whatever words RegistryPro uses, they *know* that they are opening up a registry that was supposed to be credentialled and restricted.
ICANN may have a different view on whether this respects the Agreement and Understanding they made with RegistryPro, not to mention the time and money invested by consumers who invested in .Pro because of the way it was defined.
Were other Registrars consulted by RegistryPro?
What RegistryPro and EnCirca appear to be trying to do - including this RegistryPro Forum just launched today... "It has come to our attention..." when they know perfectly well what has been going on in the past month... is that they are trying to push forward to a new "status quo" regardless of ICANN's position and the purposes of ICANN's Agreement. ICANN has been used and they are trying to railroad it to their own 'new reality'.
De facto - if not on a technical detail - .Pro is being turned into an open gTLD.
Yrs,
Richard Henderson
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