Dr. John Berryhill takes us on a brief turn down memory lane and posits on the potential ‘tit for tat’ relating to the hijacking of user intent:
“”Recall that when Sitefinder was operating, there was a BIND patch (put out by Vixie?) that would detect Verisign’s synthesized DNS results and “re-fix” them as NXDOMAIN.
So, you now have the stage set for a genuine tug-of-war over DNS results.
Move 1: Verisign turns Sitefinder back on thus “trumping” Verizon.
Move 2: Verizon counters by looking at DNS results coming back with Sitefinder IP addresses, and “takes back” those addresses, re-pointing to
Verizon Superpages.
Moves 3 and 4 can go in a couple of directions. You also have to take into account the browser people, and their take/reaction to all of this.
For example,
Move 3: MS patches IE to detect either Verizon or Verisign shenanigans, and points the browser to MSN Live Search. Mozilla does the same thing, and points Firefox to Google.
Move 4: Everyone decides that as long as DNS result tinkering is “fair game”, they all configure their systems to screw over domain registrants doing PPC the old-fashioned way.
Move 5: “The Internet” becomes Compuserve circa 1996.
The somewhat amusing collateral upshot is that Verizon and Verisign – as Internet advertising service providers – finally get to square off on whose trademark is confusingly similar to whose (if anyone is keeping score on my “bold predictions”).”"
***FS*** This Verizon thing is just bad. A common-carrier – a modern utility really.. placed in a position of great power, with great responsibility, taking over user intent and hijacking the browsing experience on a wholesale level for financial ends. This type of unfair competition sets a poor example for others in similar positions of authority to follow.
Earth to Dr. Berryhill,
MOVE 0 has already happened…
Where have you been ?…in Domain Parties ?
MS released Vista and Bill Gates is building and owns “The Road Ahead” (See his book by the same title)
Without the Code There is NO Road
It is ironic that OBL is/was in the Road Business
If Consumers are cosumers are presented a Fork in the Road and some decide to take it. A) You will not likely have a screen-shot of their choice. B) You will not likely be paid to tell them which path to take. C) You will not likely hear from them again if they take the best path.
Intent is what is protectable or actionable in a court of law isn’t it John?
And, A persons right to a successful Intentional Navigation, is as basic a Right, as any of the Rights we are Given in the U.S. Constitutions Bill of Rights, in my thinking.
Yes, this is new untried unwritten Law, but none the less, it is a self evident Right that everyone should expect to enjoy.
So listen up Verisign, Verizon, MS, Mozilla, ISP’s and any other SOB’s thats wants to determine where I go, other than where I Intended to be.
Don’t mess with MY INTENT (or remove/hinder my ability to navigate to where I want and intend/ed to go) or I’ll/We’ll sue you, in a Court of Law.
And make the Right to Intentional Navigation a Law.
I would think, that there is plenty of sited Case’s, Legal Decisions, and existing Law’s, that already cover prohibition of Restraint of Trade by a common carrier of goods and or services, that would be applicable, and provide grounds for a successful Legal Action, that would stop the practice, now.
I spoke on a panel today at the International Trademark Association Leadership meeting in Orlando, along with Sarah Deutsch of Verizon. Sarah laid into Sedo, Oversee, ICANN, the Cameroons, the ICA’s new Code of Conduct (which prompted me to observe that, indeed, no good deed goes unpunished), parked pages, and domainers generally, questioned whether direct search provided any consumer benefits at all, and finished up with a call for tougher trademark laws and new international TM conventions.
After showing my powerpoints illustrating how Google Microsoft, and even ISPs run ads against trademarks and typos thereof (thanks, Frank, for teaching this to me), I honed in on Verizon’s new advanced web search, repeating Dr. Berryhiil’s findings as to how Verizon/Yahoo serve up, in response to I-Want-Sprint-Cellphones.com, a host of ad links none of which lead to Sprint. Sarah promptly admonished me for “attacking” Verizon (to which I retorted it was hardly an attack, just a factual description of what they serve up, and then went on to say that they were late to a game that most other ISPs engaged in (which I felt kinda reiterated my point), how they let consumers opt out, how they serve up some natural search results and provide a link to Sprint (which is not what John reported), and how this is really just a useful customer service and not that nasty infringement that domainers engage in.
Then they beat me with a rubber hose (just kidding…;-)
Actually, I got some positive feedback after. But Verizon at least is dead serious about creating a trademark regime that is a domain hijacker’s wet dream.
Your ICA at work…
[...] – Sitefinder style error hijack by your ISP such as Charter, Earthlink or Verizon [...]