Dr. John Berryhill writes:

“”As some may have heard, Verizon has provided a new “service” to its fiber optic (FIOS) internet service.

When a Verizon Fios customer enters a non-existent domain name into their browser, instead of getting an error page, Verizon provides its own pay-per-click parking page of the type used by cybersquatters to make money from famous trademarks. For those interested, but who do not have access to a Verizon ISP connection, I have posted a sample screenshot at: www.johnberryhill.com/pix/1.jpg

The screenshot shows the result, as seen by a Verizon ISP customer, of trying to reach i-want-sprint-cellphones.com.  Now, some joker may come along and register that domain name, so to be clear, the screenshot was taken on November 5, 2008. One will note that Verizon’s parking page for i-want-sprint-cellphones.com serves up paid advertisements from Yahoo! from which Yahoo and Verizon presumably share the revenue paid by the advertisers.  The page is particularly notable in that all of the paid links are for providers of goods and services OTHER than Sprint, to whom there is no link whatsoever on the page. Verizon’s decision to substitute its pay-per-click pages for non-existent URL’s effectively out-tastes the domain tasters.  The concern about domain tasting, of course, is that the tasters are registering large numbers of “typo” domains for free, and are making money off of the mis-directed traffic.  The beauty of Verizon’s position as one of the largest ISP’s in the United States is that they can obtain the exact same result, without ever having to register a domain name at all.

To Verizon, all typographic variants of your clients’ trademarks are now a money making proposition, now that Verizon is monetizing the entire unregistered domain name space.

John Berryhill, Ph.d., Esq.”"