OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
I just read on thedomains.com at how Donuts, a new gTLD registry, announced today to all registrants that have registered second level “eco” new gTLD domain names that the domains are in the process of getting deleted. The registrants include Page Howe, Mark Hershiser and Mike Berkens.
This happens because Donuts made a mistake and didn’t stop registrations with the keyword “eco” that was on ICANN’s reserved list. “ECO” is the acronym of the Economic Cooperation Organization that is an intergovernmental organization. ICANN has reserved all names and acronyms of intergovernmental organizations.
Donuts has so far released 38 new gTLD strings and “eco” was registered in 26 of them. There were 12 new gTLD strings that didn’t have the term “eco” registered. Mike Berkens’s eco.domains was deleted straight away as it was within the first 5 days of the registration. I am not sure if the domains eco.cab and eco.limo were registered.
Donuts says that they are refunding all registrants but I guess there will be some angry domainers and end users coming their way.
Here are the 26 domain names that are being deleted:
eco.bike
eco.careers (Page Howe)
eco.clothing (e-co.com)
eco.construction
eco.contractors
eco.diamonds (Innovation HQ, Inc.)
eco.directory (Page Howe)
eco.domains (Worldwide Media, Inc.)
eco.enterprises
eco.equipment
eco.estate
eco.gallery (ecowhale.com)
eco.graphics (ecowhale.com)
eco.guru
eco.kitchen
eco.land
eco.lighting
eco.photography
eco.photos (ecowhale.com)
eco.plumbing
eco.shoes (Marketta Pty Ltd)
eco.technology
eco.tips
eco.today (Mark Hershiser)
eco.ventures (Page Howe)
eco.voyage
OnlineDomain.com - © Copyright 2012-2024 - All Rights Reserved
Looks like the winners are those that registered the ecological.* keyword. Taken in bike, available in most others.
It’s a bit long for my taste.
When your charging people $250 to renew, and register domains, these sorts of mistakes should not be happening.
All these people should start a class action against Donuts, when something goes wrong then they lay it on ICANN, gutless.
Page Howe seems to be the biggest loser of domains in this batch reclaim. His capital was tied up, unable to make other purchases, damages are in order. He was actively flipping domains as well, can you imagine if a buyer got stuck with this. DONUTS you have killed any aftermarket in this GTLD business.
ecoclassactionlawsuit.com has been dropped and is available for register, I suggest you go after them for failing to perform due care in regards to due diligence, and damages, and get all your other ECO friends on board.
A lot of these domains were bought in EAP.
Also there are others with more than 1 “eco” registration.
I guess if these were premium domains.
And of course registrars also lost a lot of money.
I wonder if any of these domains were in a GoDaddy auction…
ecotoday.org
is available for hand registration ($8.99)
All these guys are better off with the refund imo.
Here is what EcoWhale said over at thedomains.com:
These are some of the reasons I cited why the nouveau Registries is an issue when considering getting into the ngtld scheme. There’s very little to prevent them from acting like ‘domainers’, including ICANN itself. There’s no ryme or reason why certain keywords are reserved, or two letter domains, whereas one letter are released; there’s no reason to rush in getting Registries to launch whereas many thousands of keywords are apparently on some list of domain-non grata.
It’s NOT the way dot COM is done, hence its worldwide adoption.
You are correct that they are acting like domainers. That is because ICANN allowed them to act like that and because most of them are domainers one way or another. (e.g. Frank, Donuts or even Google or Microsoft that own thousands of domains. Microsoft is even selling them.)
2 letter domains are reserved for ccTLDs.
Registries had the option to delay launch because of the collision lists. They chose to get into the game earlier than wait.
Zournas,
I have a comment pending in moderation because it has links, please check it out and publish it, thanks
Done. Thanks
When you start restricting access, taking back domains, people get turned off. This is looking like 1 giant shit storm right now, and I can only think of guys like Rick S who predicted all this, much like he predicted a lot of other stuff on his blog back in the 90’s. I feel for the people that had their names stolen out of their accounts today, without due compensation for their troubles. Total disrespect.
Not the first time domains have been taken back after a registrar/registry error.
Remember the “domain names beginning with a hyphen” kerfuffle. (Or was it ending in a hyphen, I forget)
Everybody involved so far has made a serious “mistake”: Donuts, Uniregistry, Go Daddy etc…
Let’s see where that takes us…
I am sure that a domain I own was because of some mistake but that is not part of any reserved list so I keep it. For now…
Potentially stupid question – why would ‘eco’ not be on a collision list by virtue of it being a forthcoming TLD?
Collision lists are not related to forthcoming TLD.
Collision domains have to do with local network problems that might arise with delegating these domains.
The collision domains will eventually all be released to register.
Forthcoming TLD are not protected from registering. (But could be in any of the other protected lists: ICANN reserved domains, organizations, DPML etc.)
Except maybe from Donuts protecting it’s own new gTLDs within their other new gTLDs…
I believe that every TLD has its own unique collision list that ICANN has made them reserve.
Yes, but there are other lists (countries, 2 character domains, organizations etc.) that are common for all new gtlds.
Yes, I believe it is country names in several key languages that are required to be reserved by registries.
If every newGTLD has to be added to a 2LD blocklist, there will come a day when there will only be TLD’s.
This is a bizarro world.
BTW I wrote about this issue (and predicted that something will be done about it) on DomainShane’s blog on Feb 26, 2014 here: http://domainshane.com/youre-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-profitability-business-model/
And tis is what I wrote if you are reluctant to surf away from here:
“This is a very good rebuttal to the careless.
The truth is that these “Registries” are turning out to be their own worst enemy. The mistakes, if you can call them that, they are inflicting on their nascent enterprises is truly stunning; and that is before the market makes a call.
I was just reading an article put out by Verisign, where they cry “Our concern, rather, is that domain names on the SLD block lists were delegated at all, given ICANN’s clear direction to the contrary. As Pat Kane and I have noted in a broader-ranging letter to NTIA on operational miscues in the new gTLD delegation process, a policy that’s unenforced is worse than no policy at all.
If this is the state of affairs when the answer is “no” – effectively, a state of “uncontrolled interruption” – what happens when the answer changes to “wait 120 days”?
Apparently, Verisign is waxing hot at total disregard of ICANN rules by certain new gTLD Registries. So, expect them to do something about this. This is a very strong Accusation/statement, from a conservative Verisign.”
– See more at: http://domainshane.com/youre-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-profitability-business-model/
This is so stupid if I register a domain with EcoKeyword.GTLD uou can register it, but if it is Eco.GTLD you cannot?
You have 1 person who has some kind of monopoly on everything Luxury.GTLD because they say they own a TM for LUXURY! Why don’t we all TM a few engish keywords each, and we can basically shut down the registry?
Every english would has a trademark warning, I will not be making Lab equipment with my Credit.GTLD
There is a company with 36 keyword trademarks for “pens” registering domains in sunrise.
There is a trademark for “car insurance” for ammo.
Etc….
most of all I hate the premiums
Easy come easy go…
I only paid $19.25 for eco.today, it wasn’t a premium. I like it though, I would rather keep it but that isn’t happening. I actually considered getting ecology.today but I figured I had eco and it’s better, now ecology.today is gone lol…
-.-
Sure but then again do you want Verisign telling you: “Do you remember that domain from 2002? There was an error. It’s ours.”
I am/was the owner of ECO.SHOES. Although not a vegan, a popular keyword in that community :).
Well I wasn’t expecting the ICANN storm troopers to come barging into my ‘house’ and take what I thought was rightfully mine, without any warning or a chance to appeal there actions.
So I’ve now taken my remaining new gTLDs and put them in a secret location! They’ll never find them now 🙂
How rude for them to take away what was legally mine or was it?
Are we just leasing this (domain) space and don’t have any rights on the property we paid good money for?
Have we built a house on what we find out later on to be the landlords land and now he has decided to evict us and give it to someone whose surname is the same as the street name? Would that be considered criminal action or worse an act of terror?
Who are these people that have been brought up to be so disrespectful….well we all make mistakes, but to dishonour an arrangement that was valid 2 weeks ago, not good. Curious to know what would’ve happened if I had of sold ECO.SHOES in the meantime, would ICANN compensate the new owner, to the amount they paid?
John what happened to all these “eco” and “00” registrants is terrible and I am afraid this will happen again.
ICANN doesn’t care what happens with all this. They only get paid…
Registrants have never had any control over ICANN. Registrants pay the tax but have no representation. ICANN has no direct contract with us. We tried to get Registrants a voice in ICANN back in ’99 but the IP constituency (who already had a voice) shut it down real quick.
ICANN spends the most money and takes the most care to ensure contracts and systems are designed to ensure we have no power. They have no contract with UDRP providers – so if we get screwed ICANN can only shrug it’s shoulders and fein empathy.
We are the minions. The arrow fodder. The disenfranchised.
Drew, you are absolutely right.
I liked your last word so much that I checked who owns disenfranchised.com and it is no other than Shane Cultra!
Don’t you think that Frank has a voice and uses it at ICANN. He is as big a registrant as they come.
I have created a page regarding the story of Eco.Gallery as well as other eco.*** domains:
http://www.cool.ventures/ecogallery.html
Oh yes, and please be sure to cast your vote on that page… two simple polls. Thanks.
I have had this happen a couple of times believing that I had registered names and having my money collected.
I would think from a registry standpoint, eco would be a key word to reserve. If I were a registry, I would do so.