Cincinnati Firm Combats Cybersquatting With Free Software Tool
Application Released On 25th-Year Milestone of Domain Name System
editspot LLC Releases Free Software To Help Protect Against Cybersquatting
For 25th-Year Milestone Of The Domain Name System
Cincinatti, OH- To celebrate the 25th-year milestone of the Domain Name
System, on June 23, 2008, Cincinnati-based editspot LLC is releasing a free
software tool that will allow safe WHOIS searches for international,
top-level domain names with the goal of decreasing domain tasting, front
running and cybersquatting.
The new software application -- hosted
at (http://www.liberatedomains.com/) -- is an open-source, verifiable tool
where people can go to safely research domain names without the fear of
unscrupulous domain registrars, domain tasters and cybersquatters snatching
them up and holding them hostage for a ransom or unreasonable fee. It's
being released today through a variety of tech channels such as a free
widget on Apple.com, and is written for both the Mac and Windows platforms.
The LiberateDomains.com Story Starts
In Cincinnati And Travels Through Nassau
Two years ago, editspot LLC Founder and CEO Ran Mullins encountered a
virtual identity theft scenario when a cybersquatter in Nassau grabbed a
domain name Mullins had conducted a WHOIS search for. The cybersquatter is
demanding a ransom of more than $23,000 for the domain name. This prompted
Troy Davis, chief technology officer at editspot, to proactively write the
software to take similar cybersquatters out of the ransom game. editspot
decided to release the tool it was utilizing in-house for free to celebrate
the 25th anniversary of DNS and to substantially decrease unscrupulous
business behavior on the Web. "We wanted to provide an easy-to-use,
straightforward tool that makes it safer for the average computer user to
find available domain names without the fear of cybersquatters," states
Mullins.
Domain Identity Theft
Rampant In The Virtual World
According to countless international reports, the crisis of cybersquatting,
domain tasting and front running is rampant -- in the virtual world it's
regarded as the equivalent of identity theft using insider information.
Domain tasting is defined by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN) as "the use of the Add Grace Period to test the
profitability of a domain name registration. The AGP is a five-day period
following the initial registration of a domain name when the registration
may be deleted and a credit can be issued to a registrar." According to a
study released earlier this year by ICANN, during January 2007, about 94
percent of domain names registered were in fact just being "tasted." Of the
51 million domains were registered, 48 million were deleted during the
five-day grace period.
ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee describes domain front
running as "the opportunity for a party with some form of insider
information to track an Internet user's preference for registering a domain
name and preemptively register that name. . .In the domain name industry,
insider information would be information gathered from the monitoring of
one or more attempts by an Internet user to check the availability of a
domain name."
According to ICANN, the January 2007 monthly report for .COM and .NET Web
sites showed that the top 10 registrars engaged in domain tasting accounted
for 95 percent of all deleted .COM and .NET domain names during that month.
The top four registrars engaged in tasting deleted 35,357,564 domain names,
or 74 percent of all deletes.
A David-vs.-Goliath Story: Small Cincinnati Firm Levels Playing Field With
Greedy Cybersquatters
To celebrate the 25th year of DNS, editspot LLC, a 9-employee company in
Cincinnati's historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, is releasing
LiberateDomains.com for free beginning today. LiberateDomains.com allows
anyone -- students, moms, educators, start-up companies, non-profit
organizations, mega-corporations and the general public -- to research new
domain names while virtually eliminating the possibility
of unscrupulous registrars and cybersquatters snatching them up and holding
them for ransom. According to editspot executives, the tool makes it
virtually impossible for unscrupulous registrars and cybersquatters to
"see" domain name searches conducted on LiberateDomains.com.
Nation's Top Freerunner Helps
Puts An End To Domain Front Running
editspot LLC has secured Gabe Nunez, freerunning star of the newly released
3 Doors Down video, "It's Not My Time," to visit Cincinnati June 23 to make
public and media appearances. The 3 Doors Down video starring Nunez -- shot
entirely in Cincinnati -- has been ranked at or near the top of the highly
popular "VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown" the past month. The video has been
viewed more than 1.5 million times on YouTube.com in just the past month.
About editspot LLC
editspot is a leading provider of online content management (CMS) solutions
that help organizations easily add, edit, delete and sort content on their
Web sites. Designed to give average computer users the power to control
their Web sites, editspot makes tasks once reserved for Webmasters,
document layout specialists, programmers and graphic designers easily
implemented by a typical computer user. editspot puts the geek back into
the closet.
