discredit.org

The United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organisation ordered the owner of Facebook.ir to hand the domain over. The UN said they took these measures because the owner Majid Karimian Ghannad registered the domain name in “bad faith”. After being told to transfer the Iranian based domain over to Facebook, Mr. Ghannad tried to stall the process and said that he was using the domain name to sell a book. The UN completely rejected his statement.

The ironic thing about this entire situation is that the Iranian government has actually blocked access to the Facebook social networking website. Unless this changes in the near future, Facebook will not have the ability to be accessed directly by the Iranian people. To circumvent network filters, some Iranians are using proxy sites based outside of there local region.

In addition to this Facebook has deployed a Farsi version of its popular website. Some say that the new version of the site was rushed out to help the Iranians communicate better with others that speak there native tongue. Engineer, Eric Kwan who worked on the Persian version of Facebook confirmed “the site had been rushed out in the wake of the disputed Iranian elections.”

One of the legal powers that the United Nation’s World Intellectual Property Organisation has is the power to contest domain ownership. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers granted the organisation with this legal right.

As some of you may know, June 13th was the first day that Facebook allowed for users to register there own username. During this period of time I was able to register the username domaining. Apparently when I registered this name it sparked a bit of controversy marked by celebrations. Confusing statement, I know but it’s one that will be explained. When the Facebook interface said the userame domaining was available I instantly felt it was a term which could be beneficial to the domaining industry. My vision is to create a central meeting grounds for all domainers to be interlinked to one another on Facebook. So far the vision that I had is slowly becoming a reality. There are a number of domainers on my friends list, some which could be considered “GURUS” and others which have just started domaining. The only stipulation I have about adding new friends onto my page is that they are in fact a domainer of some sort or provide products / services which serve the domaining community.

On to the controversy! Some have said that Francois the owner of domaining.com might actully be a bit mad because I have taken his brand name. Here is a quote from the owner of thedomains.com:

“Jason, Don’t think Francois from domaining.com is going to be thrilled with that one”

Now I do understand that Francois might not be thrilled about me registering such a keyword, but in my opinion the word represents an extremely large industry which is still developing into one that is respected business wise. As domainers we understand that the domaining industry is capable of providing people with great investment opportunities that out perform the stock market and as a domainer I have taken it upon myself to help formulate this industry into one where the average end-user understands that a domain is not something you simply register, but should be looked upon as a potential investment. To explain this a little more, the websites that I develop which are geared towards domain “new comers” and “industry veterans” uses terminology which is normally understood by not only the domainers, but the people which we are trying to sell domains to. I am more concerned about exposing our industry to people which are outside of the domaining world, while still maintaining the circle of business associates which make this industry thrive. I truly do feel that this industry can sometimes be classified as being run by a select few. Another one of my goals is to spread the wealth, whether it be for the sake of knowledge or the sake of monetization. The domaining industry needs to empower all of those which partake in it. I could care less if you have made a substantial amount of money in this industry and have not taken the time to help a fellow domainer. I relate this to the great “Michael Jordan” and ask the question what he has done lately to help his fellow man?

Onwards, I was actually contacted by Francois on June 14th at 10:57AM on twitter.

“DomainingCom You got my facebook URL … Congrats, Francois”

Don’t take me wrong, I feel Francois has done a wonderful job for our community and has invested a great deal of time and effort into the development of both domaining.com and domainer.org, but I do have an opinion on the direct message from twitter that he sent to me. I didn’t take your Facebook URL, as these items were free to register and I deliberately registered the word domaining as my username because I have plans on developing it into a viable solution for domainers in the industry to network on Facebook. So if there is any misunderstanding out there, I hope this clarifies a bit of it as I was in no way even thinking about the “domaining.com” brand. Just to let people know, Francois is actually one of my friends on Facebook and I can honestly say he is a good guy with a passion to win. If you haven’t checked out his site, make sure to do so!

Now onto the celebration! Here are a few statements that I have compiled in response to me registering the domaining username:

Kevin Jackson of ebusinessdomains.com says “Nice catch Jason!”

Dominik Mueller of dmueller.com says “Way to go, Jason!”

There are a number of other comments that I definitely appreciate from my fellow domaining peers. Thanks to everyone that recognizes the fact that registering the keyword “domaining” is something that is important, especially since I am slowly building a central meeting place on Facebook for all domainers to network with one another. If you are on Facebook feel free to add me as a friend: www.facebook.com/domaining