Just another quick reminder about our upcoming meeting tomorrow night
(Tuesday, November 11th).

I hope to see you there.

JZ


>>>>>
The Tuesday, November 11th meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet
Users Group (RMIUG) will discuss "Securing and Abusing Internet
Domains: Can JoeThePlumber.com Catch a Break?"

Domains, the hierarchical names given to web servers, are the core of
finding things online. And being found is worth a lot in the online
world. But, like anything nice in the world, this wonderful
technological tool comes at a price.

Think about it: What if you typed in http://www.ford.com to get
information about Ford Motor company's new Flex crossover only to get
its arch-rival GM's website? Ford, with the billions it spends on its
trademark and brand, would be very upset (to say the least). An
organization's domain is the atomic level of finding it online.
Messing with that in the digital age is the equivalent of war.

But these days, the "domain exploitation" industry, companies that pay
the minimal $6 or $7 to reserve domains in anticipation of charging a
premium for future demand, and other ruses, has made securing domains
expensive or near impossible, and the abuse of those with legitimate
Intellectual Property rights has become well known. Companies such as
DarkBlueSea, a publicly traded company, owns over 550,000 domains in
its portfolio and makes money on selling them at a significant
premium. These companies actively and algorithmically, scour the
Internet for trends and buy up domains ahead of the demand. So, when
you finally decide on the domain you need, it's no longer available or
expensive.

Complicating the situation is when the registrars, the places where
you register your domain name, start to get in the squatting act.
Recently, Network Solutions, the largest Domain registrar, allegedly
would hold, for itself, a domain that it believed someone was
interested in, based on observation of search behavior. During that
period of time, if the person went back to purchase domain, Network
Solutions was accused of upping the price on the domain!

If the Internet is supposed to be the great leveler in the business
world, are these trends worrisome? How is the law helping or
hindering the problem? Is there a way for JoeThePlumber.com to catch
a break?

During the next meeting, we will bring in a guest speaker to discuss
this fascinating topic:
David Schachter (dschachter@...) is an Intellectual
Property attorney at Sherman & Howard L.L.C., a 160-person firm based
in Denver. David's expertise is in all forms of licensing, sale,
protection and commercialization of intellectual property and
technology development. David is a member of the Computer Law
Association, the Copyright Society, and serves on the Executive
Committee of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation. David
also writes the "Legal Bytes" column for the Denver Business Journal.
He is listed as one of the Best Lawyers in America for Intellectual
Property.

Links:
Sherman & Howard: http://www.shermanhoward.com
Denver Business Journal: http://denver.bizjournals.com/denver/

The meeting is Tuesday, November 11th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (with
optional 6:30 pm start for refreshments and informal networking). The
meeting will be held at The National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR) at 1850 Table Mesa Drive in Boulder. To get to NCAR from the
Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US 93), take Table Mesa Drive
west towards the mountains for approximately 2.5 miles into the
foothills. NCAR is at the top of the hill. For door-to-door driving
directions, go to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/), click on
Driving Directions, enter your starting address, NCAR's address, and
voila! Park in the NCAR lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to
point you to meeting, which is held in the main auditorium, right off
the lobby. The meeting is free and open to the public, but we may pass
the hat to help defray expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is usually enough
room to accommodate all attendees, but it's impossible for us to
predict how many people will show up for any given meeting. Seating is
always on a first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of more
attendees than seats, we won't be able to admit additional people into
the auditorium after all seats are filled.

Thanks to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG meetings happen:
---------------------------------------------------------------
MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides Creative and Technical
talent for Web, Interactive Media, Marketing Communications and
Software Development projects, is the sponsor of food and beverages
for RMIUG meetings.
ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based software company
that provides semi-custom web-based applications, sponsors the RMIUG
meeting minutes.
Copy Diva (http://www.copydiva.com) which provides marketing project
management, marketing communications consulting, and web content
development is the AV sponsor for RMIUG.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring Internet-related
Product information, brochures, and business cards which will be
displayed on an information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html. You can also
reach the RMIUG "Executive" Committee at rmiug-comm@.... Our web
site is at http://www.rmiug.org/

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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are their guests. NCAR
has security regulations in effect that we must follow in order to use
the facility. If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these
simple regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and instead
read the minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be followed:

1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy are expected when
dealing with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this policy, please
contact me directly.
Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).
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