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blastfromthepast
23rd November 2010, 04:59 AM
Coordination center for .РФ cancels auctions.

http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article/250238/rf_pod_zamok

alpha
23rd November 2010, 05:04 AM
it's turning into a shit-storm

squirrel
23rd November 2010, 05:15 AM
can someone provide an accurate translation of the linked article's last paragraph.

jose
23rd November 2010, 05:16 AM
As expected.

blastfromthepast
23rd November 2010, 05:18 AM
can someone provide an accurate translation of the linked article's last paragraph.

Here you go:

Если Ru-Center не вернет домены первым заявителям и не откажется от аукционов, то КЦ заморозит их использование, говорит Колесников. Воробьев из Ru-Center считает, что это равносильно передаче доменов киберсквоттерам, так как именно их заявки были первыми. Избежать конфликта можно было бы, если бы КЦ провел «голландский аукцион» (с понижением стоимости), считает Воробьев: это единственный способ отпугнуть киберсквоттеров, которые не будут предлагать за домен по миллиону рублей и больше, иначе потом не смогут заработать на перепродаже. Но КЦ отказался от голландского аукциона из-за возражений ФАС: стартовая цена в 10 000 руб. показалась ведомству завышенной. При запуске домена .tel Ru-Center тоже собирала заявки, проводила закрытый аукцион — и никаких жалоб не было, говорит Воробьев. Но не было и такого ажиотажа, как в случае с «.рф», замечает менеджер другого крупного регистратора.

If Ru-Center does not return the domains to the first requesters and does not refrain from holding auctions, the the Coordination Center will lock them up and prevent them from being used, said Kolesnikov. Vorobyev of Ru-Center said that this is the equivallent of transfering the domains themselves to cybersquatters, because it is them who put forth the first requests. To avoid a row, the Coordination Center could have held a "Dutch auction" (with descending prices), says Vorobyev: this would have been the only way to scare off cybersquatters, who wouldn't offer for a domain more than a million rubles or more or they wouldn't be able to make a profit from the resale of these names. But the Coordination Center turned down the idea of holding a Dutch auction because the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service objected: the starting price of 10 000 rubles seemed to them to be too high. When the domain .tel was launched, Ru-Center also took bids, and held closed auctions, but there were no complaints, says Vorobyev. But there wasn't the same hype, as in the case of .рф, says the manager of another large registrar.

squirrel
23rd November 2010, 05:22 AM
Если Ru-Center не вернет домены первым заявителям и не откажется от аукционов, то КЦ заморозит их использование, говорит Колесников.

If RU-Center does not return the domains to the first requesters and does not refrain from holding auctions, the the Coordination Center will lock them up and prevent them from being used, said Kolesnikov.

how stupid is that.

It's as if CC doesn't want anybody, registrar or registrant, to make money out of this. WTF

DktoInc
23rd November 2010, 05:25 AM
I have a feeling that this is only the beginning.

squirrel
23rd November 2010, 05:38 AM
thanks blast

o.c.
23rd November 2010, 06:25 AM
I was expecting to see a lot of angry people but I was not expecting them to be successful. This is getting interesting by the minute.

Meanwhile the article still sounds to me like "we'll look into it". There is no legal authority yet to stop the auctions. Maybe after the fact. Am I reading it wrong? The funny thing is there are a few hours left and the bidding is still going on at this very moment.

DktoInc
23rd November 2010, 06:28 AM
Now is a good time to take your money back or whats left of it with the registrars and run.

sbe18
23rd November 2010, 07:59 AM
this is like shooting all the horses at the final turn, and making the jockeys sprint for the tape...

wow...what a clusterf$$k.

o.c.
23rd November 2010, 10:57 AM
And now you can't login to nic.ru at all in these last minutes for some domains. I don't know if it is a way of saying they stopped the auction or if it means they can't handle the traffic. What a mess.

abe
23rd November 2010, 12:49 PM
I don't know if this is according to the rules but some auctions that were scheduled to close today, and had people bidding on them got extended to tomorrow. In addition some auctions that had no live bidders also got extended.

Rick did say something about 3rd world...

bwhhisc
23rd November 2010, 12:58 PM
This will only serve to increase the value of cryllic idn.com.

Avtal
23rd November 2010, 02:10 PM
this is like shooting all the horses at the final turn, and making the jockeys sprint for the tape... :)

We will see. Kolesnikov (head of the Coordination Center) doesn't always have the final word. He tried to prevent the registration of секс .рф (sex .rf), by changing the deadline by which trademarks had to be registered, but was overruled.

There is a lot of money at stake. If individual domainers get their hands on the high-value domains for reg fee, the profits are spread among all those forturnate individuals. On the other hand, if the domains sell at auction, the profits accrue to the registrars, forming a nice pot of money, all in one place. Some might consider this more convenient.

Avtal

TrafficDomainer
23rd November 2010, 03:36 PM
This is greed to the extreme. It looks like people at the very top saw that they could make money more than what they thought and pull the plug to take it all at the expense of people already lured into the game.

Like Bill said this will help reinforce the stability of idn.com among Russians. We should have seen this coming. If they could screw the registrants of idn.ru by not giving them the idn.idn version like what China and many other countries have done (which I believe is the right thing to do), they have loyalty to no one and are not concerned about any rule or credibility.

jose
23rd November 2010, 04:10 PM
This is greed to the extreme. It looks like people at the very top saw that they could make money more than what they thought and pull the plug to take it all at the expense of people already lured into the game.

Like Bill said this will help reinforce the stability of idn.com among Russians. We should have seen this coming. If they could screw the registrants of idn.ru by not giving them the idn.idn version like what China and many other countries have done (which I believe is the right thing to do), they have loyalty to no one and are not concerned about any rule or credibility.

I AGREE 100%! Exactly what I was going to post! :)

blastfromthepast
23rd November 2010, 11:49 PM
«Как мы будем поступать с регистраторами-нарушителями – дело десятое, это наши внутренние дела и они происходят в рамках установленных отношений, конечный пользователь здесь ни при чем. А вот если по решению ФАСа или судов регистрация этих сотен тысяч доменов будет отменена – ситуация может сложиться катастрофическая. И мы делаем все, чтобы этого не допустить», – подчеркнул Андрей Колесников. И добавил, что если признаков нарушения в действиях регистраторов не будет найдено, то действия с аукционными доменами могут быть восстановлены.

"How we are going to deal with registrars that didn't follow the rules, that is the least of our concerns, this is an internal matter, and is dealt with based on established relationships, in any case, the end user is not concerned with this. But if based on the decision of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service or the courts the registration of hundreds of thousands of domains will be canceled, the situation may become catastrophic. And we are doing everything we can, to prevent this." said Andrey Kolesnikov. He added that if no violations on the part of registrars will be found, then the domain auctions could resume.

http://cctld.ru/ru/press_center/news/news_detail.php?ID=1092

sbe18
24th November 2010, 03:58 AM
what a mess.
registrars hording names, and reports of registrars falsifying date stamps so they can go in front of a buyer , plus final 1-2 minute page freezes on auction pages.

they should have contracted this whole thing to Sedo or GoDaddy.....

if you are competing with the registrar you're using, how is there any hope of a fair process for customer service on separate issues, if they screwed you on a name....

Drewbert
24th November 2010, 04:14 AM
SEDO?

They were "in on it" for the .de numeric drop.

If they'd got involved in .РФ it wouldn't have been to make friends with registrants!

sarcle
24th November 2010, 05:36 AM
what a mess.
registrars hording names, and reports of registrars falsifying date stamps so they can go in front of a buyer , plus final 1-2 minute page freezes on auction pages.

they should have contracted this whole thing to Sedo or GoDaddy.....

if you are competing with the registrar you're using, how is there any hope of a fair process for customer service on separate issues, if they screwed you on a name....

The question now is, "What do they do?"

A restart? Looks like someone came up with some realllllly loooose loopholes in this whole .rf landrush.

Corruption and greed make for a good drama though.

bwhhisc
24th November 2010, 10:31 AM
The question now is, "What do they do?" A restart? Looks like someone came up with some realllllly loooose loopholes in this whole .rf landrush.
Corruption and greed make for a good drama though.

What is the basic problem? Are the registrars trying to register bulk names for themselves under aliases? I saw the word "cybersquatter" in one posting.

Rubber Duck
24th November 2010, 01:09 PM
What is the basic problem? Are the registrars trying to register bulk names for themselves under aliases? I saw the word "cybersquatter" in one posting.

The problem is that they are not Dot Kom. :lol:

Love the publicity though. Soon everyone will know what an IDN is even if they don't know that is what it is called.

Avtal
24th November 2010, 02:22 PM
What is the basic problem? Are the registrars trying to register bulk names for themselves under aliases? I saw the word "cybersquatter" in one posting.

The basic problem is that if a registrar received more than one pre-order for a name, the registrar registered that name for its own account, and put the name on auction. If several registrars received pre-orders, they would compete with each other to grab the name (except that the biggest registrar, RU-CENTER, made agreements with several smaller registrars to work together), and whoever grabbed it would put it on auction.

The Coordination Center intended that each name should go to whomever placed the first pre-order, for the standard reg fee. The registrars say that this would play into the hands of "cybersquatters" (a term used loosely), and that an auction would be fairer. That it would also be more profitable has not gone unnoticed.

Latest developments (unless they have already been superseded):

According to this article (http://rian.ru/technology/20101124/300385399.html), the Coordination Center has ordered that all domains being auctioned by RU-CENTER be frozen, meaning that they can't be transferred to registrants, or delegated. RU-CENTER is promising lawsuits.

According to this article (http://www.rian.ru/technology/20101124/300311753.html), for the auctions that have been completed, the average selling price has been about 3,100 rubles (about 100 dollars). The highest price for a domain that has been sold at auction (meaning the winner has already paid) is more than $30,000 for лото.рф (lotto). Domains for which the sale fell through (the winner refused to pay) include: офис.рф (office), золото.рф (gold), игры.рф (games), максим.рф (?), полиграфия.рф (polygraph), машина.рф (machine/car). By the way, the whois (http://cctld.ru/ru/domains/domens_ru/whois.php?domain=%EB%EE%F2%EE.%F0%F4&action=yes&submit=%CF%F0%EE%E2%E5%F0%E8%F2%FC) for лото.рф shows it to still be in the hands of RU-CENTER, and not yet delegated.

Stay tuned.

Avtal

Rubber Duck
24th November 2010, 02:54 PM
Isn't it still a little early to determine who has refused to pay?

And would you pay up whilst the arguments are still on going?

It seems only fair to registrants that they can defer payment until the legalisty of the process has been established.

Furthermore, there is the issue of what effect the intervention will have had on the Auctions themselves if they prove to be legitimate. Perhaps in fairness to all they should be re-run?

The basic problem is that if a registrar received more than one pre-order for a name, the registrar registered that name for its own account, and put the name on auction. If several registrars received pre-orders, they would compete with each other to grab the name (except that the biggest registrar, RU-CENTER, made agreements with several smaller registrars to work together), and whoever grabbed it would put it on auction.

The Coordination Center intended that each name should go to whomever placed the first pre-order, for the standard reg fee. The registrars say that this would play into the hands of "cybersquatters" (a term used loosely), and that an auction would be fairer. That it would also be more profitable has not gone unnoticed.

Latest developments (unless they have already been superseded):

According to this article (http://rian.ru/technology/20101124/300385399.html), the Coordination Center has ordered that all domains being auctioned by RU-CENTER be frozen, meaning that they can't be transferred to registrants, or delegated. RU-CENTER is promising lawsuits.

According to this article (http://www.rian.ru/technology/20101124/300311753.html), for the auctions that have been completed, the average selling price has been about 3,100 rubles (about 100 dollars). The highest price for a domain that has been sold at auction (meaning the winner has already paid) is more than $30,000 for лото.рф (lotto). Domains for which the sale fell through (the winner refused to pay) include: офис.рф (office), золото.рф (gold), игры.рф (games), максим.рф (?), полиграфия.рф (polygraph), машина.рф (machine/car). By the way, the whois (http://cctld.ru/ru/domains/domens_ru/whois.php?domain=%EB%EE%F2%EE.%F0%F4&action=yes&submit=%CF%F0%EE%E2%E5%F0%E8%F2%FC) for лото.рф shows it to still be in the hands of RU-CENTER, and not yet delegated.

Stay tuned.

Avtal

sbe18
24th November 2010, 08:01 PM
OK, I wasn't really that serious about having Sedo or GoDaddy run the process....
but ...at least the pages don't freeze in the last 2 minutes.....

this is like Ebay in 1997, before the script hacks wrote auto-bid routines for last minute $1 bid increments to get a tea set for granny.


I have no idea if they will sort this out, by disciplining the RU registrar that seemed to have grabbed 40% of auctions for itself, or to run its own auctions secondarily.

I wonder if ICANN is watching this, and will have significant hesitations of the registrar/ registry unification plan they just finished.


another note is that the CNNIC people must be having a laugh at the dot PO struggles.
like the 1 yuan plan from 3 years ago...

they might email the dot PO staff a 1 ruble game plan to try, then tax the shit of the resales or auctions in the secondary pass off , when the whois changes.

bwhhisc
24th November 2010, 11:48 PM
OK, I wasn't really that serious about having Sedo or GoDaddy run the process....but ...at least the pages don't freeze in the last 2 minutes.....

They should have let the Germans, Americans, Brits or any of the "prior" successful .cctld groups help manage the rollout and auction. Even the .co team could have probably helped them with a solid plan.

IMO their 'sunrise' marketing sucked in terms of having big international exposure if they indeed wanted foreigners to have a chance to bid and legitimately owni names. It seems the Russians only signed up one US registrar then all that seemed fairly last minute.

I still think .РФ will be a stunning success....even in the nearterm. Maybe this whole mess is just status quo for the bureaucrats.

sarcle
25th November 2010, 01:59 AM
They should have let the Germans, Americans, Brits or any of the "prior" successful .cctld groups help manage the rollout and auction. Even the .co team could have probably helped them with a solid plan.


But they are Russian. Everyone else is just everyone else. :D


I still think .РФ will be a stunning success....even in the nearterm.

Agreed. This has nothing to do with IDN success or failure; whether a native will use their own language or not. It's inevitable.

Frankly, I wouldn't have expected anything else from this launch. This is big, not just some "tld" launch, and everyone knows it; or at least the smart ones do. There is a lot of money to be made. This will redefine Internet advertising and commerce and everyone "in the know" will do anything they can to get the name they want.

bwhhisc
25th November 2010, 01:16 PM
Frankly, I wouldn't have expected anything else from this launch. This is big, not just some "tld" launch, and everyone knows it; or at least the smart ones do. There is a lot of money to be made. This will redefine Internet advertising and commerce and everyone "in the know" will do anything they can to get the name they want.

Many unpaid names....they should check the local lockups for the missing bidders. :p