Why ICANN gets captured by Special Interests

Now, this is a great example of how the whole ICANN process has been captured by poeple who have only their own interests in mind.

Michael Mann owns grassroots.org, but ALSO owns buy domains. He is in the domain name speculation business. He registers some dot org domains then sells them at a profit to charities that need them. Granted, he also gives the use of some of them away on his hosting to organizations. However, his business is buying and selling domain names.



Now The Public Interest Registry (PIR) the registry service provider for .org domains, today announced the appointment of seven new Worldwide Advisory Council members and a new representative from the ICANN Non-Commercial Users Constituency (NCUC) to fill expiring term open seats.

Michal Mann is filling one of those seats. Funny how they announce that. "Michael Mann of Grassroots.org", not "Michael Mann of BuyDomains.com."

The Rest of The Story

Registrant:
BuyDomains Holdings, Inc.
7831 Woodmont Ave Ste 347
Bethesda, MD 20814-3007
US

Domain Name: BUYDOMAINS.COM

Registrant Name Michael Mann
Registrant Street1 7831 Woodmont Ave Ste 338
Registrant City Bethesda
Registrant State/Province MD
Registrant Postal Code 20814-3007
Registrant Country US
Registrant Phone +1.2404657100
Registrant FAX +1.2404657100
Registrant Email ndomains@grassroots.org

It's not illegal to buy and sell domain names. But for the PIR to make it look like they put him on there because he is so charitable and has only pure motives is a joke. Again, if they had said Michael Mann of BuyDomains.com it might have been a tad more honest and upfront. But that isn't something the PIR or ICANN does often anyway. Transparency isn't their strong suit.

More things that just piss me off