The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse ("CADNA") is a 501(c)(6) non-profit association dedicated to ending the systemic domain name abuses that plague the Internet today.

For nearly a decade, the issue of cybersquatting has been at the center of Internet governance debates in policy and business communities. Cybersquatting has cemented itself in the lexicon; it has garnered international attention, and has been the subject of legislation in the United States. Unfortunately, cybersquatters are nimble and new avenues for domain name abuse are continually arising.

Cybersquatting is defined by CADNA as the bad-faith registration of a domain name that includes or is confusingly similar to someone else’s trademark.

CADNA is made up of many leading edge adopters and generators of new Internet best practices, and as such this organization knows the value of direct navigation practices and the importance of direct search to making the Internet more navigable and rewarding to worldwide web users.

Many of the legal practices of Domainers that deliver relevant content to direct navigators are not to be discouraged, but celebrated. And as such, the object of CADNA is cybersquatting, not domaining.

Recently, cybersquatting opportunists have employed two tactics called domain name tasting and domain name kiting as new means to the same abusive ends. Domain name tasting and kiting are deliberate exploitations of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) 5-day Add Grace Period (AGP). This provision was intended to protect registrars from instances in which a registrant mistakenly registered a name he or she did not wish to keep or pay for. It was also meant to protect registrars when credit card transaction processors refused payment following notification of a lost or stolen credit card (a credit card charge back).

Despite its original intentions, the AGP affords cybersquatters the means to “taste” domain names by registering millions of names and examining the popularity of each within the 5-day window. This test period allows cybersquatters to pay only for the names that provide a satisfactory return on investment and return those that do not, free of charge. The AGP could also be used to “kite” domain names, essentially keeping a name for no cost by perpetually registering, dropping and reregistering a name.

Since brand-rooted domains attract Internet traffic, the majority of domain names kept by cybersquatters are then used to post pay-per-click (PPC) advertisement links in order to easily monetize visitor traffic. Internet users who visit these sites find posted lists of “sponsored links” to sites that may be relevant to the industries of the brands infringed. If users click the links that correspond to the intended brands, those brand owners may be charged click fees by search engines that share the proceeds with the domain name registrants.

These fees add up. When used in conjunction with cybersquatted domains, PPC sites are among the worst kinds of infringement on the Internet today because they divert traffic likely intended for a brand owner’s site and often monetize this traffic at the direct expense of the brand owner. Consequently, tasting and kiting have proven extremely costly and disruptive to brand owners. However, they have garnered relatively little attention in the national media and have not been formally addressed by the United States Congress, the Department of Commerce, or ICANN.

Internet users are increasingly practicing direct navigation, where a user types the Web address directly into the Web browser address bar instead of using a search engine. Some estimate that nearly 70% of Internet users regularly practice direct navigation. The prevalence of direct navigation and the increased usage of mobile Web devices that are prone to user typo errors increase the number of opportunities for cybersquatters practicing typosquatting to profit from traffic diversion.

Today, approximately 30-32 million domain names are actively involved in AGP schemes or have been registered after being identified using this tactic. Approximately 2 million additional new names are being tasted every day. The volume of names, the rapid turnover inherent in these practices and the lack of sufficient preventative legislation, make it nearly impossible for trademark owners to adequately police infringements and protect their customers and themselves. This, in turn, compromises the security and value of doing business on the Internet.

The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA) is a registered 501(c)(6) non-profit organization. Its objective is to facilitate dialogue, affect change, and spur action on the part of policymakers to address the gaps in both the law and ICANN policies that enable massive domain name abuse and consumer frauds. In doing so, CADNA seeks to decrease occurrences of cybersquatting in all of its forms by requesting anti-cybersquatting legislation updates and ICANN policy reforms.

With pro-abuse groups already organized in Washington and the recent election of new leadership in both houses of Congress, the time to act is now.

CADNA will work to educate the public, lobby the relevant agencies of jurisdiction in the United States government, and actively communicate with members of Congress. Through these activities CADNA aims to effectively exert pressure on ICANN, propose draft legislation to increase the statutory damages set forth in the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) to take decisive action on abuses by domain name registrars and registrants, and work with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to introduce an international anti-cybersquatting treaty.

Together cybersquatting and tasting have cost brand owners billions. They cause incalculable harm to consumers through the practices they enable such as phishing, deposit of spyware, and peddling of counterfeit goods. So what is being done to stop tasting and to slow the growth of cybersquatting? At this point, not a great deal.

To date, ICANN has not taken action to eliminate the exploitation of the grace period and it has not protected the interests of trademark owners and consumers. Furthermore, lawmakers have overlooked their oversight responsibilities pertaining to the link between cybersquatting and other Internet crimes such as spam, spyware, and phishing and have done little to curb brand abuses in all forms on the Internet, thereby failing to protect both consumers and the intellectual property community.

However, there is hope on the horizon. Several leading brand owners have united to raise the level of awareness about these problems. The work of these brand owners on behalf of CADNA has effectively spread the belief that collective action is required throughout the business community.

Given new congressional leadership and recent high profile lawsuits against cybersquatters, CADNA’s members believe that the time to act is now. Join us in educating the public and policy makers, and proposing practical solutions to Congress in order to make the Internet a better, safer place for consumers and businesses alike.

© 2008 The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse. All rights reserved.