Ron Paul Calls on United Nations to Confiscate Domain Names of His Supporters

Link

So a guy who made his political career advocating against state intervention is using the power of the state to get domain names. I know there is a lot of Ron Paul love on ATS but this is absurd and very contradictory to Paul's principals.

I tried explaining last year that the man has been a politician for too long. For every bit of cronyism and corruption he points out, he's guilty of 5.

Hopefully those who were duped by Ron don't get completely jaded. There's another election right around the corner.

Since when does WIPO or the UN have anything to do with the "confiscation" of domain names?

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, with a further office in Singapore, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center was established in 1994 to offer Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) options, in particular arbitration and mediation, for the resolution of international commercial disputes between private parties. Developed by leading experts in cross-border dispute settlement, the procedures offered by the Center are widely recognized as particularly appropriate for technology, entertainment and other disputes involving intellectual property.

www.wipo.int...

Sounds like whiners at work.

reply to post by FSBlueApocalypse


Have you read his complaint? I haven't yet, but this is definitely fishy.

Well, it *was* fun for a while.
Ya know, that illusion that maybe a couple politicians weren't the natural enemy of the people...

reply to post by FSBlueApocalypse


He has a right to not want rogue sites named Ron Paul but going to the UN? wtf?
Why dont he just go through the US court system?
I remember back in the .com days of the 90s, people would "cyber squat" on domain names of large corporations, then try to basically black mail them hundreds of thousands of dollars to turn it over to them.
They took it to the courts and the corporations won, of course.

There's a comment at the bottom of the page that sums up how I feel about all of this

Overall, I think the domain owners have the right to keep the domain.

At the same time, there’s no way they’re real Ron Paul supporters if they wouldn’t give the man himself a simple domain name.

I mean really? It’s obvious you’re making money off of this site; being the most common name (I want Ron Paul, let’s try RonPaul.com!), you clearly get traffic just because of the domain. Judging by how hard you’re holding onto this domain; I’d say it’s the ONLY thing that brings people to your site. IF the quality was what was bringing people in, then changing the domain wouldn’t hurt you at all. But it’s not. You get visitors just because of the name.

Bottom line; the domain owners don’t want to give up the income associated with the domain. Technically, they shouldn’t have to; but if you have any bit of decency and respect for all Dr. Paul did for 30 years, it’d be nice to give him his own name for a domain name.

Also, they're still selling merchandise with his name plastered on everything.. That's like starting your own Adidas.org website and xeroxing 3 stripes onto everything you sell.

Originally posted by Phage
Since when does WIPO or the UN have anything to do with the "confiscation" of domain names?

Based in Geneva, Switzerland, with a further office in Singapore, the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center was established in 1994 to offer Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) options, in particular arbitration and mediation, for the resolution of international commercial disputes between private parties. Developed by leading experts in cross-border dispute settlement, the procedures offered by the Center are widely recognized as particularly appropriate for technology, entertainment and other disputes involving intellectual property.

www.wipo.int...

Sounds like whiners at work.

Not to pick on you, but "disputes involving intellectual property" describes this case.

From your link: Domain Name Dispute Resolution

I'd start with those links.

It sounds like he just wants to own a website that is his name so he isn't misrepresented. He likely went to this organization because the person that owns the domain isn't American.

That's what I am seeing. Not really as big a deal as people are making it out to be. I don't think it hypocritical or contradictory to his announced ethics at all.

That said.. what does it really matter? I don't think he's running again, and I voted for Johnson. I plan to vote for and support Johnson again. My only real problem with Paul ever (besides differing on a few platforms) was that he didn't support Johnson for president.

What I find interesting is that Paul's staffers were alerted to the fact RonPaul.com wasn't registered early into his 2008 campaign and that they didn't take action. So a Paul supporter buys the site and uses it as a platform to champion Paul's cause. Now Paul wants to cry foul after his own campaign bungled the issue in the first place? If Paul was really concerned about his "trade mark" than why didn't he try to get the side during his campaign?

I'll admit I was a little boggled by the whole darn thing.

According to the ronpaul.com website, the owners who spent many years of their own time and money developing the site, offered to sell the site AND the 170,000 person mailing list to Ron Paul.

Here's what's the site owners wrote:

Our offer went on to explain that in case Ron Paul insisted on obtaining RonPaul.com, we would prepare a complete liberty package consisting of RonPaul.com and our 170k mailing list.

The value we put on the deal was $250k; we are getting our mailing list appraised right now but we are confident it is easily worth more than $250k all by itself. Claims that we tried to sell Ron Paul “his name” for $250k or even $800k are completely untrue, and there is little doubt that our mailing list would have enabled Ron Paul to raise several million dollars for the liberty movement this year. It would have been a win/win/win situation for everyone involved.
www.ronpaul.com...

Their poll shows a mixed reaction, with at least 28% saying that Ron Paul is apparently not aware of the action that's taken in his name.

The Daily Paul's take on it is here:

From what I've heard a Ron Paul TV show and/or a Ron Paul TV Channel (The Liberty Network) are in the works. This could be the reason for any action taken regarding domain names. Of coarse, the show(s) and TV channel will be all about LIBERTY & FREEDOM, government tyranny, American political history, Bill of Rights, Constitution, and exposing government corruption and incompetence.

As you can see, if that is indeed the case, TPTB would do anything to stop such broadcasts, etc. Maybe even purchase Ron Paul domain names to keep anyone else from using them. TV execs may be trying to aquire these domains and aren't wanting to shell out big bucks if they don't have to. I suspect that's what's going on here.

Ron Paul helped to start waking a lot of sheeple up during the 2008 election. TPTB want him to disappear but Dr. Paul isn't finished fighting for American liberty just yet.

Originally posted by Juggernog
reply to post by FSBlueApocalypse

 

He has a right to not want rogue sites named Ron Paul but going to the UN? wtf?
Why dont he just go through the US court system?
I remember back in the .com days of the 90s, people would "cyber squat" on domain names of large corporations, then try to basically black mail them hundreds of thousands of dollars to turn it over to them.
They took it to the courts and the corporations won, of course.

Except for the dude who owns Nissan.com. From his cold dead hands!