Re: .edu.com domain

["Sadler, Connie" <Connie_Sadler () BROWN EDU>]

I received the same form letter yesterday - over a week after they
removed Brown. I made one phone call and sent one email request. I
believe they are answering a lot of phone calls, receiving a lot of
email requests and now sending out a lot of these form letters. Isn't
there a simpler way to take care of this?

Connie J. Sadler, CM, CISSP, CISM, GIAC GSLC
Director, IT Security, Brown University
Box 1885, Providence, RI 02912
Office: 401-863-7266



-----Original Message-----
From: David Etherton [mailto:de2141 () COLUMBIA EDU] 
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 8:15 AM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] .edu.com domain

All,

It is interesting that this came to the list-serv attention so quickly.
We also requested cease and desist and got the same form letter as Mr.
Bruce from Simmons.

David Etherton
Associate Director, Client Services
Student Information Systems
Columbia University
201 Philosophy Hall
(office) 212-854-0651
  
-----Original Message-----
From: David Bruce [mailto:david.bruce () SIMMONS EDU]
Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 8:14 PM
To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
Subject: Re: [SECURITY] .edu.com domain

Form letter.  I didn't raise any of these points.  I just asked them to
take us off.

Anyway we're off now... their response:

Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Brad Lohan" <brad () vantagemedia com>
> Date: April 5, 2006 7:36:52 PM EDT
> To: <david.bruce () simmons edu>
> Cc: <mark () vantagemedia com>, <CVandenbosch () sheppardmullin com>,
> <LBraun () sheppardmullin com>
> Subject: Simmons.edu.com
>
> Dear Mr. Bruce:
>
> This responds to your letter of March 24, 2006.  Contrary to your 
> assertion, Vantage Media has not registered any domain name that 
> incorporates your school's trademark.  Rather, we own a registration 
> for the edu.com domain.  If an individual voluntarily enters your 
> school's name in connection with our edu.com domain name, that 
> individual may access a domain subdirectory that is in turn used to 
> forward a bona fide inquiry to the requested institution.  The 
> subdirectory does not constitute a separate domain name, and it is 
> therefore not assignable to your school.
>
> To be clear, Vantage Media has not registered your trademark in any 
> form, it does not prevent anyone from obtaining bona fide information 
> about your school, and it does not falsely represent to be affiliated 
> with your institution.
>
> For these reasons, we disagree with the points raised in your letter.

> However, in the interest of preserving Vantage Media's business 
> reputation, we have decided at this time to remove content from the 
> referenced subdirectory on our edu.com domain.  We trust that this 
> concludes the matter to your school's satisfaction.
>
> Sincerely,
> Brad Lohan
>
> Brad Lohan  |  Analyst
> p] 310.482.3737 | f] 310.943.1620
> e] brad () vantagemedia com


On Apr 5, 2006, at 7:58 PM, Dave Koontz wrote:

> Whoa, I just checked our domain on their site and it returns a 
> completely different school!  Our domain is mbc.edu - Mary Baldwin 
> College (http://www.mbc.edu), yet when I access http://mbc.edu.com it 
> returns "Morris Brown College" instead!  I wonder if Morris Brown paid

> these guys to get the mbc.edu.com address?  Should I turn this over to

> our legal team or contact this questionable company?  Any tips on how 
> I should proceed would be appreciated!
>
> PS:  I've also noticed a very high number of 'spam' emails to our 
> students from this organization over the last few weeks.
>
> ---
> Dave Koontz
> Associate Director CIS
> Mary Baldwin College
>
> Walter Bourne wrote:
> > It's possible to get 'off'.  Try
> > <http://msu.edu.com/>
> >
> > Our Admissions and Counsel are doing a cease-and-desist.
> >
> > ==Walter Bourne
> >   Columbia University
> >   IT Security & Policy
> >
> > --On Wednesday, April 05, 2006 15:55 -0500 Graham Toal 
> > <gtoal () utpa edu>
> > wrote:
> >
> > : > I do not know if they actually forward
> > : > the information, it appears the primary purpose is to harvest
> > : > information for marketing.
> > :
> > : More likely harvest leads to sell back to the Universities.
> > : And I would imagine if you don't advertise with them,
> > : some rival university will be prominent when someone
> > : stumbles on their site looking for you.
> > :
> > : Here's a good article on their business model:
> > :
> > : http://www.jayweintraub.com/2005/08/trends_report_a.html
> > :
> > : G

--
David Bruce                                          Phone: 617.521.2187
Director of Networks and Servers                     Fax:   617.521.3082
Simmons College, Technology
300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115-5898            david.bruce () simmons edu