.UK Announced

MP meeting

My MP beleives that something is happening at the offices of Ed (Edward) Vaizey at the department of Culture, Communications and Creative Industries and they are looking into the matter.

She also stated that there could be questions raised in the Houses of Parliament next Thursday (does anybody know how to check if questions have been tabled?) about Nominet and .uk.

She also agreed to liaise with Stephen MacPartland MP (Stevenage- Conservative) on the matter of Nominet and .uk.

It was a constructive meeting and a lot of the points, I believe she took on board and was genuinley concerned about the situation. Especially that their is no government oversight and yet if things go wrong, it is the government that will get the blame!

I reminded her that there is not long before the Board meeting on the 26th February when the decision on .uk will be made. Although if Nominet have not taken the opposing views into account, it will be fought, it will have more negative ramifications then to sort out the issues.

 

My MP said that similar concerns were also growing. I think that the one sided versions of events being given to Ministers are no longer carrying the weight they once did.

Things like the Barristers report are worth so much as the Ms Cowley can't spin that as someone who holds domain names. They are also aware of other complaints I have made. My MP is the shadow to Ed Vaziey and a cracking guy too. It is important and great that this is not a party political subject and MP's from all parties are helping out.

 

Another thing to think about and make the government aware of, is the fact that its not really Domainers that are going to lose out if this went forward. Domainers are mainly the only people that are currently aware of the proposals, and many domainers would actually gain if the proposal went ahead, as they have their own tags and can automatically register the best domain names.

The main people that are going to lose out are businesses, both small, medium and large businesses, and these are the people that are currently unaware of the proposals and thats why you wont see many of them complaining.

For nominet to make up the argument that its ony a small minority of domainers that are kicking up a fuss and complaining because of their own personal agendas is absolutely rubbish and nominet are fully aware of this. But I bet you wont see them telling the government about this fact, they are withholding information on purpose from both the government and millions of businesses, obviously for their own personal agendas.

 

Totally agree - Very few small businesses have any idea this is going on. They'll be a lot of anger if it gets the go-ahead. When tens of thousands of small businesses with descriptive .co.uk domains realise they've been fleeced.

I wouldn't be surprised to see demonstrations outside Nominet HQ.
And a lot more questions in Parliament.

 

a question for any trademark wizards
If nominet's proposals went through, how far would a trademark stretch to entitlement on new .uk registrations, would the trademark have to be exact or could someone with a trademark say "park" lay claim to holidaypark.uk

 

My understanding is that it would have to be an exact match. Otherwise any company with a trademark that included the word "dogs" would be able to join an auction for the domain "dogs.uk".

 

What support, one way or another, are we likely to see from those MPs who have had expenses paid by for them in the past?

 

People who raise legitimate concerns to their local MP's will receive full support as that is what MP's are there for. I thought nominet had just paid a few expenses for MP's who where going to nominet conferences. I very much doubt that MP's would ignore peoples concerns just because of this.

 

development NOT written off to the profit and loss account

Concern on change of Nominet accounting policy in 2012?

If you look at all previous published Nominet accounts you will see from the 2011 accounts page 35 Accounting Policies : section “Research and development expenditure”: states “Expenditure on research and development is written off to the profit and loss account in the year in which it is incurred”

Accounts can be found :

http://www.nominet.org.uk/whoweare/annual-reports

If Nominet change the accounting policy now by capitalizing expenditure rather than writing it off, which may have the effect of distributing more surplus to Nominet Trust than otherwise would be the case. Plus there is more profits for bonuses etc.

Nominet intend to capitalize .wales costs and some other expenditure.
Nominet website http://www.domainforwales.org.uk/content/questions-about-consultation states “However, the costs of developing .cymru and .wales will be capitalised and appropriately recorded in our published accounts along with other Nominet development projects.”

Nominet have replied to my concerns about such a change with the following:

I think this matter should be brought up at the AGM, as it is not prudent for a not-for-profit organization to make this change, I cannot see an upside for Nominet?

 

Have a look at the dossier http://www.that.co.uk/nominet_files.pdf page 20, it goes on about other accounting irregularities in switching accounting methods....

In my opinion any EGM would have to request that the books be audited by an independent organisation (not a small one neither, a large auditor) and that it goes back sometime.

 

I can see why the .wales would be capitalized and then written off over a period of years - because after the initial investment of capital, Nominet "own" .wales/.cymru, so the value of that asset (or the control of that asset) will be listed on the balance sheet. Capitalizing development like this represents a truer picture of what the investment or spending actually is for.

 

My post above is that an audit be done using one accounting method for the past years. That way we can see true % changes from year to year. To me it isn't massively important which accounting method they use, as long as they pick one and stick to it. Jumping from method to method whilst maybe done for legitimate reasons could also be seen to muddy the water.

 

How do you get a link on nominet's website like this


brands2life co.uk

at the bottom of the page

http://www.nominet.org.uk/news/pres...one-most-significant-developments-uk-internet

 

They handle Noms PR.

 

brands2life co uk seems to be a sponsored sales lander page.

 

They're not handling their URL's very well , brands2life.com

 

They are handling URL's well they have opted to develop the .com because it's a safe bet and they have set their co.uk up for email and a sponsored sales lander page, which is the level that Nominet has reduced co.uk to.

 

Lol

 

I've just written to John Lettice at 'El Reg' about this entire fiasco. Hopefully they'll pick it up shortly.

 

Email massages going to totally wrong place.This just demonstrates how event more confusing would be to have .UK. I hope this gets picked up by media.