It has come to our attention that a Mr Daniel Chun has sent an "Internet Domain Name Survey" (shown below) requesting replies to an ITU (International Telecommunication Union) email account. Please note the following: 1. The 'Internet Domain Name Survey' from Mr. Chun has absolutely nothing to do with the ITU. 2. Mr Chun is not an employee of the ITU nor is there any related ITU 'study group'. 3. His account is one of about 6,000 external accounts granted to people around the world working in the telecommunications field to track ITU activities and assist interworking with us. 4. We consider this an abuse of his ITU account. 5. His account has been immediately terminated. I apologize for any confusion this has created. I don't know to who he has sent this solicitation but feel free to forward this note on to others. Robert Shaw ITU Geneva, Switzerland ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Return-Path: <dchun@mailhub.hkstar.com> Received: from callandor.cybercash.com (callandor1.cybercash.com) by cybercash.com (4.1/SMI-4.1) id AA26397; Thu, 28 Nov 96 22:45:12 EST Received: by callandor.cybercash.com; id WAA27808; Thu, 28 Nov 1996 22:41:22 -0500 Received: from mailhub.hkstar.com(202.82.0.38) by callandor.cybercash.com via smap (3.2) id xma027796; Thu, 28 Nov 96 22:41:15 -0500 Received: from INTERNIX1.DOMAIN (neptune182.hkstar.com [202.82.49.182]) by mailhub.hkstar.com (8.7.5/8.7.5) with SMTP id LAA26429; Fri, 29 Nov 1996 11:19:46 +0800 (HKT) Message-Id: <199611290319.LAA26429@mailhub.hkstar.com> Comments: Authenticated sender is <dchun@mail.hkstar.com> From: daniel.chun@itu.ch To: "Internet Domain Name Survey" <daniel.chun@itu.ch> Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 11:16:24 +0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Subject: Domain Name Survey Reply-To: daniel.chun@itu.ch X-Confirm-Reading-To: daniel.chun@itu.ch X-Pmrqc: 1 Return-Receipt-To: daniel.chun@itu.ch Priority: normal X-Mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v2.42a) Nov 29, 1996 Domain Study Group Dear Domain Owner and Administrator, This is not a junk e-mail, you receive this e-mail because you have been carefully selected from InterNIC's WHOIS database to respond to a survey conducted by a voluntary study group in parallel with various initiatives from bodies including International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Internet Society (ISOC) and Internet Assigned Numbers Association (IANA). Due to the phenomenal growth of the Internet, the authorities have acknowledged the high demand for domain names. In September 1996 alone, InterNIC has received 75,213 applications for registering for second level domain names including .COM .NET .ORG .GOV and .EDU In the Internet universe, the gold rush for domain names is happening, there are individuals speculating domain names and there are various ISPs or individuals involving themselves in trading and brokering domain names. Examples of such can be found in the following sites: www.domainmart.com www.bestdomain.com www.domaindealers.com Our study group has found that typically, these services charges the Domain Owners a one-time sign up fee of US$10-$100 and then they charge a commission of 5%-25% of the transaction value of the domain name. This amount could be very high if the domain name transaction involves high stake (eg. For a sale value of US$25,000 10% commission will be US$ 2,500). Furthermore, we also observed that the charges for the services provided are not necessarily equitable to the cost of delivering the service. In another words, the service delivered for a US$500 transaction and a US$25,000 is the same. In light of the situation, this study group would like to conduct a survey which require you to reply to this e-mail. Please put a cross (eg. X) in the underlined area to indicate your response. 1. Are you one of the following ? __ Domain owner __ Domain administrator (eg. technical, billing, administrative contact) 2. Will you offer your Domain for sale ? __ Yes __ No __ Depends on Sale Value 3. What price do you think your Domain is worth ? __ Priceless __ USD 0 < P < USD 1,000 __ USD 1,000 < P < USD 5,000 __ USD 5,000 < P < USD 10,000 __ USD 10,000 < P 3) How will you go about selling your Domain ? __ Through Domain Brokers __ Personal Selling __ Directory Services (listing, public forum) If this study group propose a Directory Service to the authorities to provide a forum, similar to a database service (eg. InterNIC's WHOIS database) for Domain Names on non-profit making nature. This will help promote the value of domain names, and promote growth in the use of domain names and yet indirectly imposing control mechanism to the brokering of domain names by establishing an open forum. This will promoting the value of transacting domains without involving in the transaction itself thereby collecting high commission. The cost of providing the service will be compensated by a one-time nominal charge to fund the ongoing research, development and administration of the web site and services. 4. What price level do you as a Domain Owner and Administrator do you believe is acceptable (For your information, InterNIC currently charges US$ 50 one-time fee for domain registration) __ US$ 5 - US$ 10 __ US$ 11 - US$ 15 __ US$ 16 - US$ 20 __ US$ 21 - US$ 25 __ US$ 25 - US$ 30 5. What service level do you see as important for this Directory Services __ Web User Interface and Functionality __ Bandwidth of the Directory Service __ Effectiveness of selling your Domain __ Please suggest _____________________________________ 6) Will you be willing to pay by credit card ? __ Yes __ No 7) If answer to 6 is Yes, Which method of giving your card details do you prefer ? __ by Internet email __ by Internet Commerce __ by fax __ by ordinary mail 8) If No, what other methods do you prefer in settling payment for the service? __ by cheque __ by wire transfer __ Others, please suggest ___________________________________ We dearly appreciate you taking time to complete this survey, we will anticipate to collect most of these responses before Christmas. And we will forward any subsequent compilation of the survey results probably in January 1997. If there is any other comments, please forward it to my address at ITU. Cordially, Daniel Chun Research Assistant Internet: daniel.chun@itu.ch