Author name: fairwindsp

Josh Bourne ⬥ 24 August Last week I wrote a post about the lawlessness that pervades the Internet, focusing on the scamming and other illegal activities that take place in the online marketplace. What I didn’t mention are the things that can be done to help put a stop to cybercrime, not just in online […]

FairWinds Partners ⬥ 21 August When I was a child my mother would come knocking on my bedroom door about once every two years holding a large empty garbage bag. We would open up my wardrobe and stare into the packed space of colour and fabric. After a moment of silence the ritual triage would

Josh Bourne ⬥ 19 August This poster caught my eye recently for two reasons.  First was the highlighted letter K, which drew attention to the intentional misspelling of the word “respect.”  Second was the simplicity of the advertising message that included only a slogan and a prominently displayed domain name. Curious to find out what

Phil Lodico ⬥ 22 July Last Thursday marked FairWinds’ three-year anniversary.  Since I was on vacation last week, I had some time to think about our business, the marketplace, and how both have changed and evolved with the moving Internet landscape in the last three years. What kept coming back to me was a statement

Josh Bourne ⬥ 29 July My boys and my mom, walking through the woods. I’ve spent the past week on vacation with my two sons up in Eagle River, Wisconsin.  This spot holds a lot of history for me: I’ve come up to Eagle River every year of my life to visit the house that

Josh Bourne ⬥ 17 July A recent Slate article titled “www.thosenewdomainnames.areforsuckers,” caught my attention last week.  With all the controversy over ICANN’s planned rollout of a potentially unlimited number of new generic top-level domains (TLDs), I found the frankness of the title refreshing.  As someone who works closely with brand owners, both at FairWinds and

Josh Bourne ⬥ 2 July This week, the Wall Street Journal reported on businesses’ struggle to protect their brands on Twitter. Many are concerned about unauthorized uses of their brand name on popular social media sites—Phil recently wrote a post about usersquatting, the uncertainty of harm that usersquatting inflicts and the ambiguity of enforcement mechanisms

Phil Lodico ⬥ 24 June A quick report of some of the most important developments coming out of ICANN’s meeting Sydney: Despite concerns over the way in which ICANN is moving forward with the new TLD launch, it appears that ICANN is poised to start accepting applications for new TLDs in February 2010. If an

Phil Lodico ⬥ 20 June As the debate over new TLDs rages on, more and more people are joining in the discussion and offering their two cents.  Just the other day, former New York City mayor Ed Koch announced that he is behind the .nyc top-level domain.  He went so far as to call .nyc

Phil Lodico ⬥ 20 June Anybody who has had a friend sneak onto his or her Facebook profile and change the information knows the heavy reputational damage that can come from being misrepresented on a social media site. But this harmless prank has a much nastier relative: Userquatting.  Similar to cybersquatting, usersquatting is when Internet

Phil Lodico ⬥ 12 June ICANN announced on Friday that it has teamed up with the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago (NORC) to undertake a study on the accuracy of WHOIS contact data for domain names.  The study will test the WHOIS data from a sample of domains from across different

Josh Bourne ⬥ 9 June Last week, when I attended Rep. Boucher’s congressional hearing on the relationship between Internet governing body ICANN and the U.S. government, I was encouraged to see how many representatives are informed on this topic and are looking to get at the source of the cybersquatting problem. There’s a great opportunity