Apple.com Makes Liberate Staff Pick
editspot Releases Free Software to Protect Against Cybersquatting
CINCINNATI, June 24, 2008 – In its first 24 hours of release, LiberateDomains has been named a staff pick by Apple.com for its highly popular dashboard widgets.
editspot LLC released LiberateDomains.com and a dashboard widget version – LiberateDomains – June 23 to allow safe WHOIS searches for international, top-level domain names with the goal of decreasing domain tasting, front running and cybersquatting. The Over-the-Rhine software development company picked the June 23 release date as that marked the 25th-year milestone of the Domain Name System.
"We are thrilled LiberateDomains.com and its dashboard widget version have been so well received," said editspot LLC CEO Ran Mullins. "In addition to being named a top staff pick by Apple.com, we have extremely positive feedback from points as far away as Africa and India thanking us for releasing this software tool. This is wonderful recognition for the work of our chief technology officer, Troy Davis, programmer David Stump and the entire editspot team in delivering this brilliant and easy-to-use application at no cost to the public."
The new software application — hosted at www.LiberateDomains.com – is an open-source, verifiable tool where people can go to safely research domain names without the fear of unscrupulous domain registrars, domain tasters and cybersquatters snatching them up and holding them hostage for a ransom or unreasonable fee. It's being released today through a variety of tech channels such as a free widget on Apple.com, and is written for both the Mac and Windows platforms.
The LiberateDomains.com Story Starts In Cincinnati And Travels Through Nassau
Two years ago, editspot LLC Founder and CEO Ran Mullins encountered a virtual identity theft scenario when a cybersquatter in Nassau grabbed a domain name Mullins had conducted a WHOIS search for. The cybersquatter is demanding a ransom of more than $23,000 for the domain name. This prompted Troy Davis, chief technology officer at editspot, to proactively write the software to take similar cybersquatters out of the ransom game. editspot decided to release the tool it was utilizing in-house for free to celebrate the 25th anniversary of DNS and to substantially decrease unscrupulous business behavior on the web. “We wanted to provide an easy-to-use, straightforward tool that makes it safer for the average computer user to find available domain names without the fear of cybersquatters,” states Mullins.
Domain Identity Theft Rampant In The Virtual World
According to countless international reports, the crisis of cybersquatting, domain tasting and front running is rampant — in the virtual world it's regarded as the equivalent of identity theft using insider information. Domain tasting is defined by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as "the use of the Add Grace Period to test the profitability of a domain name registration. The AGP is a five-day period following the initial registration of a domain name when the registration may be deleted and a credit can be issued to a registrar." According to a study released earlier this year by ICANN, during January 2007, about 94 percent of domain names registered were in fact just being "tasted." Of the 51 million domains were registered, 48 million were deleted during the five-day grace period.
ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee describes domain front running as "the opportunity for a party with some form of insider information to track an Internet user’s preference for registering a domain name and preemptively register that name. . .In the domain name industry, insider information would be information gathered from the monitoring of one or more attempts by an Internet user to check the availability of a domain name."
According to ICANN, the January 2007 monthly report for .COM and .NET Web sites showed that the top 10 registrars engaged in domain tasting accounted for 95 percent of all deleted .COM and .NET domain names during that month. The top four registrars engaged in tasting deleted 35,357,564 domain names, or 74 percent of all deletes.
A David-vs.-Goliath Story: Small Cincinnati Firm Levels Playing Field With Greedy Cybersquatters
To celebrate the 25th year of DNS, editspot LLC, a 9-employee company in Cincinnati's historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, released LiberateDomains.com for free on June 23. LiberateDomains.com allows anyone — students, moms, educators, start-up companies, non-profit organizations, mega-corporations and the general public — to research new domain names while virtually eliminating the possibility of unscrupulous registrars and cybersquatters snatching them up and holding them for ransom. According to editspot executives, the tool makes it virtually impossible for unscrupulous registrars and cybersquatters to "see" domain name searches conducted on LiberateDomains.com.
For more information, media should contact:
Raymond Buse III
Senior Vice President
metaphor studio
513.608.1604.
About editspot LLC
editspot is a leading provider of online content management (CMS) solutions that help organizations easily add, edit, delete and sort content on their web sites. Designed to give average computer users the power to control their web sites, editspot makes tasks once reserved for webmasters, document layout specialists, programmers and graphic designers easily implemented by a typical computer user. editspot puts the geek back into the closet.
editspot LLC released LiberateDomains.com and a dashboard widget version – LiberateDomains – June 23 to allow safe WHOIS searches for international, top-level domain names with the goal of decreasing domain tasting, front running and cybersquatting. The Over-the-Rhine software development company picked the June 23 release date as that marked the 25th-year milestone of the Domain Name System.
"We are thrilled LiberateDomains.com and its dashboard widget version have been so well received," said editspot LLC CEO Ran Mullins. "In addition to being named a top staff pick by Apple.com, we have extremely positive feedback from points as far away as Africa and India thanking us for releasing this software tool. This is wonderful recognition for the work of our chief technology officer, Troy Davis, programmer David Stump and the entire editspot team in delivering this brilliant and easy-to-use application at no cost to the public."
The new software application — hosted at www.LiberateDomains.com – is an open-source, verifiable tool where people can go to safely research domain names without the fear of unscrupulous domain registrars, domain tasters and cybersquatters snatching them up and holding them hostage for a ransom or unreasonable fee. It's being released today through a variety of tech channels such as a free widget on Apple.com, and is written for both the Mac and Windows platforms.
The LiberateDomains.com Story Starts In Cincinnati And Travels Through Nassau
Two years ago, editspot LLC Founder and CEO Ran Mullins encountered a virtual identity theft scenario when a cybersquatter in Nassau grabbed a domain name Mullins had conducted a WHOIS search for. The cybersquatter is demanding a ransom of more than $23,000 for the domain name. This prompted Troy Davis, chief technology officer at editspot, to proactively write the software to take similar cybersquatters out of the ransom game. editspot decided to release the tool it was utilizing in-house for free to celebrate the 25th anniversary of DNS and to substantially decrease unscrupulous business behavior on the web. “We wanted to provide an easy-to-use, straightforward tool that makes it safer for the average computer user to find available domain names without the fear of cybersquatters,” states Mullins.
Domain Identity Theft Rampant In The Virtual World
According to countless international reports, the crisis of cybersquatting, domain tasting and front running is rampant — in the virtual world it's regarded as the equivalent of identity theft using insider information. Domain tasting is defined by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as "the use of the Add Grace Period to test the profitability of a domain name registration. The AGP is a five-day period following the initial registration of a domain name when the registration may be deleted and a credit can be issued to a registrar." According to a study released earlier this year by ICANN, during January 2007, about 94 percent of domain names registered were in fact just being "tasted." Of the 51 million domains were registered, 48 million were deleted during the five-day grace period.
ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee describes domain front running as "the opportunity for a party with some form of insider information to track an Internet user’s preference for registering a domain name and preemptively register that name. . .In the domain name industry, insider information would be information gathered from the monitoring of one or more attempts by an Internet user to check the availability of a domain name."
According to ICANN, the January 2007 monthly report for .COM and .NET Web sites showed that the top 10 registrars engaged in domain tasting accounted for 95 percent of all deleted .COM and .NET domain names during that month. The top four registrars engaged in tasting deleted 35,357,564 domain names, or 74 percent of all deletes.
A David-vs.-Goliath Story: Small Cincinnati Firm Levels Playing Field With Greedy Cybersquatters
To celebrate the 25th year of DNS, editspot LLC, a 9-employee company in Cincinnati's historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, released LiberateDomains.com for free on June 23. LiberateDomains.com allows anyone — students, moms, educators, start-up companies, non-profit organizations, mega-corporations and the general public — to research new domain names while virtually eliminating the possibility of unscrupulous registrars and cybersquatters snatching them up and holding them for ransom. According to editspot executives, the tool makes it virtually impossible for unscrupulous registrars and cybersquatters to "see" domain name searches conducted on LiberateDomains.com.
For more information, media should contact:
Raymond Buse III
Senior Vice President
metaphor studio
513.608.1604.
About editspot LLC
editspot is a leading provider of online content management (CMS) solutions that help organizations easily add, edit, delete and sort content on their web sites. Designed to give average computer users the power to control their web sites, editspot makes tasks once reserved for webmasters, document layout specialists, programmers and graphic designers easily implemented by a typical computer user. editspot puts the geek back into the closet.
