T H E - D A I L Y - T R A V E S T Y
Volume 1, Issue 50
March 15, 2000
Your Editor: b.c.
Hey dol! merry dol! ring a dong
dillo!
Ring a dong! hop along! Fal lal
the willow!
Tom Bom, jolly Tom, Tom
Bombadillo!
ATTENTION!!
This is a special message from
the Secret Cult of People Who Actually "Get"
American Beauty.
Or, "SCOPWAGAB."
There are so few of us and our dealings are
so secret that we don't even officially exist. Estimated to be
approximately 5% of the U.S. population, we are scattered all over the world and
many of us feel very alone. We have been forced to listen to movie
critics, friends, family members and all sorts of otherwise intelligent people
who simply do not understand this film, even if they think they do. Now,
upon the decision of the Self-Ordained Secret Chief, we are revealing ourselves
to the general public and attempting to come together in a show of
life-worshipping camaraderie. We are searching for our
brethren.
If you have thought to yourself on
more than one occasion that almost everyone is missing the deeper meaning of
this film, as much as they might enjoy the plot; if the film made you cry like
you haven't in years and you can't really explain why; if it filled you
with so much joy that your life was significantly altered; or if you know
you've found a kindred spirit when you come across someone
else who loves the film as much as you do, then you may be a member.
If you think you are, and would like to officially join, send an email
proclaiming the brilliance of "American Beauty" to scopwagab@hotmail.com, the Secret Email
Address for Matters Pertaining to SCOPWAGAB Business. We will investigate
your claim.
Please note that membership is not open to
just anyone; you are either a member or you aren't, and we will try to determine
that to the best of our ability. If you are reading this secret message
like a good little Travesty patron but really don't understand it, then
don't worry-- you aren't a member!
Daily News
'Dot-(Your Cause Here)'
Domains
By Dick Kelsey, Newsbytes.com
Consumer advocacy groups founded by
Ralph Nader are pushing to add several new Internet domains, including
".sucks" and ".union" to the legacy root server in order to provide more online
firepower for consumers and advocacy groups.
The Consumer Project on Technology (CPT)
has asked the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to
set up new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) to promote social agendas and allow
consumers to express complaints and opinions. CPT and Essential
Information, a nonprofit designed to mobilize dissatisfied consumers,
outlined the requests in a letter to ICANN Chair Esther Dyson.
"We believe the .sucks domain will be
popular in the marketplace and also generate important funding for the free
speech rights of individuals and small organizations," CPT said in its
proposal.
For example, unhappy consumers could
form AOL.sucks or television.sucks as meeting places for other Internet users
with similar sentiments, it said. Sites such as "walmartsucks" exist
today, acknowledges CPT Director James Love, but they're usually registered
within the .com domain.
In the past many companies have
registered pejorative alternatives to their names -- such as bellatlanticsucks.com
-- to keep them from being used by disgruntled consumers or
ex-employees. That practice would not be allowed under the CPT proposal,
Love said. The plan also calls for creation of the "Dot Sucks
Foundation."
"The more we get into this the more we
think we might be onto something," Love told Newsbytes, noting that ICANN is
addressing public policy, not "just bits and bytes." ICANN did not return
a phone call from Newsbytes today.
Lawyer Sheldon Klein, who handles
trademark, copyright, unfair competition, advertising and Internet law
matters for the Washington, D.C. law firm of Arent Fox, says establishing
these new domain names would be disastrous. "From the standpoint of an
intellectual property lawyer who represents mostly trademark owners, this really
looks like a recipe for disaster." Such domains would encourage
unauthorized use of trademarks and create confusion rather than provide an
effective platform for consumers, Klein told Newsbytes. "I think to the
extent that it might promote free speech and criticism is outweighed by damage
that it could do." He also wondered who would police the new
domains.
The debate over whether to add new gTLDs
to the legacy root server has been one of the most contentious in ICANN's
brief history. Opponents of such proposals say that the addition of new
gTLDs would make Web navigation unduly confusing, while proponents argue that
new domains represent the only way to create a truly competitive and open
domain name system (DNS). Other gTLDs the Nader group proposes include
.customers, .complaints, .ecology, .isnotgreen, .isnotfair, . shareholder,
.taxpayer, .union and .unite.
ICANN was not immediately available for
comment on this story. CPT contends the new domains would help in the
organization of unions, consumer groups and other entities working for a
particular cause. The domain .union, for example, would be preceded by a
name specifying the organization such as nike.union, exxon.union; .customers
would be for patrons of a particular company, for example, ford.customers or
safeway.customers, to register product concerns and complaints.
ICANN, the non-profit charged by the
Commerce Department with managing the Internet's addressing system, is set to
meet in Cairo next week. The question of new domains is expected to come
up during the event.
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