UPDATE:  We’re anticipating that a version of PROTECT IP will be introduced in the House of Representatives in coming weeks, so we’ve pulled together this video to remind the world about what makes it so awful...Please check it out and pass it on:

We need to rally more opposition to this bill — please use the form: HERE, to email your lawmakers, and use these links to share the video with your friends:

	Click here to share with your friends on Facebook.
	Click here to tweet about the campaign: Tweet

Wyden, Lofgren Statements On The Insufficient Responses Received From Agency On Internet Seizures

90+ Law Professors Sign Letter Asking Congress To Reject The PROTECT-IP Act

Google Boss Eric Schmidt :: We’ll Fight Anti-Piracy Blocking Laws

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ORIGINAL: We’re forcing them to take our concerns seriously: Demand Progress members have sent more than 50,000 emails to Senators to urge them to oppose the Internet Blacklist Bill (the PROTECT IP Act).  Now we’re hearing back from them, and one thing is clear: Our emails are compelling Senators to start thinking hard about Internet freedom.  Will you urge your lawmakers to oppose the Internet Blacklist Bill?  Just fill out the simple form HERE.

PROTECT IP would give the government the power to force Internet service providers, search engines, and other “information location tools” to block users’ access to sites that have been accused of copyright infringement — the initiation of a China-style censorship regime here in the United States.

Senators are writing back to let us know that our emails are making them think twice before rubber-stamping PROTECT IP.  For instance, Oregon’s Jeff Merkley is telling Demand Progress members:

I have heard from many Oregonians on both sides of this issue – those who support providing U.S. agencies with greater authority to shut down websites, and those who are worried that the legislation could result in Internet censorship. Thanks to your letter and the letters of fellow Oregonians, I have asked my staff to take a closer look into this legislation.

Will you email Congress to urge them to oppose the PROTECT IP Act? Just add your info at right to automatically send this note to them, under your name and from your address.  (You can edit the letter if you’d like to.)

Just sign on at right and we’ll send an email to your lawmakers.

This bill has powerful sponsors and is moving fast — will you urge your friends to sign on too? Demand Progress

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NOTE:

Demand Progress (DemandProgress.org) are not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. Contributions are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes.

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More Relevant Information:

FULL Video: Rep. Lofgren Challenges IP Czar On Legality Of Domain Seizures

Please pass it along.

During a meeting here at the Raffles City Convention Center in Singapore, ICANN’s board of directors voted 13-1 with one abstention, to approve its new gTLD program, receiving a standing ovation.

In January next year, essentially any organisation will be able to submit an application to ICANN for a virtually any gTLD, using the rules set down in a 300-page Applicant Guidebook.

It will cost a bare minimum of $185,000 per application – many organisations are expected to commit over $1m to their bids – and only one string will be permitted per application.

Many large companies are expected to apply for so-called “.brand” extensions – Canon and Hitachi have announced plans for .canon and .hitachi, for example.

Others will apply for potentially mass-market terms such as .music, .web, blog, .porn and .sport. Some, such as .bank, will likely be restricted to very narrow groups of registrants.

There will also be applications for geographic gTLDs – city domains such as .london, .nyc, and .berlin, or cultural identifiers such as .scot and .irish.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the program will enable the creation of domain extensions in non-Latin character sets, such as Arabic, Chinese, Greek and Cyrillic.

While ICANN’s decision was welcomed by almost everybody attending its 41st public meeting here in Singapore, the decision was still very controversial.

The resolution explicitly acknowledges that ICANN has overruled the wishes of national governments, represented by its Governmental Advisory Committee, for only the second time in its history.

The first time it did so, by approving the .xxx extension in March, it caused the US Department of Commerce to grant itself stricter oversight powers over ICANN, which it believes has started to act outside of the public interest.

The decision to approve the program today was also criticised by abstaining ICANN director Mike Silber, who said it was not ready yet and subject to “ego-drive deadlines”.

This is believed to be a reference to the fact that ICANN chairman Peter Dengate Thrush and director Rita Rodin Johnson – two of the program’s biggest cheerleaders – both see their terms on the board come to an end this Friday.

The Applicant Guidebook approved today, in its seventh draft, is also still subject to amendment.

Notably, ICANN has disregarded calls for it to develop a policy for providing support to applicants from developing nations before approving the program.

Today, such applicants are at a disadvantage, because they do not yet know how much a new gTLD application will cost them.

The ICANN resolution passed today calls for $2m to be set aside in seed funding for what amounts to an aid program, providing discounts to applicants from needy countries.

But there are currently no rules about which countries or applicants will qualify for this aid.

A working group has been tasked with developing such a policy, hopefully in time for ICANN’s next meeting in Dakar, Senegal, this October, but there are no guarantees it will be finished in time.

During a press conference today, ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom admitted it was possible that the January application date could arrive before these aid rules are finalized.

But based on the working groups’ preliminary reports, and the recommendations of the Governmental Advisory Committee, it seems likely that qualifying applicants will get a 76 per cent discount, to $44,000 per gTLD.

The current draft of the Applicant Guidebook is also going to be subject to immediate revisions following testy consultations between the ICANN board and the GAC this weekend.

These talks reached a low point yesterday when, during a stalemate in negotiations over trademark protection mechanisms, the European Commission GAC representative publicly described the debate as “a discussion between the deaf and the stupid”.

It was not clear which party was supposed to be deaf, and which stupid.

Studies have estimated as many as 500 new gTLD applications will be submitted in the first round. It is expected to take at least nine months to approve the easiest applications.

Others could take two years or more, and cost far more than the $185,000 base fee, due to the various objections and auction mechanisms that have been approved.

Due to the fact that multiple applications will be made for the same strings, the number of gTLDs that make it live onto the internet is expected to be around the 200 to 300 mark. ®

Source

Apple has reportedly bought the iCloud.com domain name for $4.5m.

According to Gigaom’s Om Malik, who cites a source familiar with Sweden-based former iCloud.com owner Xcerion, the transaction took place recently.

The firm made the online moniker switch on 5 April, but Whois records still show Xcerion as the owner of the iCloud.com domain.

Similarly, typing iCloud.com into a browser’s url field currently redirects surfers to CloudMe.com.

Xcerion also currently owns the iCloud trademark.

In recent weeks, the Jobsian outfit has poached Microsoft’s data centre general manager Kevin Timmons, in a move that clearly signifies Apple’s plans to get serious about clouds.

The company has also been readying its North Carolina data centre for action. ®

Bubblenote

CloudMe is certainly celebrating the rebrand by splashing its website with pictures of champagne and party hats – after all, $4.5m buys a lot of bubbles.

Source

Here’s more evidence — as if we needed it — that Apple (AAPL) is building an iPhone for Verizon (VZ).

PocketNow‘s Evan Blass has discovered that Verizon Trademark Services LLC, the company that owns verizon.com and verizonwireless.com, now also owns iphoneonverizon.com and iphoneforverizon.com.

In an item posted Saturday, Blass writes that the sites were once owned by Jim Benton of HolyShnikes.com, whose catch phrase — “share with someone who cares” — is deliciously ambiguous.

Using whois searches, Blass turned up similar sites — such as verizoniphone.com — that are still held by domain name squatters. They may be holding out for a better offer.

Meanwhile, HolyShnikes’ Benton still owns iphoneonsprint.com and iphoneontmobile.com, in case anyone at Sprint (S) or T-Mobile (DT) is interested.

Below: The whois.com listing for iphoneonverizon.com

Registrant:
Verizon Trademark Services LLC
Verizon Trademark Services LLC
1320 North Court House Road
Arlington VA 22201
US
domainlegalcontact@verizon.com +1.7033513164 Fax: +1.7033513669

Domain Name: iphoneonverizon.com

Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.markmonitor.com

Administrative Contact:
Domain Administrator
Verizon Trademark Services LLC
1320 North Court House Road
Arlington VA 22201
US
domainlegalcontact@verizon.com +1.7033513164 Fax: +1.7033513669
Technical Contact, Zone Contact:
Domain Technician
Verizon
1320 North Court House Road
Arlington VA 22201
US
sysmgr@verizon.com +1.7033513164 Fax: +1.7033513669

Created on…………..: 2007-01-09.
Expires on…………..: 2013-01-09.
Record last updated on..: 2010-12-09.

Domain servers in listed order:

ns03.domaincontrol.com
ns04.domaincontrol.com

MarkMonitor is the Global Leader in Enterprise Brand Protection.

Domain Management
MarkMonitor Brand Protection™
AntiFraud Solutions
Corporate Consulting Services

Visit MarkMonitor at www.markmonitor.com
Contact us at 1 800 745 9229
In Europe, at +44 (0) 20 7840 1300

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]

SOURCE

On November 15th, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook had acquired Fb.com from The American Farm Bureau Federation to use as the domain for internal email addresses now that the Facebook Messages were parked on Facebook.com. But what he didn’t reveal at the time? The acquisition price.

Today Reuters is reporting that the Fb.com  domain acquisition, which moved the 6 Million member Farm Bureau over to Fb.org, cost Facebook $8.5 million.

Read the full article source here

Domain Info:
Linecooks.com is in top 3 of Google for the key word cooking jobs, cook jobs, linecooks, linecooking jobs, out of over 21,000,000 results.

The opportunity to save in ppc advertising is enormous.

• The domain has a custom job hunting site built around it that RECEIVES 2-10 sign-ups per day and has over 800 members.
• Linecooks is the most common name used for a commercial kitchen cook.
• When you hear Linecooks some think Gordan Ramsey and his brigade of cooks all down the stations of a kitchen’s line.
• When commercial cooks think about cooking jobs they often think of the Family of Darden Restaurants, Olive Garden, Red Lobsters, Chilies, TGIF and their other chain restaurants.
• Applebees, Cracker Barrel, Red Robin ,Long John Silver’s, Hard Rock Cafe and many professional chains can benefit over the long term with such a valuable piece of Internet real-estate.
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• There Excellent opportunity to add a chefs forum and marketplace of chef & cook supplies to the current job board. In the proper hands this name’s potential is unlimited.

Where to go to get this domain Property

•  http://domainauctions.moniker.com/viewCatalog.php?id=199&pageID=33
•  http://domainauctions.moniker.com/details?id=199
•  http://domainauctions.moniker.com/extended
•  https://www.snapnames.com/liveAuctions.do

AUCTION SCHEDULE
Live Auction: April 29th (Wed) 3:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. PT
Extended Online Auction: Running online from SnapNames.com, April 29th (Wed) until May 7th (Thurs) 12:15 p.m. PT (3:15 p.m. ET)

Don’t let your competitors get this Premiere Generic Domain Name.
This is a category killer for the cooking industry.

Hope to see your bids. No travel needed. Online bidding and phone bids are welcomed!
Any questions please feel free to contact me:

Below are some further details:

Pricing:
The Pricing is has been set  and accepted  for auction by the professional domainers at Moniker and those that run TRAFFIC.
There is a reserve, but for legal reasons I cannot disclose, but bidding starts at $50,000.
Depending on the value and expected ROI you place on acquiring either a job seeker or employer will factor into what a name is worth to each person/company/network etc.
There has been no paid advertising outside of gathering links. This is all organic.

User Stats:
Database of users is 750+ chefs/cooks/ managers etc growing (daily by 2-10…it jumped by 100 in the last month) in the job seekers category and around 65 Employers.
About 75% that join add their resume. The software settings can be adjusted to force resume at sign-up .

What you receive:
Sales includes the entire website & software and license  to run it on only this domain, all graphics, and the domain name LINECOOKS.COM (all other TLD extensions taken in both the singular and purl)tarts at $50,000.
Depending on the value and expected ROI you place on acquiring either a job seeker or employer will factor into what a name is worth to each person/company/network etc.
There has been no paid advertising outside of gathering links. This is all organic.

User Stats:
As of this posting the database of users is 800+ chefs/cooks/ managers etc growing (daily by 2-10…it jumped by 100 in the last month) in the job seekers category and around 65 Employers.
About 75% that join add their resume. The software settings can be adjusted to force resume at sign-up .

What you receive:
Sales includes the entire website & software and license to run it exclusively on this domain, all graphics and source files and the domain name LINECOOKS.COM

Any further questions I’ll be happy to try and answer
Contact

Full report Here

This has really gotten out of hand and something should be done.

What I’m not sure. A scapegoat might do the trick for the next time they try and do something like this, but what about the 4.6 million?

Re-reimburse whom?

ParentalControl.com, Funding.com, and Erotica.com Among Early Contenders
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Also did a rework of the Pure Liquor Site: A Bartenders Guide
I bought the script, but it was pretty messy and had to rework it more than I would have liked.
It came out good and now the list of drinks is over 9,000!

Ok, now  back to work, um after I check the forums and twitter.

Or you can see there is a whole page dedicated to
What is a Widget on the site

A widget is an interactive application that can be installed on web pages, desktop platforms, and mobile devices that accept this type of content. Technically speaking, a web widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any HTML-based web page by an end user. Most widgets have a media-rich graphical interface that becomes visible once the code is successfully installed on a web page.

Companies and advertisers create widgets as a marketing vehicle in order to distribute their content to the places that users spend a majority of their time online. Because widgets can be easily grabbed and shared, they have the potential to go viral. People recognize the utility and fun of widgets, and actively endorse them by installing them on profile pages as a way to express themselves to the world. Users install widgets on their pages because they find the content useful, entertaining or cool.

Widgets typically fall into two categories: Social or Utility. Social widgets, typically placed on social networks, blogs and personal pages possess a “one-to-many” opportunity for exposure while Utility widgets are typically utilitarian in function and provide users with features like news, weather, calendars, and notepads.

I admit I have followed the whole life of this prime quality name, but it looks like Venture partnership.