Re: .edu.com domain

[Steve Worona <sworona () EDUCAUSE EDU>]

The edu.com situation popped up on the Unisog list about 2 weeks ago (March 23) and has also been discussed by NACUA 
and the Common Solutions Group on their own private lists (and likely others).

The Unisog thread (http://www.dshield.org/pipermail/unisog/2006-March/subject.html) was already referenced here on the 
EDUCAUSE SECURITY list. That thread has some additional reports on people's experience communicating with Vantage, as 
well as some humor. (Vantage reportedly created these pages as a service, and they're shocked! shocked! that anyone's 
unhappy about them.) The Unisog thread also notes that the president of Vantage, Mark DiPaola, purports to have been 
following the discussion on Unisog, although he doesn't seem to have posted there. No Vantage e-mail addresses show up 
among the nearly 2,000 subscribers to this list (SECURITY), but by the math of Internet communications, 2,000 is 
equivalent to infinity. Do note, by the way, that this list does include several reporters. (Hi, guys.)

I remain interested in hearing about individual campus experiences with Vantage. The form letter posted here was of 
particular interest. Feel free to communicate with me off-list if you like.

Best wishes.

Steve
--
Steven L. Worona
Director of Policy and Networking Programs
EDUCAUSE / 1150 18th St. NW suite 1010 / Washington, DC 20036
202-872-4200 x 5358 / 202-872-4318 fax / sworona () educause edu

-----
At 8:14 AM -0400 4/6/06, David Etherton wrote:
> All,
>
> It is interesting that this came to the list-serv attention so quickly.
> We also requested cease and desist and got the same form letter as Mr.
> Bruce from Simmons.
>
> David Etherton
> Associate Director, Client Services
> Student Information Systems
> Columbia University
> 201 Philosophy Hall
> (office) 212-854-0651
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Bruce [mailto:david.bruce () SIMMONS EDU]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 05, 2006 8:14 PM
> To: SECURITY () LISTSERV EDUCAUSE EDU
> Subject: Re: [SECURITY] .edu.com domain
>
> Form letter.  I didn't raise any of these points.  I just asked them
> to take us off.
>
> Anyway we're off now... their response:
>
> Begin forwarded message:
> > From: "Brad Lohan" <brad () vantagemedia com>
> > Date: April 5, 2006 7:36:52 PM EDT
> > To: <david.bruce () simmons edu>
> > Cc: <mark () vantagemedia com>, <CVandenbosch () sheppardmullin com>,
> > <LBraun () sheppardmullin com>
> > Subject: Simmons.edu.com
> >
> > Dear Mr. Bruce:
> >
> > This responds to your letter of March 24, 2006.  Contrary to your
> > assertion, Vantage Media has not registered any domain name that
> > incorporates your school's trademark.  Rather, we own a
> > registration for the edu.com domain.  If an individual voluntarily
> > enters your school's name in connection with our edu.com domain
> > name, that individual may access a domain subdirectory that is in
> > turn used to forward a bona fide inquiry to the requested
> > institution.  The subdirectory does not constitute a separate
> > domain name, and it is therefore not assignable to your school.
> >
> > To be clear, Vantage Media has not registered your trademark in any
> > form, it does not prevent anyone from obtaining bona fide
> > information about your school, and it does not falsely represent to
> > be affiliated with your institution.
> >
> > For these reasons, we disagree with the points raised in your
> > letter.  However, in the interest of preserving Vantage Media's
> > business reputation, we have decided at this time to remove content
> > from the referenced subdirectory on our edu.com domain.  We trust
> > that this concludes the matter to your school's satisfaction.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Brad Lohan
> >
> > Brad Lohan  |  Analyst
> > p] 310.482.3737 | f] 310.943.1620
> > e] brad () vantagemedia com
>
>
> On Apr 5, 2006, at 7:58 PM, Dave Koontz wrote:
>
> > Whoa, I just checked our domain on their site and it returns a
> > completely different school!  Our domain is mbc.edu - Mary Baldwin
> > College (http://www.mbc.edu), yet when I access http://mbc.edu.com it
> > returns "Morris Brown College" instead!  I wonder if Morris Brown paid
> > these guys to get the mbc.edu.com address?  Should I turn this over to
> > our legal team or contact this questionable company?  Any tips on
> > how I
> > should proceed would be appreciated!
> >
> > PS:  I've also noticed a very high number of 'spam' emails to our
> > students from this organization over the last few weeks.
> >
> > ---
> > Dave Koontz
> > Associate Director CIS
> > Mary Baldwin College
> >
> > Walter Bourne wrote:
> > > It's possible to get 'off'.  Try
> > > <http://msu.edu.com/>
> > >
> > > Our Admissions and Counsel are doing a cease-and-desist.
> > >
> > > ==Walter Bourne
> > >   Columbia University
> > >   IT Security & Policy
> > >
> > > --On Wednesday, April 05, 2006 15:55 -0500 Graham Toal
> > > <gtoal () utpa edu>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > : > I do not know if they actually forward
> > > : > the information, it appears the primary purpose is to harvest
> > > : > information for marketing.
> > > :
> > > : More likely harvest leads to sell back to the Universities.
> > > : And I would imagine if you don't advertise with them,
> > > : some rival university will be prominent when someone
> > > : stumbles on their site looking for you.
> > > :
> > > : Here's a good article on their business model:
> > > :
> > > : http://www.jayweintraub.com/2005/08/trends_report_a.html
> > > :
> > > : G
>
> --
> David Bruce                                          Phone: 617.521.2187
> Director of Networks and Servers                     Fax:   617.521.3082
> Simmons College, Technology
> 300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115-5898            david.bruce () simmons edu