Join the Domain Owners Association of Canada
November 3, 2009 · Print This Article
It’s about time that Canadian domain owners finally stand up for themselves and have a voice to protect their rights against those who wish to take them away, as well as encourage the development of the Canadian internet. Fortunately, a new organization, the Domain Owners Association of Canada (or DOAC), has just been formed to do this.
The DOAC recently held its first meeting of members, which I attended. I think that this organization has a lot of potential to improve the Canadian internet landscape in a way that is beneficial for all stakeholders.
The DOAC’s mission is the promotion of internet business and investment in Canada. Let’s face it – the better that the Canadian internet does, the better it will be for all participants.
At the meeting, the DOAC went into more details, and discussed its mission statement, which includes:
1. To promote the registration and use of dot ca domains in Canada and globally.
2. To protect the rights and interests of dot ca domain owners.
3. To encourage the ethical and responsible use of dot ca domains.
4. To bring the collective voice of all dot ca stakeholders to CIRA.
5. To lift the dot ca presence requirements.
The DOAC also elected its directors: Frank Michlick, Harold Simpkins, Peter Maxymych, Rick Silver, Jeffrey Behrendt, and Larry Franschman.
The officers of DOAC were elected as well:
President: Rick Silver
Vice-President: Peter Maxymych
Vice-President of Communications: Frank Michlick
Treasurer: Harold Simpkins
Secretary: Jeffrey Behrendt
Zak Muscovitch, Canada’s leading domain name lawyer, is handling the legal aspects.
If you own a .ca domain, or provide services to .ca domain owners (such as hosting, web design, technical support, marketing, legal, etc.), then you should join the DOAC. It’s free and easy – simply complete the form and click submit. You owe it to yourself (and your clients) to stand up for the future of the Canadian internet.
Written by admin · Filed Under Canadian Domains
Thanks for this posting, I’m going to check out the link to join.
It looks like you’ve assembled a strong group of .ca domainers/developers to start off the DOAC.
Your point #5, lifting presence requirements, will meet with a lot of mixed emotion. Though I do believe if this requirement were lifted, there would be more investors in this space and prices would generally rise. Many other country code extensions are open, or close to open, like .de, .co.uk, .es, .mx, .in, .me, .tv and they continue to thrive.
I haven’t had a lot of trouble in terms of reverse hijacking attempts, and owning .ca’s has been problem-free for me up to now. But maybe this is the best time to form a DOAC, before the late-comers arrive and try to take our domains away!