Clyde Beattie, who was one of the founders of the non-profit company set up by ICM the operator of the .XXX extension, IFFOR, (The International Foundation for Online Responsibility) which was set up as “a not-for-profit organization dedicated to developing policies for Top Level Domains that maximize benefit to global Internet users, domain holders and domain registry operators.” has left the association as of December 31, 2014.
When .XXX was approved by ICANN, $10 of every active (but not registered domain) was promised to go to the non-profit organization IFFOR to do charitable work.
Some thought (including me) that IFFOR would get $10 in addition to the $50 wholesale registration price of every .XXX domain registration
However someone, ok me again figured out that this was not the case, as you can read here, and here.
So the only money IFFOR ever received is $10 of an active .XXX registered domain which was at last count about 1/10th of all registered .XXX domains.
IFFOR as far as we can tell in its many years of operations only allocated $10K in the form of two grants of $5K each since its inception in 2011.
Other than those two, $5K grants, we can’t see what IFFOR actually did.
IFFOR did not exist before or without the launch or existence of .XXX
Mr. Clyde Beattie today informed us that his position as Chairman and Director of the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR) ended on December 31, 2014 and he no longer associated with the organization.
Kieren McCarthy took over as Executive Director of the organization from Joan Irving in 2013.
What IFFOR has done with the funding it received from ICM Registry which operates the .XXX registry in the last few year with the exception of the $10K in grants remains a mystery to at least this writer.
The mandatory $10 per active domain fee was collected on all domains .XXX domain names registered, whether they were active or non active and therefore ICM apparently has pocketed, lets just say a pocketful of change, in the name of IFFOR for no apparently nonprofit purpose, but we are always open to learning.
So at one time we though IFFOR received 7 figures in funding, based on a $10 registration fee over 100,000 registered .XXX domains but we didn’t read the find print, and it seems like IFFOR received only a small portion of that amount, somewhere around 10% of the total amount of .XXX registrations at $10 per or around $200K per year.
It still seems unclear of what IFFOR did with its reduced funding, even if it was just a couple of hundred of thousand per year over the last few years, since it still only publicly announced two $5,000 grants since it was established.
If registries were put to a consumer vote and graded on trustworthiness (as investment funds and non-profits often are), the ICM Registry might well fall at the very bottom. I’d place it there, below .XYZ.
That wasn’t always my opinion, although I probably ought to have listened to the early consensus in the adult entertainment industry they aimed to represent but alienated. There’s a strange, unaccountable gap between word and action sometimes in this world of ours.
Rubbing my hands together in eager anticipation of their reply. Will we see IFFOR win awards as the most effective and responsible nonprofit of 2015, he asks earnestly?
Mr. Berkens, have you ever received an answer from the IFFOR as to where the money from the dotXXX domains went?
It is not a surprise to me that the fine print read as something else or that the money has simply vanished when Falco and Kayton are on the IFFOR Board. Just for your own info, Sherri Falco , the General counsel of ICM Registry is and has always been connected to WebpowerInc./Ifriends even though the used car salesman, Stuart Lawley claimed in your blog that she no longer worked for WebpowerInc./Ifriends. She was still on the trademark of Worldgroups for Responsible Media Technologies LLC as of 2014 (http://www.trademarkia.com/worldgroups-78744567.html) RMT LLC is owner by Allan E. Hadhazy, Andrew H. Kayton and Mark N. Albers all of who are Webpower Inc./Ifriends. (http://www.nevadacorporates.com/corp/204138.html) She is also still on domains for Webpower Inc./Ifriends even though Lawley claimed WebpowerInc./Ifriends just hadn’t time to remove her. Look at https://whois.domaintools.com/webpower.me , https://whois.domaintools.com/worldgroups.me Falco was never removed from them even though she was from the usual ones. WebpowerInc/Ifriends just figured nobody would bother to look at the .me domains. Lawley also lied about ICM Registry not having any connection to the adult industry. Len Bayles, ICM Registry CTO and founder member, worked for Robert Hall in the company, Pool.com starting around 2003. Mark N. Albers of WebpowerInc./Ifriends, extensively used pool.com, namescout and rebel.com ((all owned by Robert hall) to purchase his domains and server hosting from 2004 onward. Robert Hall was a tech adviser to webpower.ca and placed a domain 0069.ca on Webpower Inc.’s servers at the start of dotXXX domains. This is not a coincidence by any stretch of the imagination. These scumbags have been scamming people for over 17 years, just look at the fraud against Amanda36c. (https://amanda36c.wordpress.com/2015/12/06/account-settings-tampering/) She tried to warn people about ICM Registry and WebpowerInc./Ifriends back at the start of dotXXX.
My question is how does ICANN and the GAC just sit there and let ICM Registry and WebpowerInc./Ifriends extort mainstream companies with trademark names? It seems to be all about the almighty dollars and not the law of the land. I always thought extortion and fraud were crimes in our country? I guess nobody does their jobs anymore, nor do the FBI actually investigate crimes.
Good Luck, Mr. Berkens on getting any real answers to your questions from the IFFOR!