the dotasia-complot

July 2nd 2008: Answer from Edmon Chung - Dotasia

Hi ,

Good to hear from you. As discussed, we are prepared to do everything appropriate to address your clients' concerns, including re-opening the suspended auctions at a different platform. DotAsia is committed to facilitating an equitable and comfortable platform for qualified applicants to compete for domains in the Sunrise phases.

We look forward to re-opening the auctions and allow the process to move forward so that the domains can be put to use. Ultimately, having positive usage for domain names is the most important for us as the .Asia registry. In a separate email you have mentioned that I did not speak about any details.

I do not feel that is a correct characterization. In our press statement we have provided very clear response on one very important and critical detail about the accusation: "Further allegation made implications that the auction process favoured parties who have a relationship with Pool.com. DotAsia refutes the remark by pointing out that besides measures in place to address conflict of interest issues, the structure of the .Asia auction facilitates a fair process.

An English style auction, adopted by .Asia, is used such that the incremental leading bid price can be observed by all parties. Auctions are automatically extended for a substantial amount of time (24 hours) if a change of lead occurred in the final 24 hours of an auction. There is no reason to believe that any party could gain an advantage because the only way to win an auction is to place a bid higher than all other bidders.

Bidding at specific times, such as close to the end of an auction period, does not give any advantage to a bidder. The automatic extension of 24 hours means that trailing bidders, after a change of lead, will have ample time to react and to increase their bid.

Therefore, allegations that the system favours any particular bidder are unsound." We have not received any response from you or your client regarding this. We would really like to improve our processes but we have not heard any suggestion from you or your client. Disqualifying anyone with legitimate claims to a name is not fair nor consistent with the principles of the Sunrise and Landrush approach DotAsia is committed to.

We need a process that can accommodate everyone. That was the aim of the current process when we designed it. I would like to hear how we can improve it so everyone, and I emphasize, everyone, can compete comfortably.

Looking forward to hearing from you, resolving this issue, and improving our processes.

Edmon