Hello all, At the Sydney ICANN meeting I had the opportunity to attend a session of the "Registration Abuse Policies Working Group", which I believe is a GNSO subcommittee that encourages participation from outside GNSO. Well, that's the theory. What I found at that meeting was a room full of vested interests and contracted partied, determined to report to ICANN that the only real form of registration abuse is that of trademark abuse. When I dared mention at the Sydney session that some people consider domaining and domain speculation to be a form of "abuse", I received what I believed to be some abuse of my own. While Beau and Patrick were also at the meeting, I was left alone to take the multi-voiced attack from those who seemed insulted that I should even raise the issue. Now, I know that not everyone within At-Large is an opponent of domain speculation. But I would like to get some guidance -- or some opinions -- regarding whether this voice needs to be maintained within this group. I am especially astounded that there was nobody from NCUC at the group, leaving the At-Large people -- and me specifically, in this particular case -- trying to make the case that not all registration abuse is trademark related. As I get ready to participate in a conference call of this group for which I am ill prepared (just got home yesterday after a second conference I had that followed Sydney), I would like to hear some feedback. Am I wasting my time here? Does ALAC have its own position of the issue of registrant abuse? I am fully aware that I am not acting as an At-Large, and as such speak there for nobody but myself. However, it would be helpful if I could be guided by previous At-Large policy and current At-Large sentiment. Is the statement "domain squatting and speculation constitutes a form of registrant abuse" accurate to anyone here? Or should I be advancing issues related to other forms of registrant abuse? Or should I even bother? I have better uses of my time than being at the end of a verbal firing squad. I'd also like to hear some perspectives from Beau and Patrick, the only other "user" minded people in the room that day. - Evan