Source: http://infosecurity.us/?p=1105 On Wed, Sep 3, 2008 at 01:09, Bhavin Turakhia <bhavin.t@directi.com wrote: Hi Marc We came across your article on http://infosecurity.us/ based on Knujons factually inaccurate and baseless report. Directi is not linked with any of the activities described in that report and Knujon, in their research have never bothered to get their facts straight from either ICANN or us. The article you publish is false and defamatory and hence I urge you to take it down immediately. Feel free to connect with me for any clarifications - my cellular number is <<REDACTED>> and I will be happy to share the actual facts with you - something that Knujon has not bothered to do so far. Find below our email to Knujon concerning the gross inaccuracies in their article Warm Regards Bhavin Turakhia Founder, Chairman & CEO Directi T: +91-22-66797600 M (IN): +91 <<REDACTED>> —- Dear Garth (from Knujon), This is with regards to the numerous articles on your website www.knujon.com that frivolously implicate the Directi Group. Before I move to the specifics, Id like to comment on the challenge you’ve thrown open to us, to take a lead in the endeavor of suspending every illicitly run domain name. Please understand that Directi continues to be one of the most proactive Registrars today in terms of combating abuse and implementing strict AUPs and we have a significant investment in terms of manpower and processes to achieve just this. We do so, not because were contractually obligated, or to protect our own business interests, but because we sincerely believe in the ideology of making the internet a safer and more secure medium for conducting business. Its really unfortunate that your analysis misrepresents the details, and conveniently ignores all of the active measures we take regularly against spamming, phishing and other forms of abuse activity on the internet. As a matter of fact, we have a ZERO tolerance policy towards unscrupulous activities, and therefore extremely shocked to learn about the baseless allegations made in your report. Given below, is a list of all the false information, conclusions and accusations that you have repeatedly made about our organization: 1. EST is NOT affiliated to the Directi Group in any way: EST just happens to be one of the several thousand service providers that use our technology to provide domain registration services. Therefore all of the claims that EST is a part of our Group is grossly incorrect. 2. Your claim that the accredited companies we own are: a) Phantom Registrars (ex: Jumbo Names) that are not incorporated or Do Not Really Exist and b) somehow involved in supporting the fake pharmacy business in some way, is not only grossly incorrect, but also seriously defamatory. You may not be privy to the strategic reasons why several of the top web services cos. need to invest in multiple registrar companies. However, there is absolutely no substance in suggesting that these companies are somehow involved in illegal activities. Not only do these registrars operate legitimately, but they also implement the strict AUPs for all sponsored domain names. 3. You claim that the Directi Group is somehow closely linked with Atrivo, which probably is a false conclusion drawn from pt. 1. above. 4. There are several other domain names that you have listed for various issues - software piracy, for instance - and claim that they are privacy protected. These domain names and their sponsoring registrar have not used privacy protection services for several months now; it is unfortunate that you did not choose to verify your data before making these accusations. 5. The statement “While Directi claims they will suspend illicit domains, KnujOn has found on many occasions Directi sponsored domains being removed temporarily only to be restored after a brief period with the same content” is incorrect, but we do acknowledge a technical lapse that may have led you to believe this. The domain names that you’ve listed were not intentionally restored, but did not get suspended in due process because of a technical error. When vigilant netizens alerted us about the situation, the domain names were suspended immediately. 6. The statement “If a consumer complains to Directi/PublicDomainsRegistry about these sites they simply direct them to the ISP host that serves the content. If and when the site content is closed by the ISP host, Directi/PublicDomainsRegistry just helps them set up at a new IP.” is baseless and seriously defamatory. We do not condone any abusive behavior using domain names registered through us, much less facilitate it. There are cases where we forward complaints to the host to pursue in accordance with their AUP, but in no circumstance do we enable purported abusive registrants to setup in any fashion. 7. On several prior instances, we have attempted to explain to your organization the motives and mechanism behind Privacy Protection as a service. Privacy Protect isn’t intended to harbor miscreants, but to protect genuine domain owners from them. This service, provided through a network of registrars, is essentially free and has no affiliation with any domain names that use it. 8. Also, as a Registrar, we must categorically state that we have no association with the domain names registered through us. The insinuation that we as a registrar benefit in any form through abusive domain names is grossly incorrect; on the contrary, we invest considerable resources toward mitigating such abuse of our services. 9. During the Prescription Addiction Radioshow, you claimed that the registrar community is unable to effectively police illegal activities and hence most registrars are in violation of the ICANN RAA. This is factually incorrect since the job of policing the internet cannot be the sole responsibility of registrars, and the Registrar Accreditation Agreement doesnt state any such obligation either. Most registrars, purely out of moral reasons, build AUPs to ensure that they proactively prevent their services from being used for any illegal activity. Based on all of these false assumptions, misrepresentations and factual inaccuracies, you have referred to our organization as beastly, rogue, irresponsible, immoral and a supporter of the illegal narcotics industry. I hope you understand that this sort of frivolous victimization and public abuse is intolerable for our organization, and always tackled with utmost severity. However, since we believe that your intentions are not wrong, we would like to resolve this amicably by requesting all necessary corrections to the information published. We would also need a public clarification which explicitly states that the Directi Group is in NO WAY harboring or, being in any way involved, in any form of illicit activity.
On another note, I request you to understand the limitations registrars face in tackling these issues. Despite having a dedicated abuse complaints processing team, it is impossible for us to deploy the necessary resources and expertise to manually authenticate the legal status of each of the 4 million + sponsored domain names. A false positive could lead to a significant loss for an innocent customer, for which we will be squarely responsible. Things get even more difficult when other registrars that use our platform, are less sensitive towards their moral responsibilities. Sure wed like to pull the plug and permanently close our business with them, but how does one protect the several thousand innocent website owners that also happen to use their services? I believe you understand as well as we do that a true cleanup process requires the concerted involvement of several industry participants including ICANN, registries, brand owners, law enforcement agencies and registrars. You can be assured that from a registrar standpoint we continue to extend our full cooperation to the community at all points in time. We have always taken this issue seriously and will always continue to do so. Well also be glad to clarify your doubts on the above mentioned facts, over a conference call which can include the relevant people from our side. Were open to a constructive dialogue with you, and are all ears to any specific suggestion that you may have for us. If youd like that, do provide us with an appropriate time and number on which you can be reached. Considering the defamatory nature of the content in your posts and the inaccuracy of several accusations, we hope that the requested corrective measures will receive utmost priority and reflect immediately on your website. Best Regards, Sandeep Ramchandani Strategic Partner Manager The Directi Group