Jim Davies, attorney, domainer, voice of reason and all round good guy has been elected to the board at Nominet, the UK’s governing body of the .uk namespace. He was elected to the board at Nominets AGM held in London on Thursday. He was elected to the board despite some heavy lobbying by Nominet to its members to NOT vote for him.. Guffaw… Go Jim.
It’s pretty well known that Jim is an outspoken opponent of Nominet and his appointment will certainly stir things up. In particular, Jim has been very vociferous against the way Nominet handles domain disputes, through the DRS, including ironically the recent myspace.co.uk decision (subsequently overturned on appeal) for which he was the representing counsel… Go Jim..
Its also reported that Jim wants Nominet to consider lowering the cost of domain registrations (currently priced at the root level at £2.50 per annum) and he was against Nominet’s proposed resolution 6 which, ironically, did not receive the required mandate at the AGM in order to be passed.
Special Resolution 6 was Nominet’s attempt to become a self governing, self policing organisation with special powers to have an executive casting vote over most decisions. i.e. It attempted to shift its status from being a democracy to a dictatorship – and so Ya boo sucks to you. Nominet’s chief executive Lesley Cowley before the vote said that the existing board structure, together with low turnouts, makes Nominet “vulnerable to capture” by parties that might act in their own interests rather than those of the 3,000 members. Nice one Lesley, warn members of an eventuality that you just attempted yourselves! 
Jim has this to say on his website about his proposed nomination: http://www.jimdavies.me.uk/?cat=1
All round good guy.. really?
“Jim Davies – A former intellectual property lawyer who grabbed citigroup.co.uk on the very day in 1998 when it was announced that two financial giants were merging to form Citigroup Inc. has been ordered to transfer the domain name and could face substantial damages” In summing up I think the judge used the term ‘palpable nonsense’ to describe Jim’s explanation of events.
If you look past the relatively poorly masked self interest here, it is clear what he is up to. Loved his webpage though.. but wait.. doesn’t like Nominets DRS? really, why would that be? um, because he doesn’t like domains being taken off his hands? call me a cynic..
If i had my handbag with me Peter, i would be lifting it up to my face and going “O oooh” right now
Ooo, that was a bit bitchy huh..
I don’t think there is anything wrong with being opportunistic at the end of the day.. But I don’t trust lawyers as a rule of thumb though..
£:^)
[...] registry Nominet (a not for profit organisation) has this week been thrown into further turmoil as controversially elected nominet board member and leading IP attorney Jim Davies wrote to the board demanding the resignation of both the CEO Lesley Cowley and Chairman Bob [...]