Profiles
Naveen Jain, 42, founder, chairman and CEO* of InfoSpace, Inc.
Naveen came to the US from India. After seven years of working in Microsoft, started InfoSpace in 1996.
Jain has been listed in Forbes' 400 Richest Americans
($2,200 mln.
net worth, #121 in 2000), and America's Most Powerful People.
Now lives on huge estate in Bellevue, Washington.
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Sergiy Beloy, 37, Web programmer, creator of 2D-infoSpace.com.
Honors graduate from Universities in the US and UK.
However, in a country with average month income under $60, for the most of Sergiy's life his salary did not exceed
$100.
His recent attempt to find programmer's job in the US was in 2000 and took ten months: After sending thousands of CVs, got only 3 calls for interview. But even on presenting a signed contract with a famous American IT company, along with supporting visa documents prepared on his behalf by the British Exchange Council, the US Embassy refused to stamp visa. No explanation was given!
Now IT consultant in Ukraine.
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RECENT ATTACK!
On Feb. 6, 2005,
10,000(!) emails hit 2D-infoSpace.com.
All the messages were sent from a forged email address,
and contained the same content.
As a result, available disk space was immediately filled.
Access to 2D-infoSpace.com and incoming email were completely BLOCKED for several days!
Origin of the attack is under investigation.
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Affiliates:
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Domain Name Battle of Century
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Why anti-cybersquatter laws are unapplicable in the domain name conflict between international IT giant Infospace, Inc.
(NASDAQ:INSP) and
2D-info Space project.
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Who is behind multi-million US$ Web fraud offers and computer viruses attacks against 2D-infoSpace.com?
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Before discussing this, try to imagine a real value of domain name for the one of the biggest Internet company, who powers online services of 250,000 leading companies worldwide, --
Microsoft, AOL, Lycos, AT&T Wireless, Lucent, Nortel, Charles Schwab, Intel, to name a few. "Infospace Is Everywhere", behind partners' privately owned brands. "It's like Intel Inside, but for the Internet", said J. Preissler, vice-president of PaineWebber.
The Infospace's revenues grew stunning 107,704 percent in five years, placing the company No. 2 on the Fast 500.
The Infospace is owner of some media assets, e.g., last year it purchased the
Excite.com for $10 million, -- in essense, Excite's domain names and mail list.
Now, guess in how much millions Infospace can evaluate a domain name which sounds very similar to its own Web address? One? Ten? Hundred?
Sergiy Beloy, developer of original 2D-info Space scientific concept, related software, and supporting Web sites, has never offered his 2d-infospace.com and 2d-infospace.net domains for sale. However, he suddenly found himself at the center of a domain name battle, initiated by powerful corporation on the other side of the globe.
In March 2002, the Infospace, Inc. approached him with allegations about unfair competition on the ground that name of his scientific concept is too similar to their trademarks and Web sites addresses. The demand was to transfer purchased domains to Infospace, -- of course for FREE!
At a later time, Infospace's attorneys attempted to use against Beloy even a fact of asking related questions, and threatened him with legal expences starting from at least $200,000.
However, careful studying of applicable laws, in particular, Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act and
UDPR, shows that the 2D-infoSpace case has been beyond of their scope, -- if not an example of new precedent in the domain name conflicts practice.
The key is Beloy is a legal author of underlying scientific concepts. He has built unique identity for the two-dimensional info management, - totally separate image from Infospace.
Corresponding details were presented to Infospace's attorneys.
In July, a famous legal company, hired by Infospace and acting on behalf of Infospace, proposed him the
secret(!)
settlement: Beloy was offered to refuse some rights, granted by US and international laws, in return for ... dropping the knowingly false allegations against him! Beloy has not accepted the offer.
The Infospace continues its attempts to block use of the name 2D-info Space, and wants to be owner of corresponding domains. The question is: Understanding that the law is on Beloy's side and making no real move to settle this case outside the courtroom, how Infospace is going to implement that?
At the same time, the 2d-infospace.com Web site becomes a target for advanced criminal attacks. In particular, Sergiy may speak about:
- MULTI-MILLION US$ FRAUD OFFERS
- USING COMPUTER VIRUSES FOR BREAKING AND/OR DISCREDITING HIS WEB SITES
First of all, the Infospace has a motive!
However, Beloy has stressed in his letters to Infospace: "I'm not going to announce the huge IT corporation guilty of connection with above-mentioned criminal actions against me, - this is up to the US court... I am also not going to draw an analogy to WATERGATE scandal, although the main reason is the same, - ignoring competitor's rights".
"Despite being under illegal Web attacks, certainly beyond law space, I need to balance to not step out of line and be accused in compromising a big multi-national giant before end of thorough investigation. Correspondingly, my
Beyond Law Space
info-product is based on describing and analyzing real documents, but contains no final conclusions. I am presenting interesting facts, and you, readers, are free to make your own conclusion! Otherwise, there is a certain risk that this online publication, along with my infojava.com, might be forced to be shutted down."
Most of Sergiy's messages were addressed to the name of Naveen Jain, Chairman and CEO* of Infospace. Since August 9th Beloy sent several letters asking to confirm that "neither Infospace, nor any third party affiliated with or hired by Infospace, was involved in the criminal actions against me."
Up to now, there is no response!
Sergiy Beloy says:
"My aim is not to tarnish or otherwise compromise Infospace, -- and especially its founder Naveen Jain! According to what I learned about him during preparing this content, he is a highly respected professional, absolutely devoted to his work.
I am also not using current situation for discussing or promoting my software. The context is much wider, - this can happen with anybody, with any legal product, in any part of the world.
My ideas are the only thing I am possessed of!
And www.2D-infoSpace.com and .net are legitimate Web sites I developed. But there is a clear sign of at least BAD BUSINESS PRACTICE against them.
Facts of criminal activity, next step to which can be only
physical(!)
eliminating
me as a competitor, became a reality!
I want to ask who is behind that.
In general, the 2D-info Space, like any project I was involved in, is a part of my life! It's a part of me!!!
And no matter how good or bad my programs are, till they comply with copyright and trademark legislation, they must have a chance for existence!
I am currently not going to demand to cancel INFOSPACE trademark.
But it seems we are only at the beginning of main story!"
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