Gaia Capitalist

It is remarkable that Virgin Enterprise Intellectual property management is letting this snowballing public relations disaster for Virgin, Virgin Fuels and Sir Richard Branson pick up speed.  They have not been on my sites to see what I'm posting since Sir Richard's big announcement.  I have bent over backwards protecting Virgin, Virgin Fuels and Sir Richard Branson in cyberspace but I'm finding this whole issue now ironic if not just down-right hypocritical.
 
I feared this would happen. Sir Richard goes public on Friday with big media announcements using keywords I've been working since September.  Traffic on the news site virginfuels.org has gone from minimal 700 average hits to over 5000 hits on Friday.  On some keywords I hold 5 out of the top 10 Google spots.

Sir Richard has made famous the keywords "gaia capitalism" and "gaia capitalist" and guess who holds the top rankings in cyberspace for those meta tags.  ME. When people want to find out more about Sir Richard and his work, it is this discussion at the top of the search engines.

Every time Sir Richard mentions Gaia Capitalism, Gaia Capitalist and/or Virgin Fuels from now on out, it is this discussion they will read.  I've worked in public relations, advertising and newspapers all my life and I know what an unnecessary disaster this has become for Virgin Enterprises, Virgin Fuels and Sir Richard Branson. They just don't seem to know it yet and I cannot understand how one of the most successful companies in history can be so completely knuckle-headed when it comes to doing business on the Internet.  GC 02.12.07  11:12

Sir Richard Branson again is encouraging Gaia Capitalism, entrepreneurship, Interpreneurship, ingenuity, creativity and initiative by announcing a $25 million prize for the first person to come up with a way of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

I contend that my project BioEnergy World News Service is an example of Sir Richard's stated public philosophy. Although everything I have done with VirginFuels.org been above-board, legal, ethical and a contribution of service and value, I have been accused of cybersquatting and trying to dishonor Virgin Enterprises. The entire dialogue with Mark James, Virgin Enterprises Intellectual Property manager is documented on the Gaia Capitalist blog.

Gaia Capitalism is not just a media campaign. Gaia Capitalism goes both ways.

the Gaia Capitalist blogger 02.11.07 09:12

"We want to create free education on the internet", said Sir Richard Branson in a BBC news magazine article by Sean Coughlin dated April 26, 2006.  Speaking about his humanitarian work on behalf of poor South African children, Branson has been investing in education - including supporting the ground-breaking CIDA university in Johannesburg, South Africa, which provides affordable higher education for poor black youngsters.

This includes the Branson School of Entrepreneurship, which seeks to promote business skills and entrepreneurial flair among students, with the belief that developing successful companies is the way to spread prosperity within South Africa.

The latest effort to extend its reach is the development of a "university in a box", which will take higher education to young people in outlying rural areas who are unable to attend campus-based courses.

"We're getting Wikipedia to create an education site for Africa - we want to create free education on the internet. An African living in South Africa might know nothing about Ethiopia or Nigeria."  BBC News Magazine "Branson on Wealth"

The Gaia Capitalist asks herself, isn't this what I've been trying to do with World BioEnergy News

For some reason, my attempt to create a World BioEnergy News project and introduce it to Virgin for possible underwriting, funding or sponsorship has been twisted into something unrecognizable. Not to worry. I got an email this morning saying the US Government is handing out grants to millions of people just like me. Just in time to salvage World Bioenergy News.

How is it possible that something that started out with such good intentions and built on hundreds of hours of volunteer effort is now being considered a case of cybersquatting? I just hope they don’t turn their request for my funding proposal into an “exorbitant demand for money in exchange for the site” or that by discussing the subject in cyberspace and the blogosphere I am “posting derogatory remarks online in order to force the rightful owner to pay (what can be called) extortion money”.

Here we are, Sunday January 7, 2007, and basically I am left with the threat of “formal action” if I do not accept Virgin’s offer for transfer of my domain name virginfuels.org to them. We could have gotten to this same point six weeks ago.

For example, ten days after receiving my November 12, 2006 letter to Virgin Corporate seeking funding for my news site, Virgin Intellectual Property management could have written the same email:

“Received your letter. We decline your request for funding. We’re having a problem with your registration and use of the domain name. We assert it belongs to us. We are prepared to offer you $150. If you do not accept the offer we reserve the right to take formal action against you at some later date.”

At least I could have started accommodating Virgin’s demands around Thanksgiving instead of wasting the last six weeks developing the site, and working through the holidays and now the New Year trying to explain to them why I’m not a criminal cybersquatter.

The whole purpose of my request to Virgin was to find funding, underwriting or sponsorship for World BioEnergy News. Their last offer of $150 is $50 less than the suggested cost of a banner ad for one month on the new WorldBioEnergyNews.com site. I’m not taking this personally, but it feels like a slap in the face.  Instead of encouraging my work, it appears Virgin is ready to spend thousands of dollars to take virginfuels.org away from me.    01-07-07 19:17

The Virgin Fuels virginfuels.org domain name registration discussion is back in the public domain for commenting and posting, with Virgin's knowledge.  See Virgin Responds for update 01-07-07.

I still need a job!! 

This is not the way I wanted to spend my Christmas vacation.  Tearing my sites apart, reconfiguring their structure and meta tags.  Cloning and building new ones.  Taking my sites purposefully out of the engines.

None of this has given me satisfaction.  Usually I'm proud when I take four of the top five spots on a major engine like Google or MSN or Yahoo. Nothing I have done these last 12 days or so has contributed to my main goal in life - continue my service work by publishing a world bioenergy news site and find a way to survive financially.  I still desperately need sponsorship and/or a job to even continue living in my home.

I find all this a distraction from the important work of taking care of our children and our environment, and getting the word out about bioenergy. Again, what a pity.  01.01.07  21:27

Virgin again has not visited virginfuels.org and/or my blog the Gaia Capitalist, according to daily site traffic logs.  I've been blogging for ten straight days on a subject of vital importance to their boss and his new company Virgin Fuels, with enourmous public relations complications both in the physical world and in cyberspace for years to come, and no one at Virgin is even bothering to pay attention to little old blogger me.

This is like playing chess by myself.  Or, high-stakes poker with someone who's never even seen a deck of cards before. It breaks my heart this is happening.

How can they not realize that once information is uploaded to the Internet it stays there forever?  Even if active pages are taken down, there are sites that archive other sites, like the Memory Hole. Once uploaded and indexed, be assured those pages will show up somewhere - maybe #87,543 - in the search engines listings, always findable if one knows how to search. Since there's untold number of engine bots crawling out there, this stuff lives on the Internet in perpetuity.

Between September 29 and December 20, I spent hundreds of hours gathering and publishing bioenergy news I thought people would be interested in.  I recreated most of the banner graphics on the site for professional reasons (my pride).  I thought I did a good job promoting the important work of Sir Richard Branson and his new vision of Gaia Capitalism and Virgin Fuels.

Ten days into the legitimate public domain Virgin Fuels news site domain name registration discussion, interested bloggers have been copying and pasting and linking this information to and from their sites for their visitors to read. Their posts are already showing up in the SEs. Roots grow quickly in cyberspace.  12.29.06  00:16

Virgin Fuels news site domain name reigistration discussion centers on Virgin's contention that I am domain squatting on virginfuels.org.  Cases like these were handled in the courts in the 1990's, with findings that prohibited squatters from profiting. 

Precedence Virgin is basing it's $25 offer for registration reimbursement for transfer of virginfuels.org.

What I am doing as a white hat web publisher of an Internet bioenergy news site is not domain squatting.

Wiki 12.29.06  "According to the U.S. federal law known as the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, cybersquatting is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cybersquatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price.

The term is derived from "squatting", which is the act of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use. Cybersquatting however, is a bit different in that the domain names that are being "squatted" are being paid for through the registration process by the Cybersquatters. Cybersquatters usually ask for prices far greater than that at which they purchased it. Some cybersquatters put up derogatory remarks about the person or company the domain is meant to represent in an effort to encourage the subject to buy the domain from them.

As with many controversial issues some argue that the dividing line of Cybersquatting is difficult to draw, and that the practice is consistent with a capitalistic and free market ethos.

Cybersquatters sometimes register variants of popular trademarked names, a practice known as typosquatting.

Cybersquatting is one of the most loosely used terms related to domain name intellectual property law and is often incorrectly used to refer to the sale or purchase of generic domain names such as example.com; where a covetous party has designs on unseating an innocent entity that was first-to-register a generic and valuable domain name."

For one thing, it's a whole new cyberworld.  Everyone knows these days, if you choose not to reserve a domain name - when you have the chance - someone else has every right to buy it and use it for any variety of purposes. This is the name of the game. 

I find the following statement by Mark James, Virgin Enterprises Intellectual Property manager, particularly naive and somewhat offensive in its presumptions.  "We cannot be expected to register every permutation of every possible domain name and should be entitled to rely on our trade mark rights instead." 

Who considers virginfuels.org an obscure permutation of their Virgin Fuels name?

Remarkable.  This is the largest enterprise on earth and they are so confident and comfortable about their trademark and copyrights in cyberspace that they failed to take the simple first step to secure their Internet domain names when they had the chance.  Not only is Virgin saying "We don't have to shell out the $25 each and bother purchasing our domain names. We already own them anyway and no one else is allowed to purchase or use them."

They appear to have no idea how the Internet works.  I bought the name fair and square on the open public market.  Domain names to poor people like me are like stock options to the rich.  We know the value a domain name can have for buzz keyword value in addition to the right site design, structure and optimization. Hard to feel sorry for the entire Virgin Corporate web and Internet department for not getting it together.

Think what precedent could be set if Virgin manages to force me to transfer registration of virginfuels.org?  What are the implications for all Interpreneurs if someone, anyone can come back months, years later maybe and lay claim to a fully developed and optimized site alleging "domain squatting" or trademark infringement.  When do trademarked names become public domain keywords, meta tags and page titles?  How much responsibility does Virgin carry for not noticing virginfuels.org was active, not bothering to check the SEs, not bothering to respond to my Virgin Corporate letter for five weeks?  I publicly launched the virginfuels.org on September 28, 2006.

They certainly didn't need to slam the door on me the week before Christmas.

I created a Global BioEnergy News site providing information about renewable fuels and sustainable energy, and featuring and promoting the great work of SRB and Virgin Fuels.  Definitely not the definition of domain squatting. 

I didn't ask for a handout. I'm not holding the domain name virginfuels.org ransom in exchange for unearned profit.

I offered virginfuels.org to Virgin Fuels as a gift in exchange for consideration for work or a paid job.  Mark James of Virgin Intellectual Property is treating me as if I'm a common criminal.  12.29.06 16:45

The Gaia Capitalist has successfully removed her sites from the search engines for "virgin fuels" and "gaia capitalist."  They will, of course, all rise again because of the Virgin Fuels news site domain name registration discussion, but I am giving Virgin lawyers time to respond before going further into the blogosphere. 

It appears that everyone at Virgin Corporate and Virgin Fuels is on Christmas vacation and since not a single soul in probably the largest enterprise on earth is paying attention to their boss' SRB's interests in cyberspace, I certainly will.  I've been extraordinarily careful not to use his name for fear of crawl hits on his keywords.

Think about it.  On Christmas Day, 2006, the humble, poverty-stricken Gaia Capitalist blogger, working through the night alone at her home computer, legally owned all the top search engine spots for the public persona (the Gaia Capitalist) of one of the wealthiest, most powerful men on earth.

What's even stranger, I have owned and controlled the Virgin Fuels company presence in cyberspace and on the Internet search engines for almost the last three months.  I hit the top of the SEs in mid-October and have been consistently ranked at the top since. I even wrote Virgin corporate a letter telling them about it. All by using perfectly acceptable web publishing and SEO techniques. All published on URLs and on domain names I legally purchased for $25 each and continue to own.

(note: I still own #1 Yahoo for virgin fuels as of 12.29.06 14:04. I expect it will drop out soon.) 

I got three of my sites to place #1, #3, #4 and #5 on google.co.uk. I made my point.  No one at Virgin is paying attention, so to protect SRB and Virgin Fuels in cyberspace and the blogosphere, I will pause. Think of it as a poker game.  There is no satisfaction knocking an opponent off the table who's never even seen a deck of cards before.  To cause harm or trouble is never my purpose.

Nothing is more important than the work Virgin's SRB is doing in the world.  It is a shame it has come to this.  12.28.06  20:40