Why did industry front group "National Consumer Coalition" allow their domain to expire?

[drm604]

The "National Consumer Coalition" is an industry front group that is the umbrella organization for a large group of bogus "consumer organizations" that actually represent industry interests.

SourceWatch lists the coalition members: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Consumer_Coalition

• 60 Plus Association
  
• The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC)
  
• Alexis de Tocqueville Institution
  
• Americans for Tax Reform
  
• Association of Concerned Taxpayers
  
• Atlas Economic Research Foundation
  
• Capital Research Center
  
• Citizens Against Government Waste
  
• Citizens for a Sound Economy
  
• Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow
  
• Competitive Enterprise Institute
  
• Consumer Alert
  
• Defenders of Property Rights
  
• Foundation for American Liberty
  
• Frontiers of Freedom
  
• Fund for a New Generation
  
• Heartland Institute
  
• National Center for Policy Analysis
  
• National Center for Public Policy Research
  
• Political Economy Research Center
  
• Public Interest Institute
  
• Seniors Coalition
  
• Small Business Survival Committee
  
• United Seniors Association
  
• Women for Tax Reform
  

According to SourceWatch, NCC is operated by "Consumer Alert": http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Consumer_Alert

Consumer Alert, founded in 1977, is a national, non-profit organization concerned with "excessive growth of government regulation at the national and state levels." According to its website, Consumer Alert's mission is to "enhance understanding and appreciation of the consumer benefits of a market economy so that individuals and policymakers rely more on private rather than government approaches to consumer concerns."

Consumer Alert, "formerly headed by John Sununu and funded by such companies as Chevron, Eli Lilly, and Phillip Morris, has fought mandatory air bags on the grounds that their expense is a burden to the consumers they claim to represent".

Consumer Alerts' website is http://consumeralert.org. This address is listed by SourceWatch and a number of other sources, including some of the organizations it sponsors.

But if you go to their website, you'll see that it is now a monetized landing page. What this means is that the domain name expired, due to non-payment of the renewal fee, and it was snapped up by a domain speculator who is taking advantage of the traffic by putting up a bunch of pay per click ads. If you look at the whois for that domain you'll see that the owner is located in India.

So I wonder what happened. Is the organization defunct? Many of it's sponsored organizations are still running so that seems unlikely. Also, it's sponsors have certainly not run out of funds - domain registration usually costs around $10 a year.

Were they simply negligent? Is the person responsible for maintaining the renewal in prison? I wonder if there's a story here?

[brentspeak]

1. Maybe they felt they accomplished all of their goals

Which is, to spam propaganda on behalf of corporations until such time as the corporations achieve maximum power.

[drm604]

2. I don't think so.

You posted after I accidentally clicked "Post Message" but before I finished the post. A number of the organizations they sponsor still have operating websites, and a domain name only costs around $10 a year, so it's seems unlikely to me that they did this on purpose. Maybe the person responsible for renewing their domain names is in prison, or maybe they were simply negligent. I think negligence is the most likely explanation, which would be hilarious if true.

[melody]

3. Somebody forgot to pay the domain dues

It happens all the time. I know a fellow who bought hamas.com because it expired and had people
ready to string him up. Someone nearly got microsoft.com the same way.

I should add -- someone should contact the domain owner (in the whois, there's generally a workable
email address) and explain the situation. Many of these bulk domain buyers have scripts that buy off
the expired registry every domain with a PR rank of 2 and above. They don't even know the domains
they've purchased. Many times, domain owners will give domains back. I suggest they contact the
fellow and explain things.

[drm604]

5. Contact them?

someone should contact the domain owner.

Why would we want to do that? This is an industry front group pretending to be a consumer group for anti-consumer purposes. Let them discover this for themselves. My guess is that they already know it but the current owner is making money off of it and refuses to give it up.

I find it amusing that these giant corporations can't keep track of their $10 renewal fees. They have teams of lawyers dedicated to protecting trademarks etc. and they let this slip by? :rofl:

[blogslut]

4. My guess is they let it expire

A fellow named Rich Zipperer had it in 2001 and it looks like he let it go to the Indian fellow in 2006. There is a Wisconsin state assemblyman named Rich Zipperer but those old WHOIS Admin and Tech contacts could be bogus. As for who owned it from 1997-2001, can't say.

As for comsumeralerts.com, that looks to have been relegated under the umbrella domain grassroots.org.

:)