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Beckstrom probed over bizarre spam complaint

Kevin Murphy, September 25, 2012, 13:22:56 (UTC), Domain Policy

ICANN’s Ombudsman looked into a complaint that former CEO Rod Beckstrom allegedly spammed community members the day after he left the organization, it has emerged.
Whoever filed the complaint evidently did not like Beckstrom one bit.
According to Ombudsman Chris LaHatte, who rejected the complaint, the complainant said:

I wish to file a formal complaint about the below SPAM originating from ICANN’s servers. Since Mr. Beckstrom has left yesterday it is clear that he cannot have had access to ICANN infrastructure any longer. If however this were the case, one would have to consider YET ANOTHER serious breach. In any case I do not wish to receive communications of any kind from this person, Mr. Beckstrom. Please confirm receipt of this complaint, commence an investigation and advise me of the outcome.

LaHatte found that the email in question was “a courteous farewell and introduction to the new CEO” sent to between 50 and 60 people, all movers and shakers in the ICANN community.
According to LaHatte, who blogged about the complaint today:

After discussing this matter with the ICANN staff, it is clear that this email was in fact not spam in the common meaning of the term. Spam is usually considered bulk emailing sent indiscriminately to very large numbers of recipients. By way of contrast, 60 emails specifically tailored for groups of recipients is hardly unusual within a large organisation such as ICANN.

I know Beckstrom was not a massively popular individual with some in the ICANN community, but this complaint seems to be way out of proportion for a simple unwanted email.
Somebody out there needs to take a chill pill.

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Comments (4)

  1. Acro says:

    Beckstrom is by far the best ICANN CEO/director. His personality generated numerous articles for DomainGang 😀

  2. blehblehbleh says:

    uncanny

  3. blehblehbleh says:

    Is that headline factually correct?
    >Bubbe made a kishke,
    she made it big and fat,
    My Zaydeh took one look at it
    and said “I can’t eat that!”
    Oh…

Leave a Reply to blehblehbleh