QuakeAID
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
QuakeAID describes itself as "a global earthquake resource center for information, education and assistance" founded in Greece in 1998 in response to a major earthquake centered in Athens. It is not widely recognized as a charity providing earthquake relief, and has been removed from some existing directories where it was previously included.
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[edit] Declared purpose and activities
QuakeAID's declared purposes include:
- Research (cause, prevention, early detection, construction issues)
- Humanitarian (financial relief, housing, food and water, clothing, other support)
- Education (global awareness, preventative measures, safety issues)
- Resource (conduit for information)
The QuakeAID web site discusses the stated purpose of the organization, but provides no further information about how donations were used in the past. QuakeAID is not on the USAID list of tsunami aid agencies. It was delisted from VolunteerMatch and a directory of disaster management programmes provided by NASA (see references).
[edit] Corporate relations and history
QuakeAID's parent company, BAOU, Inc. (formerly known as MPC Trust) has repeatedly used its own newswire, OfficialWire (formerly known as OfficialSpin), for self-promotion during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. [1][2][3][4] As of December 18, 2005, OfficialWire is included in Google News search results.
BAOU, Inc. also makes frequent use of OfficialWire as an editorial tool. [5] [6] [7] Under headlines such as "Holocaust Day For Those Who Believe" [8], OfficialWire has published editorials and news sympathetic to Holocaust deniers Ernst Zündel and Robert Faurisson. [9] [10] It has also played a role in the Wikipedia controversy (see below).
QuakeAID was a direct subsidiary under Kestrel Trading Corporation as a member of its "Groups of Companies" - see copyright line of QuakeAID.org on June 2, 2002. QuakeAID was actively listed alongside SexWhereIS, an adult service managed by MPC Trust - See mpctrust.org from October 9, 2003 to December 21, 2003.
BAOU.COM was owned by Kestrel Trading Corporation (see baou.com from June 1, 2002 to June 03, 2003).
[edit] Introduction of JustVolunteers
After QuakeAID was delisted by VolunteerMatch on February 4, 2005, Baou, Inc. created its own charity network called JustVolunteers the following month. According to an article at OfficialWire (OfficialWire is also a subsidiary of Baou, Inc.), Jennifer Monroe had the following comment:
- We perceive it as hypocritical for any company, non-profit or not, to charge fees or solicit donations for this type of service. After all, it's volunteer work, isn't it? Before I pitched the service to Baou, Inc., and thinking out loud, I said, 'if organizations require volunteers and we can provide a service to help them, why not volunteer?'
The article, which was written by the "OfficialWire NewsDesk", continues to comment on their opinion of USC §501(c)(3) organisations:
- Experienced observers recognize that some of the largest abusers of public trust are charities. Despite safeguards and legislation to protect a susceptible public, often under the guise of 501(c)(3) and with impunity, organizations make more money through donations than they would otherwise if they 'charged' for their services. [11]
[edit] Wikipedia controversy
Immediately after the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, a member of QuakeAID with the user name Baoutrust used Wikipedia, an online collaborative encyclopedia, to promote the QuakeAID article and the QuakeAID website. [12] (The edits were variously attributed by QuakeAID to "Jennifer Monroe" and "QuakeAID's founder" in later postings to OfficialWire. [13] [14])
Wikipedia users raised concerns about the legitimacy of QuakeAID, and did not allow the organization to be listed among other charities. In January 2005, OfficialWire reacted by posting an article titled "One Man's Personal Quest Against Earthquake Charity". Further attacks against Wikipedia on OfficialWire followed.
In December 2005, a website called WikipediaClassAction.org was set up. The web site claims that legal action is justified because of the alleged flaws of Wikipedia and its parent organization, the Wikimedia Foundation. It cites the John Seigenthaler Sr. Wikipedia biography controversy as a primary example of the problems it seeks to resolve, without providing further details.
As of December 2005, the contact information listed on the website was the same as the information provided on QuakeAID's "Contact Us" page. [15] The domain name is also registered to Jennifer Monroe, who has in the past been named as a spokesperson for the Baou Trust, and whose name is found in the byline of several OfficialWire articles, including the aforementioned article critical of Wikipedia. [16] While BAOU.com has linked to the lawsuit website in an OfficialWire posting [17], a connection between QuakeAID and the lawsuit has not been publicly acknowledged (a document on the lawsuit webpage has a digital signature that proves the document was edited to a licensee by the name of "BAOU Trust").
JustVolunteers and QuakeAID websites are no longer accessible. These sites are redirected to www.officialwire.com. The "Nonprofit" link on the side menu lists a notice that Official Wire was purchased by Mayside.
[edit] QuakeAID.com dispute with WIPO
On August 30, 2002, a complaint was filed electronically with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Arbitration and Mediation Center by Greg Lloyd Smith and his wife Katerina Theohari-Smith (a.k.a. Aikaterini Theochari) of the offshore company BAOU, Inc, the parent company of QuakeAID. [18]
On July 9, 2000, the company obtained registration of QuakeAID.com via Network Solutions (VeriSign) for the period of one year. This registration was slated to expire on July 8, 2001. The business owners of QuakeAID (BAOU, Inc.) failed to pay the renewal fee of QuakeAID.com, and failed to realize this until August 15, 2001. By that time the domain had already been registered by Solid Domains, Inc. via the Register.com registrar.
In response to this, BAOU, Inc. filed for trademarks "QuakeAID" and "QuakeAID" in the UK and USA, respectively on April 9, 2002. The first use and first use in commerce date stated in the US trademark application was November 8, 1999.
The WIPO panel found that the domain name was identical or similar but that the complainant (BAOU, Inc.) did not prove that the respondent (Solid Domains, Inc.) had acted in bad faith. Accordingly, the panel decided that the domain name not be transferred to BAOU, Inc. on November 13, 2002. [19]
Dissatisfied with WIPO's answer in 2002, MPC Trust submitted a second complaint on October 2, 2003, using their recently issued trademarks as evidence. [20] The WIPO panel again found that the complainant had not met the burden of establishing bad faith by the respondent, citing that the trademarks were filed well after the registration of QuakeAID.com by Solid Domains.
As of 2005, QuakeAID has registered (7) domain names in the .org, .net, .info, .us, .co.uk, .org.uk, and .biz TLDs. All of these forward directly to QuakeAID.baou.com.
[edit] External links
[edit] QuakeAID's public listings as a charity
- QuakeAID ceased to trade on February 18, 2006 listing on CNN StudentNews.
- QuakeAID ceased to trade on February 18, 2006 listing on Network for Good.
[edit] Sites which have removed QuakeAID's public listing
- TakingITGlobal removed QuakeAID from their website on January 7, 2005. (before and after delisting)
- NASA removed QuakeAID from their web crawler index on January 10, 2005. (before and after delisting)
- VolunteerMatch removed QuakeAID's listing on February 4, 2005. [21]
