Veteran Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
|
How do you acquire those domains that don't really exist but are just a filler page (shown below)? They seem like they are in internet limbo, owned by a registrar but not a person... Anyone have any experience or idea?
|
quote |
owner for sale by house
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Charlotte, NC
|
If they're interested in selling them, there's usually contact information at the bottom of the page. But don't think you can get them for cheap, they generate tons of income with their spam links. There's also a domain aftermarket (look at godaddy's websites, for example) where domain names are auctioned off - also for ridiculously high sums, IMHO.
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
|
There is no link on the page itself, but I found the registrar through a whois search. The registar that owns the domain charges $30 a year for registration which is nuts. According to whois the domain expires in November. I assume they'll automatically renew it? If not is there any way to pry it out of their hands any other way?
|
quote |
owner for sale by house
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Charlotte, NC
|
Only if they use a name that you have a trademark on or where you can somehow show that you should be its owner. It doesn't matter which registrar it is on right now, because you can always transfer it somewhere else once you own it. But they will certainly renew the domain, so forget about waiting for it to expire. I've been watching a domain for over a year now that should have expired, and no luck. It'll be easier and cheaper to just think of something else.
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
|
So really, the only option is to purchase the domain from them for their ludicrous $30 and then transfer it to my normal register for next year?
I'm curious as to what you mean by "somehow showing that you should be it's owner." I don't have a trademark but have been using the term as the title of my website since roughly 2002. |
quote |
owner for sale by house
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Charlotte, NC
|
If you think $30 is ludicrous, wait until you see what they actually want to charge you for. If it's only $30, just buy it. But I doubt that's the price to get the domain from them.
ICANN has a domain name dispute resolution policy. I doubt using the title for your website will help you, you have to have documentation and a business interest, IIRC. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
|
Your right. They give you a place to "make an offer" for the domain of at least $200. You can register .net, .org, etc for their $30 price, but .com goes to this auction thing. So basically the whole domain registration business is a racket. Great.
|
quote |
‽
|
$200 is still very low. A good domain easily goes for tens of thousands.
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Oct 2005
|
I wish it was illegal to sell a domain name for more than what they paid for it in registration...
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
|
Quote:
I'd agree. If you can register a domain for around $9 what makes it worth any more. Especially all these "filler" pages like I threw up above. It obviously doesn't do anything, it's not a common name or anything. I think I'm managed to stumble onto the dark heart of the internet and I don't really like it... |
|
quote |
Senior Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Chicago
|
I think of it like real estate. You buy a domain like a piece of investment property. Why should that be illegal? My gf's dad makes a killing dealing in 800-numbers. Same idea.
|
quote |
Subdued and Medicated
|
First, there are anti-cybersquatting laws you should look at. Many places do not have purchase information because that actually works against them in court.
I would say document the use of your name and save everything printed on paper. That is what I have been doing when a cybersquater tracked my DNS query and bought a domain out from under me. (I have been using that name since 1999 and can prove it.) If you want them to pay court costs, you have to own the trademark and that is where I sit right now. Mind you, a lawsuit costs more than $200. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
|
Yeah, which is why they can charge such stupid prices. The whole thing kind of rubs me the wrong way. I mean, I can see nolei2's point but at the same time I think that the internet is mainly a means of free communication... so it doesn't really work together.
|
quote |
¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
|
Quote:
1997: $150,000.00 1999: $7,500,000.00 2007: $345,000,000.00 Obviously they bought a lot more than just the domain name in this last go-round, but it's not uncommon for a domain name (especially the short and sweet ones) to go for big cash. Hell, sex.com went for $14M and even beer.com went for a frothy $7M. So it goes. |
|
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Near Indianapolis
|
It's an open market, and I think it's fine that way. If someone is dumb enough to pay millions of dollars for a domain, then someone should be able to profit from that.
|
quote |
owner for sale by house
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Charlotte, NC
|
In the meantime, millions of great domain names can't be used because some asshole is sitting on them. They can do that pretty much forever, because the costs are minimal and the income from spam links more than pays for the hosting. And like spam (which also costs next to nothing), these squatted domains just ruin the spirit and experience of the web.
Cybersquatters are scum. |
quote |
‽
|
Indeed. Unfortunately, like many components of the Internet (SMTP anyone?*), the Domain Name System assumes good faith, to use a Wikipedia phrasing. It doesn't take scammers, spammers and other lowlives into account in the least. It would have to be redesigned from scratch to fix that, and that ain't gon' happen.
*) From today's perspective, not double-checking whether a user account actually exists (much less whether it belongs to you) would be considered ludicrous. Imagine a web app that lets you log in with a made-up account! And yet, we do this every single day with e-mail; there are no protocol provisions for validation at all. |
quote |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Florida
|
Quote:
|
|
quote |
Posting Rules | Navigation |
|
Thread Tools | |
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
DVD not registering? | SKY | Genius Bar | 2 | 2006-04-10 01:50 |
Aldo Hall of Shame Nominee: Buy Domains . com | Moogs | AppleOutsider | 36 | 2006-04-07 20:48 |
Gahhhhhhhhhhrgg! I hate GoDaddy! Anyone else? | scratt | General Discussion | 26 | 2006-01-22 20:53 |