I'm neither willing to pay $30, nor $100 dollars for my personal domain. $10/year is already enough, so I'd probably have to decline and risk losing my domain (because he could simply buy it for $100). I'm sure there are many scenarios where someone could even buy your domain (assuming you're not willing to pay $100), and damage your reputation (and since it is the Internet, sueing them can be impossible if he is outside of the us and getting back the domain name through a court would be way more expensive then $100).
Now, another scenario is when a domain broker bought domain B before company X does. The domain broker paid the usual price because nobody wanted it at that time. Now, company X wants to buy that domain and offers the register $100 for it. The domain broker is asked if they still want it for $100 by the domain register. They would agree knowing that they can sell the domains for a lot more than $100 to company X.
I don't see how this system could help anybody but maybe I just didn't understand your proposal right.
This has to be the only comments section on the internet where I actually get smarter by participating. :)
Squeezing out squatters also squeezes out anyone without means from domains they're not using for commercial purposes.
I already spend too much money keeping things online. Of the handful of domains I don't do much with, one is just for my primary email account. The same name is registered on other TLDs so there would probably be some demand for it. Am I making a "useful" enough use of it? There isn't even a web page on it. Am I "producing" enough "value"?
Or am I expected to lose a domain because someone else could use it to make money? Or simply because they could afford to spend more money keeping their stuff online than I do? No, that guy can go fuck himself.
We can leave other tld's for things that aren't worth $8/month to their creators.
A creative individual can come up with a new, memorable name. If you have a service about pets, then pets.com doesn't have to be your name.
For example, a friend really wanted [firstname][lastname].com, but there happened to be a hugely popular singer with this name, so he went with 1[firstname].com, resulting in a short, catchy registration.
In terms of land, you can't just create it (and in terms of reclaiming land from the sea for example, that land is considered capital).
One's target audience generally has a harder time picking up and remembering completely made up names.
1. The domain name is not worth $8/month to someone else
2. The domain name is worth $8/month to forgottenpass
3. The market for domain names is inefficient
How about because they paid for 200x .coms?
BTW, for you and some others here:
Domain squatting is when someone registers domains in the hope that trademark owners will shell out cash to get the domains.
Domain squatting is not when someone simply registers domains you happen to like and wish you owned instead.
Either way sounds bad for a legit company just trying to set up their own site, as it gives competitors an opportunity to cost them some money.
If you had something else is mind, please share more...
Domain squatting is supposedly against ICANN rules, and we have a clear brand we're trying to protect.
So when it was squatted, and listed for somewhere around $1,000, I figured this was an open and shut case with ICANN. Until I found out that filing a dispute would cost me even more. Dispute resolution seems to be offered up to a couple of different organizations, all of which charge exorbitant rates to examine your case.
So squatters have a massive range of profit margin they can make, as long as they keep the prices under the ICANN dispute resolution costs.
That's not "squatting" or stealing. You just forgot to renew it or have a backup card on file or transfer the domain after his death.
You make it sound like someone came in and stole it when the onus is technically on you to maintain control of this domain. You can register a domain for multiple years if the domain is important in case of an unexpected accident (or death).
In any case, what happened afterwards? Did you get back your domain or is it still being squatted?
When the price dropped dramatically, there was discussion on Slashdot about the effects. Most thought it was great ("hey, I, a poor college student, can get a domain now!"), but there was speculation it would lead to more domain parking.
Edit: LOL Which idiot downvoted this? The chronic lack of basic tech/internet knowledge among some people here is ridiculous.
In 1995, the NSF authorized NSI to begin charging
registrants an annual fee, for the first-time since
the domain's inception.
However this probably isn't going to change.
Even if that ended up not being the case, we'd have to fix how domains are transferred between registrars - same as how telephone numbers can be transferred between telcos but you can't sell your telephone number to someone.
If domains have to be returned back to the registrar b) doesn't apply. Auctions ensure that a) doesn't apply either.
Furthermore, adding a 7 day waiting period before returned domains become available will further ensure that parties cannot trade domains between each other but must purchase from the registrar which makes owning a domain and squatting on it for purposes of selling it pointless.
People have crowdfunded worse things.
The main reason is that most companies don't think it's necessary to pay thousands of dollars per year as a recurring REGISTRATION FEE.
If I'm understanding it correctly you will be faking nameserver entries ?
And I've had requests for it. Quite a lot of requests, even though it's not a very common name. What would follow, $100 moving to $1000, $1000 moving to $10000? Offer me $100k and I'll not give it up. For companies that own a trademark, this would also be an issue, because trademarks are not general, but product specific, see nissan.com
Such stories make me sad, especially since there are extremely few who could empathize with those who suffered and even understand the problem faced by them. I really hope there are people in the US who would support Mr. Uzi Nissan.
How is this possible with so many TLDs? Or do you mean "whenever I want a .com domain"?
So they dump all their crap, no resale value names that don't bring in more than $100 per year, as opposed to ones that don't make more than $10 per year.
As for non-"domain squatters", it seems like a great way to fuck with someone; just claim you want their domain and force them to cough up $100 or lose it.
This idea - which seems to be based on nothing more than bitterness that everyone in the world didn't sit back and wait for you to have first pick of names - is so transparently nonsensical that I find it hard to believe you are serious.
> Whenever I want a domain, most of the ones I want are taken.
You should have bought them first then, shouldn't you.
> Not by people who are making use of it, but by people who are squatting in hopes of extorting anyone who would actually use the domain to produce value.
Who are you to define value? Where people own 1000s of domains, they are always parked and bringing in money for the owner. Their profitability is the reason they are registered.
Who are you to decide that's not a valid way to make a living from domains? At least they're not spamming.
> I'd actually be happy if Verisign or any other private company or any government extracted such an unfair price
I'm sure you would, because you imagine you'd be a winner in such a situation, unfairly appropriating someone else's property.
> free up so many more useful domains for use.
There are literally millions of possible domain names that are unregistered. If your first preference is taken, do what everyone else does without complaint and think of another name, or pick a different extension, of which there are hundreds now.
>I'd love to hear good arguments against this
I'd love to hear a good argument for it.
Whenever I want a domain, most of the ones I want are taken. Not by people who are making use of it, but by people who are squatting in hopes of extorting anyone who would actually use the domain to produce value.
I'd actually be happy if Verisign or any other private company or any government extracted such an unfair price for useful domains because it would free up so many more useful domains for use.
Edit: I'd love to hear good arguments against this, I'm partly throwing this out there to see others thoughts.