"You do realize that that 'parking spot' has had my highest income website on it for over a decade with about 100K visitors daily even at the low times?"

Why even "apologize" like that? You don't have to.

For some reason people seem to think that there could be a cost effective way to truly determine what the best use of each and every domain name is and allocate it to the truly deserving users!.

And that if that was even done then a user with more money wouldn't then come along later and buy it from that person by paying them money.

You know I remember way back in 2001 - I think it was. And I would have attorney's contact me wanting to know if they could use law.com for their website. You know as if they just woke up one morning, had this idea, and nobody else thought of using law.com for the same purpose. They were the first! That's how little they knew about the internet prior to that thought.

Likewise, many startups seem frustrated that the name that they want is being held for ransom by some other person. As if nobody else would have come along and used it for their business and they wouldn't be able to use it.

In that case, my apologies, this is the edge-case of a domain-transfer of a domain that was truly being used. The way I had read things, it sounded as though you parked a two-letter domain on a sketchy web-cam site.

And regarding the public resource, it really is a public resource. You may have to go through a registrar, but it is open for any and all to register. In the case of "squatters", it is the same as attempting to rent a parking space. Something meant for the public to use which requires a nominal fee.

I'd say it's closer to real estate than a parking spot... Think of a book store that has a great business but it is located in the middle of a bar district. At some point the property is more valuable than the business and it makes sense to sell it so someone else can develop a business that better leverages the location.

Except you do not own it, you rent it. Most folks who sell domains just pick one up for a few bucks and try to charge a ridiculous fee to transfer it. You are taking a publicly available address and extorting someone who actually intends to use it.

That is by far the best explanation, better than I could have said it myself. Thank you, you nailed it perfectly.