Domain squatters

[TheMonkey]

Well I've actually examined Nominet DRS in detail and it appears that the domain was registered "abusively" without the intent to resell. Complaint form going in tomorrow!

[expat]

Alternative is to make DNS work with any extention, so that number of available good names will be infinite.

Indeed. The late Jon Postel of IANA suggested some 100-150 extensions in the short term, with many more later as the architecture allows.

Of course, that wouldn't help most people who complain of "unavailability" of domain names, since what they want is usually for potential customers to be able to enter xxxxxx.com or xxxxxx.co.uk and come straight to their site.

But then those people too are trying to hijack something, i.e. a preferential access to potential customers. A domain name is just an address. If people want to find you or what you sell, they search in Google or Yahoo. The way to have them find you is to be well listed there.

With respect, if you want a "good" domain name so that people can find you instead of your competitors, you too are abusing the DNS.

[DaveB]

Indeed. The late Jon Postel of IANA suggested some 100-150 extensions in the short term, with many more later as the architecture allows.

Of course, that wouldn't help most people who complain of "unavailability" of domain names, since what they want is usually for potential customers to be able to enter xxxxxx.com or xxxxxx.co.uk and come straight to their site.

But then those people too are trying to hijack something, i.e. a preferential access to potential customers. A domain name is just an address. If people want to find you or what you sell, they search in Google or Yahoo. The way to have them find you is to be well listed there.

With respect, if you want a "good" domain name so that people can find you instead of your competitors, you too are abusing the DNS.

The best domain names are the short memorable ones. Once your customers have found you, you want them to be able to come back quickly and easily and be able to pass on the name to others. Anything that isnt easy to remember without bookmarking or writing it down is probably not going to work well.

[expat]

There are compulsory purchase orders that would be executed in such case and the price paid for that land won't be anything this land "owner" wants.

Cybersquatters are scum and bring no added value to the Internet, as such they are the parasites of the highest order that should be (as Daleks would put it) exterminated.

A closer analogy would be if someone bought a piece of land that he thought you might later want to build a house. You wouldn't get a compulsory purchase order, you'd be expected to buy it or go somewhere else.

Is it for you (or me) to judge who adds value and who doesn't? We may have an opinion, but is that good enough for the criminal law? You might say these people are retailing domain names: is retailing added-value or parasitism?

[AtW]

Sadly Jon Postel left this world, great loss

With respect, if you want a "good" domain name so that people can find you instead of your competitors, you too are abusing the DNS.

That's not the case: people who buy domain and use it for legit site are fine in my book, but I have problem with those who buy millions of domain, and I mean here real millions - and then put placeholder to just sell it. These people do not do anything useful at all, its 100% parasitic behavior, even DodgyAgent is not that bad.

Say there are people who buy crap houses, make them nice, repair stuff and then sell with profit - fair enough because they actually do it, heck, even if they buy house and sell later for profit its fine too, but if anyone in the UK tried to buy 200,000 houses, closed them down (not even renting) and then demanded extortionate amounts for either rent or sale, do you think this would be allowed? Of course not.

[Paddy]

Well I've actually examined Nominet DRS in detail and it appears that the domain was registered "abusively" without the intent to resell. Complaint form going in tomorrow!

I registered a domain last year with a .co.uk next day I was going to register the .com version but someone had taken it a few hours before. Sounded like an inside job. I have been advised that it is illegal to register purely on speculation.

[AtW]

You might say these people are retailing domain names: is retailing added-value or parasitism?

No, they don't retail them - retail involves lots of things like local marketing, transportation, storage etc etc: with domains there are no such costs at all, and thus their margin (if it was competitive market) should be next to zero, however they acquire effective monopoly by buying lots and lots of domain and then hiking up sale price to make up for it. This behavior has no economic sense apart from enriching a few scumbags.

[expat]

No, they don't retail them - retail involves lots of things like local marketing, transportation, storage etc etc: with domains there are no such costs at all, and thus their margin (if it was competitive market) should be next to zero, however they acquire effective monopoly by buying lots and lots of domain and then hiking up sale price to make up for it. This behavior has no economic sense apart from enriching a few scumbags.

No, AtW, free market economic sense does not have you and me deciding how much value someone adds, and how much margin they should make, it has the market deciding.

Let the market decide. Don't pay if the price is too high.


I agree they are scumbags, because you could find domain names without them. But I might say the same about, say, agents.

[AtW]

No, AtW, free market economic sense does not have you and me deciding how much value someone adds, and how much margin they should make, it has the market deciding.

But there is no free market dude! Those guys buy millions of domains, they effectively limit choice - there are a few major companies that own at leats 10 mln domains, this means in effect they control the supply and thus prices paid are not free market ones, its obvious from the price itself - where on Earth can you buy electronic thing for $10 but sell it for >$100,000? Heck the cheapest domains on resale are $500+, this implies they sell 1 out of 50 they bought, this in itself shows that they are spammers who are not smart, their model only works if they buy enough of domains to limit choice: in any normal country such practice would be illegal because companies that control so much of supply side have their prices regulated.

Yes Agents are also parasites, however they are much lesser of a parasite than those scumbags. At least agents give you money and don't charge you, where as those guys charge you and owning domain is no guarantee of success.

[The Lone Gunman]

I could agree to some form of control, but I do not see what is wrong with speculative purchasing of these names.
As .co.uk are supposed to be for UK businesses then maybe companies house and the tax man should be chasing registered name holders or have th epower to remove them from non UK businesses.

I too think these people are scum but they have paid for these names on the off chance that somebody will want to buy them. If nobody buys them then they are worthless.
They are taking a business risk.

You have no right to a domain name. Would you demand that the guy who owns AtW House in AtW Street should give up that address to you too? Waht about the car registration ATW1, should you be allowed to buy that at your price?

The domain name people made a mistake and the people who saw the chance should not be penalised for taking advantage, tulip happens, deal with it.