Friday, June 29, 2007

The Tricky Dynamic of Domain Names


On Thursday, I registered a domain name through Yahoo!
-
ifinddomains.com has been redirected to my website, which now has a legal notice posted. I'll explain what it's all about.
-
Being a word person, I'm fascinated by domain names and the possibility that one can make money with the right combination of words (I haven't quite figured out how to do this, but I'm working on it).
-
The other day, I Find Domains popped into my head, so I registered the dotcom version of it; the domain reselling biz is a bit crazy right now, so I thought I'd use it as a parking name, to see if it would generate some $$$$, okay $. I submitted it to a parking and resale site called Sedo and redirected the name to their parking lot and was getting ready to work on the template and maybe add some minor content (which is allowed).
-
That should have been the end of it, right?
-
Nope.
-
I'm getting the feeling that Sedo and, perhaps, Afternic, are trying to seize the name on the cheap, which boggles my mind because I have MUCH better dotcom names registered. What's more, the wayback machine has the domain as last being a website in February 2005, so it's hardly a hot commodity. When I picked up the domain name, it must have just been dropped (perhaps for good reason) by its former owner and deleted from Whois. Believe me, if it were truly a hot name, the experienced domainers would have been on top of it with all their sophisticated farming software.
-
After I submitted the name to Sedo, there was a message on my account page noting that they needed to verify the owner of domain name. "That's cool," I thought. But then I noticed something odd; all my other non-verified names were still available for me to edit. They were noted as "not being for sale," but I could edit the templates, look at stats, access the actual page through my account, etc. However, ifinddomains.com was missing from my list, so I accessed the parked page the old-fashioned way (typing in the domain name in the browser box) and discovered that Sedo was offering the domain for for $100.00!
-
My domain is still stored in the Sedo database, but they are denying me access to it, so I can't delete it. The verification message is still on my account--all my other names have cleared verification. It's obvious that checking would take all of three seconds to verify me as the owner.
-
I was totally and thoroughly pissed off--still am--what gives them the right, anyway? I immediately went to my Yahoo! account and deleted the redirect, and for a day, it was reparked on Yahoo!'s construction page. I thought that was the end of it, but I still had a bad feeling, so I went to Domain Tools and discovered that the domain was still being offered for sale! I emailed both Sedo and Afternic with a cease and desist order, and I tried posting a message on the Domain Tool Blog. I suspect the Domain Tools folks thought I was just trying to market the name, and they didn't publish the post. But what I'm trying to do is leave an electronic trail so that I'm not forced (legally) to sell my name for a price not of my choosing. I'm just not electronically savvy enough to prove that I didn't give Sedo permission to act as my agent, but I'm stating it here again: Sedo and Afternic and others do NOT have permission to act as my selling agent for ifinddomains.com.
-
I'm not interested in selling it at all; I just bought it!
--
Then, DUH, I realized I could post a notice on a webpage, and redirect the ifinddomains.com domain to that page (I use redirect a lot--for example, http://www.jennifersiegel.com/ goes to my school website, easier for my students to remember, that is, if they spell my last name correctly).
-
Hence, the legal notice, on a webpage that is actually accessed via the actual domain address. How's that for proof? Anyway, I'm willing to fight for keeping this name; it was available, and no one wanted it until I registered it.
-
Although this is only slightly related to writing--creating cool domain names is a form of artistic expression--I just want to leave an electronic trail in case this ends up in court. I'm also keeping a paper trail as well. You think the world of poetry has cornered the market on sleazy practices? They're amateurs when compared to people who make money on domains; the field is festering with the domain version of foets.
-
I'm hoping it doesn't go that far, but I want my ducks in a row.
-
Sheesh!
-
Bugzita
_________

No comments: