ICANN Says: Domaining is Bad

April 7, 2008 · Print This Article

Paul Twomey is the president and CEO of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the big kahunas who run the domain system. So, their view of domaining is obviously somewhat important.

Now we hear from Mr Twomey that domaining is bad. In fact, it’s not only bad, it’s as bad as cybersquatting and typosquatting.

Here’s Mr Twomey’s words (emphasis mine):

While many would welcome the ability to have domain names in their native languages, there is a number of downsides, Twomey said, including cyber-squatting, typo-squatting and domaining.

Cybersquatting is the practice of registering a website that contains a trademark, and then holding it hostage from the legitimate trademark holder in the hopes of a payoff. Typo-squattering involves registering websites that contain misspelling of trademarks, such as Googel.com, with the hope that the trademark owner will also pay to own the misspelled site.

Domaining, which is technically legal, is still somewhat controversial. Domainers purchase non-trademarked domain names in the hopes of either reselling the name at a profit [sic]. Some websites have resold for millions of dollars. Other domainers “park” the domain in order to generate advertising revenue. A parked site usually reroutes users to a website that contains ads.

While a number of international laws and internal procedures discourage squatting, domaining is going to be an issue, Twomey said.

Source: Gulf News

OK, let me see here. Purchasing stocks “in the hopes of reselling at a profit” – that’s alright. Purchasing bonds “in the hopes of reselling at a profit” – that’s alright. Purchasing property “in the hopes of reselling at a profit” – that’s alright. Purchasing domains “in the hopes of reselling at a profit” – really bad and should be illegal. Can’t see any logical problems with this argument.

Domainers really have their work cut out for them, when even the highest levels in the domain world think that reselling for a profit is really bad and should be forbidden.

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