p2pnet - rss feed: What’s in a (domain) name?
p2pnet.net news:- “Google’s UK arm is after a Dutch entrepreneur who registered four domains which included ‘Google’ in the name,” said p2pnet story recently, going on, “Marcel van der Werf’s Googledatingsite.nl, Googleonlineshop.com, Googlecommunity.nl and Googlestore.nl infringe on its trademark, says ‘Do No Evil’.
“However, ‘A brand is linked to a product, but not to the alphabet,’ WebWereld Netherlands has van der Werf saying.”
And, “Just a few years ago, most of the guys bidding in this room had never laid eyes on one another,” says CNNMoney. “Indeed, they rarely left their home computers. Now they find themselves in a Vegas ballroom surrounded by deep-pocketed bankers, venture-backed startups, and other investors trying to get a piece of the action.”
This particular story focuses on one Kevin Ham, a Canadian based in Vancouver, BC, who’s become a multi-millionaire by collecting Net monikers and who’s described in the story as the “master of Web domains”.
“The one thing that annoys me most about the topic of domain names is when trying to find a domain name for a new site only to find most of the names I come up with are already taken,” says Allan Burns in an ezine post. “Even more annoying is that these names are not being used for a site that relates to the domain name.”
What’s the difference between Googledatingsite.nl and Ham’s God.com? Both include existing and extremely famous names, if one can put it that way, but the first is based on a registered trademark, and the second isn’t.
Ham has become exceedingly rich by snapping up catchy domain names which don’t actually, or potentially, infringe on someone else’s registered trademark or name.
Domain squatting, or cyber squatting, is, “used for someone who registers a domain with no intention of using it, that would otherwise be used for a site relating to the domain name,” says Burns.
Domain parking, on the other hand, means registering a domain with the idea of using it in the future, “for a purpose relating to the domain name then you have just parked the domain,” says Burns adding:
“If you register a domain with the sole intention of making money from reselling it or getting revenue from people typing in the domain name then that is domain squatting.”
Back to Ham, “the big money is in the aftermarket, where the most valuable names - those that draw thousands of pageviews and throw off steady cash from Google’s and Yahoo’s pay-per-click ads - are driving prices to dizzying heights,” says CNNMoney. “People who had the guts and foresight to sweep up names shed during the dotcom bust are now landlords of some of the most valuable real estate on the Web.”
Microsoft is, “taking aim at two Texas men who registered domain names that use the word ‘microsoft’,” said CNET News way back in 1998.
“The men registered the Internet domain names ‘microsoftwindows.com’ and ‘microsoftoffice.com,’ and the software giant filed suit, alleging that the two men are infringing on the company’s trademarks and misleading the public.
“Microsoft characterizes the suit as part of its continuing stance against ‘cyber-squatting,’ a practice in which people register domains names desirable to large corporations, in hopes of later asking those corporations for big bucks to hand over the domain rights.”
The man at the top of the “little-known hierarchy” in 2007 is Ham, “one of a handful of major-league ‘domainers’ in the world and arguably the shrewdest and most ambitious of the lot,” says CNNMoney admiringly. “Even in a field filled with unusual career paths, Ham’s stands out. It continues:
Trained as a family doctor, he put off medicine after discovering the riches of the Web. Since 2000 he has quietly cobbled together a portfolio of some 300,000 domains that, combined with several other ventures, generate an estimated $70 million a year in revenue. (Like all his financial details, Ham would neither confirm nor deny this figure.)
Working mostly as a solo operator, Ham has looked for every opening and exploited every angle - even inventing a few of his own - to expand his enterprise. Early on, he wrote software to snag expiring names on the cheap. He was one of the first to take advantage of a loophole that allows people to register a name and return it without cost after a free trial, on occasion grabbing hundreds of thousands of names in one swoop.
Ham hears the cash register ring every time someone clicks on an ad, “as does his partner in this venture, the West African country of Cameroon”.
Why Cameroon? Because, “It has the unforeseen good fortune of owning .cm as its country code - just as Germany runs all names that end with .de,” states the story. It seems hardly any .cm names are registered, “and the letters are just one keyboard slip away from .com, the mother lode of all domains.”
Ham hooked up with the Cameroon government, “and flew in his people to reroute the traffic,” says CNNMoney adding:
“And if he gets his way, Colombia (.co), Oman (.om), Niger (.ne), and Ethiopia (.et) will be his as well.”
Meanwhile, when one goes to kevinham.com, what does one find?
Among other things, True Love, Free Internet Dating and Free Black Internet Dating.
Jon Newton - p2pnet
Also See:
p2pnet - Google vs Googledatingsite, May 11, 2007
CNNMoney - The man who owns the Internet, May 22, 2007
ezine - Domain Squatting Explained
CNET News - Microsoft takes on “domain squatting”, December 31, 1998
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
May 24th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
It would be nice if the “adblock” extension for Firefox could be enhanced to “translate” mis-typed domains to the intended one. That would put a dent in domainers’ annoying business model.
May 25th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
They do not have as many IPs as they have domains. Therefore, you can block all parked domains in Squid for example, to save your surfing time.
September 23rd, 2007 at 11:11 pm
Wow after I paid $500 USD to get a name back from SnapNames; Only now M$ sues yet it and rupards myspace allows it users to registrar Nics with my TLD without suit… But at the same time M$ supports Fake Recycling and is permitted to Create waste products to advertise by Un-Addressed Junk Mail in my country, and without fully protected Trademarks as required by Law. mmmm, let me think… of… how…. much… M$ and rupard’s shaft me!
The EPA basicly allows M$ to dump un-addressed junk mail into my real world mail box without restrictions. I Guess M$ pays well. Some other wonders like this include Apple who like M$ claim on their web sites they do not take part in Waste Generation by reduction of packing materials. It is sad how many USA companies use Print Media to do one thing, while claiming another..
Must be good to have laws generated simply to create profits.. Then again why not just rig an election or two like IBM does by doing business deals with companies who stand to profit at change of governments (ever notice how the old M$ supported Print Media has no laws, can print anything, and supports waste generation = above and beyond the law)