Cybersquatting

dvoakes

Just looking for opinions and Information on this. Does anyone know if there are any laws affecting it in Ireland? I remember there was a lot of talk about it when the .ie domain names became active.

Has anyone done it before or do people think it's morally correct?

It isn't so much of a big deal anymore.

With IE domains the domain application won't resolve unless there's a hosting account there (dns records or parking), so you'll need something before the domain becomes fully registered. But there's no real checks being done beyond the initial domain registration. If you have the docs, and prove your eligibility to the domain, you've pretty much got it for whatever you want.

Sure they're not going to say its allowed, but if you look at the number of IE domains out there, and do a few searches you'll find many that don't have sites. Some will have mail setups, but you'll find many that don't even have that.

As for other domains its even easier.

However, why bother? There's literally hundreds of companies doing this already, including some of the actual registrars. I doubt there's much money left in this area, unless you get very lucky, and get microsoft's new product as a domain or such.

As for morally correct, I don't think it applies. I don't actually see any relevence of morals to this situation. cybersquatting doesn't hurt anyone, since most people can find an alternative domain type easily enough. IE gone? get EU. EU gone? Get .Com. .Com gone? Get .Net etc. There's alot of domain extensions, and the choice out there is quite large (although .coms are getting alot slimmer)

blu_sonic

Do you remember when "bertieahern.ie" (i think) was made into a porno site?effectivly if you bought tomcruise.com and did this you'd be holding him to ransom

blorg

Deleted User wrote:

unless you get very lucky, and get microsoft's new product as a domain or such.

You have no chance of hanging on to it if you are cybersquatting on such a name. Your only hope would be if you were legitimately using the name _before_ Microsoft (e.g. see www.nissan.com)

pbsuxok1znja4r

^Pretty funny thing about that Nissan website; everywhere he wants the punters help he sticks an american flag, and reveals nissan motor co.'s partial french ownership as if to tarnish its reputation!

blorg

blorg wrote:

You have no chance of hanging on to it if you are cybersquatting on such a name. Your only hope would be if you were legitimately using the name _before_ Microsoft (e.g. see www.nissan.com)

If you have a site & some form of product tied to the domain, you will be. Simply put it depends on how much you've invested in the domain. For the most part, microsoft would get the domain eventually simply because most squatters won't put money into domains.

However, there are a number of companies that do buy these domains, use them as part of their search engine submissions, and do increase the traffic going through the domain. They would have a very good chance of retaining the domain, if 1) they're actively using the domain 2) they registered the domain before the product was released.

/shrugs. With .coms its mostly luck. There's been alot of messing around regarding these domains, so push comes to shove, Its anyones guess who's entitled to ownership.