Buying domain name from cybersquatters

tammy

Howdy,

from time to time I get inspired ideas for making my web forturne, I think them over a bit and get excited, I then go back to my day job and forget about it.

During the above cycle, I get to the stage of looking up domain name availablility and I inevitably come up against cybersquatters, as I lack follow through this hasn't been a real problem, but it's a total pain in the a.. Has anyone ever bought a domain name from a cybersquatter and how extortionate are the prices?

I know the price must depend on your desperation and the perceived value of the domain. If prices were only slightly more inflated I'd consider it.

As a fictional example. I want to set up a site that fixes bikes (remember I said fictional) called http://www.bikemate.com/. As you can guess the domain is taken, I have no trademark or registered company. Is there any recourse other than forking over the cash?

EKRIUQ

Get the .ie version its some what regulated.

Liam Byrne

DON'T GIVE IN

The more people give in and pay up, the more these scum will gain encouragement.

If no-one bought from them, they'd make SFA from it, so they might stop.

jmcc

tammy wrote: »

During the above cycle, I get to the stage of looking up domain name availablility and I inevitably come up against cybersquatters

How can they be cybersquatting when you don't have any rights to the name yourself? And the domain seems to be parked with PPC adverts. This Buy To Park trend has been quite evident in recent years but many of these borderline profitable domains will be dropped over 2009. However please do some research before bandying terms like "cybersquatting" around just because someone was quicker and more prescient than you to register a domain name.

As was suggested earlier in the thread, go for a .ie domain. Psychologically, from a marketing point of view, Ireland is now .ie positive. Most of the sites advertised in the media are .ie domains. And if you are selling to a local, Irish, market then a .ie is a primary requirement and the it is far less likely to be taken unless the term you are looking for is a generic term.

Regards...jmcc

Trojan

"Cybersquatting" should only be used to refer to those people who buy trademarked domain names. Buying up non-trademarked domains is fair game and is known as "domaining".

mneylon

Trojan wrote: »

"Cybersquatting" should only be used to refer to those people who buy trademarked domain names. Buying up non-trademarked domains is fair game and is known as "domaining".

Yes - and most of us do it to a greater or lesser extent

Unless you have a trademark you can't claim that somebody is "squatting" - it's like real estate

Eoin

Trojan wrote: »

"Cybersquatting" should only be used to refer to those people who buy trademarked domain names. Buying up non-trademarked domains is fair game and is known as "domaining".

What about people who snatch registered domains that weren't renewed in time?

mneylon

eoin wrote: »

What about people who snatch registered domains that weren't renewed in time?

It's a free market

It's not as if you aren't given ample time to renew a domain name

With a .com you have 30 days + 15 before the domain is released

So if it's anyway important 45 days is more than enough time to renew it

Eoin

I'm not denying you have ample time to renew, but it is still nothing but a predatory practise.

mneylon

eoin wrote: »

I'm not denying you have ample time to renew, but it is still nothing but a predatory practise.

That's rubbish

I do a search for a domain or idea. I find a domain name is available or I see that one is about to become available, so I grab it.

Now if I was picking on a particular business or whatever that would be a different matter ...

Eoin

I am talking about businesses that specifically register domain names that are up for renewal for the purposes of selling them back - not for operating a legitimate website that would justify the use of that domain name.

jmcc

eoin wrote: »

What about people who snatch registered domains that weren't renewed in time?

Dropcatchers. It is also a part of domaining.

Regards...jmcc

mneylon

jmcc wrote: »

Dropcatchers. It is also a part of domaining.

Regards...jmcc

Exactly

I dropcatch co.uk domains a small bit - mainly generics

tammy

Fair enough, cybersquatting is not the correct term. I've experienced the practice outlined in this article, http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/01/look-up-a-domain-then-watch-network-solutions-register-it.html. Personally I think its a pretty shabby practice. Some might say fair play to the guys for screwing some more cash out of people.

I see a future where all purposeful and useful sites have names with multiple Zs and these clone ad sites have cool names like http://bikemate.com and http://cardog.com etc... There goes my plan for dog chaffeurs, back to the drawing board.

AARRRGH

I agree with Eoin.

Grabbing a domain someone else wants/forgot to renew solely for the purpose of selling it back to them is cybersquatting.

If you have had your eye on the domain for a while, and plan to develop it into something, that's no problem, but if you're just buying it to **** over someone else in the hope that they'll have to give you money... well, that's just the behaviour of a scumbag cybersquatter.

Trojan

AARRRGH wrote: »

Grabbing a domain someone else wants/forgot to renew solely for the purpose of selling it back to them is cybersquatting.

For me, personally I agree, I think it's wrong there, but only in the specific circumstance you mentioned (specifics hi-lighted). And even then, I'm with blacknight on this: if you have a domain you want to keep, it's very easy to stop it from expiring, and you're given more than ample warning, so it's hard to feel sorry for anyone caught by it.

btw for US federal law your definition is not correct, because your definition doesn't mention trademark which is a requirement for it to be considered cybersquatting:

wikipedida wrote:

Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting), according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting

jmcc

tammy wrote: »

Fair enough, cybersquatting is not the correct term. I've experienced the practice outlined in this article, http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/01/look-up-a-domain-then-watch-network-solutions-register-it.html. Personally I think its a pretty shabby practice. Some might say fair play to the guys for screwing some more cash out of people.

And that is known as "Front running" [1]. Netsol caught a lot of flak over that practice.

Regards...jmcc
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_front_running

jimmynn

Hi

I've a particular name that I'd like to register but it's already been registered. The "Whois" tells me that it expires in January. The thing is that it also expired two years ago. At that time it was just an automatic redirect to another site. It expired and the entry seemed to go out of date but when I tried to purchase it, I couldn't and eventually it was renewed.

After it was renewed it seemed to have a bit of work done on it straight away. Nothing big, just a few lines of information and with different site content than was there previously on the redirected site. It's still not much. It's only got some crappy information advertising some apartment block or something. It hasn't been modified in about 18 months.

The reason that I want the name is that I have a fairly unusual spelling variation of a common enough surname and this is www.mysurname.com.

I would love to get in there and grab it this time around if I can. At least I would do something meaningful with it. I've read that the provider has to allow something like 45 or 30 days or so after the record expires to allow the previous owner to renew.

Is there any way that I can "reserve" the name if it is not renewed. I looked at godaddy.com and they allow me to "backorder" it for about 14 Euro. But from what I gather, first they have to grab the domain, then they hold onto it and can send it for auction or something. And if they don't grab it then there's no mention of a refund,only that they allow you to backorder another name instead!

Anfo info would be greatly appreciated.