Claiming a domain just to sell? - HTML Forums

nightFix · 03-05-2008, 06:52 PM

In my search for domain names I occasionally come across one that is not being used for anything but to sell! Is this legal? Someone can purchase a domain and just have one page on it that states they want 600 dollars for the domain?

The other issue I had was one of my clients didn't renew their domain name and not but an hour after expiration it was claimed and is now not only hosting spy cookies but seems to be of no use. Is this legal?

Just seems dirty, wasteful, and inconsiderate so thought I'd bring it up in hopes of getting the domains that I want. Any input?

Horus_Kol · 03-05-2008, 08:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nightFix

In my search for domain names I occasionally come across one that is not being used for anything but to sell! Is this legal? Someone can purchase a domain and just have one page on it that states they want 600 dollars for the domain?

about 99% legal...
ethical - probably not...

Quote:

Originally Posted by nightFix

The other issue I had was one of my clients didn't renew their domain name and not but an hour after expiration it was claimed and is now not only hosting spy cookies but seems to be of no use. Is this legal?

yes... the domain is freely available if the registration is not renewed...

Quote:

Originally Posted by nightFix

Just seems dirty, wasteful, and inconsiderate so thought I'd bring it up in hopes of getting the domains that I want. Any input?

my hosting service offer auto-renewals on my registered domains to prevent exactly what you talk about from happening...

Believe it or not - even Microsoft forgot to renew one of their (many) domains a couple of years back... thankfully (I guess) someone registered it, and then offered it back to MS for small fee "in order to prevent malicious abuse of the domain"...

nightFix · 03-06-2008, 01:06 PM

Blah.
Thanks for being the messenger of bad news.
I've looked around on ISOC's and ICANN's sites but it's kind of hard to navigate to find what you're looking for. Maybe I can grab some random domain name that has a catchy business like name and trade it for the one that I want. Bummer.
Why do people contribute to this madness?

nightFix · 03-25-2008, 11:13 PM

OK
Something doesn't seem right.
I've been brainstorming for a new domain name and every time I find one that hasn't been taken, within a day or two it IS taken. This has happened on multiple occasions and it's either the same person or there is NO whois info provided.
This contactprivacy.com is the name that keeps taking my queries?
What's going on here?

Horus_Kol · 03-26-2008, 12:27 AM

how are you searching for the domain name?

there are ways of finding out what domain names or keywords are being searched for - and this information can be gained from search engines fairly easily - and this allows holding companies to register the name... usually they let it go at a small overcharge (a dollar over the basic fee, for example) - but with the sheer volume of domain names, this can turn a healthy profit...

again - illegal, no... but not quite on the fully scrupled side...

Jason · 04-02-2008, 12:11 AM

The practice is called "front running" (just google it). Some sites like netsol.com now automatically reserve the domain you search for so it can not be registered elsewhere, they claim it prevents front running. If such a thing is happening to you, you might want to search for your domains there and if you want to then register it elsewhere you can call them to remove the reservation. However during that time others can still register the domain through netsol. More info here:

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