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Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

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Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#31

Post by Srikanth »

If it is a good name, I think it is only a matter of time before someone gets it. You might as well, if you like the name.

Of course, I have absolutely no idea if that is a good business move. On the other hand, you'd be doing a service to anyone who bookmarked that website by adding a note about the transition somewhere on the new site. I like Hard_Space's suggestion too. This is coming from seeing what happened with Ian Murdock's website. Thankfully, a copy of it is also hosted at https://ianmurdock.debian.net

Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#32

Post by cruano »

elpakal wrote: post #30

I have a side project named CaseYak and for the first year of it we were forced to use thecaseyak.com because caseyak.com was taken. We looked into the whois record for caseyak.com at the time, and it turned out it was owned by someone named Stephen Casey… who lived in Alaska (AK). So it was casey ak dot com (lol). Not sure what happened to Mr. Casey but the domain just opened up this year.

He moved

Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#33

Post by DocTomoe »

simne wrote: post #22
qwerty456127 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, do you mean an ISBN can be re-used and is not a unique identifier of a very specific book?

I have seen two different books with same ISBN. I'm not sure this is mistake or normal thing.

In Europe, this seems to be the standard model, especially with small publishers who have maybe 10 ISBNs and cycle their catalogue regularly.

Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#34

Post by herodotus »

I do not see a problem with you taking over the domain. The respectful thing to do is to permanently erase the previous owners files without reading them.

There is no need for you to memorialize the deceased owner. In fact, I think it would be disrespectful to do so.

When my wife was dying, she explicitly asked me to permanently delete her emails. I did this with great sadness, but I did not read them out of respect for her wishes.

Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#35

Post by jefftk »

herodotus wrote: post #34

I do not see a problem with you taking over the domain. The respectful thing to do is to permanently erase the previous owners files without reading them. There is no need for you to memorialize the deceased owner. In fact, I think it would be disrespectful to do so. When my wife was dying, she explicitly asked me to permanently delete her emails. I did this with great sadness, but I did not read them out of respect…

> The respectful thing to do is to permanently erase the previous owners files without reading them.

We're not talking about accidentally getting someone's old hard drive: this is a public-facing website, the kind of thing people generally create because they want the public to be able to read what they've written.

Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#36

Post by 13of40 »

jefftk wrote: post #35
herodotus wrote: post #34

I do not see a problem with you taking over the domain. The respectful thing to do is to permanently erase the previous owners files without reading them. There is no need for you to memorialize the deceased owner. In fact, I think it would be disrespectful to do so. When my wife was dying, she explicitly asked me to permanently delete her emails. I did this with great sadness, but I did not read them out of respect…

> The respectful thing to do is to permanently erase the previous owners files without reading them. We're not talking about accidentally getting someone's old hard drive: this is a public-facing website, the kind of thing people generally create because they want the public to be able to read what they've written.

It's not even that. When you buy a domain, it's not like you get control of the content it used to point to as well. There's nothing for OP to delete.

Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#37

Post by jefftk »

13of40 wrote: post #36
jefftk wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The respectful thing to do is to permanently erase the previous owners files without reading them. We're not talking about accidentally getting someone's old hard drive: this is a public-facing website, the kind of thing people generally create because they want the public to be able to read what they've written.

It's not even that. When you buy a domain, it's not like you get control of the content it used to point to as well. There's nothing for OP to delete.

Sorry, I was responding to the claim that it was disrespectful to read what the previous owner had posted

Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#38

Post by thrownaway561 »

You're going down a rabbit hole of emotions and stress you don't need in your life. Either

a) find a new domain without the attachments of this one OR

b) buy the domain and do what you want with it.

honestly, you're going to stress yourself out cause whatever you do is not going to be enough. there is a reason people leave emotion out of business.

Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#39

Post by elefantastisch »

toyg wrote: post #10

I mean, at some point surely the host will take it down anyway, once the registration expires. At which point it will likely be squatted on, automatically. At least you'd be making productive use of this little patch of web land.

Just want to emphasize this. If you don't buy it, it's just going to end up hosting some form of spam. May as well put it to good use. That seems like a much more respectful transition.

Re: Ask HN: Buying a domain previously owned by a now deceased person

#40

Post by herodotus »

jefftk wrote: post #35
herodotus wrote: post #34

I do not see a problem with you taking over the domain. The respectful thing to do is to permanently erase the previous owners files without reading them. There is no need for you to memorialize the deceased owner. In fact, I think it would be disrespectful to do so. When my wife was dying, she explicitly asked me to permanently delete her emails. I did this with great sadness, but I did not read them out of respect…

> The respectful thing to do is to permanently erase the previous owners files without reading them. We're not talking about accidentally getting someone's old hard drive: this is a public-facing website, the kind of thing people generally create because they want the public to be able to read what they've written.

Thanks for pointing this out: I got the mistaken impression that the OP had access to the previous owners files.
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