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How many .com domain names are unused?

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Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#171

Post by boyband6666 »

markdown wrote: post #97
zanny wrote: post #52

I'm not really well informed about the politics of DNS at the top, but I've always had the impression ICANN has been grossly negligent / corrupted over the last twenty years. At the end of the day there is profound capital interest in making name records unfair and noncompetitive in order to rent seek fortunes off the Internet and I see no indication ICANN is anything but compromised by those interests in the way the…

One of the worst squatters right now is www.hugedomains.com They buy up expired domains and immediately put them up for sale for $XXXX At that price, they can sit on the domains for decades and still make a profit when it's sold. Eg: https://www.hugedomains.com/domain_search.cfm?domain_name=cs...

They really are the worst. I got in touch with them to buy one, as unfortunately they had one that I needed for business (speculatively registered on their part). When I asked how much they wanted for it, they then doubled the price to $10000 (9 characters, not commonly used words).

In the end I went with an alternative TLD. it isn't as good, and I'd have been willing to pay a decent amount for the one I wanted (even their original price, reluctantly), but I refused on principle when they got silly.

They are just parasites.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#172

Post by boyband6666 »

computator wrote: post #34

Can a domain name registrar register a domain name for themselves for free or for a minimal fee? What about Verisign -- if they registered ".com" domain names for themselves , who would they even pay since there is no one above them? Seriously, does anyone know the answer to this? I've never found an authoritative answer. I've wondered if domain name registrars are speculating in the domain name market themselves. Pe…

hugedomains, as mentioned above for being one of the worst, do this. They own their own registrar/are part of the same company / some convoluted ownership structure (namecheap LLC I think)?

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#173

Post by rectang »

prewett wrote: post #107
minikites wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood why governments (or labor unions) default to "corrupt" and private firms default to "virtuous".

It seems to be that if you lean Republican, governments are corrupt and private firms virtuous because freedom and the magic of the Invisible Hand of free markets make private firms virtuous (individual choice) and governments corrupt (coercive force). If you lean Democrat, then governments are virtuous and private firms corrupt because the free market doesn't solve all the problems, and for those you need regulation…

Power corrupts when governments extend excessive control over markets.

Power corrupts when private firms extend excessive influence over government.

The most consistent principle is to oppose concentration of power in all its forms.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#174

Post by prickledpear »

One intriguing proposal to limit domain name squatting is "Harberger Taxation"[1]

Under this scheme, every owner of a domain would declare a value for the domains they own, and pay a percentage of that value as a tax (replacing the current annual registration fees).

Owners are incentivized to post an accurate value for their domain because they must sell their domain for the price they list if anyone offers to buy at that price.

While it makes sense in theory, I think there are some practical problems that would have to be addressed before such a system could be put into use. For example, what stops a company with a large bankroll from squashing competitors by purchasing their domain?

[1] - https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2818494

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#175

Post by giancarlostoro »

prickledpear wrote: post #174

One intriguing proposal to limit domain name squatting is "Harberger Taxation"[1] Under this scheme, every owner of a domain would declare a value for the domains they own, and pay a percentage of that value as a tax (replacing the current annual registration fees). Owners are incentivized to post an accurate value for their domain because they must sell their domain for the price they list if anyone offers to buy at…

> While it makes sense in theory, I think there are some practical problems that would have to be addressed before such a system could be put into use. For example, what stops a company with a large bankroll from squashing competitors by purchasing their domain?

They don't have to sell if the offer sucks.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#176

Post by prickledpear »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #175
prickledpear wrote: post #174

One intriguing proposal to limit domain name squatting is "Harberger Taxation"[1] Under this scheme, every owner of a domain would declare a value for the domains they own, and pay a percentage of that value as a tax (replacing the current annual registration fees). Owners are incentivized to post an accurate value for their domain because they must sell their domain for the price they list if anyone offers to buy at…

> While it makes sense in theory, I think there are some practical problems that would have to be addressed before such a system could be put into use. For example, what stops a company with a large bankroll from squashing competitors by purchasing their domain? They don't have to sell if the offer sucks.

The idea is that if I'm a startup that owns google-disruptor.com, I have to declare a value for that domain name (let's say $100,000), and pay a percentage of that value as a tax. I'm then obligated to sell the domain to anyone who is willing to pay $100,000. This prevents me from undervaluing the domain.

Since Google has a much larger bankroll than me, they can purchase the domain for $100,000, and revalue the domain at $500,000 -- out of my price range.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#177

Post by rafiki6 »

rafiki6 wrote: post #56
zanny wrote: post #52

I'm not really well informed about the politics of DNS at the top, but I've always had the impression ICANN has been grossly negligent / corrupted over the last twenty years. At the end of the day there is profound capital interest in making name records unfair and noncompetitive in order to rent seek fortunes off the Internet and I see no indication ICANN is anything but compromised by those interests in the way the…

Couldn't agree more. Not sure why the task of operating DNS' isn't the domain of governments the world over. It's kind of like operating a post office. Post office's are the ones who have the routing information and capability to route physical messages and packages. They are still operated on a for profit model, but they are also generally very well regulated. Same thing should apply with registrars

The responses below are kind of funny. The government already runs key infrastructure. I'm not sure if the argument is government vs. Corp. Frankly governments are more likely to consider public interest than corps are. That's not to say that they always do, but corps almost never do. This is why government sells things like spectrum or land for railways if they don't own the rail themselves. They also own things like roads. It's important to realise that there is no incorruptible institution in the world. Maybe domain name management is actually a great use case for blockchain or some other truly democratic distributed accounting/ledger system.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#178

Post by isostatic »

beaconstudios wrote: post #160
minikites wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought about this in the wake of the BP Deepwater oil spill. How exactly can I choose to avoid interacting with any company that produces a fungible commodity (e.g BP, Archer Daniels Midland, Monsanto)? I can stop visiting BP branded gas stations but that has nothing to do with where the oil/gasoline actually comes from.

I agree, that's an issue. Or if you wanted to stop funding exploitative mining but still wanted to own electronics, you might have a hard time. But I prefer the "you can often avoid interacting with them" option of private companies, to the "you cannot avoid them and are entirely at the mercy of their whims" option of government. Not to say government isn't necessary - it is. But I don't understand why people treat i…

I prefer the ability to get rid of a government by voting elsewhere.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#179

Post by isostatic »

randiantech wrote: post #157
darpa_escapee wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With the government, you get a vote. With other institutions, you have to hope their stakeholders' interests align with yours.

I can have a vote, but government will still force me to pay tributes at gunpoint. On the other hand, im not forced to buy most of private goods. At the end, the evil organizations are those that became monopolies, no matter if it is public or private.

Sure, I'm not forced to buy food, or medicine, or heat, or for somewhere to live, I could just decide to starve, or freeze, or die of plague.

Re: How many .com domain names are unused?

#180

Post by lunchables »

boyband6666 wrote: post #172
computator wrote: post #34

Can a domain name registrar register a domain name for themselves for free or for a minimal fee? What about Verisign -- if they registered ".com" domain names for themselves , who would they even pay since there is no one above them? Seriously, does anyone know the answer to this? I've never found an authoritative answer. I've wondered if domain name registrars are speculating in the domain name market themselves. Pe…

hugedomains, as mentioned above for being one of the worst, do this. They own their own registrar/are part of the same company / some convoluted ownership structure (namecheap LLC I think)?

Do you have a source for that? Because it's a pretty big claim. I have used namecheap for years, and they have been absolutely wonderful, but if they are also hugedomains I will start migrating.
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