Free Article HomeSubmit Article l Contact Us


Domain Names: A Sneaky Attempt To Take My Name 
If you have a domain name(s) that you’ve registered how much thought have you given to who else might want the name? That question crossed my mind only in the context of - do I have a name that others might like to buy or one that could potentially drive traffic to a website. I was registering many domain names. Some names I wanted to use myself, some to keep, hoping they would go up in value, and others to sell as soon as I could find a buyer. Most of the names I had made up - until it had become difficult to think of new names that had meaning and were not very long. When that happened I started registering expired domain names.

After accumulating several hundred names I decided to take a break and pondered my next move. I didn’t have to wait long. Within a week I received a notice from my registrar. It seemed a registrar in Germany had someone who was transferring one of my domain names to their account. How could they get away with that? That was my first experience of having someone steal a name from me. I had heard of such things, but experiencing them first hand is much more real.

I quickly emailed my registrar and asked what was going on and that I had not given anyone permission to take one of my names. I was told my domain had already been transferred to someone else. I gave my registrar explicit instructions to cancel the transfer, which they did immediately, and as soon as I got the name back they placed a lock on the domain so it could not happen again.

Confident I had solved the problem, that incident quickly left my mind, as I had a myriad of other things to do. But no - things never seem so easy, as I came to realize a couple of weeks later. I checked my email and there was an email from that same registrar, where two weeks earlier someone tried to transfer my domain name. It was a form letter in both English and German telling me they were transferring my domain name to their registry. I asked a co-worker who was German to translate the German language part. She verified that language said the same as the English version. All my domains were locked so there was nothing I had to do.

By now I wondered how my name, ~~~~fix.com*, which I made up, could be so important. I did some quick research on the Internet and found there was a company in Germany with the name ~~~~fix. It was starting to aggravate me that if someone wanted my dot com version of the name why didn’t they just make me an offer for the name. It seemed awfully suspicious that someone wanted that name so badly that they would try to transfer it when it was plainly up for sale. The directory website where that name was hosted showed a for sale notice along with a price.

I quickly composed a letter and emailed it to that registrar expressing my thoughts. I also raised the price of the domain name once I had sent the email. Because I was upset about the matter I decided to raise the selling price by a factor of ten. I never received a response from my email and assumed the matter was closed.

Well, to make a long story short I received three more emails within the next three weeks, each with attempts to get me to transfer my domain name to them. The emails included dubious documentation and said “You must agree to enter into a new Registration Agreement with us”. I ignored all attempts to sign away my domain name to the other registrar.

The last four attempts to get me to surrender my domain name all occurred just after ICANN changed the rules pertaining to domain names. That new ruling took affect November 12, 2004 making it easier (in my opinion) for someone to sneakily transfer a domain name. With the current new rules it seems all you have to do is not respond to your registrar within five days of them sending you notice indicating your domain name is being transferred. If you happen to be on vacation, not respond to your email quickly, or overlook such email, you may find yourself short a domain name. If however, your domain name(s) is locked, then you shouldn’t have to worry about that problem. My impression is that many registrars are now locking domain names by default so they cannot be transferred automatically, but you should check yours to be sure.

All this fuss over a domain name I made up got me thinking about my rights to my domain name. I checked the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, signed by President Clinton, November 29, 1999. I’m no lawyer, but it does not look favorable for me, even though I made up a name I did not think anyone else had. I’ll let you the reader check the law and come to your own conclusion.

There has been no further action on that domain name and it has been two and a half months since the last attempt to transfer it away from me. Is this the end of that saga?

* I’ve left out the first few characters for my protection.
Contact me if you must know the exact name.

Author Info:

Charles is a programmer - developer turned web entrepreneur. He has written software for many major U.S. Corporations as well as written and sold his own software. He is currently developing a website for his many domain names and another on top-rated eZines. Charles lives near San Diego, CA and operates www.LowCostMagazine.com. He can be reached via the contact form at www.z-cashflow.com.

 
30 Most Recent Articles :
A Disputed New Business:Virtual Property Exchange

In many ways, the in-game economy is similar to a real world economy - goods and services are traded to mutual advantage and are mediated in currencies(gold,platinum,credit,etc.). An online broker, who goes by the screen name Rolala, was not a fan of online games until his 15-year-old son be[ Read Article]

THE UNITED STATES, A Terrorist Nation

I love the United States of America, but I cannot tolerate the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. No I am not shouting at you, I am simply making a distinction, a difference that thirty-seven states of the union have noticed and moved to rectify. You see, AMERICA isn’t America anymore, nor does it in anyw[ Read Article]

Dollars and Sense

When I speak of the Federal Reserve and the fiat monetary system that controls our lives I feel as though my words are falling on deaf ears. I have the sense that the simplest conversations suggesting that change must be made invoke fear and condemnation from my fellow citizens. When will we tak[ Read Article]

Constitutionality

Is the 16th Amendment constitutional? Of course it is, the Supreme Court has made that as clear as it did the issue of slavery. But let us remember that it took the lives of more than 365,000 brave American men and the destruction of the Republic to wrest the matter from the courts and resolve the[ Read Article]

Five Secrets to Effective Pay-Per-Click Advertising

With so many companies swarming the World Wide Web with their products, how can you and your products and services stand out? Your ready answer would most likely be effective marketing. But how? How can you catch the eye of a surfer skimming carelessly through web pages? How can you keep the at[ Read Article]

How to Sell Bonds

If you want to make good money with banks, or any institution, Government and agency bonds are where it is at. Simply because all Government bonds and agencies are AAA rated, and banks can buy millions of dollars of any bond without incurring any credit risk. All banks own bonds of some sort, a[ Read Article]

Closing in the Car Business

The “P” Word. Closing is all about helping car customers make positive decisions. It is not about pressure or manipulation. Your customers need help overcoming the “P” word. Procrastination! Procrastination is natural when it comes to making a buying decision. Your customer is trying to avoid [ Read Article]

If You Build It They Will Come, or Will They?

All right, so you invested your time and energy to build your organization a great new web site, but you are not getting quite the results you were hoping for. Few customers are visiting or interacting with you and rarely do you get prospects to contact you through the site. So what can you do to [ Read Article]

Confessions of a Yoga Teacher

The following are questions that Yoga teachers still need to answer, despite overwhelming evidence that Yoga is ?the mother of all health maintenance systems.? Mainstream thought is finally catching up, with the progress Yoga is making, but it has taken 5,000 years for us to get this far. Serio[ Read Article]

Vertical Creep in Search Results :: Should Organic Optimizers be Concerned?

I thought for this week I’d give a summary of some of the more interesting Search Engine Strategies sessions which are currently going on in New York City. I was at SES as a speaker last year in New York and I have to say, there is a wealth of information there even if some of it is contradict[ Read Article]

How to build link popularity fast and free

We all knew that back link or link popularity is a big factor to get good position in any search engines. But building link popularity some times really hard if you don't know how to do it. One of the hardest problem for new webmasters is to get back link to their newly stablis[ Read Article]

Does Chiropractic Care Really Make Sense?

The Role of Chiropractic in Treatment Beyond the Resolution of Symptoms Do you have the same nagging injury that never seems to go away? Are you suffering needlessly with pain? Are you fed up with taking painkillers? Do you want to find out what is causing your pain? If your answer is ‘ye[ Read Article]

The Economic Implications of Buying Drugs Online

Although the Internet is fairly new (at least to the mainstream) online shopping has grown by leaps and bounds. Now you can buy almost anything you need, from food to fishing equipment, right through your computer. Of course, this has meant that commerce has been forced to adapt to the changing co[ Read Article]

Manning and Manning-Can Either Brother Win the Big One?

It was just over a year ago, after the Colts lost to the Pats in their post-season contest, that Boomer Esiason said on national television, "I think maybe Peyton (Manning) is this generation's Dan Marino." Esiason went on to state that Manning "is a great football player, but he's not going to get[ Read Article]

Branding, Branding, Branding - MSN fails to keep it Straight

Sometimes you see promotions come along and you wonder: did they just do that? The current MSN promotion called msnsearchandwin is a prime example of this. Not only do they use “black hat” or at least “questionable” tactics on the site, but the messaging is inconsistent. In this article [ Read Article]

The New MSN Search Interface :: A positive change or the antithesis of transformation?

Now, instead of wide blue bars there are sleek silver-grey bars. Also, the top bar where the search box is became narrower. To me this makes the page seem less “closed in” and more visually appealing. I now feel as if I can trust the results more because they have more room. I’ve also noti[ Read Article]

Malta Holidays

With Malta visitor numbers static in recent years and facing new competiton from former Eastern Bloc countries offering cheap holidays, the recent announcement by the Maltese government that negotiations were at an advanced stage with two low cost airlines has[ Read Article]

Drug Rehab Treatment Centers as an Experience, not a Punishment

Choosing a drug rehab treatment center is a decision that calls for both negative and positive emotions. Nobody wants addiction to overtake their life to the point that rehab is the necessary step. However, the decision to go to one is something to look forward to, as it is the decision to rebui[ Read Article]

Some ways to improve your king content

There are thousands of articles, books and forum posts which showed that content is king in search engine optimization (SEO). In this article, you can find some ways that can help you improve this king content for your web site. * Content for people first, not for search engines - Some webmaste[ Read Article]

Aerosmith Just Keeps On Rockin’

For over three decades, Aerosmith have been one of rock's most revered and popular bands, crafting classic songs full of raw guitar runs and intensely energetic vocals. The band first reached fame in the 1970’s with a string of hits including "Dream On," "Sweet Emotion" and "Walk This Way." During t[ Read Article]

Chicago Cubs Pitcher Mark Prior Re-signs

After many trips through the rumor mill, Mark Prior accepted the Chicago Cubs’ offer on January 27 to a one-year, $3.65 million contract. That is $900,000 more than the salary he would have earned under the contract he voided in November. Since Prior's definitive season in 2003 (18-6), he has cooled[ Read Article]

Social Networking - The Next Great Marketing Medium?

There has been a virtual explosion of social networking sites in the past couple of years. Even the big players like Google, Yahoo and MSN are getting into it. With so much interest in how social networks work, one begins to wonder if there is marketing potential within these social network[ Read Article]

How to choose paid directory for web site listing?

How to choose paid directory for web site listing? Search Engines are the major source of traffic for any website. High search engine ranking can boost number of your visitors and in turn leads to increase in sales. The best way to get top search engine placement is to improve link popularity [ Read Article]

Addiction Treatment Centers Using Experiential Therapies

Life is experience. Substance dependence overtakes a person’s ability to make her own decisions to experience life, and life is no longer actively participated in. Therefore, in overcoming addiction, it is vital to learn to re-experience life. This lesson helps a treatment center resident reint[ Read Article]

The DH: Making Life Tough for AL Pitchers

In 1973 Major League Baseball instituted three rules designed to lessen the power of pitchers and create more offense. One theory at work was that the game needed to be energized and that more hitting would create additional runs and excitement. Both the National and American Leagues lowered th[ Read Article]

Vacation on the Beach the Smart Way

Vacation on the Beach the Smart Way Almost everyone agrees; there is no more relaxing way to vacation than to take it to the beach. For the vacationer/traveler who hasn't considered a beach house rental before, they represent an affordable and fun family oriented alternative. There is an intell[ Read Article]

Malta Holidays and Hotels Buzzed by New Jets

With Malta visitor numbers static in recent years and facing new competiton from former Eastern Bloc countries offering cheap holidays, the recent announcement by the Maltese government that negotiations were at an advanced stage with two low cost airlines has sparked hopes that the island will see [ Read Article]

The Rising Cost of Prescription Drugs

If you’re like many Americans, the rising cost of prescription drugs may be costing you your health. In particular, seniors living on a fixed income with no insurance are finding it difficult to pay for necessary prescriptions out-of-pocket, and as a result, may be failing to receive the treatment[ Read Article]

Who's Tops in Hockey and Who's Not

The National Hockey League needs to do more to encourage better coverage of the hockey games. With so many other sports realizing national coverage, the NHL is sometimes forgotten. However, this year, there's a race for the Stanley Cup, and only one is set to win it. But which team will that be? [ Read Article]

The Danger Of Rounding Up Your Debts

Rounding up your debts is one of the biggest dangers to your financial position. It's also one of the easiest ways for your debts to get out of control. This way of thinking is best summed up by the following comment; ‘I already owe $27500 so what’s another $500. It takes my debt to a nice round [ Read Article]

 

World Top Stories :
Nasa chief hails new era in space
The head of Nasa has hailed a "new era" in exploration after the launch of the first cargo delivery to the space station by a private company.


Ten jailed for Russian train bomb
A Russian court jails 10 people, four for life, for the November 2009 bombing of a high-speed train in which 27 people died.


Official 'offers 2012 tickets'
A senior Olympic official is suspended after a BBC investigation revealed he was willing to sell thousands of pounds worth of 2012 tickets for cash.


 

Copyright © 2006 Realook.com All Rights Reserved.