Domain Diary

In his last blog entry, GoDaddy’s CEO Bob Parsons introduced us to the term ‘domain kitting’, i.e. registering a domain for a short period of time (usually 5 days), ‘tasting’ it for the traffic and possible revenue, then dropping. This practice is approved by ICANN and respective registries, however originally it’s meaning and purpose was totally different: to make it possible for the registrant to amend his/her typographical errors which could possibly happen when registering a domain.

It looks like the kitting and disposable domains took just another meaning for the cybercriminals. According to Matt Chapman from vnunet.com:

BRITISH novelist Jeffrey Archer won a cybersquatting case, gaining the rights to the contested Internet domain name www.jeffreyarcher.com.

The address had been registered by Canadian operator Celebrity 1000, which …

As per webhostdir.com:
Canadian Domain Name Services Inc. (caDNS.ca), one of Canada’s leading .ca Domain Name Registrars, cancelled a domain name, youthforvolpe.ca, on Friday, June 2, because the registration had been completed with completely fabricated contact information and the supposed registrant refused to comply with caDNS.ca’s request for proof of eligibility to register a .ca domain name and to also provide correct contact information, as is required by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).

Eric Beck, CEO of caDNS states, “At no time, to our knowledge, was caDNS.ca contacted by anyone from Mr. Volpe’s office.” The suspicion that the domain name might have been registered using fabricated information came to an employee’s attention through a phone call from a Globe and Mail newspaper reporter who claimed that the administrative contact phone number for the domain registrant, was disconnected. This prompted the caDNS.ca employee to review the caDNS.ca database entry for the domain name registration.

NameMedia, the largest buyer and seller of premium domain names, today announced its new Direct Search platform to give online advertisers access to its rapidly growing network of search destinations that already reach more than 25 million consumers monthly.

Previously known as YesDirect, NameMedia is backed by Highland Capital Partners and Summit Partners. Over the last year, it has acquired a leading domain reseller, BuyDomains, a leading domain “parking” service, GoldKey, and dozens of smaller domain collections to create a portfolio of more than one million domain names, the world’s largest.

As per webhostdir.com:
Lovethename.com launches “Fame Capitalization’ section of site. Since Domain names such as “Brangelina” or ChildrenofJolie-Pitt” are hot commodities in the Top Level Domain (TLD) name game, investors are keeping a sharp eye put for celebrity domain names. Whether it is Brad Pitt, Katie Holmes - Tom Cruise, cyberspace gives a whole knew meaning to “LoveTheName.com” Colorado LoveTheName.com is at the center of a controversy brewing over how far is too far. They have created a new category at their site called “Fame Capitalization” and are featuring domains for sale such as ChildrenofJolie-Pitt.com at their website and this has created quite a stir.

As per Out-Law.com news:

Cybersquatters who broke the rules when registering .eu domains can be stripped of them at any time, says .eu registry EURid. But if they manage to sell their domains before being caught, they can keep the proceeds, according to the registry.
Bitter controversy has surrounded the ’sunrise’ period of the new domain, launched in April. Several existing domain registrar firms, including GoDaddy, have accused US profiteers of using a lax EURid system to stockpile valuable domain names against its rules.

As per Rwandian Times:
Rwanda is going to be among the few countries in the world that will be offering free registration for an Internet Domain name to her citizens, The New Times has established. According to Dr. Raphael Mmasi, the Director of National Computing Centre in the Rwanda Information Technology Authority (RITA), the Country Code Top Level Domain (CCTLD) is still managed by an individual, Fredrick Gregory, based in Belgium.

DENIC, the German domain administrator, yesterday unveiled that it processed the ten millionth application for a .de domain.
This makes .de the second Top Level Domain, after .com, to …

GoDaddy.com, an ICANN accredited domain registrar, today unveiled a partnership with FabulousDomains, a domain name registration services provider.
The agreement allows Go Daddy to sell FabulousDomains’ portfolio of domains …

Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers, (ICANN) on Sunday officially opened its 26th International meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco.

The meeting, which runs until June 30th, sees stakeholders from …

As per smh.com.au:
A U.N. agency has ruled that ownership of the lassie.com domain name must be handed to New York-based Classic Media Inc., the company that owns rights to the popular TV series Lassie about an adventurous collie.

Classic Media filed a complaint to the World Intellectual Property organisation over the use of the star dog’s name in an Internet address registered by Warren R. Royal of Cumming, Ga., the agency said Wednesday.

ICANN has published a real-time captioning of Domain Name Marketplace Workshop at ICANN Meetings in Marrakech, Morocco June 27th 2006. The link is here…