Cybersquatting
Wednesday September 3rd, 2008
In our culture, names are worth money. Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, and Don Henley can attest. This facet drives individuals seeking to benefit from the success of others to purchase domain names that recognizable people, companies, and organizations would logically register. For example, had I registered www.cnn.com before CNN or Time Warner, Inc., they would have... View Article
In our culture, names are worth money. Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, and Don Henley can attest. This facet drives individuals seeking to benefit from the success of others to purchase domain names that recognizable people, companies, and organizations would logically register. For example, had I registered www.cnn.com before CNN or Time Warner, Inc., they would have had to deal with my escalated pricing scheme to receive the rights to use the domain address.
Catching wind of this illicit trade, ICANN developed a policy to handle cybersquatting disputes. In addition, Congress enacted a cybersquatting act in 1999. Remedies are in place to handle cybersquatters seedy dealings, but expenditures of time, money, and energy to resolve domain name disputes are costly.
Rather than dealing with these hassles, it makes sense to register the domain for your name, company or organization for the low rates provided by godaddy.com and others similarly situated, if you plan to use the Internet to cultivate recognition. If you fail to register your domain name, someone else will.
Helpful Links:
http://www.icann.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting
http://www.godaddy.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act
