Domain name sales and restrictions?
I was searching for a domain name recently and chose GoDaddy as one of the sites I used to look up it’s availability. I was somewhat surprised, due to the names reasonably obscure nature, to find it was taken. When I looked in to who owned it, I was more surprised to learn GoDaddy owned it, that it is listed as a “parked” domain and that they have owned it for 6 years—mind you the site doesn’t exist. It seems reasonable to assume if it is unused and parked at present by GoDaddy that it likely has never been utilized.
My question is this. If a company is somehow authorized to sell domain names, are they also allowed to buy random names in order to set whatever price they want? It seems like an incredibly obvious conflict of interest. With technology today, what stops GoDaddy from simply buying every domain name combination available and reselling them as hostages to the highest bidder?
“GoDaddy probably doesn’t own it. Whoever does probably paid for the Private Registration option in which case the registrar’s name appears as the owner.
GoDaddy can probably buy all the domains it wants, so can you if you want and have the money.
“Buying every domain name combination” – you are either joking or got carried away when you wrote this.”
Just some additional info. GoDaddy DOES own it. I took the time to fully research it. I know when they bought it, how long they have owned it and the “shell” company (owned by GoDaddy) who it is registered to. Of course I was half joking when I said they could buy every name combo, however the same software would tell them which name combos are more likely than others to be wanted by anyone. As far as your comment “GoDaddy can probably buy all the domains it wants, so can you if you want and have the money” goes. This is my point. In all business you cant have the fox guarding the hen house so to speak. You would be correct if any old J
Joe could sell domain names—this is not the case however. You must be licensed and legally authorized to sell them. This would mean those few companies would own a monopoly on domain names. Im sure this would be in violation of several US laws. Remember too that this name has been “parked” for 6 years so I don’t think a person could argue that they had a legitimate business use they bought it for.
