Domainers, Legitimate Registrants Maligned as Squattters?

Article in IBJ.com (Indiana Business Journal) which ironically is the world's biggest typo domain name of "IBM"..  yes 'that' IBM (look where the J and the M are on your keyboard and ask yourself if the IBJ is really 'that' popular, or how many unfortunate souls like me fat-finger that last keystroke on their way to the land of "business machines").

http://cms.ibj.com/ASPXPages/6iframes/FrontEndArticlesDetailPage.aspx?ArticleID=02928&NoFrame=1

Quote: "“Domainers,” the equivalent of e-mail “spammers,” run programs that automatically search for unclaimed letter combinations, snatching up everything they find."

"Holy moly" this is one lost, lost journalist. Sounds like he's confusing Cybersquatting and legitimate Domaining/name ownership. The Domainers I know own billions of dollars of legitimate domain names such as Cameras.com, eShopping.com, Beijing.com, Renovation.com which they develop and resell as sites so they can buy ever more valuable properties. Some of these folks have launched offshoot companies which themselves are worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, employing thousands of people and underpinning the stock prices of Verisign, Yahoo and Google in the process.

Not in Indianapolis my friends..  In this pocket of the midwest where a "business journal" quietly and unintentionally typosquats IBM; "domainers" are very, very dark hearts indeed ;)

We should all keep an eye out for bold face factual innacuracies such as these and correct them where possible. The author of the piece is Peter Schnitzler, pschnitzler@ibj.com .. Peter: A little bit of fact checking and equity ..  please!

Comments

[rhart]

This could be at the core of the writers resentment, and now there is just "blind rage"...and "shoot them all"...

Indianapolis Business Journal. Publisher: American City Business Journals, Inc.

Complainant is American City Business Journals, Inc.,

The domain names in dispute are , , , and (collectively "the Domain Names"). The Domain Names are all registered with Network Solutions Inc, (NSI), located at 505 Huntmar Park Drive, Herndon, Virginia 20170. Therefore, Complainant’s request for transfer of the Domain Names , , , and is hereby granted.

The domain name at issue is: (the "Domain Name"). be transferred to Complainant.

***FS*** Thanks for highlighting that. While reserving judgement on whether a small market 'business journal' deserves to universally claim 'any' other city, coupled with 'business journal' as a domain name; I think it would be profoundly pathetic if a 'journalist' let his personal-experience bias his work in such a way. Shame on this gent if that is the case.

[Lee Hodgson]

The "funniest" thing is the journalist saying: "In China, for example, e-commerce sites often end with the relatively new designation—.cu". Didn't realize the export market from China to Cuba was so huge it required all those Chinese firms investing in Cuban domains...

***FS*** More inane blather.. and they pay that guy.

[Andrew Johnson]

It looks like the journalist was being lazy and didn't do his research (pretty common.) The culprit here isn't the writer, but Mary Jane Frisby who is being quoted in the article. It says she is "an associate at Indianapolis-based law firm Barnes & Thornburg LLP."

Even for those who don't like domain name investing, comparing it to e-mail spamming is laughable.

**FS*** Agree agree.. thanks.

[Phil]

Im originally from the east coast but now live in Indianapolis and there is a reason i dont suubscribe to the IBJ lol. The fact of the matter is when you have ignorant people posing as journalists you get articles like this garbage. I see the intention of what he was trying to say as in someone trying to buy a variation of a trademark as "cybersquatting" but labeling all domainers as cyberquatters is like saying all journalists are data entry workers. Just proves the 80/20 theory again, that with almost any profession only 20% are competent.

***FS*** well said Phil

[Dan]

Frank,

I think American City Business is owned by GE which owns NBC and several other publications. Their "name your city" Business Journal in every decent size city in the US...

Dan

***FS*** Ah.. Thanks a bunch Dan.

[David Wrixon %2]

I would adhere to the 80%/20% theory. The reason it is like that is the incompetent are generally sidelined by the bean counters, in favour of the silver tongued bullshit merchants.

However, in this case, I think it is question of no publicity is bad publicity. Those that are serious players will either be clued up on intellectual property rights or they won't be serious players for long.

***FS*** That's actually a very good point David. .. Thanks.

[David Wrixon %2]

Lee,

The Chinese never really understood the CN thing anyway. The Chinese have their own name for China which to make it pronounceable to Westerners is written Zhongguo and abbreviated to ZH. Of course for their own use they normally write it as 中国. The CN denotation is something they have been lumbered with largely for our benefit.