How do you find a domain name's owner?

Someone has a domain name that uses my last name, i.e., www.b.com ( :smiley: ) . They used to have a small picture album there, but now all it returns is a white screen.

How would I go about finding out who they are and contacting them to see if I could take over the domain name if they’re not going to use it?

The easiest way IMO is http://www.betterwhois.com

Domains registered with certain registrars will require you to go to their site to do the lookup, but betterwhois will at least tell which registrar the domain registered with.

You could try Sam Spade.

Go here.

Haj

Wow. A triple simulpost with three distinct yet correct answers.

Haj

btw don’t expect them to just give it to you. I’ve sold domains for many thousands of dollars, and one letter domain like that has inherent value.

:smiley: I just said www.b.com because “B” is all that’s appearent of my last name in my username here.

Take a closer look :slight_smile:

AWB duh that makes sense… Whose last name is “B”? :smiley:

Joey G at what? b.com is actually reserved by ICANN and can’t be registered now anyway

Is it really true that somebody sold sex.com for squillions of dollars. Where was I in the nineties when these thngs were being registered for chicken feed? My usual place, with my head firmly up my ass. Sigh!

I think Business.com was sold for the most.

7 million or so.

I was pointing out that he didn’t actually want “b.com”, but he posted it at the same time.

Joey G, once again, “duh that makes sense”. sorry man :smack:

Actually, no. However, the rightful owner, Gary Kremen had the domain stolen by an unsavory character by the name of Steve Cohen who served forged documents to Network Solutions and was subsequently awarded $65 MILLION DOLLARS.

I was actually in this industry (and still am) when this first began to “go down” and Mr. Cohen also strong-armed several other people out of their legitimate domains that included his fraudulent “trademark” such as anything with both “sex” and “.com” in the domain name, such as “sexq.com” which was owned by a friend of mine. He simply didn’t have the money to defend big cash legal battles and signed it over to the crook.

The $65 million dollar award was a victory for many people, including myself (not monetarily).

The full story is here.

I should further state that Cohen is currently a fugitive from justive and there is a $50,000 reward for information leading to his arrest.

A name is one thing, but a domain is a whole nother thing. When someone pays $7M for
a name they can also be getting a domain, which can include thousands of clients, software,
servers, Etc…

handy in the case of business.com it was just the domain name…

other examples:

altavista.com sold for $3 million after the shortsighted executives at DEC failed to realize the potential of their altavista.digital.com search engine.

loans.com sold for $3 million.

drugs.com sold for $800,000.

forsalebyowner.com sold for $835,000.

cinema.com sold for $700,000

tv.com sold for an undisclosed amount but the owner turned down several offers over $1m.

All of these were for the domain rights only.

dirty1, I guess it depends on when, e.g.

"Domain Name “business.com” Sold

June 6, 1997

A Texas company has paid $150.000 for the Domain Name “business.com”. The Domain Name was registered four years ago by a banking software company, Business Systems International of London.
The deal, which is considered the highest price ever paid for a Domain Name, was negotiated by Idnames.com.
June 6, 1997"
http://www.cmcnyls.edu/Bulletins/DMS150k.HTM

&

"Business.com name fetches $7.5M

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Houston entrepreneur sold the Internet domain name business.com for a record $7.5 million in a deal announced Tuesday that highlights the skyrocketing price tags of prime Web addresses.

The $7.5 million price for business.com was the highest yet for a domain name, said Jeff Tinsley, chief executive of Greatdomains.com, an auction site for domain names.

The record may not last for long. Greatdomains recently became agent for the name America.com. A bid greater than $7.5 million already has been tendered and rejected by the seller, Tinsley said. " 12/01/99
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/ctg786.htm