I wonder how much having fans contact him about the domain name influenced his stance on wanting to keep or sell the domain name (rather than let it expire).
Say you had a little patch of land off the side of your property that cost an extra $10/year in taxes. You don’t do anything with that property, but you bought it with the idea in mind that you might someday build a shed there. You haven’t done anything with it yet in 20 years, but you keep it just because it’s there and it’s cheap.
Now say one day some guy shows up at your door and says “Hey, my friend Tim wants to buy that patch of land off you. How much for it?” You are a little shocked and say “Er, it’s not for sale…?” Then another guy comes and tells you about his friend Tim. You start thinking “wow, this Tim guy is really desperate for this land. I could totally make a mint off him!” You decide to start telling Tim’s friends it’ll cost $1mm to get that land, and stay firm. Eventually, Tim pleads to you but by then you’ve heard from so many of Tim’s friends about how desperate Tim is, that you’re really trying to make as much money as possible off the deal.
Crappy humanitarian practices? Yeah. Good business? You bet!
Here’s some information about domain name disputes, by the way. Happy could have a case based on the protection for individuals but what it really comes down to is how much it’ll cost her to have a lawsuit, how much it would cost him, and how much each party is willing to bet they’ll win.
I don’t think that it’s seriously limited in a way that should affect the viability of coming up with a website.
Looking at the top 20 websites by traffic on Alexa, only 4 are dictionary words (live, go, yahoo, amazon), several more are the also-limited three letter acronyms (cnn, msn, aol), but many of them are either combinations of dictionary words (youtube, myspace, facebook, craigslist), or words made up of whole cloth (google, flickr, microsoft, wikipedia). There’s certainly no appreciable limit to either of the last two categories.
Quoted so that Equipoise might read this again. You can complain and complain and complain, but it doesn’t mean you’re in the right. You’re in the wrong and you’re very clearly in the wrong.
While it might be nice to have that url, an important question to ask is whether or not having the domain would have any significant impact on Happy’s bottom line. Are there people who can’t find her or don’t visit her site because it’s not her name dot com?
If not, then I’d try to let go of the emotional connection you have to wishing you owned the name.
I would recommend just e-mailing him and making an offer. You said you assumed that he rejected other people’s offers, but just to be sure, you should inquire, and see how much he is asking. Until you know for sure that he is charging an ungodly price, your pit is kind of unfounded…
A few years ago, I was delighted to find that my firstnamelastname.com URL was available, so I bought it and plan to keep it forever. I would not sell it to anyone, even if they were a famous person with my same name.
Well, that’s true i guess. If you’re happy with the domain name perplexedplatypus.com, then it’s available for you to register, and i’m sure there are thousands of similarly odd combinations that would result in viable domain names.
But what gets me, i think, is that there are so many good, relatively short domain names sitting doing nothing except waiting for someone who wants it to cough up the cash. As i said in my first post, i’m conflicted about this, because once you own something it should be yours to do what you want with. But i also have a visceral dislike of people who do nothing but snap up domain names in order to sit on them. As i also suggested, though, i’m not sure we could really fix this without causing more problems than we solve.
The ones that really get me are the ones like the Dell story quoted above, in which companies with deep pockets go after small fish who have a legitimate claim to the domain name, but not the time or money to fight for it. The Register article i linked had other, similar examples.
It seems likely that the asshat is holding on to the domain betting that Happy will become famous someday. Not tremendously likely, but one of her songs could be included in a movie or TV show soundtrack, or be sampled by a rapper (see Dido).
I think it’s inaccurate to call this guy a squatter. He used the domain for legitimate purposes, and once you buy something, it’s your right to dispose of it any way you want. I’ll disagree with Jodi, though, and allow that a person who is using their property in a manner consistent with their rights can still be an asshole.
True squatters, the guys who lay claim to multiple domains for no purpose other than to wait for someone to want that domain, are parasites. They do not create wealth, they merely wait for wealth to come by, and hope to suck some of it away.
This is what I was thinking. He could take $5000 (or whatever) right now, or sit on the domain on the off chance that her career blows up and makes it worth hundreds of thousands.
But jerkish though that might be, the fact remains that it’s his name too. She has no more claim to it than he does, and he got there first, period.
You guys did read the part where the domain name is his own name and he’s a musician too, right? Chances are he cares more about his career than hers.
I don’t have a problem with what the guy’s doing. He owns the domain. He has equal claim to the domain as she does. He may have wanted to sell it five years ago, but clearly no offer was good enough so he decided against it and has kept it since. He can post kitty pictures or gumbo recipes or whatever he wants.
It sucks that this first choice of domain name isn’t available to you, but ultimately it’s no big deal. Pick another domain. If you’re feeling vindictive, you can always include some text on your second choice domain that some putz owns but is not using the first choice domain name and that’s why the site has its current URL. But who really cares?
I’m sorry I haven’t gotten back to this thread. I haven’t been around my computer and I’m leaving again shortly. Thank you to everybody for the replies, even those who think I’m way wrong to complain. I understand all your points of view. I was just blowing off steam when I realized he renewed the domain yet again (which, of course, I realize he has every right to do).
I apologize for using the word “squatter” and understand why people think I shouldn’t have used the word. I just wish he’d USE the domain. That’s the only thing that really bothers me. Yes he can post kitty pics or pics from his own career or whatever, but he doesn’t and I don’t know why. He should. There are plenty of places around where a person can host a domain. If he actually used the domain 99.9% of my frustration would go away. It’s not like anyone is going to get them confused, and if he had a site, then people would understand why SHE doesn’t use it. A part of my frustration is that people constantly ask ME about the domain. I’m a reluctant middleman. I can explain her part of it but I can’t explain his.
I do want to make clear that this is all from a fan point of view. She herself isn’t concerned much. She’s not an internet person and though she of course knows what’s going on, it’s NOT a big deal for her. She likes her current domain name just fine (and it is very cool indeed, one of the coolest ever IMO, so I don’t blame her). In any case, I hope even the people who think I’m the asshat won’t project any bad feelings onto her. I’m just frustrated that the guy doesn’t use his domain and blew off some built-up steam, I didn’t kill any kittens or eat any babies.
I’ll try to answer some specific posts later this evening when I come back from seeing The Fall (the movie, not the musical group).
But this, I have to acknowledge (and I didn’t have to pay him to say it!)…
Perhaps, rather than barraging him with offers/requests/demands that he relinquish the site, you could ask him to post a link to her site on his unused page so that those who end up on his site for whatever reason will have ready access to hers?
I have a very rare last name. There are no more than 50 people in the world alive who share it with me. It’s a really cool sounding last name too. A couple of years ago I bought mylastname.com and haven’t done a thing with it. I probably never will. I just like to have it. If someone wants it someday, it’s going to cost them a fortune to get it from me. That’s not why I’m keeping it though. I just like that I have it and I don’t want to give it away. I don’t need any other reason.
He got there first. He had a legit right to the name, he’s not really a “squatter”. He just chooses to not use the name right now. I agree with Cheesesteak.
How do you know he isn’t? There are more uses for a domain than websites. I have a domain that I use solely for email. Maybe he likes being “me@happyrhodes.com” and doesn’t feel like changing.
When I went to register the domain for our business I found that “ourbusiness.com” had been taken–but "ourbusiness"was still available for .net, .biz, .org, .info and .us so I registered all of those. The guy who owns .com just has it parked and I emailed asking if he’d release it to us but he says he’s developing a video game and plans on using the domain. I figure so what? I have all the redirects but one, I prefer using .biz for the primary domain because we are, after all, a business and I also figure his game is quite likely to tank without a trace and .com ought to be available again come next February. Maybe your friend ought to do something similar.
I’m sorry, I can’t go through post by post and catch everybody’s replies/suggestions/criticisms. I had one started and lost it (my fault, not the hamsters) and I’m too tired to start again. I did take everybody’s replies into consideration and believe now that I am in the wrong for complaining, and once again, I apologise to the ether for using the word “squatter.”
Which, of course, would be him. She may have been releasing music by that name for over 20 years, but looks like he’s been performing live for far longer than that. Anyway, it wouldn’t go into arbitration unless she trademarked her name, and I doubt that would happen anytime soon.
I already own hername.net and org. I used to own her-name.com, net and org but I quit renewing them and let them go because there comes a point when it gets ridiculous, which is the same reason I’m sure I won’t be getting .biz, .info and .us, I don’t see the need. After being very expensive for a long time, then cheaper, then really cheap for a while ($1.99!), domain names are starting to get more expensive again. I already own way too many (something like 10 or 11 now, I forget). In fact, I’ve owned one domain for years that an newly-formed goth group in Italy wants and I’m going to give (not sell) it to them once I can figure out how to transfer ownership of a domain. I have to figure that out quick, because it comes up for renewal in a couple of weeks.
www. my first and last name.com is a really neat photography website with lots of pretty pictures. I think I’ll let him keep it. It’s much better than any website I’d make.
Hint #1: Any website I’d make would probably have dancing iguanas on the front page.
