[SATLUG] OT: Getting an already-registered domain name

[Brad Knowles]

On 11/28/07, Matt Kinsel wrote:

>  I did a whois on it, and it was registered 8/8/07 and expires 8/8/08. I
>  can't believe it.... And what's worse is that I remember hearing a while
>  back (although I didn't heed the info) about several stories of people
>  checking a domain name's availability, finding that it was available, and
>  soon after that discovering that the domain had been bought and parked. It
>  was rumored that the domain registering services run a scandal, per say, and
>  register domain names after they're searched for in order to turn a bigger
>  profit from customers who want to buy the registered domain name.

There may be some registrars that do this directly.


However, you can also buy a real-time feed from the registrars and 
registries that shows things like each and every update to each and 
every domain that is registered, which is used by anti-spammers to 
detect when new domains are registered by known spammers and to 
immediately mark those as likely to be spammy -- this is the heart of 
many of the latest reputation-based solutions that are being sold by 
various companies peddling anti-spam services.

On the flip side, I think those real-time feeds also include things 
like notices as to when searches are done on whether or not domains 
exist.  So, domain speculators can buy a real-time feed, wait for you 
(or anyone else) to query for domains you're interested in, and then 
register them before you get a chance to.  They even have a domain 
"tasting" solution that allows them to register a domain for a week 
(or maybe more), run ads and a domain parking system to see if they 
like it, and then turn it back in for a full refund if not -- 
meanwhile keeping all the ad revenue.  They could probably continue 
to "taste" the domain you wanted, well pretty much forever -- on a 
week-by-week basis.

So, the registrars and registries may not be directly at fault here, 
but they're certainly likely to be selling the information in a 
real-time feed to the people who are.  Consider them the drug-dealers 
of the Internet world -- they'll sell to anyone who will pay them 
money, and they'll dream up all sorts of new ways to sell their 
product to anyone who's willing to pay for it.


So, just how badly do you want your drugs?

-- 
Brad Knowles <brad at shub-internet.org>
LinkedIn Profile: <http://tinyurl.com/y8kpxu>