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I know someone who has a small business that registered a 3 letter ccTLD 20 years ago and they wouldn't be able to justify a one time fee of $50k let alone $50k

I know someone who has a small business that registered a 3 letter ccTLD 20 years ago and they wouldn't be able to justify a one time fee of $50k let alone $50k / year for their domain. Domains are basically property, so why not start charging people fair market value for the physical property they own that's appreciated significantly over the last several decades? And if you're talking about only doing it for new domains, all that does is massively increase the value of good grandfathered domains, so it's even better for the squatters.

edmundsauto 7y ago
> Domains are basically property, so why not start charging people fair market value for the physical property they own that's appreciated significantly over the last several decades? We do that with property taxes. That's the biggest slice of personally owned, likely to appreciate, physical property. When a property is sold, we also tax the proceeds from that, similar to domains.
kingludite 7y ago
It is property and it is for commercial purposes. 50 k is just a wild guess. It also doesn't have to jump there in a day. In my cities shopping street an increasingly large number of stores became investment vehicles for people who just live there. Shopping there just becomes... well... bullshit. The 3 letter COM domain street should be entirely populated by serious business imho Your buddy can sell it or he can get a 20 year refund. Depending on the character combination he might be sitting on 150 k or it might be worth millions. Pumping up the fee by that much would probably hurt the value a lot which is a good thing. People need to start businesses that need names that customers can remember. We shouldn't limit the real economy for people who feel entitled to something for nothing.
- donmcronald 7y ago
  Lol. The person I know has been using it for their owner operated small business for 20 years. $50k USD per year is an extra employee. Small businesses are serious business for the people who put their lives into them. The idea that only huge corporations are real business is crazy. You’re talking about seizing people’s property and selling it off to the highest bidder. Who gets that money? And, like I said, it’s a ccTLD (.ca). A 3 letter .ca is worth about $5k USD. And based on your other comments it sounds like you think people in developing countries should use the ccTLD for their country and leave the popular TLDs for the big businesses. No thanks. Your suggestion is way worse than dealing with domain squatters.

edmundsauto 7y ago

> Domains are basically property, so why not start charging people fair market value for the physical property they own that's appreciated significantly over the last several decades? We do that with property taxes. That's the biggest slice of personally owned, likely to appreciate, physical property. When a property is sold, we also tax the proceeds from that, similar to domains.

kingludite 7y ago

It is property and it is for commercial purposes. 50 k is just a wild guess. It also doesn't have to jump there in a day. In my cities shopping street an increasingly large number of stores became investment vehicles for people who just live there. Shopping there just becomes... well... bullshit. The 3 letter COM domain street should be entirely populated by serious business imho Your buddy can sell it or he can get a 20 year refund. Depending on the character combination he might be sitting on 150 k or it might be worth millions. Pumping up the fee by that much would probably hurt the value a lot which is a good thing. People need to start businesses that need names that customers can remember. We shouldn't limit the real economy for people who feel entitled to something for nothing.

donmcronald 7y ago
Lol. The person I know has been using it for their owner operated small business for 20 years. $50k USD per year is an extra employee. Small businesses are serious business for the people who put their lives into them. The idea that only huge corporations are real business is crazy. You’re talking about seizing people’s property and selling it off to the highest bidder. Who gets that money? And, like I said, it’s a ccTLD (.ca). A 3 letter .ca is worth about $5k USD. And based on your other comments it sounds like you think people in developing countries should use the ccTLD for their country and leave the popular TLDs for the big businesses. No thanks. Your suggestion is way worse than dealing with domain squatters.