7 ms·

Adventures in Dealing with Domain Squatters

72 points by yashevde 6y ago

sahil50 6y ago
What can be done about this? For future founders: if you file a domain dispute, put all your arguments up front. Don't expect a chance to reply. Make sure you satisfy all 3 points: your rights, their lack of rights, and their bad faith registration. I hope you don't have to go through what Spase did.
- yashevde 6y ago
  Yeah I’d really like to see some sort of systemic reform to prevent this. Really sucks how innovators have to pay this “toll” (to the trolls under the bridge) and have come to just resign themselves to the fact. Musk had to wait 10 years and pay $11 million for Tesla.com —time and money that undoubtedly could’ve been better spent.
  - sahil50 6y ago
    Definitely this: (i) change the bad faith registration “and” use element to bad faith registration “or” use – to address scenarios where an older domain name openly infringes a newer brand; https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2019/06/article_0006.html https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2019/06/article_0006.h...
gumby 6y ago
Although I hate domain squatters I can’t see what the precise problem is. This company has a domain name in .io. space but wants one in .com. space. Not an unreasonable wish but it feels like a stretch to be a right IMHO. There was some stuff about unreasonable claims made by the squatter and that doesn’t sound good but as this is a trying of tweets rather than a paragraph of text it was hard to follow.
- yashevde 6y ago
  Perhaps you and some others will find threaderapp helpful for the aesthetic point https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1309503585470701568.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1309503585470701568.html
  - gumby 6y ago
    It’s not an aesthetic point by a functional one. In regular twitter, instead of reading running text you read a snippet and then have to hold the context in your head as you skip down to find the subsequent tweet. Thread reader eliminates part of that overhead but the resulting text is still choppy as a result of twitter’s constraints. I am not complaining about twitter’s constraints per se — you can like it or not. But it works against the needs of making a coherent argument or narrative that requires context to be maintained (“on the stack” as it were) in order to understand subsequent statements. Running text allows you to enter a brief “flow” state to get both Gestalt and detail. Sure, you can break an essay into chunks but you can also commute to work in a tank. Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean using the wrong tool is effective or convenient.
RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
This is one of the links in the tweets > https://domaininvesting.com/mrs-jello-wins-spase-com-udrp-with-rdnh-finding/ https://domaininvesting.com/mrs-jello-wins-spase-com-udrp-wi... According to this, spase.com was registered in 2005. Spase, Inc was incorporated in 2019. This company is accusing the owners of the domain, who had it for 14 years, of domain squatting and trying to take it away from them. My sympathies lie more with the long-term owners of the domain, and not a recently formed company that is trying to take over a domain name they don't own.
- sahil50 6y ago
  The year bought is not the only thing that matters. Other factors include history of squatting. And whether the domain was bought in bad faith.
- sahil50 6y ago
  How can you be so gullible to believe the perspective of that news site?
  - kadoban 6y ago
    All I see that gp believed is what seem like easily verifiable facts. When was the domain registered? When was the company founded? Are either of those incorrect?
basseq 6y ago
This is a poorly-worded argument, and I’m not surprised they lost. I’m no fan of domain squatters or speculators, but spase.io doesn’t pass the burden of proof here. Is is annoying that someone is sitting on spase.com for many years and refusing to do anything with it except sell it to someone who will pay their premium? Yes. Is that illegal. Ehhhh.
- sahil50 6y ago
  Did you see there was evidence brought forward that the domain was bought in bad faith??
  - kadoban 6y ago
    What sort of bad faith?
  - LocalH 6y ago
    In 2005?
Gianella1305 6y ago
I like
Gianella1305 6y ago
The year bought is not the only thing that matters. Other factors include history of squatting. And whether the domain was bought in bad faith
inshadows 6y ago
TLDR; someone is trying to use Twitter mob tactics to get what they want.

72 points by yashevde 6y ago

What can be done about this? For future founders: if you file a domain dispute, put all your arguments up front. Don't expect a chance to reply. Make sure you satisfy all 3 points: your rights, their lack of rights, and their bad faith registration. I hope you don't have to go through what Spase did.

yashevde 6y ago
Yeah I’d really like to see some sort of systemic reform to prevent this. Really sucks how innovators have to pay this “toll” (to the trolls under the bridge) and have come to just resign themselves to the fact. Musk had to wait 10 years and pay $11 million for Tesla.com —time and money that undoubtedly could’ve been better spent.
- sahil50 6y ago
  Definitely this: (i) change the bad faith registration “and” use element to bad faith registration “or” use – to address scenarios where an older domain name openly infringes a newer brand; https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2019/06/article_0006.html https://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2019/06/article_0006.h...

gumby 6y ago

Although I hate domain squatters I can’t see what the precise problem is. This company has a domain name in .io. space but wants one in .com. space. Not an unreasonable wish but it feels like a stretch to be a right IMHO. There was some stuff about unreasonable claims made by the squatter and that doesn’t sound good but as this is a trying of tweets rather than a paragraph of text it was hard to follow.

yashevde 6y ago
Perhaps you and some others will find threaderapp helpful for the aesthetic point https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1309503585470701568.html https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1309503585470701568.html
- gumby 6y ago
  It’s not an aesthetic point by a functional one. In regular twitter, instead of reading running text you read a snippet and then have to hold the context in your head as you skip down to find the subsequent tweet. Thread reader eliminates part of that overhead but the resulting text is still choppy as a result of twitter’s constraints. I am not complaining about twitter’s constraints per se — you can like it or not. But it works against the needs of making a coherent argument or narrative that requires context to be maintained (“on the stack” as it were) in order to understand subsequent statements. Running text allows you to enter a brief “flow” state to get both Gestalt and detail. Sure, you can break an essay into chunks but you can also commute to work in a tank. Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean using the wrong tool is effective or convenient.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago

This is one of the links in the tweets > https://domaininvesting.com/mrs-jello-wins-spase-com-udrp-with-rdnh-finding/ https://domaininvesting.com/mrs-jello-wins-spase-com-udrp-wi... According to this, spase.com was registered in 2005. Spase, Inc was incorporated in 2019. This company is accusing the owners of the domain, who had it for 14 years, of domain squatting and trying to take it away from them. My sympathies lie more with the long-term owners of the domain, and not a recently formed company that is trying to take over a domain name they don't own.

sahil50 6y ago
The year bought is not the only thing that matters. Other factors include history of squatting. And whether the domain was bought in bad faith.
sahil50 6y ago
How can you be so gullible to believe the perspective of that news site?
- kadoban 6y ago
  All I see that gp believed is what seem like easily verifiable facts. When was the domain registered? When was the company founded? Are either of those incorrect?

basseq 6y ago

This is a poorly-worded argument, and I’m not surprised they lost. I’m no fan of domain squatters or speculators, but spase.io doesn’t pass the burden of proof here. Is is annoying that someone is sitting on spase.com for many years and refusing to do anything with it except sell it to someone who will pay their premium? Yes. Is that illegal. Ehhhh.

sahil50 6y ago
Did you see there was evidence brought forward that the domain was bought in bad faith??
- kadoban 6y ago
  What sort of bad faith?
- LocalH 6y ago
  In 2005?

Gianella1305 6y ago

I like

Gianella1305 6y ago

The year bought is not the only thing that matters. Other factors include history of squatting. And whether the domain was bought in bad faith

inshadows 6y ago

TLDR; someone is trying to use Twitter mob tactics to get what they want.