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I don't really see how {company-name}.sucks is any worse than {company-name}sucks.com. Do firms really go around registering every combination of bad words with

by JonoW 12y ago

I don't really see how {company-name}.sucks is any worse than {company-name}sucks.com. Do firms really go around registering every combination of bad words with their brand name, with every standard TLD? Can't imagine they do...

ownagefool 12y ago
Yes. Not everyone does this of course, but anecdotally, some big companies have companies that scour the web looking for negative feedback. This dept often doesn't have the power to fix anything, so they'll buy up domains and give out freebies.
- talmand 12y ago
  Reminds me of something I read about a while back. I believe the hacker magazine 2600 made a point about companies doing this by buying nbcsucks.com. At least I think it was nbc. Anyway, once the domain was seized for reasons, 2600 then registered nbcreallysucks.com. Then, after seizure, nbcreallyreallysucks.com and so on. At least, that's the way I recall it so I could be totally wrong.
- fweespeech 12y ago
  And then we all make enough domains like ".sucks" and they stop the domain buying portion of the program :p
- Alupis 12y ago
  So, every time ICANN wants more money they can just roll out a new TLD that has a negative connotation? There was a big uproar in the mainstream press when Taylor Swift bought up a bunch of explicit domains that could be used to deface her online presence... ICANN could just open up more explicit TLD's and she'll have to buy more and more. Or what about companies buying up entire TLD's without intent to be a registrar -- like Google's $25 Million purchase of .app. In short order all the "good" TLD's will be squatted on and we'll be in the same exact boat we are now with .com,.net, etc.
  - snowwrestler 12y ago
    Yes, these have been some of the arguments against the creation of all the new TLDs all along. It's important to note that ICANN does not set the pricing for each TLD. The pricing is set by the registrar who wins the right to control that TLD. ICANN does get revenue from each TLD registrar, but I think it's the same for each TLD. I don't think ICANN gets a direct cut of each GoDaddy sale, for example, but GoDaddy pays ICANN a fee to be able to sell domains.
devur 12y ago
Independent activists who want to use the suffix and pledge to blog can pay as little as $10 a year. But what if someone wants to claim another individual's name? Berard says the registry will police for cyberbullying. But if a person wants to preemptively block their name, that will cost $200 a year. It appears that it is cheaper to use the .sucks TLD for activism than for preventative purposes. Given the name of the TLD, however, "activism" could be conflated with denigration. Because of this, individuals likely to be targeted by such sites are claiming extortion. Does anyone know of any other cases in which the price of buying a domain is dependent on who the buyer is?
- ianferrel 12y ago
  >Does anyone know of any other cases in which the price of buying a domain is dependent on who the buyer is? No, but that's because domain names have, until now, been closely held and (relatively) heavily regulated compared to other products. There are plenty of products where the cost varies based on the purchaser's ability to pay, or their expected use. In the realm of public discourse, newspapers and other publications have long had sections where anyone could write political or other opinions for free, even while they sold ad space to commercial interests for large amounts.

by JonoW 12y ago

ownagefool 12y ago

Yes. Not everyone does this of course, but anecdotally, some big companies have companies that scour the web looking for negative feedback. This dept often doesn't have the power to fix anything, so they'll buy up domains and give out freebies.

talmand 12y ago
Reminds me of something I read about a while back. I believe the hacker magazine 2600 made a point about companies doing this by buying nbcsucks.com. At least I think it was nbc. Anyway, once the domain was seized for reasons, 2600 then registered nbcreallysucks.com. Then, after seizure, nbcreallyreallysucks.com and so on. At least, that's the way I recall it so I could be totally wrong.
fweespeech 12y ago
And then we all make enough domains like ".sucks" and they stop the domain buying portion of the program :p
Alupis 12y ago
So, every time ICANN wants more money they can just roll out a new TLD that has a negative connotation? There was a big uproar in the mainstream press when Taylor Swift bought up a bunch of explicit domains that could be used to deface her online presence... ICANN could just open up more explicit TLD's and she'll have to buy more and more. Or what about companies buying up entire TLD's without intent to be a registrar -- like Google's $25 Million purchase of .app. In short order all the "good" TLD's will be squatted on and we'll be in the same exact boat we are now with .com,.net, etc.
- snowwrestler 12y ago
  Yes, these have been some of the arguments against the creation of all the new TLDs all along. It's important to note that ICANN does not set the pricing for each TLD. The pricing is set by the registrar who wins the right to control that TLD. ICANN does get revenue from each TLD registrar, but I think it's the same for each TLD. I don't think ICANN gets a direct cut of each GoDaddy sale, for example, but GoDaddy pays ICANN a fee to be able to sell domains.

devur 12y ago

Independent activists who want to use the suffix and pledge to blog can pay as little as $10 a year. But what if someone wants to claim another individual's name? Berard says the registry will police for cyberbullying. But if a person wants to preemptively block their name, that will cost $200 a year. It appears that it is cheaper to use the .sucks TLD for activism than for preventative purposes. Given the name of the TLD, however, "activism" could be conflated with denigration. Because of this, individuals likely to be targeted by such sites are claiming extortion. Does anyone know of any other cases in which the price of buying a domain is dependent on who the buyer is?

ianferrel 12y ago
>Does anyone know of any other cases in which the price of buying a domain is dependent on who the buyer is? No, but that's because domain names have, until now, been closely held and (relatively) heavily regulated compared to other products. There are plenty of products where the cost varies based on the purchaser's ability to pay, or their expected use. In the realm of public discourse, newspapers and other publications have long had sections where anyone could write political or other opinions for free, even while they sold ad space to commercial interests for large amounts.