Domain name auctions are now starting to give the appearance of cracking down on non paying bidders. Last week, Dynadot send me an email regarding users that were shill bidding in their expired auctions. Here is a picture of one such user: Dynadot stated: “Effective immediately, if an au...

This afternoon I received an email from auDA requesting comment on their Domain Expiry, Renewal and Deletion Policy. auDA has specifically asked for comments around: 1. Whether the current 30 day pending delete period for expired domain names (ie. where the registrant has not renewed their domain na...

Popular Australian bargain site, ozbargain.com.au has been typosquatted. That’s right – if you visit ozbargin.com.au (note that its missing an “a”) right now, the website diverts to eBay. auDA has a “Prohibition on Misspellings Policy (2008-09)” which specifical...

Its been reported that a woman in the UK has become the first person to change her name by Deed Poll to a domain name. 24 year old Claire Forshaw changed her name earlier this week to Princess-Rainbow.com. “I knew that if ever I got the chance I would change [my name] to a web domain, to hopefull...

The U.S. House Of Representatives Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet recently met to examine issues related to ICANN, including the expiring JPA (Joint Project Agreement) between the Department of Commerce and ICANN, as well as ICANN’s proposed introduction of new gen...

I was reading this article around TheInternetCompany, selling the domain name ‘wealth.com’ at a private auction run by Sedo. They want 2.9M and the VP was quoted as saying “we believe that now is the right time to monetize this asset and that an auction, rather than a traditional sale, is ...

Just 24 hours after the launch of the facebook vanity URL, we are seeing people starting to sell. biggestlooser – $8,000 rebate – $60,000 tonightshow – $15,000 sexvideo – $17,000 All these names are available at assetize.com, a site for buying and selling accounts includin...

Mashable is reporting that 500,000 usernames were registered in 15 mins. Well I happened to be watching the clock tick down, and acquired the keyword “domainer”. Feel free to get in contact. To be honest, I really didn’t think this would be as big as it was. Within minutes I had pe...

An auction at the Fairmont on Nob Hill in San Francisco of over 2,600 Internet domain names almost took place on Thursday! The names that were up for sale Thursday belong to Craig Harrison, an entrepreneur from Fort Collins, Colorado.  Many end in realestatelistings.com, representing states, citie...

A federal lawsuit has apparently been brought about which claims that a California company established a website at mysonic.com and sends users to a Burger King home page. The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in U.S District court in Oklahoma City and may be worth $100,000. The Bright Orange Software Inc. ...

The Comite Interprofessional du Vin de Champagne (the semi-government authority of the Republic of France), is going after people who use champagne in their domain name. A gift delivery business called “Champagne Messenger” has been forced to change their name after being pursued by our frog eat...

For the last two years, bodog.com has apparently been battling a legal issue which has kept them from operating under their original domain name and allowing gamers to gamble there. The good news is that a settlement been reached, resolving the patent pending litigation. The result is the return of ...

According to Future Laboratory and Gandi.net, most (two thirds) of web users feel that a .anything domain will infiltrate the web with futile domain names such as .god. Since ICANN made the announcement last October that would allow any organization in 2012 with $185,000 to apply for a generic domai...

CEO and founder, Bob Parsons was recently quoted as saying that Godaddy is “committed to making a difference in the community.” A recent donation to the YMCA demonstrates this commitment. When approached with a request for a meager donation of $1,000, the company raised the bar with a more liber...

An appeal from the US District Court was recently lodged in California. The Plaintiff is the Coalition for ICANN Transparency with the Defendant, Verisign, Inc. Here is a small extract that I found interesting: “CFIT alleged that in order to get ICANN to agree to the terms VeriSign desired, Ve...

ICANN has allowed .biz domain registry NeuStar to grant 1 and 2 character second-level .biz domain names. The domains will be available via an RFP process, with any ungranted domains available via auction. For more details, check out this article in Kikabink News. ...

The nation of Iraq may make a leap into the Internet community with the extension .iq. Iraqi chairman of The National Communications & Media Commission (Siyamend Othmend) said the domain name would allow Iraqis to “stake a virtual flag” in the world of the Web. The chairman also stated in a ...

A mystery is unraveling concerning the fate of Air Flight 447 and the domain name that was registered two years prior —flight447.com. The domain owner is apparently Kari Bian, an Iranian film producer and executive producer of a film who claims the connection is coincidental.  “It’s just an a...

This is the live video webcast of the ICANN hearing. Check it out NOW. ...

I wanted to draw your attention to ICANNs “truly independent economic study” of the proposed new TLD’s. For those reading this, we are going to play a game. When you see the word “independent”, substitute that for the words “seriously conflicted, ICANN sponsored p...

Its been a year since auDA changed the rules to allow people to buy and sell Australian domains names. So, what’s happened since then? My friends at Netfleet clocked up 30,000 domains, 1,500 offers and 105 transactions. Not bad when 99.9% of the population doesn’t understand the basic co...

Due to the recent downturn in the American economy, many are losing their homes and tightening their spending. But some businesses seem to be benefiting from the bad breaks. Eltman, Eltman & Cooper are bringing in the bucks by bringing in debtors. With a team of retired New York City law enforce...

For a mere $25,000 (US dollars) you can be the proud owner of one website domain named susanboyle.com The British singer is perhaps a bit peeved with the confusion that surrounds when a fan is misdirected to a site owned by American artist Susan K. Boyle. The “Britain’s Got Talent” star is an...

Depending on the type of education you desire—you may be put off by the porno site Naughty American University. When seeking a bachelor’s or master’s degree, some would be students are stumbling upon the explicit site where sex-ed is the subject. National American University is suing NAU (Naug...

Another day, another WIPO (World Intellectual Property Org) case. Google vs Harit Shah for the domain name googblog.com. For some strange, unforseen, unknown reason, it was apparently too close to the Google trademark. Who would have thought? Shah said, “I was in a bad faith that I can legally...