Are You That Stupid?
I know a lot of domainers who tread very close to the cybersquatter line — they might be legally safe, however they continue to encourage the “All domainers are cybersquatters” mentality. With all the talk about the URS and how this could destroy domainers, I’m flabbergasted to see domainers literally cheering on .cm — many of whom are of course only interested because it will provide them with the best opportunity in a decade to cybersquat . First thought that comes to mind — Are you that stupid? Pardon my language but other words just don’t express my shock. Domainers like to complain about stuff like the UDRP but why do we have a UDRP in the first place? Because a whole lot of stupid domainers thought it’d be a brilliant idea to register McDonalds.com and hold them hostage for $10,000 and a Happy Meal.
Do you think ICANN and big corporations aren’t going to closely monitor registrations in the .cm extension? Will this Cameroonian extension not provide the evidence they need to show that domainers really are cybersquatters and that increased protection such as the URS need to be implemented? How much unnecessary stress and hardship has the UDRP and ACPA caused many domainers? How many panelists have become biased towards corporations because of how much blatant cybersquatting they’ve seen?
Squat all the domains you want but just know that some people like me have had it with trademark infringing scum and I’m going to personally do companies like McDonald’s a favor and alert them to these scumbags infringing on their mark(s). Why? Because I make my money honestly and I’m sick of being associated with these pathetic individuals who have no creative ideas of their own and hence decide to profit off those of others.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://llll.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter-big4.png){kind=icon}
Related posts:
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:46 am
"’m flabbergasted to see domainers literally cheering on .cm — many of whom are of course only interested because it will provide them with the best opportunity in a decade to cybersquat ."
I don't think it is really suprising. To be honest the industry probably does need something like the URS. I'll picket all day long against it but only because it is against my own interests for it to come in.
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:08 am
Yeah I have to agree with you Snoop — it's hardly fair that someone can go out and reg a domain for $8 and, under the present system, a corporation be forced to pay thousands to acquire this TM-infringing domain.
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:27 am
I agree Reece, maybe Ron at DNJ and everyone at T.R.A.F.F.I.C should stop praising Kevin Ham and call him a cybersquatter, how much did he make off squatting the .cm extension.
June 3rd, 2009 at 4:56 am
Reece,
I agree with you whole heartedly regarding TM names like Ebay.cm or Microsoft.cm (in the case of .cm).
However, I think generic names like Golf.cm or Vegas.cm - which I blogged about - are fair play. IMO, the value in names like these is in development. Of course there will be some typo traffic, but that shouldn’t be the primary focus.
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:00 am
Ray — that's a perfect example of the domain industry saying one thing (that we're not cybersquatters) and doing another (praising someone who clearly is).
June 3rd, 2009 at 5:08 am
Exactly people fall all over him like he is a genius, now I do not know him and have nothing bad to say about the man, but if some 20 year old living in his parents basement is a cybersquatter well then so is the "MAN WHO OWNS THE INTERNET"
June 3rd, 2009 at 7:54 am
It's fine as long as you talk about god here and there :p
Anyways, the issues are much bigger.
The domain industry and all of the biggest players empires has been built on typos from day one — those domains financed their generic domain purchases. They were all very smart to diversify
Can't knock the hustle… You find an opportunity, you go at it. Who cares what anybody says? Does Oversee or Kevin Ham really care?!? Not really.
The biggest players were farmers and regular 9 - 5 folks who saw opportunities, stepped up to the plate… Took some risks and have been getting lucky by getting away with it ever since, but a change is coming. No denying it. I wrote about it
Domain typos and the billion dollar empire.. Everybody is set to cash in on it! Why not?!
http://www.wannadevelop.com/observations/domain-t...
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:50 am
LOL. I was at my cousins house yesterday and we were out back relaxing while one of them was studying law. He looks at me and goes "you're a cybersquatter." I look at him and laugh. I go "yeah? why's that buddy?" and he goes "you have all these domains and you are a cybersquatter."
Then I sat and explained to him what "cybersquatting" really is.
Stupid law book that made him think I'm a cybersquatter. It all made sense afterwards, but seriously.
Sorta related to this post, yeah?
June 3rd, 2009 at 10:19 am
Hi Elliot,
Thanks for stopping by. I completely agree with you there about Golf.cm, Vegas.cm etc being okay. I'm of the opinion that it's wrong to register trademarked domains like Microsoft.ext in any extension - the fact this extension will no doubt get significant traffic for such domains only makes my opinion more negative of the people who go out and register such domains.
Sammy,
Yes, it's very unfortunate that the mainstream public (and even well-educated professionals) have that opinion of domainers. A few bad apples spoil the bunch.
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:01 pm
Reece,
I am behind your effort to show "legitimacy" in the domain industry. It's important we present a professional image. Trust me, that's hard for me to do but I've received enough lectures from my domainer pals to know understand I gotta keep that rough edge to myself.
So, your blog post would have done something good and travelled a lot farther if you left out "fucking" in your title. "ARE YOU THAT STUPID" has the same amount of impact without the "turnoff" factor of our fav cuss word.
In the future, if you're going to write a great article making a great point like this one, leave out the cusswords, and watch your post go further, be read better, not be blocked by corporate blacklists, etc.
THINK, YOUNG MAN! THINK! Your intelligent thought process was derailed by one cussword that took your post out of about 2000 potential online websites, just because of that one word!
Just some advice, my friend. In the future, base your advice on your logic, not your angry cuss words! I know it feels good, I've been there… but it never helps, only hurts.
cheers! (and shame on Elliot and Snoop for not pointing this out to you first).
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Hi Stephen,
I'm sorry if my post offended you — I must admit, I've been in a pretty bad mood the past few days hearing about how excited some people are about .cm while we have everything else going on in the domain industry and I let anger get the best of me… If anyone wants to rewrite/paraphrase the article for their site, please feel free to do so (not asking for a mention or linkback - just happy word will get out to people who need to read it).
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
Well said. I for one would like to understand the logic behind the excitement of the .cm registry. First, only "cybersquatters" should have any reason to jump up and down as all it seems to me is that Kevin and the Cameroon government are just reducing liability and cashing out. Rememer that they have years of data so it would only make sense that any names which hold any significant traffic will never be released or kept by the .CM registry. Of course, I'm sure they will sell every possible trademark violation of a domain even with traffic to cash out and reduce the risk but those generics that get good traffic - not a lousy $5 a month (which some domainers rave about lol) - those will never see the light of day.
Fact is the success of the .cm is for TYPO traffic only - there will never be billiions (hell, even millions) to promote this extension - It's a pureplay typo extension whose value will be forgotten when the next new extension is available. The value of the .cm is in its ownership as a whole - there is no branding value attached to these domains.
People, we see this every time a new extension comes out or is available to the masses. .CM is no different.
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
Great post Alan, thanks for stopping by.
I would imagine anyone trying to form a brand around a .cm domain would have a very large percentage of their traffic mistakenly typing in .com, which is kind of ironic when you think of things.
June 6th, 2009 at 12:33 am
Your post was fine Reece with the F word being used actually more non domainers will actually read that.
Great post and write what you want, you certainly don't need advice from anyone on anything about the domain industry.
June 24th, 2009 at 11:58 pm
Hi Alan,
are you willing to put wager on this “any significant traffic will never be released or kept by the .CM registry” ?
I will hold against it.