cybersqatter

[CSMR]

Hi. I'd ideally like to own the domain name <my surname>.com or .org or .net. To use for permanent family e-mail addresses and a personal web site.
Unfortunately someone has grabbed all of those. Obviously to stop anyone else from getting them; he can't be using more than one.
1. Is it allowable to register domain names without any intention to use them?
2. The person hasn't responded to e-mails about selling one of these but what would be the going rate for a personal domain name? (My surname is pretty rare, the market for these domain names is just the two of us!)
Thanks!

 

[drebo]

There's nothing you can do if he doesn't want to sell them.

 

[kevnich2]

Just because someone else registered those domain names doesn't make them a cybersquatter. If they don't want to give them up, there's nothing you can do about it at all, just find another domain name that'll work for you and be done. A cybersquatter is one who buys domain names with the INTENT to sell them to another person at a higher profit (aka businesses), they squat on them until they can get a nice payout

 

[MalVeauX]

Hi. I'd ideally like to own the domain name <my surname>.com or .org or .net. To use for permanent family e-mail addresses and a personal web site.
Unfortunately someone has grabbed all of those. Obviously to stop anyone else from getting them; he can't be using more than one.
1. Is it allowable to register domain names without any intention to use them?
2. The person hasn't responded to e-mails about selling one of these but what would be the going rate for a personal domain name? (My surname is pretty rare, the market for these domain names is just the two of us!)
Thanks!

Heya,

This was the big thing during the whole `.net' era, where buying up all the domain names and holding them was big business. He could give it to you for free. Or he could ask for $1 million dollars. Seriously. There's no restriction on this. He owns it fairly, so he can sell it for whatever someone is willing to buy it for. The thing is, this `he' is likely a group, or corp, as most of them are bought up and saved by business groups who are just waiting for another business to come along who is willing to pay big money for the domain name that they want, that someone else owns. It's a way to get money.

You realize there's other domains these days. You don't have to get .com, .net or .org. Check out other domain options. There's dozens of them. If that's not good enough, then simply change the domain name. Surely you realize your name is likely not unique. Add something to it. "SurnameFamily".com/.net/.org or something for example. Or "TheSurnames".com/.net/.org. Be creative. Save your money and time.

Very best,

 

[CSMR]

Thanks for the advice! I might try .name but I'll have to check that there's nothing special about .name and it works like other suffixes.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Nothing you can do if they dont want to sell.