Domain Resale Code of Ethics
From HypertWiki
In the face of the rising tide of domain name squatting, which deprives all but the best-funded enterprises and individuals of the use of uncounted thousands of domain names, I hereby propose a code of ethics for reselling domain names. Comments and suggestions are welcome on the discussion page.
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[edit] Wherefore
Domains of interest to multiple parties should not be used for trivial purposes, such as revenue generation through pay-per-click advertising without any useful content. It is in the interest of minimizing the wasteful use of such domains that the following rules are proposed.
[edit] Proposed Rules
(revised 2006-03-27)
- Domain names may also have a set asking price, and be retained by the seller until another party offers to buy at the set price; however, this price should not be in excess of twice the amount invested in the domain's registration (i.e. the total of all registration fees paid for the domain by the seller).
- Domain names may be sold at auction, as this allows the marketplace to set a fair price; someone who has paid a substantial amount for a domain is unlikely to use it for trivial purposes. The auction reserve or initial asking price should not be higher than the set price given above.
- The seller may make efforts to ensure that the domain will be used as the home for a site that is substantially useful, rather than just being resold to the highest bidder, but this is not required.
- A domain name that is not being used purposefully should not be retained for longer than (say) two years; it should either be auctioned, its registration not renewed, or its resale price should be set significantly lower than the maximum described above. (This part needs some work.)
[edit] Notes
- In the early days, when InterNIC was the only domain registrar, initial registration for all TLDs was $100 ($50/year, two years' initial registration required).
- Need to come up with a more detailed definition/description of what constitutes "purposeful" vs. "exploitative" uses of domain names
[edit] Issues
- Enforcement: Once we have a code which seems reasonable to most people, how do we get domain resellers to adopt it? A number of tools suggest themselves, though I'm sure there are some I haven't thought of:
- A banner which only conforming sites may use (much like banners provided by other trust-enhancing services)
- A whitelist of resellers known to follow the spirit of the code
- A blackist of resellers known not to follow the spirit of the code
