Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/05/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Domain registrars say that there is a grace period, but there really isn't, and any industry insider can grab a domain name once it has expired. I could have grabbed the leica-camera.com domain for my own use, but why bother? They are the ones who should have it. If you want to steal someone else's domain in the case that they forget to renew it, the best technique is to use a "domain protection service" like <http://snapnames.com/>, but to use it on a domain that does not belong to you. This is what someone did to Mark Rabiner, with the hope that they could blackmail him into paying a lot of money to get it back. This is actually a fairly common technique for making money. The world's governments have not yet declared it to be blackmail, and thus it is not actually a crime, but it works like this: 1. Find a domain that you think might not be renewed. 2. Grab it when it expires, and change it to point to something that the legitimate owner will find reprehensible. For example, if you steal the domain name from a church, start showing hard-core porn at that address. 3. Offer to sell it back to the legitimate owner for some large sum of money. I've seen churches asked to pay $500, and I've seen small businesses asked to pay $1000. The owner will often decide that it is cheaper to buy back the expired name than to build up brand loyalty and customer base on a new name. > I know that my own domain registrar (directnic) gives me a 90 (or 60, I'm > not sure) day grace period after the expiration of a domain, during which > the name is no longer active, but is still under my control as far as > renewing goes. They also email me many annoying reminders. - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html