Interested but...

[dotpac]

Hi I am David, I have been in the computer industry since the 80's and I have a few online businesses with a portfolio of over 400 .com, 30 other domains and only about 5 .com.au domains. Almost every domain has its own fully developed website.
I got more interested in .au domains because I thought some names I needed might be available because of tighter restrictions but was very disappointed when I discovered mass domain squatting in the .com.au domains. So I joined up here to see what I could find out because if the names I want are being squatted I would rather buy the .com which I have done on a number of occasions.
My personal opinion is that there should be a .au that is more open and .com.au should be reserved for matching business names and a limited number of related products registered in ASIC, in other words absolutly no squatting (aka directory pages) but that's just my opinion and I am keen to hear what others think.

 

[snoopy]

If you own 435 domains I doubt many would be well developed. In my opinion a badly developed domain is also squatting.

 

[eBranding.com.au]

I got more interested in .au domains because I thought some names I needed might be available because of tighter restrictions but was very disappointed when I discovered mass domain squatting in the .com.au domains.

There's a big difference between domain squatting (e.g. acquiring trademark infringing domains) and domain investing.

Here's a definition of domain squatting:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting

 

[DomainNames]

Hi I am David, I have been in the computer industry since the 80's and I have a few online businesses with a portfolio of over 400 .com, 30 other domains and only about 5 .com.au domains. Almost every domain has its own fully developed website.
I got more interested in .au domains because I thought some names I needed might be available because of tighter restrictions but was very disappointed when I discovered mass domain squatting in the .com.au domains. So I joined up here to see what I could find out because if the names I want are being squatted I would rather buy the .com which I have done on a number of occasions.
My personal opinion is that there should be a .au that is more open and .com.au should be reserved for matching business names and a limited number of related products registered in ASIC, in other words absolutly no squatting (aka directory pages) but that's just my opinion and I am keen to hear what others think.

auDA policy..... "First come first served" just like most domain name extensions. You probably should have have contacted Robert back in the 80's and early 90's when all .com.au names where FREE.

If you can get the .com and not the .com.au go for it.

It would be awesome to see the list of your 400+ developed websites. That really is an accomplishment. I guess you bought the .com due to the auDA red tape etc of the .com.au in comparison..

As far as the .com.au matching the exact business name that was auDA .au policy 20 years ago and then they woke up and changed the policy in line with the rest of the world. That poor policy hurt the .au namespace, business and innovation.

 

[dotpac]

If you own 435 domains I doubt many would be well developed. In my opinion a badly developed domain is also squatting.

I have a team of 26 people, 12 of them full time developers others SEO etc since 2006, your doubts are unfounded.

 

[dotpac]

auDA policy..... "First come first served" just like most domain name extensions. You probably should have have contacted Robert back in the 80's and early 90's when all .com.au names where FREE.

If you can get the .com and not the .com.au go for it.

It would be awesome to see the list of your 400+ developed websites. That really is an accomplishment. I guess you bought the .com due to the auDA red tape etc of the .com.au in comparison..

As far as the .com.au matching the exact business name that was auDA .au policy 20 years ago and then they woke up and changed the policy in line with the rest of the world. That poor policy hurt the .au namespace, business and innovation.

Many of my websites are for customers outside Australia, so in most cases .au would have been irrelevant. I do believe the internet should be allowed to grow and part of that is availability of appropriate domain names, or am I the only one that gets frustrated with these rotten directory pages

 

[dotpac]

There's a big difference between domain squatting (e.g. acquiring trademark infringing domains) and domain investing.

Here's a definition of domain squatting:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting

I get that its a game of he with the most expensive lawyer wins, it shouldn't be that way IMHO. There are many businesses that can't afford TradeMark Protection, but they have as much right to a fair go on the internet. For that reason, I don't see any difference between the two.

 

[Data Glasses]

If you own 435 domains I doubt many would be well developed. In my opinion a badly developed domain is also squatting.

Are parked domains considered badly developed I wonder?
~
Welcome David

 

[snoopy]

Are parked domains considered badly developed I wonder?
~
Welcome David

It depends. If you want the name the other person is squatting, but your usage is definitely not squatting!

It is a bit like how SPAM websites should be deindexed (sites positioned above mine).

 

[snoopy]

I have a team of 26 people, 12 of them full time developers others SEO etc since 2006, your doubts are unfounded.

Let me guess they are all "offshore developers". Post up the sites!

 

[dotpac]

Are parked domains considered badly developed I wonder?
~
Welcome David

Parking should be a temporary state, I always have up to 20 domains parked at a time, but they relate to a company under registration or a website under development, they are not parked in the hope that I am depriving someone else of that domain now or in the future. Thanks for the welcome

 

[robert]

Hi I am David, I have been in the computer industry since the 80's and I have a few online businesses with a portfolio of over 400 .com, 30 other domains and only about 5 .com.au domains. Almost every domain has its own fully developed website.
I got more interested in .au domains because I thought some names I needed might be available because of tighter restrictions but was very disappointed when I discovered mass domain squatting in the .com.au domains. So I joined up here to see what I could find out because if the names I want are being squatted I would rather buy the .com which I have done on a number of occasions.
My personal opinion is that there should be a .au that is more open and .com.au should be reserved for matching business names and a limited number of related products registered in ASIC, in other words absolutly no squatting (aka directory pages) but that's just my opinion and I am keen to hear what others think.

Hi David.
I too would like to see you give an example of some of your "developed" names.
You say that many people are "squatting" your .com.au equivalent versions of your .com's - but does this mean you are admitting you are "squatting" on around 400 .com domain names yourself?
Like eBranding said, there is a MASSIVE difference between "squatting" and "developing/parking".
Just because you drive your car past a vacant piece of physical land with no house on it, doesn't mean the owners are "squatting". They paid good money for the land and can do whatever they like with it. If you want the land instead, PAY FOR IT. Pretty simple.

 

[dotpac]

Hi David.
I too would like to see you give an example of some of your "developed" names.
You say that many people are "squatting" your .com.au equivalent versions of your .com's - but does this mean you are admitting you are "squatting" on around 400 .com domain names yourself?
Like eBranding said, there is a MASSIVE difference between "squatting" and "developing/parking".
Just because you drive your car past a vacant piece of physical land with no house on it, doesn't mean the owners are "squatting". They paid good money for the land and can do whatever they like with it. If you want the land instead, PAY FOR IT. Pretty simple.

Where did I say "many people are squatting my .com.au equivalents"? Your making this up.
My business is to help get businesses online, I provide the domain, website and SEO for FREE and make my money from processing the transactions I generate for that business, so the domains in my portfolio represent hundreds of different businesses in 8 countries, if those domains were sitting there with bogus directory pages I would make no money at all, I believe in the internet and empowering businesses to get online, nothing could be further from squatting than that.

Its absolutely NOT like the Real Estate businesses because there is no "physical" asset (as you stated) and as you pay a yearly fee, you don't really "own" the domain, so its on par with Ticket Scalping and if domain registration authorities were doing their job they would treat it the same as scalping.

If you don't like to call it squatting then maybe we should call it Domain Scalping, either way it has a negative impact on the internet.

 

[robert]

I'm not making it up (it's "you're" and not "your" by the way).
You said it right here:
"was very disappointed when I discovered mass domain squatting in the .com.au domains."
Couldn't be any clearer than that.
Your squatting accusations against anyone who has a name that you want is unwarranted and I don't feel sorry for you for being "late to the party" or for not having the budget to now acquire your dream names.
It absolutely IS like the Real Estate business, because there ARE yearly fees, like rates and/or strata fees.
Your Ticket Scalping analogy is laughable. You buy a ticket for a "one-time" throw-away use. This has no connection with a domain name, which is a digital asset, an "internet piece of real estate" (an individually assigned IP address all of your own, made pretty and easy to remember in the form of a domain name) that is yours to control, year after year, for as long as you OWN the lease.
You still don't seem to understand the difference between cybersquatting and domain name development / parking / monetisation and it's clear you're not ready to understand and to take friendly advice from people on here who know a hell of a lot more than you, so I'll let you get on with your life in your own special way at this point.
All the best!

 

[Bacon Farmer]

Hi David, welcome to the forum.

People around here get sensitive when they hear squatter but it's always good to have a robust discussion from another point of view :-}

 

[findtim]

if you read through the masses of threads on dnt over the years you will see hundreds ++++ of threads where dnt members have been very proactive against squatting, if anyone hints that they are doing it they are quickly advised not to and given suggestions to get out of their current position.
so please gain some knowledge of the members here as i can confidently say that there is NO squatters here, we all obey the rules.
we also know newbies can fall into this track and dnt tries to help them out of it over and over again.

so please don't "bite back" ,take it on, do some more reading, ask instead of tell until you fully understand the australian market.

welcome to dnt

tim

 

[dotpac]

I'm not making it up (it's "you're" and not "your" by the way).
You said it right here:
"was very disappointed when I discovered mass domain squatting in the .com.au domains."
Couldn't be any clearer than that.
Your squatting accusations against anyone who has a name that you want is unwarranted and I don't feel sorry for you for being "late to the party" or for not having the budget to now acquire your dream names.
It absolutely IS like the Real Estate business, because there ARE yearly fees, like rates and/or strata fees.
Your Ticket Scalping analogy is laughable. You buy a ticket for a "one-time" throw-away use. This has no connection with a domain name, which is a digital asset, an "internet piece of real estate" (an individually assigned IP address all of your own, made pretty and easy to remember in the form of a domain name) that is yours to control, year after year, for as long as you OWN the lease.
You still don't seem to understand the difference between cybersquatting and domain name development / parking / monetisation and it's clear you're not ready to understand and to take friendly advice from people on here who know a hell of a lot more than you, so I'll let you get on with your life in your own special way at this point.
All the best!

I am dumbfounded with your logic.
Show me the word "my" in the sentence you refer to "was very disappointed when I discovered mass domain squatting in the .com.au domains." There is absolutely no suggestion that anyone has a domain name I want, I was just disappointed to find that the efforts in stopping Scalping and Squatting seems to have weakened. There is no domains I want that someone else owns, I simply shared an opinion when introducing myself, but it seems some are sensitive about their activities, ignoring the insults, its an interesting topic of discussion.
REAL Estate is called REAL because its is something physical REAL, you can touch it, once you buy REAL Estate you own it, fees on the services provided to that property is not a payment towards the ownership of the property, unlike domains that you pay a rental fee for the use of that domain per year, just as you pay for a ticket to enter a stadium for the duration of the event, you pay a fee for the year(s) that you pay for and when it expires you have no further rights to that domain. The comparison is frighteningly accurate, no matter how much you don't want it to be true.

 

[dotpac]

if you read through the masses of threads on dnt over the years you will see hundreds ++++ of threads where dnt members have been very proactive against squatting, if anyone hints that they are doing it they are quickly advised not to and given suggestions to get out of their current position.
so please gain some knowledge of the members here as i can confidently say that there is NO squatters here, we all obey the rules.
we also know newbies can fall into this track and dnt tries to help them out of it over and over again.

so please don't "bite back" ,take it on, do some more reading, ask instead of tell until you fully understand the australian market.

welcome to dnt

tim

Hi Tim, thanks for the welcome, I certainly didn't intend to ruffle any sensitive feathers, I just introduced myself and my observations. I use to work with Microsoft's legal team and love debate on the ownership of intangible goods, so its all good
David

 

[findtim]

stop paying your mortgage or rates and see how long you own REAL estate?

tim

 

[dotpac]

stop paying your mortgage or rates and see how long you own REAL estate?

tim

No doubt your correct, however, a mortgage is repayment of a loan SECURED by a real asset, rates are payment for local government services, its not payment for the actual property, its not an opinion, that's the law.