Kevin Ohashi - Entrepreneur I Love Learning New Things.

Domain name was taken down after warning and request to remove content.

The registry that runs the .ME top level domain name has released a statement explaining last month’s takedown of Incels.me.

Incels.me was a forum for “involuntary celibates”, which basically means people who are unable to find a romantic or sexual partner. The term was introduced to the mainstream after the April Toronto van attack that was allegedly undertaken by an incel.

The .ME registry says it was informed in May that “certain members of the online community at incels.me forum might have been involved in or associated with the April 23rd, 2018, Toronto van attack. Ever since, we have closely monitored the content on incels.me forum and determined that it was allowing part of its members to continuously promote violence and hate speech.”

In September the registry asked the registrar for the domain to inform the registrant that they must take down the offending content or face suspension. The content wasn’t removed by the middle of October, hence the suspension that took down the website.

The suspension or deletion of domain names and websites has become a hot topic over the past year. It’s been a debate between free speech and speech that incites violence. The most recent example is Gab.com, which found a new home after GoDaddy punted it in the wake of the Pittsburgh synagogue attack.

It’s worth noting that there are two main entities controlling domain names: the registrar where someone registers the domain and the registry that controls the database of names. GoDaddy is the former. In this case, .ME is the latter. (.ME is the country code domain for Montenegro but has been commercialized for general use.)

The registry for .com (Verisign) has so far avoided getting into content regulation, instead relying on registrars and court orders before making any changes to the .com database. That could change.

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1. ICANN files motion to dismiss Donuts’ .Web lawsuit
2. Court tosses Donuts’ .Web lawsuit because Donuts promised not to sue
3. Telepathy sues after getting RDNH win

New dashboard provides at-a-glance view of sales.

Uniregistry’s new seller dashboard.

Uniregistry has added a new dashboard feature to its market.

The dashboard shows data from the past month, recent sales inquiries, and sales. It looks somewhat similar to the Afternic dashboard. Previously, when you visited the market you went straight to the inbox of offers.

I don’t sell many domains through Uniregistry’s market, although I have sent a few inquiries directly to Uniregistry’s brokers this month to see how they handle them. Compared to Afternic, you get a lot more insight into the broker’s interactions with the potential buyer. You can view all of the emails between the parties and see a log of when the broker called the buyer. This adds accountability to the broker, although I will admit it’s frustrating when inquiries aren’t responded to the same day.

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1. Uniregistry digs into details of new Market
2. New TLD auction prices hitting highs: Minds + Machines, Uniregistry, Donuts all win some domains
3. Initial thoughts on the new Uniregistry Market

How Mark Levine made six figures this year by investing in domain names.

Mark Levine isn’t Rick Schwartz, Frank Schilling or Michael Berkens. And that’s why you should pay attention to his story. He is what many domain investors aspire to be, clearing six figures in sales this year. On today’s show Mark breaks down his domain sales this year including where he bought the domains, how much he paid and how he sold them. Oh, and he also discusses the time a domain name inquiry led to the sale of one of his businesses. You’ll love this episode and learn a lot from it.

Also: Google’s .Dev plans, the flame is out on .zippo, and more.

Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)

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1. Domain investing with Shane Cultra – DNW Podcast #164
2. 5 things Mike Cyger learned – DNW Podcast #196
3. How James Booth went from zero to $5 million in 6 months – DNW Podcast #94

Oh, Canada! We’d like to resolve UDRP cases…

Canada International Internet Dispute Resolution Centre (CIIDRC) has filed with ICANN to become an approved body to resolve Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) cases.

CIIDRC is a division of British Columbia International Commercial Arbitration Centre and currently handles disputes over Canada’s .CA domain names.

The group will charge $1,400 for a single-member UDRP case over one domain name and $2,700 for three-member panels. By comparison, WIPO charges $1,500 for a single-member panel and $4,000 for a three-member panel. National Arbitration Forum charges $1,300 and $2,600, respectively.

I didn’t find anything particularly notable in CIIDRC’s proposal, other than that it managed to find only one woman to include in its initial list of 26 panelists.

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1. Lawsuit filed to halt UrbanHome.com transfer after UDRP decision
2. Nirvana gets domain names from Australian man who demanded $1.5 million
3. A great UDRP decision for owners of short domain names

A simple process to make sure your domains are set out how they should be.

If you are a domain investors who has been investing for even a couple of years, your portfolio is probably a bit messy.

By messy, I mean you have domains pointing to stale nameservers, some of your registrant information is wrong, etc. This happens when you buy and sell domains frequently and participate in expired domain auctions.

It’s a good idea to periodically check your domains and fix any mistakes. These final weeks of 2018 are as good as time as any for a portfolio checkup.

If you have your domains at GoDaddy, the best way to do this is to export a list of your domains. Users of the standard GoDaddy domain manager can do this by clicking “More” and choosing the first option to export list.

Users of the beta account manager will see an export button when they select the names in their account:

Once you export your list into CSV you’ll be able to open it in Excel and look for anything you need to fix.

I recommend verifying these fields:

• Registrant name
• Email addresses
• Nameservers
• Address
• Phone number

I uncovered many domains with wrong nameservers on my recent portfolio checkup. Several pointed to defunct parking company servers. Others pointed to the forwarding servers of prior registrars. This could lead to lost sales opportunities.

Portfolio checkups are trickier if you use multiple registrars. Watch My Domains Pro is a useful tool but can be trickier to use now that Whois records are obscured because of GDPR. You might need to use the API feature to download your data.

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How domainers can take advantage of Black Friday.

We’re about a week away from Black Friday and you can expect deals to start rolling out a day or two before that.

Domain name registries and registrars have jumped on the Black Friday bandwagon in recent years by offering discounted domain names from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday (the following Monday).

Generally speaking, I haven’t found these deals to be much better than specials run throughout the year. When there are offers for .com there are usually restrictions. (If you hear of any particularly good deals, feel free to post them.)

Regardless, waiting until the day of a sale announcement to take advantage of these deals is futile. Instead, I recommend keeping a list of domains you’d register in each TLD if the price is right. That way you can jump on them when they are discounted.

Keep in mind that almost all domain specials are for one year only. If you don’t think you’ll sell the domain within a year, factor in standard renewal prices.

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1. Median Domain Name Sales Price Down 15%
2. Top Domain Name Wire stories of August
3. Get ready for Black Friday domain deals

A delivery service, medical clinic and real estate developer bought domain names.

This week’s end user sales include many ccTLDs. Sedo is always strong with country code domains, but this week I was able to connect more of them to end users than usual.

The top sale was PickPack.com at $59,000. This might seem high, but pick & pack is a common term in the fulfillment industry.

Check out the list below, and you can view previous lists like this here.

PickPack.com $59,000- Pick Pack is a same-day delivery service.

Updraft.com $10,000 – The domain now forwards to Updraft.co.uk, a service that helps people avoid over drafting their bank accounts.

InstaCare.com $8,000 – The phone number in Whois is that of a Wyoming medical practice called Stitches Acute Care Center.

OSP.ch €5,000 – Forwarding to Ochsnersport.ch, a ski apparel and gear store.

Mietrecht.de €5,000 – Mietrecht translates to ‘legal rights for tenants’ and this site gives advice to those seeking information on this topic.

Torgaurd.com $4,995 – Forwarding to Torguard.net, an online privacy, protection and VPN services provider. Note that this is a typo of the brand.

Grills.de €4,900 – Forwarding to koempf24.de. Koempf Onlineshops GmbH operates a number of online stores including one that sells grilling supplies.

PD.eu €4,675 -Forwards to PremiumDevelopment.eu, the site for Premium Immobilien, a residential property developer and real estate management service company with offices in Vienna and Berlin.

Ferienhaus-Griechenland.de €2,890 – This site is in development to list Grecian vacation homes and apartments rentals.

Brandwerk.de €2,355 – German marketing and communications agency Brandwerk GmbH.

Leitbild.com $2,888 – This is forwarding to Mobily.me which is a German software company providing mobility solutions.

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1. USA Today buys domain for new sports site (and 19 other domains)
2. A stellar week for end user domain name sales at Sedo
3. 25 End User Domain Name Sales

[Editor’s note: This is a sponsored post by Accreditation.com, the consultancy arm of LogicBoxes]

For any business that hopes to not only get successful but also leave a mark in its respective industry, upgrading plays a pivotal role in getting to the next level. When we think about Web Hosting and Domain Name Resellers who have just started out in the industry, we imagine the usual reselling of Domain Names and Web Hosting packages, often bundled with complimentary value added services such as Website Builders, Digital Security certificates, Email Solutions, etc.

But there’s more to it; especially when it comes to the Domain Names business.

A lot of Domain Name Resellers have scaled new heights in their respective businesses after they upgraded to the Registrar status by getting ICANN Accredited. For the uninitiated, ICANN Accreditation is a seal of trust and credibility granted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the body responsible for the formulation, maintenance and governing of policies and processes for all Domain Name-related matters. ICANN Accredited Registrars are looked upon as trustworthy and credible Domain Name providers in the industry. Since these Registrars are bound by ICANN’s agreements, among several other Registry-Registrar agreements, a well secured and healthy work relationship is guaranteed at all times.

However, a lot of aspiring Registrars avoid making the decision of getting ICANN Accredited because they believe that it’s a long, winding and a monumental process. Some of these folks are too concerned about their eligibility to even give this idea a chance. We will be addressing a lot of these doubts, and a few more, in our webinar titled ‘Demystifying ICANN Accreditation’, scheduled to take place on November 27, 2018. For several Domain Resellers, ICANN Accreditation has proven to be a game changer that paved way for additional revenue and branding benefits; one of which is Namespro.ca., who are an experienced and a prominent player in the Domains industry.

In this 30-minute webinar, you can expect to get your doubts pertaining to the ICANN Accreditation process clarified and also hear how this step has benefited those who made that upgrade. The rest of the details are as follows:

Date: November 27, 2018
Time: 05:00 PM CET | 11:00 AM EST
Duration: 30 minutes
Speakers:

1. Eeshaan Satwalekar (Manager, Business Development at LogicBoxes)
2. Vicole So (Managing Director, Namespro.ca)

Here’s the registration link to the webinar: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6104914463170992396

We hope to see you on the 27th!

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This reader survey will help me write the content that most interests you.

I’ve been writing DNW for nearly 14 years. The stories I write about today are somewhat different from years ago. For example, this year I created my reader survey by typing sheet.new into my browser. That’s an interesting story in and of itself, but indicative of how the domain business is evolving.

I use direct feedback to decide what I should cover more of and to find out what people like the most. With this in mind, I’d greatly appreciate you taking 3 minutes to complete this short reader survey. You can either complete it through the embedded form below or go here.

The survey is anonymous, but feel free to email me at andrew (at) domainnamewire.com if you want to follow up with additional feedback.

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Website builder is also getting into the payments business.

Wix (NASDAQ: WIX) released Q3 2018 earnings yesterday.

Revenue hit $155.6 million, up 40% year-over-year. The company added 177,000 paying subscribers during the quarter, bringing its total to 3.8 million. 5.5 million users registered with Wix during the quarter. Wix converts some of these registered users into paid subscribers over time.

Collections were $163 million. That’s up 36% year-over-year but just slightly from Q1 and Q2 2018.

Wix also announced the launch of Wix Payments. It has been trialing it in Brazil and will bring it to the United States next year. I suspect adding payments became necessary after payments processor Square (NYSE: SQ) bought Weebly, one of Wix’s competitors.

Here’s a Wix website builder review from my personal experience.

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1. Wix adds 231K paid subscribers, 5.9M registered users in Q1
2. Here are the domain and website biz’s 2 Super Bowl commercials
3. Square to buy Weebly for $365 million

.Doha gets nixed, along with two dot-brand top level domains.

A handful of additional top level domain name operators have informed ICANN that they no longer wish to operate their new top level domains. But as a first, one of these is an operator of a geographic string.

Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has filed a termination notice for .Doha. It planned to use this domain name for government entities in Qatar but those plans never materialized.

Additionally, two dot-brand domain owners have asked ICANN to terminate their registry agreements.

First up is The Active Network’s .active. The Active Network is part of Global Payments Inc. (NYSE: GPN). To date, the company has only used the name for social media short links in the form
of get.active/. You could make the argument that another company might want .active as a generic TLD.

Zadco Company, maker of the famed Zippo lighters, also told ICANN it no longer wishes to own .Zippo.

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1. ICANN publishes 29 change requests to new top level domains
2. Google’s CIO to discuss new TLDs at Google I/O
3. Interesting .CEO comments started by Paul Kedrosky

Panelist cops out of finding RDNH.

A World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) panelist decided it was “not necessary” to make a reverse domain name hijacking finding on a dead-on-arrival cybersquatting dispute.

WEDIA SA of Paris, France filed the dispute against the owner of Wedia.com. The domain was registered in 1997 by a Japanese company that shut down the associated product line in 2013. Wedia SA appears to have started using the name in the mid 00’s.

Given the prior use of the domain and that it predates the Complainant’s use, the case was dead-on-arrival despite the domain owner not responding to the allegations.

But panelist Douglas Clark gave Wedia SA a pass. He noted that Wedia SA at least tried to contact the domain owner first (even offering money) and doesn’t appear to have been represented by outside counsel. Maybe so, but Wedia isn’t a small fish; it has €22 million in annual sales.

The domain owner didn’t respond so Clark didn’t have to answer to that party. He wrote:

Without evidence that the disputed domain name was registered in bad faith in 1997 (or that there had been a subsequent transfer in bad faith), the Complainant should have known that the proceedings were bound to fail. Nevertheless, the Complainant had sought to contact the Respondent prior to filing the complaint and made a reasonable offer of USD 3,000 to purchase the domain name but did not receive any reply from the Respondent. The Complainant appears to have prepared the complaint itself without taking external legal advice and does not appear to have been previously involved in UDRP proceedings. The Panel is, therefore, willing to give the Complainant the benefit of the doubt that it was not aware of the possibility of a RDNH finding. In the particular circumstances of this case, the Panel therefore determines that it is not necessary to make a declaration of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking.

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1. Roche, Lego, and Google File Most Domain Arbitration Cases in 2009
2. ScotiaBank Loses Case for Caribana Festival Domain Name
3. If ICANN and WIPO can’t comply with WHOIS, who can?

.Dev will be released in early 2019.

Google has announced launch plans for the .dev top level domain name.

Sunrise will start in January 2019. A Dutch auction early access period will take place in February, with general availability beginning February 28.

As with Google’s other recent top level domain launches, SSL will be required for .dev domains.

The closest comparison for this domain within Google’s TLDs is .app, which has well over 300,000 registrations at this point. Other Google domains haven’t done as well; they all have fewer than 10,000 registrations. I suspect .dev will land somewhere between the laggards and .app.

More information is available at Get.Dev.

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1. ShoeMoney Sues Google Employee, Alleging Insider Advantages
2. Google and Amazon.com backpedal on closed top level domain names
3. Roundup: this week in the Domain Name Business

Company goes after domain name that was registered before it started using the name as a brand.

A pet apparel and supplies company has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking over the domain name PetLife.com.

Pet Life, LLC, which uses the domain name PetLifeCentral.com, filed a cybersquatting claim with National Arbitration Forum. The company claimed that the owner of PetLife.com was cybersquatting because it isn’t using the domain name and has listed the domain for sale with prices as high as $100,000.

But the domain owner registered the domain well before Pet Life started using its brand. (The trademark it relies on is a figurative mark, too.) So it was impossible that the domain was registered in 2003 to target the as-yet-non-existent brand.

A three-person panel of Scott Austin, David Einhorn and Paul DeCicco made the finding.

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1. Mirabella Beauty Products Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking
2. Dubai Law Firm Nailed for Reverse Domain Name Hijacking
3. Minnesota Company Guilty of Reverse Domain Name Hijacking

Company faces the challenge of operating with a descriptive name.

An incorporation and trademark filings company has lost a cybersquatting dispute to upgrade its domain name from .co to .com.

Legally uses Legally.co to pitch its services. GoDaddy owns Legally.com, a name it picked up in a bulk acquisition from Tucows about a year ago. NameFind was asking about $25,000 for the domain.

World Intellectual Property Organization panelist Harrie R. Samaras found that the Complainant did not show that NameFind targeted it with the domain registration for what is a highly descriptive mark. However, Samaras suggested that Legally might have a grievance that could be taken up in the courts. (That seems like a long shot to me given the descriptive nature of the domain.)

It appears that Legally is having some success with its business. $25,000 seems like a fair price for Legally.com. I would jump on it if I were them.

NameFind was represented by Gerald Levine.

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1. Dow Jones Loses Marketwatch.net Domain Name Case
2. Google Steps Up Domain Name Arbitration Cases
3. Man files UDRP against his ex-wife

Learn why BuyMeACoffee.com bought Brew.com and what they plan to do with it.

Today we talk to the buyer of Brew.com, a domain name that Michael Cyger recently sold. Maddy Ramakrishnan is co-founder and CMO of Brew.com, an evolution of BuyMyACoffee.com. Find out the other domains they considered before settling on Brew.com, why they like the connotation of brew and how the sale came together.

Also: .Com fight, Gab subpoena, Malibu.com, Chicago Blackhawks win and more.

Subscribe via iTunes to listen to the Domain Name Wire podcast on your iPhone or iPad, view on Google Play Music, or click play above or download to begin listening. (Listen to previous podcasts here.)

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1. The challenges of new TLDs with Tobias Sattler – DNW Podcast #177
2. Sandeep Ramchandani, CEO of Radix – DNW Podcast #183
3. All About .Me – DNW Podcast #191

Domain name is in escrow at Escrow.com.

Austin.com is in escrow at Escrow.com.

The Austin.com domain name appears to have sold and might be on a payment plan.

iEstates, LLC purchased the domain name in 2012 but put it up for sale earlier this year. An October 4 DomainTools Whois record shows the domain was in escrow at Escrow.com. The domain was transferred from Moniker to GoDaddy at that time.

The Whois record still shows Escrow.com, suggesting that the domain name is on a payment plan or other sort of arrangement that will require Escrow.com to hold the domain in escrow.

iEstates declined to comment.

I searched the site for clues about who might now own the site but the terms of service and management information haven’t changed since before October. New content continues to be published.

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1. Escrow.com formally launches broker tool
2. No surprise: Escrow.com is still your favorite escrow service
3. GGRG short domains report bolstered with Escrow.com data

Same broker that handled 1999 WallStreet.com sale will auction Malibu.com.

Malibu.com will be auctioned off on December 5 with a starting bid of $250,000 and no reserve. There’s a standing offer of $250,000 and a $25,000 bidding increment, so the domain will cost at least $275,000 if you want to buy it.

Millitzer Capital, which auctioned off WallStreet.com for $1.03 million in 1999, is handling the auction. Details are at Malibu.com.

There are a couple of things about this domain auction that are notable.

First, Malibu is more than a city. It’s also a brand including the popular rum brand.

Second, there’s no reserve, so the domain will sell next month for at least $250,000 assuming that the standing offer goes through. Even at $250,000 it will be a notable sale.

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Last week’s blog post was not the first time Verisign called attention to domain investors.

Last week Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) shocked many of its biggest customers by saying that domain investors are a problem.

It turns out that this was not the first time Verisign raised arguments about the domain aftermarket. It drew attention to the U.S. Senate back in July while it was still negotiating with the U.S. government to renew the Cooperative Agreement.

Verisign made the argument in response to GoDaddy VP of Policy James Bladel’s testimony (pdf) in a U.S. Senate hearing on July 31.

In that hearing, Bladel urged the government to keep the status quo on the wholesale price that Verisign charges registrars. It also argued that the contract to operate .com should eventually be put out to competitive bid.

Verisign SVP Pat Kane sent a letter to the committee chairman, Senator Roger Wicker, and ranking member Brian Schatz pointing out that GoDaddy sells many domains in the aftermarket for thousands of times the wholesale price. It lists some domains for sale on GoDaddy’s Afternic system, including domains with the names of senators (owned by third parties).

Kane’s letter (pdf) was entered into the record toward the end of the hearing and I obtained it today from Senator Wicker’s office.

There’s a big difference between the July letter and last week’s blog post. The letter merely made an argument that the market sets the price for domains and it could be much higher than the wholesale price. The blog post escalated this by saying that domain investors are a problem.

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1. How much would .Com domains cost if .com went out to bid?
2. “Stop the Price Increase of .COM” petition gains steam
3. Who wins, who loses from Trump Admin decision on domain names

Hockey team filed complaint 23 years after the domain was registered.

The Chicago Blackhawks won a dispute to get Blackhawks.com.

The Chicago Blackhawks hockey team has won a cybersquatting dispute it brought against the owner of the Blackhawks.com domain name.

The hockey team filed the dispute with World Intellectual Property Organization after inquiring about buying the domain. The domain registrant replied that the domain was “a six figure name”, at which point the Blackhawks filed the dispute.

There are a few factors that could have weighed against the hockey team in the dispute. First, the domain was registered in 1995 and the team didn’t file a complaint until over 20 years later. Second, the parked page on the domain doesn’t have links related to hockey. Finally, trying to buy a domain name before filing a dispute can show that the complainant realizes it doesn’t have a cybersquatting case.

However, the domain owner didn’t respond to the allegations.

The domain will be transferred to the NHL team in 10 days unless the domain owner files a lawsuit.

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