I've been watching this domain's availability for some time now. Go Daddy emailed me to let me know that it was available. GO DADDY LIVE CHAT A product expert will be with you soon. Position in Queue is 1. Thank you for your patience. You are now chatting with 'Arianna' Arianna - Thank you for chatting with us . My name is Arianna. How may I help you today? you - Why is barefootrunnerssociety.com showing $4,295 + $14.99 per year? Arianna - it's a premium domain with high Search Engine Visibility potential being sold for a one time purchase price of 4295$ . after that 15 per year to maintain . or we can make an offer to the seller you - Ridiculous. There's nothing premium about this domain because there's nothing premium about our sport. sigh Arianna - my email is xxxx@xxxx.xxx if you decide you'd like to make an offer. you - No one is going to buy it at that price. What a waste. Arianna - we don't own it you - Then you're brokering it? They won't sell it for that price. There's nothing premium about our sport. We are the Barefoot Runners Society. We are such a small community of runners that people are still surprised when they see us out running. There are no "profitable" websites about barefoot running, so the domain for sure would never be worth what you all are asking for it.
What with all the new top level domain names, I wonder how much it would cost to get barefootrunnerssociety.bf? (Yeah, it's Burkina Faso, but would we care?)
Wow - so now GoDaddy's cybersquatting and trying to get people to buy what they determine to be "high value domain names"...? Thanks for the head's up - I'll stay clear of them for any Domain Name Registration and hosting.
I thought about barefootrunnerssociety.run, but there are so many possibilities, it's hard to choose. Then, I think we spend too much in domain name registration as it is (for protective purposes) that I'd hate to add more expense to the BRS. This is what really ticks me off! They (the current owner of the domain--Page Cheap, I believe--and Go Daddy) are in violation of the law: Domain Name Disputes: The Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act is a federal law gives trademark and service mark owners legal remedies against defendants who obtain domain names “in bad faith” that are identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark. Apr 8, 2015 Home - Domain Name Law - KEYTLaw keytlaw.com/netlaw/ Barefoot Runners Society is a trademarked name. Can you look through this with your legal mind, and let me know if we have a snowball's chance in hell of fighting it?: http://keytlaw.com/netlaw/domain-name-dispute-faq/
The registered address of the owner of this domain is... 2635 Walnut Street Denver CO 80205 US https://who.is/whois/barefootrunnerssociety.com https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=2635+Walnut+Street+Denver Apparently this is Huge Domain's normal operating practice... http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/HugeD...ti-Cybersquatting-Consumer-Protection-1059016
I really don't know a whole lot about this. And in the end, lawsuits can be expensive (and work much better for larger corporations that can afford it). That said, it wouldn't hurt for you to just ask those lawyers; do a quick and free consult. That said, there is also an arbitration procedure available through ICANN. Here are three links that talk about that alternative strategy. http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/cybersquatting-what-what-can-be-29778.html http://www.whoishostingthis.com/blog/2013/11/06/domain-squatting/ http://www.domainsherpa.com/6-ways-to-recover-a-domain-name-from-an-infringing-cybersquatter/
I was up reading as much as I could stomach about this last night. It boils down to: We're small. They're big. We have no money. They have lots of money. We need a pro bono lawyer. sigh
I think the best thing is just to leave it. If you pursue it then they'll cling to it because it lets them know you want it. If no one bothers them about it eventually they'll give up renewing it will become available again. They've had it 3 years and it's due for renewal on 10th March, so check sometime after that and see if they've renewed. They must have a time limit on how long they cybersquat for because they can't just keep throwing money away with no returns. At the end of the day the law needs to change. It may be worth a letter to your government politician person (not sure what you call them over there). If enough people write to government explaining the way the law is being abused then eventually they'll close this loophole. At least it's free to write to a politician still.
Agreed. If it's not something that would significantly benefit the BRS, I see no reason to pursue it, particularly for the absurd amount of $ they're asking. It would be different if the BRS Domain Name registration lapsed by 24 hours, someone swooped in and picked it up, and then tried selling it back at an exorbitant rate (effectively taking the name hostage...). In this case though, it's a similar name that's not been in use for anything that they're trying to sell to the BRS under the pretense that the "brand" is worth some arbitrary amount. I used to get the same kind of emails for a couple sites I used to run - not a single one was ever worth pursuing and wouldn't have provided any significant benefit, even at $15/year....
The whole law about cybersquatting .com domains is set up specifically to benefit verisign who manage that suffix. They even advertise on their own website that people should cybersquat... https://www.verisign.com/en_US/domain-names/domain-investing/index.xhtml And then Verisgn state that you should do the following to prevent cybersquatting... That's from this page... https://www.verisign.com/en_US/website-presence/online-marketing/multiple-domains/index.xhtml So in one breath they're telling people to cybersquat and then in the next they're telling people to buy all domain levels and misspellings in order to prevent cybersquatting while the law leaves the end users with huge bills against cybersquatters which only give revenue to Icann when there's a dispute. The whole system is rigged to profit these big corporations and they don't care about the end user or the integrity of the internet whatsoever. It's government that's the problem and this will only be solved by government, not litigation.
Thanks all. I've been basically watching and waiting for a long time now, and I'm sure they'll let me know each time it renews...or not. And no, it's not important to the BRS at this point, and I don't have the time, energy, money, or brain cells to chase it, but it's the point that ticks me off (That is, Barefoot Runners Society is a registered trademark. They have no right to own our domain name.), that they are trying to profit off of us by hanging it in front of our noses like a carrot on a string.
Cut the string and be done with it TJ, I get you're frustration though. It seems like everywhere you turn these days there's unscrupulous, unprincipled, disreputable, slippery, fishy (although that doesn't do justice to fish) and darn right dirty-dealing going on. I'd say stick that carrot where the sun don't shine! I know you want things just right for the community, and thanks for looking out for us, we're in safe hands.
