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Commercial resale of domain names
An economic effect of the widespread usage of domain names has been the resale
market for generic domain names that has sprung up in the last decade. Certain
domains, especially those related to business, gambling, pornography, and other
commercially lucrative fields of digital world trade have become very much in
demand to corporations and entrepreneurs due to their intrinsic value in
attracting clients. The most expensive Internet domain name to date, according
to Guinness World Records, is business.com which was resold in 1999 for $7.5
million, but this was $7.5 million in stock options, not in cash. Later the
stock was valued at, not sold, for $2 million and may even be worth less today
Newsweek [1]. There are disputes about the high values of domain names claimed
and the actual prices of many sales.
Another high value domain name, sex.com, was stolen from its rightful owner by
means of a forged transfer instruction via fax. During the height of the dot-com
era, the domain was earning millions of dollars per month in advertising revenue
from the large influx of visitors that arrived daily. Two long-running U.S.
lawsuits resulted, one against the thief and one against the domain registrar
VeriSign[2]. In one of the cases, Kremen v. Network Solutions, the court found
in favor of the plaintiff, leading to an unprecedented ruling that classified
domain names as property, granting them the same legal protections. In 1999,
Microsoft traded the valuable name Bob.com with internet entrepreneur Bob
Kerstein for the name Windows2000.com which was the name of their new operating
system.[3]
One of the reasons for the value of domain names is that even without
advertising or marketing, they attract clients seeking services and products who
simply type in the generic name. Furthermore, generic domain names such as
movies.com or Books.com are extremely easy for potential customers to remember,
increasing the probability that they become repeat customers or regular clients.This is a brief description of the service ...
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