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Submitted via IRC for takyon
The curious tale of ICANN, Verisign, claims of subterfuge, and the $135m .Web dot-word
An ugly struggle over the .Web top-level domain may soon spill into public view again, after one of the companies vying for control of the dot-word demanded an independent review of DNS overlord ICANN's handling of the saga.
More than two years ago, the internet infrastructure industry was agape when an unknown company paid $135m for the rights to sell .web internet addresses: the sum paid was three times the previous record paid for a new dot-word, and seven times the average auction price for a top-level domain.
All that money went directly into the coffers of ICANN, a financial sum that was more than double its annual budget. That was unusual since the vast majority of previous similar dot-word auctions had been decided in private between the bidders themselves with the proceeds split among them.
It soon emerged that the unknown winner – a company called Nu Dot Co – had been secretly funded by the owner of the dot-com registry, Verisign. But before that information emerged, many in the industry were astonished when Nu Dot Co refused to agree to a private auction and insisted all the money go to ICANN.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:55PM (4 children)
That means it's far more expensive for _everybody_ to defend the domains they've got. Consider realdonaldtrump.xxx.
HOWEVER!
It's also pulled the rug out from under the "Domaining"... uh... "industry", with the result that there are all manner of tasty domains for me to register for ten solid years then redirect to one of my existing sites.
Just now I redirected soggymike.com [soggymike.com] to my Twitter page.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:56PM (2 children)
Don't Say I Never Did Nothin' Fer Ya.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @09:30PM (1 child)
Thinking of getting it, using deep fakes, and creating submissive gay bondage porn between Trump and Putin :)
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Wednesday December 12 2018, @11:58AM
So as to demonstrate to your VCs that you're already... uh... "penetrating" the market.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 11 2018, @05:58PM
Eww. Just Eww.
At least it's not soggymike.xxx or moistmike