It never ceases to amaze me when I see someone cybersquatting on what is very obviously a well known brand name.
And when they exacerbate the situation by advertising the domain for sale, I am simply lost for words.
Do they not realise the potential implications?
What I get really mad about though is that when things like this happen, responsible domainers can unfortunately get tarred with the same brush. 🙁
Have a look at this recent auDRP decision on Clarins.com.au. The sole panelist was Andrew F. Christie – and he made the only decision he could.
It looks like the registrant took the punt that Clarins would buy the domain for around half the cost of the panel but they didn’t take the bait.
“Why do people risk it?” – the allure of potential financial gain with little repercussion if it fails.
It’s good to see the complainant didn’t just fork out the cash to buy it.
That’s almost as bad as buying Adidas.net.au !!
Didn’t try to sell it though. Just wanted to see what would happen, as a newbie. Then dropped it a few days later with no complaint against me.
Speaking from experience, the domain industry isn’t the real business world. Netfleet (and others, but especially Netfleet in their newsletters) make it sound like these domain names are available for anyone to purchase with no rules. They don’t say that, but it comes across like that.
Anyway, I wrote about this exact subject in my Part II of My First Year as a Domainer on this very website.
I don’t think you can blame people coming in from all the advertising Netfleet does, with no knowledge, and wanting to make some money. Everyone out there in every industry is trying to make some money. I think new domain name buyers need to be educated in the drop-platform system and I think Netfleet (the biggest company) should be helping to educate, instead of just taking the money.