Very useful Sam, thx!

Nicolas


On 16/03/2015 2:19 PM, Sam Lanfranco wrote:
> Nicolas, et. al.,
>
> From an economists vantage point there is an interesting wrinkle here. 
> Domain names are (ARE) property once one owns them (or rather has a 
> lease on them) and as property they can become subject to what a 
> municipality would call zoning regulations, i.e., two of them might 
> look alike but there are different regulations as to how they can be 
> used. The registries are just beginning to figure out that whereas 
> municipal zoning regulations depend on some democratic process and 
> accountability, domain name zoning regulations are completely up to 
> the registry and are another cash cow. The .sucks registry is a case 
> in point.
>
> The .sucks registry is offering a "Consumer Advocate" subsidized 
> price, reserved apparently specifically for individuals and not for 
> civil society groups or not-for-profit organizations. The price looks 
> reasonable at  $9.95 per domain. They will be for purchase in 
> September. But, big BUT, such domains cannot point to an owner's own 
> website. The can only be used to redirect traffic for that domain to a 
> discussion forum on the everything.sucks website (free or for a fee?). 
> Here "use zoning' includes the redirect and who knows what 
> restrictions .sucks might decide to place on what is posted to 
> everything.sucks, who controls that, or whether this will eventually 
> involve additional fees.  There will apparently be a standard price of 
> $249 for a domain name that does not involves these restrictions.
>
> Apart from this specific case, I would expect registrars to exploit 
> both their ability to ration names and segment markets, and discover 
> more and more ways to subject domain names to "zoning restrictions", 
> usually in the name of profits, and probably frequently clothed in the 
> language of liability. If there is falling marginal revenue from the 
> extensive margin (more gtld's) there is still money to be made from 
> the intensive margin, from segmenting the domain name markets within a 
> gTLD.
>
> Sam L. .
>
>
> On 16/03/2015 1:32 PM, Nicolas Adam wrote:
>> Let's say one critic waits out a brand owner's first few moves to buy 
>> some of the obvious names with which they are afraid to be criticized 
>> with (which is not something I would do right off the bat if I was on 
>> of them, mind you, and even if i would be inclined to do it I'd wait 
>> for the price to go way down), does anybody know if the critics will 
>> be able to know the price he will end up paying *before* he divulge 
>> to the .sucks team what is the string he covets?
>>
>> For example, let's say McDonald.sucks is registered by the fast food 
>> chain. Do you guys think that the critic will be able to buy 
>> thatyellowandredclown.sucks for an eventually specified/advertised 
>> price for various alphanumeric strings under .sucks or do you guys 
>> think the .sucks strategic pricing will be able to look at his string 
>> request and put forth a specific price for the string?
>>
>> Please forgive my ignorance of those domaining details.
>>
>> Nicolas
>