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 >