The Linux Extremist

Domain squatting is one of the more unpleasant facts of online life. It’s rare that one gets a glimpse into the attitudes of people who do it, but just such an insight was provided by a ZDNet article regarding the stockpiling of 3 letter .eu domains.

According to the article, a gentleman named Andrew Hooper wanted to buy a domain for his newborn son, named Christopher James, presumably so the lad could have a space reserved for a future website. However, the domain with his initials had been purchased by a squatter company called “Really Useful Domains”.

This is kind of surprising as the people who manage the .eu domain, EUrid, have been cracking down on spurious registrations recently. They just dragged 400 American registrars to court for having done so. However this particular company is in the clear because they did it through a Canadian third party. If Mr. Hooper wants the domain, he’s going to have to fork over €1500. Somehow, I doubt he will.

Domain registry is a questionable business to begin with. The biggest registrar, Go Daddy, just postponed an IPO largely because they’re not making any money and fortunately stockbrokers have rediscovered the connection between making money and what the share price should be. OK, most of the time.

But this kind of petty squatting can only be described as dire. What makes it even more unpalatable is what the owner of Really Useful Domains had to say about it - when queried by ZDNet about the ethics of stockpiling domains, and asked if it wouldn’t be better if it was not allowed, he replied -

“I think it’s a very idealistic approach and, if you could guarantee every human on the planet would adhere to that, it would be fine, but it’s not…I’m afraid if they didn’t put enough rules into enforce it, you only need one person in the globe to not adhere to that and we’d all wring our hands.”

In other words, he’s saying that because one online entrepreneur would take advantage of this, he’s perfectly entitled to do so himself.

Just because something is not expressly forbidden does not make it moral. Just because something can be done does not mean it should be done. Just because there is no authority to say something is wrong does not automatically make it right. These notions are not just an argument, they are the foundation of ethics. We should act towards the highest ideals, not guage ourselves against the lowest common denominator.

Let’s be clear, this kind of stockpiling is a form of extortion. It’s trying to get a business or individual backed into a corner, whereby their trade is inhibited by lacking a particular domain, and they have to pay exhorbitant fees in order to get out of the bind. Fortunately, it’s very, very rare that such a situation does not have an alternative. It’s simply not a good business to be in. It’s not a good nor moral way to make money.

To their credit, EUrid seem to agree. As quoted by ZDNet, the EUrid representative said “We’re not particularly fond of this.” Quite. One hopes that they will tighten their rules in the near future. Until then, I hope that Mr. Hooper found a suitable alternative for his newborn son. There is likely a world of choice awaiting him, provided he uses a little creativity. And perhaps that’s the best way to foil the plans of those who are relying on people in his situation to be otherwise.

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