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By: James Koole on March 31st, 2008
Posted in: Reseller Resources
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If you’re interested in an excellent discussion around domain name law, then have a listen to the latest episode of This Week in Law. In a one-hour audio podcast, host Denise Howell and friends take on a variety of domain name-related legal topics from domain name tasting, to website takedowns.

Links to some background information on the topics discussed can be found in the show’s del.icio.us feed.

The panel is quite excellent: Moderator Denise Howell blogs regularly for ZDNet about technology and the law. Marty Schwimmer is a blogger and well-regarded expert in trademark law. Bret Fausett runs the excellent icann.Blog. Cathy Kirkman is a lawyer and blogger practicing in the Bay area. Lastly, Colette Vogele is a lawyer, blogger specializing in intellectual property issues related to technology, new media and the arts.

Download the podcast here. Or subscribe in iTunes.

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By: James Koole on March 27th, 2008
Posted in: OpenSRS Services
Tags: Domains Service
Comments: 0

According to a press release from Verisign, effective October 1, 2008, the registry fee for .com domain names will rise from $6.42 to $6.86 and the registry fee for .net domain names will increase from $3.85 to $4.23.

This should come as no surprise to those who follow what’s been happening in the domain name industry over the last few years. Just this past October, a similar price increase went into effect, raising the registry fee for a .com from $6.00 to $6.42. Other registries followed suit raising prices across the board for generic top-level domains.

Elliot Noss, Tucows CEO and President called it “a dark day in Internet history.” At the same time, he predicted perfectly what would happen in 2008, saying, “Worse, this now signals a near-annual event that will take place in all major gTLDs. It is simply wrong.” You can read the full text here.

If history is any indication, we can expect other registries to announce similar fee increases.

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By: James Koole on March 25th, 2008
Posted in: Industry News
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An article on ecommerce-guide.com today says that eBay will no longer allow digital goods to be auctioned, instead requiring them to be listed using its classified ads format.

It is presumed by ecommerce-guide.com that domain names would fall into the digital goods category. From the article:

“EBay has not provided specific examples of items that are affected by the new policy, but it’s safe to assume that it covers all items delivered through Internet downloads or by e-mail. This includes goods such as e-books, graphics and digital photos, software, domain names, Web site templates, Web hosting and many other types of goods that are sold on eBay in digital format.”

I put the question to eBay support for clarification and was told that domain names were not considered digital goods and sellers could continue to list them for auction. We’ll try and get a more definitive statement from eBay over the next few days.

A check of eBay listings in the domain names category shows more than 3,700 items up for auction right now.

The official announcement from Brian Burke, Director, Global Feedback Policy at eBay says the move is being made to “preserve the integrity of the Feedback system.” Burke says because digital goods can be reproduced at little to no cost for the seller, the potential exists for Feedback Manipulation.

Predictably, there is a good amount of outcry about the change within eBay’s own community forums. Most of those opposed to the change are seeing a source of income disappear quite literally overnight. Some were in the business of selling ebooks, or PDF woodworking plans, for example.

As for the domain names, Bill Sweetman, General Manager, Domains Portfolio, Tucows, says if domain names end up being part of the digital goods category, he’ll be sad to see the listings go. He tells me that eBay auctions is one of the only places where portfolios of multiple domain names can be bought and sold in addition to individual domain names.

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By: OpenSRS Team on March 20th, 2008
Posted in: Announcements
Tags: Holiday Hours
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With Easter sneaking up on us early this year, some of us here in Toronto will be off for the Good Friday holiday tomorrow.

The picture of the giant easter egg is courtesy of Kevin Saff. That would be the world’s largest Easter egg, by the way, and it’s located in Vegreville, Alberta, Canada.

But before we go off and enjoy way too many of the tasty chocolate variety eggs, here’s a list of departments along with any special holiday hours for Friday, March 21, 2008:

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By: James Koole on March 17th, 2008
Posted in: Industry News
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Today’s Wall Street Journal has a nice article on the importance of choosing a good name to establish a strong corporate identity. The story highlights some interesting aspects when deciding on a company name and identity. It also talks about the importance of making sure that there is a tie between online presence and the corporate name by way of a solid, memorable domain name.

There are a number of case studies presented to illustrate the value of a good company name, and a couple of good examples where a poor choice of domain name led to problems. In one case, nanofluidics.com, the domain name was often confused and misspelled. In another example, Desert Moon Interactive chose the domain dm-i.com, with predictable results.

While the story focuses primarily on how to pick a good identity, it provides is a good list of dos and don’ts for domain name selection.

To summarize:

1. Make sure the domain name associated with your company name is available.
2. Make sure the domain name you select is both memorable and not confusing.
3. Keep in mind that you may have to go with an alternate name in the event that your first choice isn’t available as a domain name.
4. At the same time, don’t rule out a name because the exact URL isn’t available. Many users don’t remember the URL, and instead rely on Google to help them find the site they are looking for.

With domain names continuing to play an important role in establishing corporate identity, services like Premium Names that provide the ability to buy domain names in the secondary market will become even more important.

Our Name Suggestion tool, powered by DomainsBot and included free, gives searchers a valuable tool in establishing a corporate identity by giving domain name suggestions based on keyword searches.

Keep in mind that a domain name is more than just a URL. It’s often the starting point for corporate identity and providing tools and services like Premium Names and Name Suggest can be a great help to people looking to build a brand whether it’s offline or online.