Marshall - 2:39 pm on Jun 26, 2007 (gmt 0)

"Domain squatting is a standard, criminal form of extortion."

If this isn’t extortion, I don’t know what is.

Out of curiosity, I did lookups on names similar to what I have now. ONE company seems to corner the market and I am shocked that they "own" so many names like mine. They boast "Over 600,000 names for sale." I contacted them about one, again out of curiosity. $2,888.00USD! Yes, it is nothing more than extortion. I responded to their email with two words: "You're crazy!"

Bottom line - this company does not develop webs so it is more than obvious they are doing nothing more than denying legitimate web developers the use of a name.

There is one other thing that has crossed my mind and maybe someone knows the answer- is it possible that when a person does a search on a domain name and does not buy it right away, that search is recorded by someone or company which gives them a “heads up” to purchase it? Food for thought. Then again, maybe as web developers, we should file a class action suit against company’s like the one I mentioned – 600,00 domains… - on some grounds of anti-trust or as another post had, owning a name in bad faith. Be real – who’s going to develop 600,000 web sites!?

Marshall