gmac17 - 6:23 pm on Jun 26, 2007 (gmt 0)

How about -- when a site goes up, some ICANN bod gets notified, and he checks to see the site is relevant to the domain name. If the domain is not relevant - i.e. spamming for another purpose, they get kicked off the database and someone else can have the name.

Yeah, that’s just what we need – a bureaucratic organization being the final arbiter of whether a website is relevant or not.

Domain squatting is a standard, criminal form of extortion. The very essence of the American neo-con form of capitalism that evolved in the days of prohibition. Yes there is a procedure for getting domain names back, its called ICANN and its inaccessible for small businesses and individuals - no surprises there, competition just isn't profitable.

This isn’t domain squatting though. This is somebody who didn’t pay his bill that 99% of all other domainers in the world manage to pay on time – so he got his domain taken away from him (not unlike getting your car repossessed when you don’t make your payments) and now somebody else owns it fair and square. If it is a TM you might have a point, but otherwise that is the way the world works – you don’t pay, you don’t get.