Failure to renew really can prove costly
We’ve not run with a story for a while of somebody nearly losing their business by failing to re-new their domain name, so we thought this story last week from the other side of the world was worth repeating. Last week investmentproperty.com.au was sold at auction for an Australian domain name record of Aus$125,000, a fantastic windfall for the domain name owner who sold, but a sickener for the person who used to own it. That’s because it appears the former owner appears to have let renewal lapse on the domain, leaving it available to the open market and a new owner. Indeed according to this report it appears the former owner wasn’t even aware he no longer owned it, let alone the fact that he had just seen a potential fortune slip from his grasp. The moral, make sure your domain names are set to auto-renew and make sure suitable payment methods are also registered on your account. With 123-reg you can register several different payment methods as well as use auto-renewal to make sure you won’t miss a vital renewal. Even if you don’t intend to use the domain immediately, it is well worth renewing a domain. If you felt it had a value when you registered it, the chances are others will feel the same now and in the future and with the supply of snappy, easy to read domain names ever limited, that domain may one day form your pension. In relation to the investmentproperty.com.au domain name, even the domain name speculators and experts on web forum DNTrade.com.au only thought that domain would sell for $10,000, so the final price of $125,000 shows just how value of a domain can reach far above expectations. Do you auto-renew domains? Have you ever let a domain expire and later regretted it?
Fast-track closure for criminal domains
UK Police could find it easier to close down .uk domain names being used for suspected criminal activity if draft recommendations out for discussion are adopted by national Internet registry Nominet. Under the present system police need a court order before Nominet can act on ‘.co.uk’ domains that are being used for criminal purposes, but the Nominet issue group are seeking comments on ‘Dealing with domain names used in connection with criminal activity‘ which could remove layers of bureaucracy. Domains used to sell counterfeit goods, fake tickets and pharmaceuticals could soon be shut down in a matter of days, even hours if the new regime is adopted. Under the ‘expedited’ procedure police will need to provide “a declaration that the suspension is proportionate, necessary, and urgent.” The key deterrent from invoking these sort of procedures previously appears to have been Nominet wanting to ensure they are not forced to make decisions over legality, and the new procedure should eliminate thosse worries. The draft recommendations can be downloaded and viewed here with comments invited before 20th September 2011 to policy@nominet.org.uk. The Issue will then meet the next day and discuss any suggestions. The final proposals will then be put before the Nominet board and could feasibly be adopted as early as October.
The birth of a new domain name
You might have noticed that we’ve launched a few new domain name extensions on 123-reg over the last year or so. Most recently, it’s been the turn of .so domains – you’ll be able to register domain names ending in .so from 1 April 2011. (No, we didn’t have any choice over the date. And no, it’s not a joke.) How new domains are created New domain names aren’t just created and released overnight. The exact process depends on what sort of domain name extension it is: Country code domains, like .uk (for the United Kingdom), .cn (for China) and .co (for Colombia) are administered by the relevant country’s government. In practice, an appointed organisation usually runs the domain. In the UK, Nominet does this. Every country has its own country code. It’s up to them how they use it. Other domain extensions – like .com, .mobi and .info – are created by ICANN, the organisation with overall control of the domain name system. Getting a new extension created is very complicated, though plans are afoot to liberalise the market (mind you, you’ll still need hundreds of thousands of pounds and creating a new extension could take a year or more). Anyway, let’s just suppose that a new domain name’s about to hit the market. What happens next? The stages of domain name registration Once a new domain name extension has received the seal of approval from ICANN, there are a series of stages to the registration process: Sunrise. During the sunrise period, it’s usually only trademark holders who can register domain names. Every trademark holder gets checked individually, to make sure their application is legitimate.The idea is that trademark holders can protect their brand early – although there’s usually a hefty premium to register at this stage.Sunrise is for people who can prove they have the ‘right’ to a particular domain name. Landrush. At landrush stage, anyone can apply to register any domain name. However, they’re not sold on a first-come-first-served basis. Instead, domains are allocated at the end of the landrush period.If more than one application is received for a domain name, it’s auctioned off.Landrush is for people willing to pay more to secure a domain name. Both the sunrise and landrush stages are usually run by the domain name registrar – the organisation that manages that domain name extension. Each stage can last a month or two. It’s not until the third stage that domain name companies like 123-reg usually start selling the domains: General availability. Following on from sunrise and landrush, general availability is when anyone can take their pick of the remaining domain names.When we talk about pre-ordering domain names on 123-reg, it’s in preparation for general availability – if you place a preorder with us, we automatically try and register your domain name(s) the second general availability starts.General availability is the ‘free for all’, when domains become available at more reasonable prices. Although not every new domain name follows this process exactly, most are released in a similar manner. As for our new .so domain names? You can pre-order up until 31 March. If you don’t get your pre-order in time, come back to our site on or after 1 April, when you’ll be able to register .so domain names there and then.