With Frank Schilling’s recent post predicting “most high quality name traffic will leave it’s present PPC deal looking for something better“ and a conference on domain development happening this week, we found the topic of our latest guest blogger perfectly fitting.   – Adam Strong , DNN editor

Mass development is the most recent trend in monetizing domain names, and it is being hailed as a successful, scalable alternative to parking. You are told that mass-developed sites will rank well in the search engines over the long term, driving more traffic and earning you more revenue. I am skeptical to say the least.

What exactly are we trying to solve here?

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Over the years hundreds of stories of domain name theft have been reported, most famous among them of course is the theft of Sex.com.  Even as recent as last week, reports of stolen domains sent a chilling reminder through the domain industry as valuable domains Before.com, Adios.com and others were stolen from Warren Weitzman. Until recently, there hasn’t been a case of a domain theft where the thief was caught and arrested. However, on July 30th, Daniel Goncalves was arrested at his home in Union, New Jersey and charged in a landmark case, the first criminal arrest for domain name theft in the United States.

In a similar fashion to the Sex.com theft, the events that led to Goncalves arrest involve a long back story, one that spans well over 2 years, and many players.  Although insiders familiar with this case contend that Goncalves has stolen other valuable domains, this case centers on the theft and subsequent sale of the domain name P2P.com. (more…)

Court documents denying a motion to dismiss(pdf), reveal that hosting company Solid Host, NL is suing domain name registration company NameCheap.com over cybersquatting claims for a domain name registered under the NameCheap whois privacy services WhoisGuard.

Solid Host’s domain name had reportedly been stolen by a “hacker” who used NameCheap’s privacy service.  Namecheap would not initially reveal the owner of the domain name to Solid Host because it believed it was merely in the middle of a two-party dispute.  The court’s ruling clarifies this and rules NameCheap was responsible and liable for contributory cybersquatting. (more…)

Network Solutions just emailed notices regarding a class action settlment that came about from the NSI front running domains incident back in January 2008.   The email which can be seen after the jump details a class action lawsuit settlement which could cost the domain name registrar up to $1 million .  The complaint was originally filed against both NSI and ICANN by plaintiffs Chris McElroy, Todd Matzke and James Lee Finseth in  The US District Court for the Central District of California. The Court has approved the proposed settlement.  Anyone who has registered a domain at NSI between December 14  2007 and March 15 2008, may want to look in to this settlement.
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From time to time DNN publishes guest posts from industry experts. We received this piece from attorney Paul Keating today and thought it would be worth sharing and discussing.  Let us know what you think .

A panel of respected WIPO arbitrators recently issued their decision in Airborne Systems North America and Airborne Systems Group, Ltd. v. Virtual Point, Inc. (“airbornesystems.com”). The decision represents a further erosion of fairness in the UDRP procedure and highlights the alarming tendency among panelists to ignore both the clear language of the UDRP and the applicable laws governing the validity of trademark rights. (more…)

In light of the news that Toys.com lost it’s Google placement, DNN reached out to SEO consultant John Andrews to get his take on the Toys.com deal and his view on an effective strategy to take using this multi-million dollar domain name asset.

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When Toys ‘R’ Us sought toys.com in a biding war with National A1 Advertising, pretty much everyone in domain world paid attention. Toys ‘R’ Us was the #1 player in the offline toy industry, and National A1 already controlled boys.com, girls.com, and babies.com. Toys R Us matched bids all the way up past $5 million before National A1 ran out of steam (or money).
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The first big show of the year has come and gone and all that is left are memories of furry tails, cocktails, speakers, nude domainers, auctions and of course, conversations, conversations and more conversations. So what was on the lips and tongues of industry execs, domainers and providers this January? (more…)

In a fashion reminiscent of investment pump and dump scams, domain sellers list domain names for sale and pump cheap traffic to the names to make them look appealing and then dump the names on unsuspecting buyers.  These scammers list domains for sale on domain aftermarkets that advertise the inflated traffic information and dump the domains off on a buyer who is likely unaware that the traffic is temporary. This is not a new scam, but it appears that we have some damning evidence of scammers in action on TDNAM.com. (more…)

The Rebranding Game by Ryan McCarthy at Inc magazine focuses its attention on Simulscribe, a company who rebranded and changed their name to PhoneTag several months ago.   Inc also ties in a secondary article to this story which attempts to advise entrepreneurs on how to buy domains.  While the advice on buying domains isn’t the best, the article on rebranding provides start-ups and businesses with an interesting perspective from a company who chose a ‘bad’ name and struggled with coming up with a new and better name. (more…)

The live portion of the Down Under auctions may have concluded, too abruptly in some cases, but some of the names that did not make the ‘cut’ are still on auction – ready for savvy domainers to ratchet up and purchase. Prudence favors the bold in times like these – opportunities were missed in both Australian auctions.

To that end, there are several gems still waiting for someone to snatch and capture, revalue and conquer down the road. Again, DomainConsultant chose every name for the Aftermarket.com auction with three criteria in mind: quality, price and value – with value being defined as ‘short’ and ‘long’ term. Latona was also able to offer value in multiple forms – a major tourist Mecca like San Juan for $150k?  Again, opportunity knocked and domainers, so eager before, did not answer the door. (more…)