Seven Years To Secure A Domain Name: a tale of web identity.

Interesting story. I've got a short and sweet one. Someone bought carbonmade.org after we failed to renew it 4-5 years ago. The guy contacted me out of the blue about six months ago and just said: "Do you want carbonmade.org? Happy to transfer it to you for free. I have no use for it and you own the .com." I was like "Yes, thank you very much." And the next day I had it in my GoDaddy account. A really nice gesture that never happens in the domain market.

Was really hoping this would be about getting a domain from one of those offshore squatters - been trying to scoop up one that related to my business for years. Worse, on the company's obscure and hard to find website, they say they won't even consider selling domains. Even though it's essentially not being used.

So, uh they chipped away at this guy so they could secure a domain name that probably isn't essential to them.

I read all the bit where they said about not wanting to be heavy handed - i.e. didn't want to be the "big bad corp". Sorry, but this way seems just as rude to me :(

(and yeh I know the other guy seems reasonably happy, but still....)

If I was on the ICANN board, I'd pass some resolution that says that squattered domains can be claimed back.

I'm sure I can come up with a decent definition for squatters.