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 As good domain names become more scarce, the company that long held a
monopoly on registering them is under attack for keeping thousands and
thousands of valuable domain names. Some critics are accusing Network
Solutions Inc. ("NSI") of trying to improperly obtain huge
profits from the best names that can command thousands, even millions of
dollars in the secondary domain name registration market.
Although ICANN plans to expand the pool of addresses this year
(starting with the imminent launch of the ".biz" and
".info" TLDs), names ending in ".com" are likely to
remain the most popular and therefore command the highest values. More
than 80% of the more than 22 million domain names registered throughout
the world are dot-coms.
Companies, groups and individuals can register domain name with ICANN
approved registrars such as out partner, domainpeople.com, for a basic
registration fee of only $8.95 per name per year. If they no longer need
the name, they can let it expire, or try to resell it. Names registered
earlier tend to be shorter and easier to remember, making their Web sites
easier to find and the names more valuable.
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In the summer of 2000, NSI announced plans to enter the lucrative
resale market itself. Instead of only letting owners auction their own
names, the company said it would also auction off names with
"delinquent accounts." NSI said that it was entitled to do so to
recover unpaid registration fees. Competitors believe that the company
should return these names to the general pool to give all registrants
equal access to the better names.
Because NSI remains the sole keeper of the master lists of names,
competitors believe that NSI is in a special position to be the first to
know when a name becomes available. Grabbing such names to resell on its
own amounts to an abuse of its monopolistic power.
Competitors estimate that NSI is keeping 1 million to 3 million expired
names. NSI spokeswoman Cheryl Regan said the company does not disclose
such figures. Regan also said that the new policy applies only to names
registered after competition began last year in the registration world.
And she said that prices would be no higher than the uncollected fees.
"We were using this strategy to recoup our losses," she said.
"The best analogy is to look at it as repossessing an asset."
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