Is this business ethical?

[Chappy]

I was recently asked "do you believe what you do is ethical?".

I believe if certain boundaries are not crossed then domaining is absolutely ethical.

I would be interested in your thoughts on this topic.

[Carter]

Super-ethical.
People killing other people everyday...what's the problem to sell some domains?

We are saints.

Real thugs are banks and lobbies.

[demaxxus]

Can you give more detail? ie. What part of domaining did they think was unethical?

You have a domain, someone wants to buy it, you sell it to them. It's just sales. If you're an unethical person and will go to great lengths to make a sale (including breaking the law), then that's more an issue of the domainer themselves being unethical, not the domain industry in general.

[draggar]

People do the same with land / real estate - why should domaining be any different.

As long as you stay away from TMs and typos (on TMs) then it is ethical.

[H2FC]

Congressmen and used car salesmen are #1 and #2 in the Unethical field...

Domainers are Ethical.

(at least I believe most of us are)

[pcproffenno]

It's just as ethical as being a stock or real estate broker.

[Devil Dog]

Originally Posted by H2FC

Domainers are Ethical.

lol

[acronym007]

Originally Posted by pcproffenno

It's just as ethical as being a stock or real estate broker.

Bingo!

[biggedon]

Originally Posted by Chappy

I was recently asked "do you believe what you do is ethical?".

I believe if certain boundaries are not crossed then domaining is absolutely ethical.

I would be interested in your thoughts on this topic.

the question of "ethics' comes up when you consider if domaining is squatting, simply for the purpose of re-selling for a higher price.

to those who don't own the domain that they want and you want big bucks for it...to them the practice is or may seem unethical.

plenty of legal arguments/decisions have been brought/made against domainers, based on that premise alone.

the other issue is whether some domainers are ethical or not, in their approach to making money or doing biz....either by deception, misleading info, stolen domains, selling domains they don't own, faked traffic, faked pr, spam, etc.

imo...

[acronym007]

Donald Trump is squatting on land I want. The question, what puts him there?

1. He was first
2. Money

I might be able to buy something he owns for the right price or next time I can try to buy that location first if I have the funds.

I think the premise that was been long taught in our business and something allot of us agree to is that domains are like real estate, they are uniques parcels of virtual property.

[H2FC]

When domainers first started back in the 90's there were some serious and legit questions about whether domaining was ethical.

Times have changed and for the most part domaining has proven to be ethical except for the few who still seek to use trademarked names for personal benefit.

These are the ones who give the whole industry a bad name. I don't do it and I suspect the great majority of other domainers don't either.....but we're all labeled as unethical by many because of the few who do.

[nicedomains]

To say that a great majority of domainers are ethical is a stretch. I believe that there are many ethical domainers that through their actions, writings and business methods set an example for those that are new to the industry. Most people when beginning domain name speculation really want to see if there is a quick way to make money with domain names. The first type of domain they can think register and sell is usually a word or service + (TM) .com.

As the term 'domainer' evolves it's now defined by wikipedia below (thanks to the diligent work of M. Menius and others):

"...domain name speculators, sometimes known as domainers, also register domain names based on seemingly generic phrases such as propertyforsale in the hope that these domain names could be sold later to businesses. Typically, domain name speculators will try to stay away from domain names containing trademarks as this could be considered cybersquatting."

Based on this definition one could presume

domaining ethical? yes
cybersquatting ethical? no

To me there is gray area when it comes to the morality of some practices involved in making money with domain names. You ultimately know (by feeling) what is ethical or not when the time comes to make decisions about your business/hobby.

[zurc.net]

We could be selling crack cocaine, heroin and pimping prostitutes and killing people over money... but no we decide to buy and sell domain names... just like others buy and sell stocks, options and futures.... its a business and a legit one at that..

[Carter]

Originally Posted by zurc.net

We could be selling crack cocaine, heroin and pimping prostitutes and killing people over money... but no we decide to buy and sell domain names... just like others buy and sell stocks, options and futures.... its a business and a legit one at that..

We pimping domains!

[biggedon]

Originally Posted by H2FC

When domainers first started back in the 90's there were some serious and legit questions about whether domaining was ethical.

Times have changed and for the most part domaining has proven to be ethical except for the few who still seek to use trademarked names for personal benefit.

These are the ones who give the whole industry a bad name. I don't do it and I suspect the great majority of other domainers don't either.....but we're all labeled as unethical by many because of the few who do.

Hi

whether your domain is tm related or not, does not preclude you from being seen as a squatter.

the negative labels that are put on domainers and the industry, is because they hold the registration to "key" domains.

i have been told in person, by phone and email, that i was squatting on plenty of 'generic' domains that potential buyers wanted, simply because the price was higher than they wanted to pay.

in respect to domains vs realestate -

you can hold the registration on a generic domain and a potential risk still exists.
where someone could claim infringement on parked domains when ads are displayed that reflect another entities brand.

that is one reason why many ppc services enabled users to block certain ads.

whereas in realestate, you won't loose your property unless you default on the loan or don't pay property taxes.


imo...

[zurc.net]

Originally Posted by carter

we pimping domains!

damn!

[nameslave]

I always find the real estates speculation a very good analogy. Some "investors" buy up downtown condos in big cities, don't even care to rent it out, and wait for the price to go up in a booming/bubbled market. It's CAPITALISM! Of course, Capitalism itself is not exactly the most ethical thing on earth.

[pcproffenno]

Originally Posted by nicedomains

To say that a great majority of domainers are ethical is a stretch. I believe that there are many ethical domainers that through their actions, writings and business methods set an example for those that are new to the industry. Most people when beginning domain name speculation really want to see if there is a quick way to make money with domain names. The first type of domain they can think register and sell is usually a word or service + (TM) .com.

As the term 'domainer' evolves it's now defined by wikipedia below (thanks to the diligent work of M. Menius and others):


Based on this definition one could presume

domaining ethical? yes
cybersquatting ethical? no

To me there is gray area when it comes to the morality of some practices involved in making money with domain names. You ultimately know (by feeling) what is ethical or not when the time comes to make decisions about your business/hobby.

Hey! Finally Wikipedia is reflecting a neutral article about domaining! A couple of months ago they referred to domaining as "cybersquatting".

How did this happen? I remember there was a debate about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domainer#domainer

[Carter]

Originally Posted by pcproffenno

Hey! Finally Wikipedia is reflecting a neutral article about domaining! A couple of months ago they referred to domaining as "cybersquatting".

How did this happen? I remember there was a debate about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domainer#domainer

Probably they started investing in domain names lol

[nicedomains]

Originally Posted by pcproffenno

Hey! Finally Wikipedia is reflecting a neutral article about domaining! A couple of months ago they referred to domaining as "cybersquatting".

How did this happen? I remember there was a debate about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domainer#domainer

Max's blog at premiumdomains.biz has all the updates: http://premiumdomains.biz/blog/?s=wikipedia

There are lot's of blog posts on this topic, scroll down a bit..