Last Friday, we noted ICANN was asking the Feds for help with the .Sucks domain name. Expounding on that, BBC News picked up on the story and sought quotes from Kevin Murphy, from Domain Incite, to discuss the situation.
“They are charging a $2,000 ‘sunrise’ premium to those wishing to register ‘.sucks’ addresses early, before the addresses go on sale to the general public [next month],” Murphy told BBC News.
“Also they are using a list of words or names that have been defensively registered in the past, for which they are charging the top amount.”
According to Murphy, Vox Populi (who distributes .Sucks), was working from a list of keywords that had been bought before in similar new domain web address sales and using that to decide price points for “premium” .Sucks addresses.
Murphy says they were considering a fee of $25,000 at one point but justified the $2,000 premium price tag as being a reasonable part of a company’s budget for Public Relations.
“It appears they are basing prices on what firms can afford not on the product services they are providing.”
While ICANN approved the .Sucks domain name, it appears they do not have jurisdiction over how the names are sold.
There is no evidence that the Canadian company Vox Populi has done anything wrong but it doesn’t change the fact ICANN has asked the Federal Trade Commission (in the United States) and the Canadian Office of Consumer Affairs (in Canada) to investigate.
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