Controversy Rages Over ".Sucks" Domain Name

The company that operates website addresses ending in ".sucks" has been accused of trying to exploit people worried about sites set up to attack them. However, nobody seems quite sure if it breaks any rules or who, if anyone, has the authority to do something about it.

The controversy involves a major change to the way website registration works that took effect in 2012. Until then, all website addresses ended in one of a limited number of "top level domains" such as .com, .org, or country-specific domains such as .ca for Canada.

Anyone Can Become an Administrator of a Top Level Domain

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the closest thing to the administrators of the Internet and world wide web, then changed its rules to allow top level domain registrations for virtually any name.

Doing so costs an eye watering $185,000, but whoever buys up the right to a particular top level domain can then turn around and sell individual domain names. For example, somebody could buy the top level domain ".taxis," and then sell domain names such as "www.newyork.taxis" or "www.boston.taxis".

'Rightful' Name Owners Get First Refusal

One of the rules for selling domain names in this way is that there must be a 'sunrise period' during which web owners with strong links to a particular domain name (such as a trademark or a prominent public figure's name) get the first right to buy up their domain before it becomes available to anyone else for registration. For example, Coke.com would get first dibs on Coke.sucks before anyone else could register the domain Coke.sucks.

Obviously, top level domains can have unwanted connotations. As such, some web owners have registered domains in a manner known as "defensive registration", where the aim isn't to use the domain for a site, but rather to block anyone else from doing so. One example is when singer Taylor Swift registered the taylorswift.adult address. (Source: bbc.co.uk)

Canadian company Vox Populi, which controls .sucks, is charging $2,000 for any registration made during this sunrise period. That appears to be considerably more than happens with other firms and other names; indeed Vox Populi plans to charge only $250 for registrations made after the sunrise period.

High-Profile Names Charged Excess Fee

Vox Populi has also put together a list of "premium names" where the price is $2,499 and the domain can't be registered during the sunrise period at all. That list appears to be largely made up of names where an associated person or organization has already made at least one "defensive registration".

It's led to claims that the pricing is a deliberate attempt to exploit people who are worried about 'their' domain name being used in a negative way - for example, if somebody registered "www.johndoe.sucks" to set up an abusive site.

ICANN is now investigating whether Vox Populi has broken any of its registration rules. It's also asked the US Federal Trade Commission and Canadian Office of Consumer Affairs to investigate if it has broken any laws - something that's sparked debate about exactly which country would have jurisdiction in such a situation. (Source: domainincite.com)

What's Your Opinion?

Should the owners of ".sucks" be able to charge higher fees to people who have a claim to a particular name and don't want it associated with the .sucks suffix? Should ICANN have allowed the registration of top level domains that have negative connotations? Is regulation or legislation appropriate in such situations, or is it a free speech/free market issue?