Alright, im going to tell you the truth I cyber squat have a pretty good portfolio, that I have been collecting these past couple years. Why do so many people think cyber squatting is so bad. Ive recevied good buys from the actually companys! and no compalints. Why does everyone in dp make a big deal about this..?
Your honesty is refreshing. Like everything else in life, there are good apples and bad apples. It simply all boils down to the intent behind the actions. There are laws kinda describing what's "okay" and what isn't. It just happens some people feel more strongly about it to some degree.
The main issue just came when people intentionally snatched up sites and tried to force the buyer to pay an outrageous price. A few bad apples got enough people angry enough to outlaw it.
i don't like the rules behind the cyber squatting, I think it should be first come first serve, but ICANN doesn't like that and that is why they made the UDRP thing. Glad that you have had a good experience, perhaps the companies didn't know about UDRP, or not enough squatted sites for it to be cost feasible?
It still is first come first served. ICANN developed a process to give trademark holders an alternative means of resolution because they lobbied for it. You have to understand that trademark holders have spent a lot of time effort and money building their brands. If you were one of them, you might not like someone commercially exploiting your hard work. Many companies (especially trademark holders) are either aware or becoming aware of the UDRP: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/prdocs/en/2006/wipo_pr_2006_464.html The UDRP is meant for no-brainer blatantly obvious cybersquatting cases. Not all are won, especially if the respondents in those cases manage to follow the rules of the UDRP. Now if only ICANN lends their ears more to the average domain registrant like you and me...
In my experainces with this if you provide a resonable price for the domain like you would any other domain they will have no problem, but I have herd of casses where people charge more than court fee's so they just go ahead and press charges
The big problem is that offering to sell it to them makes it look like you bought the site with the plans of cybersquatting. This increases the chance of a lawsuit winning.
I think the reason most domainers get upset about it is not based on the act itself, but the fact that it gives domainers a bad image in general. Personally, I could care less if someone chooses to exploit a large company. Large companies exploit us every day and we just accept it as a way of life. I don't have a problem with the little guy working the system. And if you look at UDRP cases, there are major grey areas and many opportunities to completely work the system from both sides. Companies misuse the UDRP process as much as squatters squat... And often times its to take a domain from a legitimate owner, not a squatter. So both sides are guilty of "black hat" techniques, only when a large company does it, they somehow maintain an air of legitimacy, while the little guy is just a vile squatter, which is crap. I don't like squatters, because they give domainers a bad name. The media cares more about 1 squatter then they do about 10,000 legitimate domainers, so most people's views of domaining are completely skewed. But in order to continue to grow this business, we need to establish legitimacy in the eyes of the public, which seems to be the biggest hurdle. And squatters hurt that. So yeah, while I might not fault you from a moral standpoint, I fault you from the detriment you cause to the legitimacy of the business.