Tim Worstall

3 responses so far ↓

• 1 pj // Feb 20, 2008 at 12:02 pm

  Reading the story, seems the people at The Economist are not exactly er….economists.
  Man identifies a resource & spends his own time, trouble & money to secure & maintain it. There’s a perfectly respectable market in domain names. So The Economist offers a market rate? Like hell it does, it takes the guy to court in an attempt to deprive him of his property.

• 2 john b // Feb 20, 2008 at 2:28 pm

  err, if you have a choice of paying a hell of a lot of money for something and legally getting it for free, isn’t it economically rational to pick the latter?

  [note that the *only* grounds for refusing the transfer was that the Economist couldn't *prove* the chap in question hadn't heard of them in 1995 - the panel accepted that the chap had no right to the domain and that his subsequent actions were in bad faith]

• 3 gene berman // Feb 20, 2008 at 4:54 pm

  I learned a lesson of sorts about the business of domain names just about 3 years ago.

  I’d determined to register several names I’d thunk up–about 8 or 9 or so, total–having to do with a couple different projects (business ideas) of interest to me.

  I went to one of the sites at which you can register such names and check on whether they’re “taken.”

  Out of the lot, one was already registered; the rest were available. But I yet tarried–didn’t take any further action. When I came back some days later to actually go through the rest of the process, every one of my “creations” had been taken.

  Just a few words to the wise.

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