HN Explorer

Ask HN: Is GoDaddy violating ACPA with new .family TLD?

13 points by legohead ↗ HN
A new TLD .family became available today. I went and checked for my name on various domains, and the only one that showed it available was GoDaddy, at the price of $1299/year - they mark it as a "Premium domain."

On 1and1 they displayed a 'legal reasons' message. When I called their support, the sales rep said a "big conglomerate" bought the domain.

I believe GoDaddy bought the domain (and probably others) during the pre-release period and is now selling it at their own "Premium" price.

Considering this domain is targeted at last names and family names (it could be used for whatever, but I think its intended purpose is apparent), I'm wondering if this violates the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act [1]

Specifically it mentions: > In determining whether the domain name registrant has a bad faith intent to profit, a court may consider many factors, including nine that are outlined in the statute: > 6. Registrant’s offer to transfer, sell, or otherwise assign the domain name to the mark owner or a third party for financial gain, without having used the mark in a legitimate site; > 9. Extent to which the mark in the domain is distinctive or famous.

Not to mention that GoDaddy could easily query their own userbase and find the most common last names in an attempt to profit.

Anyway, I'm not trying to whine as much as I am genuinely curious about the legality around this, as this domain in particular introduces its own grey area.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act

7 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 14.7 ms ] thread
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
cmontella
I wouldn't be surprised. I used Godaddy once to search for possible domain names. I found maybe 10 or so good ones, and then took some time to think about which one to choose. A couple days later I went to register the one I wanted, only to find that Godaddy had "helpfully pre-registered" it for me (their words on the landing page they parked on the domain) and they would now sell it to me for 3x the price (you know, for the convenience). I looked up the other domains I had searched, and wouldn't you know they were also "pre-registered".
y-satellite
It's not GoDaddy. My SO tried to register our family name earlier (after pre-registering for it, even!) and got a similar price.

Querying the WHOIS server for the domain says the following:

"This premium domain is available for purchase. If you would like to make an offer, please contact platinums@rightside.co."

Rightside.co is the owner of the TLD. It looks like they've set aside a bunch of common family names so they can charge "premium" prices for them. So helpful of them!

nikthenuk
Some domains for .family TLD may be Premium because the registry operator (not GoDaddy) set them as premium. Like cars.family. Some registrars do not offer premium domains at all (only regular domains). Have you search for the domain in https://www.hexonet.net/ ?

As somebody mentioned, "domain tasting" is not possible anymore.

There is always the chance that some person (not GoDaddy) registered the domain as an investment and try to resell it at a later time: as long as this domain does not infringe on a Trademark, this activity is completely legal (a person that does that is called a domainer).

duskwuff
No. The term "mark" in that legislation specifically means a registered trademark. Unless you are one of the few strange people who has trademarked their own name, you have no grounds for action here.