Domain Name News: January 20 Week in Review

Every Friday, DomainSherpa.com provides you with a hand-selected, editorially-based review of the weekly news. In this summary, you will find the latest articles and videos produced by DomainSherpa staff and contributors. You will also find links to the best news articles in the domain name industry – so you don’t have to spend your time searching for news or reading something that was not worth your time.

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This Week’s Video Interview in Review

• Best Way to Determine a Domain Name ValueAndrew Hazen knows a thing or two about marketing. In fact, he has built and sold two Internet marketing companies, pocketing millions of dollars in the process. And he has written a book using easy-to-understand language about search engine optimization.In this show, Andrew shares how he turned 90 admittedly marginal hand-registered .com domain names and one .info domain into $56,000 per month. (I have seen the Google Adsense report to verify this impressive figure.) You will be surprised to learn that in addition to search engine optimization, a clever television ad campaign drove the results.Watch the full show »

This Week’s News in Review

Escrow.com Surpasses 1 Billion Dollars in Secured Transactions – 19-Jan-12
This year, Escrow.com surpassed 1 billion dollars in secured transactions. One of the main reasons for this success is that Escrow.com is the recommended transaction settlement service for many of the top names in eCommerce, including GoDaddy, Cars.com, Flippa.com, AutoTrader, Resale Weekly and eBay Motors.

Domain Registration Adds $475 Million to Australian Economy – 19-Jan-12
Australian domain names (using ‘.au’) contributed $474.7 million to the economy last financial year, according to a new report from Deloitte Access Economics.

Monte Cahn and Oversee.net Go to Trial Next Week – 19-Jan-12
Court to decide two aspects of dispute between Moniker founder Monte Cahn and his former employer. Monte Cahn and Oversee.net will square off in court on…

Facebook Registers Mysterious Fborigin Domain Names – 18-Jan-12
Facebook registered a curious bunch of domain names yesterday with the moniker fBoriGin. It’s unclear what the domain names, spotted by blog ubergizmo, will be used for. When asked by The Register about the – among others – .com, .org, .net and .co.uk registration of fBoriGin, the world’s biggest social network declined to comment.

Virgin Loses Control of Porn Domain – 18-Jan-12
Virgin Group, with fingers in many pies of air travel, banking, and more, is trying to reclaim a lost domain name that fell into a cybersquatter…

A Visual Gallery: Which Sites Protested SOPA & PIPA on January 18th? – 18-Jan-12
As most are aware, today, Wednesday, January 18th, thousands of websites went dark to protest SOPA & PIPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and (Protect IP Act) similar to sites like Wired.com, as seen in the image.

Regional Businesses Trump Cities in Domain Registration – 18-Jan-12
A larger fraction of businesses in remote Australia have registered .au domain names than those in major cities, domain name regulator auDA has reported. According to a Deloitte report commissioned by auDA in September and released this week, more than two in three businesses in “very remote Australia” own .au domain names.

UK Buying Up .XXX Domains to Avoid Pornography Affiliation – 18-Jan-12
Pornography websites can now register domain names of “.xxx” instead of “.com,” which creates a conflict for university websites. This domain name will differentiate erotic material from other websites, but it can be a problem because a pornography website could potentially use domain names similar to colleges’ .edu addresses. The International Creativity Management Registry recently started selling domain names to distinguish pornography websites from others, according to CNN.com.

Beyond Sopa: Why Easy Solutions Don’t Stop Net Crime – 18-Jan-12
Guest post by Leslie Daigle, chief internet technology officer of the Internet Society, a non-profit founded in 1992 to promote a free and open Internet. Leslie Daigle: There are better solutions.

United Domains Expands its US Partnership with SedoMLS Premium – 17-Jan-12
Leading online domain marketplace and monetization provider Sedo today announced an expansion of its North American partnership with registrar United Domains. By broadening their SedoMLS Premium partnership, United Domains customers can now list names in the SedoMLS Premium network, increasing their chances of making a sale. United Domains’ integration with SedoMLS already allows end users to search for and purchase domain names that are listed within the SedoMLS inventory directly at UnitedDomains.com.

Domain Name Precautions Needed Under gTLD Regime, Says Siia – 17-Jan-12
The Software and Information Industry Association wants ICANN to take additional steps to defend intellectual property under the new gTLD regime.

Luckyregister.com Offers $1.99 Domain Registration, Transfer & Renewal Deals – 17-Jan-12
The Special Cheap Domain Registration Deals allow LuckyRegister’s customers to register all the domain names of the following extensions .com, .co**, .net, .us, .biz, .info, .me, .mobi** or .org domain for just $1.99 domain registration, transfer and renewal with each and every new, non-domain product LuckyRegister.com’s customers buy — no quantity limit! PLUS a long list of FREE extras, they’ll have everything they need get started online. It’s easy, fast and affordable.

Saving Face: Ou Buying .xxx Domain Names – 17-Jan-12
In an effort to protect its online reputation and trademarks, OU administrators have begun to purchase .xxx domain names that would otherwise be open to companies and individuals involved in the adult entertainment industry.

Afilias Buys .PRO Registry – 17-Jan-12
Afilias acquires RegistryPRO. Afilias has purchased Registry Services Corporation (d.b.a. RegistryPRO), which operates the .pro top level domain, from Hostway Corporation.

Internet Control Should Be Outside Government’s Domain – 16-Jan-12
The organization has faced persistent criticism about its openness and transparency, yet the six-year process provided ample opportunity for all interested parties to provide their views and to work to develop a policy that addressed as many concerns as possible. The result may be an imperfect policy, but it is one that broadly reflects the views of the Internet community.

ANA Ramps Up ICANN Domain Name Protest – 16-Jan-12
As the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ plan to launch a new program of generic top-level domains was scheduled to begin accepting applications on Jan. 12, the Association of National Advertisers’ drumbeat against the plan continued.

Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder Trying to Get The Domain Name Eddievedder.com – 15-Jan-12
Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder is trying to secure the web address eddievedder.com.

RegistryPro Auctions .PRO Domain Names – 15-Jan-12
RegistryPro, operator of the .PRO Top-Level Domain (TLD) is beginning 2012 with an auction of premium, previously unreleased one, two and three character domain names. The auction, held through top auction provider GoDaddy.com began on January 10, 2012 and conclude on January 17, 2012.

White House Blasts Internet Piracy Bills – 15-Jan-12
The Obama administration said over the weekend that it would not support legislation mandating changes to Internet infrastructure to fight online copyright and trademark infringement.

Techshot Enlists Leadjen to Market Shot.com Domain – 15-Jan-12
In what may be an unconventional way to sell an Internet domain name, Techshot, a contract new product development company, has hired a lead generation company to help sell its unused domain name, Shot.com. LeadJen ( www.leadjen.com ), an Indianapolis-based B2B lead generation company, is using traditional lead generation tactics, such as email, direct mail and phone calls, to help Techshot ( www.techshot.com ) identify companies that may be interested in acquiring the domain URL.

Surf Wear Brand Hot Tuna to Sell Domain Names, Trade Marks – 15-Jan-12
Hot Tuna (International) PLC, a leading surf wear and fashion brand, has agreed, conditionally upon the approval of shareholders in a general meeting to be held on 6 February 2012 (“General Meeting”), to dispose of the domain names, trade marks (“Intellectual Property Rights”) and certain of the Group’s stock (collectively “the Assets”) to Project J Newco No.10 Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Brands Holdings Limited, (“the Purchaser”) for a consideration of £950,000 to be satisfied in cash (“the Disposal”).

Opinion: Should Your Brand Own Its Own Domain Name? – 15-Jan-12
The biggest change to the domain name system in over ten years is now underway, writes John Swinson, partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques.

Tiny Start-up Secures .bank gTLD Trademark – 12-Jan-12
Asif LLC, a Wisconsin start-up with an undisclosed number of employees, won approval for the trademark 4,085,335 on Tuesday, for use in “domain name registration services”. UPDATE: Asif actually does business now as Domain Security Company LLC, but the trademark application was filed under its former name.

Leahy Drops Domain Name Terms of Internet Piracy Bill – 12-Jan-12
Senator Patrick Leahy is the sponsor of a controversial bill that aims to prevent Internet piracy – the problem of rogue websites distributing copyrighted data that they don’t own.

Feds Offer Warnings On The Dark Side of Domain Name Expansion – Law.com – 12-Jan-12
Protests about the pending worldwide expansion of top-level domain names have picked up as the Jan. 12 rollout date approaches.

Parents Plan for Future With Domain Names for Kids – 12-Jan-12
Parents are investing in their children’s future in creative ways, including the purchase of Internet domains in their kids’ names.

The Domain Name Universe is About to Expand – Crains Cleaveland – 12-Jan-12
The domain name universe is about to expand – Cleveland Business News – Northeast Ohio and Cleveland – Crain’s Cleveland Business