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Wednesday 
07 July 2004
What’s in a name?
I don’t know whether to be amused or disturbed by this article in Tuesday’s (7/6/04) Washington Post. On the surface it seems like a simple look at how silly things get in the world of domain names. Six years ago, an Indianapolis bail bondsman, Kerry Edwards, created his own web domain, www.kerryedwards.com. According to the article, the day it was announced that Sen. John Edwards would be Kerry’s running mate, Indianapolis Edwards was called by the Kerry campaign to discuss purchase of the domain name. Apparently, the asking price was too high.
So, it seems like a fairly harmless, humorous human interest story. Right?
Reading on we learn about other cybersquatters who have purchased domain names, hoping to cash in:
Other obvious choices for a campaign Web site – KerryEdwards04.com, KerryEdwards2004.com, KerryEdwards-2004.com and KerryEdwards2004.net – have already been registered, according to publicly available Internet records.
Yet, the disturbing part comes in this disclosure by one of these hopeful opportunists, Kevin Draftz of Chicago:
Draftz said his first choice of buyers is the Kerry campaign, but would not rule out selling them to the competition.
And we, or at least I, wonder what is wrong with democracy in America.
It’s for sale.
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