Refers to Domain Investors as “Scalpers”, “Cybersquatters” — ZDNet Article
Article puts words into mouth of domain name buyer, hits fresh low in biased reporting.
An article by ZDNet writer Steven Deare regarding the sale of Tennis.com.au suggests that the seller of the generic domain name is a “scalper” and cybersquatter.
The opening to the article reads:
“Tennis Australia has admitted it paid a “hefty fee” to a scalper of the domain name kind in order to obtain the Web address it wanted as part of a rebranding campaign.”
But as you read the article you realize that these are Deare’s words, not those of Tennis Australia. In fact, Tennis Australia CEO Steve Wood does just regarding everything he can to explain that this was a fair and justified transaction:
“It’s quite common, I might say, that domain names are bought and traded and so on. And we’re very excited now that we’ve got that,” states Wood.
Apparently Deare is trying to draw a parallel to ticket scalping, which is right now a hot issue in Australia:
“Tennis Australia’s payment to the cyber-squatter comes as a number of sporting and entertainment promoters recently upped their fight against ticket scalpers,” writes Deare. “Both Cricket Australia and the Big Day Out last year took fresh measures against people buying tickets purely for re-sale purposes.”
But again, Wood doesn’t fall prey to Deare’s metaphor:
“Wood, still, had no qualms with the ethics of the purchase.
Asked if he agreed the purchase was like paying a ticket scalper, Wood stated: “Yeah, perhaps, but from my perspective, we needed all the tools of our trade to run our business.
“And for whatever reason someone else had that tool and I needed to get it and for a fee I was able to extract that.”
Deare needs to look up the definition of “cybersquatter”. Last I checked, “Tennis” was not a trademarked term. Incidentally, the previous owner of Tennis.com.au wasn’t making any money off the domain, it was not parked with a pay-per-click service.
The purchase price was below six figures.
By the way, Steven, you ought to probably register your name SteveDeare.com and .com.au. They’re right now available.
