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SchoolPsychologist.com: Domain for Sale

Elliot Silver
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I am looking to sell SchoolPsychologist.com, and the asking price is $8,800. The domain name has a registration date of September 1997, and it is currently registered at Network Solutions.

Although my wife is in the Psychology field, she is not going to become a school psychologist. This is a fairly popular profession, and there is an organization for school psychologists: National Association of School Psychologists.

According to US News, a School Psychologist was one of the Best Careers in 2009. I would imagine this domain name could be used as a site to give information about the profession and provide information about how to become a school psychologist (ie lead generation for schools and grad school prep courses). It could also be used as a resource for school psychologists to find jobs and career information.

First to post “sold” will get the domain name.

Since this is a sales post, I am not permitting comments (good or bad).

Think TRAFFIC Trolls Are Bad? How About Paypal “Trolls”?

Elliot Silver
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A lot has been said about some companies who may have been present at the hotel for the TRAFFIC conference, but did not purchase a ticket for the tradeshow.  I can see why it would irk show organizers, but you have to check this out.

WePay, a competitor of Paypal dropped off a 600 pound ice block outside of the Paypal Developer’s Conference at the Moscone Center in San Francisco today. Inside the ice was the message, “Paypal freezes your accounts. Unfreeze your money.” They also have the coordinating domain name, UnfreezeYourMoney.com.

Now THAT was really cold!

More details on Techcrunch – photo from WePay stream.

Oversee News: Snapnames Settles Two “Halvarez” Lawsuits, Including Suit with Nelson Brady

Elliot Silver
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I just received an email from an Oversee media representative announcing that Snapnames has settled two lawsuits related to the “Halvarez” bidding scandal that sent shockwaves through the domain space a year ago.

It’s good to see that the company is moving on from this mess with some new regulations in place to help prevent a reoccurrence. Hopefully there is more oversight in place to ensure this type of impropriety doesn’t happen again.

One thing in the settlement of the class action litigation I like is that Snapnames “will make annual reports available to SnapNames customers regarding any reports or investigations of inappropriate bidding.” Any time “blind” auctions take place, there’s always the possibility of shill bidding. I think this transparency will be beneficial to bidders.

Press release below:

SnapNames and its parent company, Oversee.net, have reached a preliminary settlement of Resmer vs. SnapNames.com and Oversee.net, a class action filing arising from a former employee’s improper bidding activity on the SnapNames platform.   The action was filed in California shortly after SnapNames announced its rebate program for affected customers last November.

Under this settlement:

·                 Class members (which are United States residents who were extended the rebate offer but have not yet accepted) have been or shortly will be notified of the settlement terms and amounts (which are identical to the amounts affected bidders were offered in the rebate offer we extended last November).

·                 Though our rebate program officially expires November 4, 2010, the deadline to make a claim as a member of the class is December 17, 2010.

·                 Unless a class member opts out of the settlement, that member is bound by the settlement terms, which include a release of all further claims against SnapNames and Oversee relating to the “Halvarez” matter.

·                 SnapNames has created and adopted a formal policy regarding inappropriate bidding activity, and will make annual reports available to SnapNames customers regarding any reports or investigations of inappropriate bidding.

·                 Unclaimed proceeds from the class settlement will be donated to charitable organizations and industry causes.

Class members can download instructions and a claim form at www.snapsettlement.com.

Separately, we have also resolved our outstanding claim against Nelson Brady, the former employee responsible for this activity.   While terms of the settlement are not public and will not be disclosed, Oversee believes the financial penalty is appropriate considering the seriousness of the improper activity.

Statement from Jeff Kupietzky, CEO of Oversee.net

“While this has been an unfortunate situation for SnapNames and its customers and employees, we’re proud of the faith our customers have shown us in the past year.   We’re pleased to have these matters settled and are moving on with our business and our focus on serving customers.”

Context

·                 In October 2009, Oversee discovered an employee, Nelson Brady, using an account under the false name “Hank Alvarez,” engaged in improper bidding activities in domain name auctions on the SnapNames platform.

·                 Oversee and SnapNames disclosed the situation to its customers and employees in November 2009.   Oversee made available to affected customers a cash rebate in the amount of the calculated overpayment, plus 5.22% interest (the highest applicable federal rate during the affected time period).

·                 Since November 2009, approximately 84% of the aggregate rebate amount has been claimed by impacted parties.   Including the class action settlement, SnapNames will have made more than $2 million available to impacted customers.

Customer Service

SnapNames customers who have questions about the rebate offer and/or the class settlement can contact the SnapNames support team:

On the web:                                 http://snapnames.custhelp.com

By e-mail:                                       support@snapnames.com

Phone:                                                 +1 (866) 690-6279 (toll-free in the U.S.)
+1 (503) 241-8547 (outside the U.S.)

Lebron James’ New Nike Television Commercial

Elliot Silver
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This isn’t domain related, but have you seen Lebron James’ new Nike tv commercial yet? It’s pretty dramatic and mixes some old school Charles Barkley with some new school Tiger Woods. Nike always comes out with interestingly dramatic commercials with their star athletes.

Lebron James and his marketing company own LebronJames.com, and the website has been “coming soon” for quite some time. I’m somewhat surprised they haven’t launched a new website on it yet with the Heat’s season opener game against the Celtics happening tomorrow.

I Have Very Little On the Line, So The Big Guys Can Foot The Bill

Elliot Silver
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I just read Mike’s post about powerful DC politicians coming to a domain industry conference, and I’ve read quite a few posts he and others have written about supporting the ICA. I’ve also written posts imploring domain investors to support the ICA, in addition to contributing to the ICA.

From my own perspective, I think the general consensus amongst most people in the domain space (which I disagree with) is something along the lines of “I have very little on the line financially compared to others, so I will let the big guys foot the bill for protecting all of our interests.”

It seems that many domain investors aren’t doing this full time, and/or they think their holdings pale in comparison to larger companies. These larger companies, with so much more on the line, should use their vast assets to protect their own holdings and the holdings’ of others by default. I can see this side of the argument, although I don’t agree with it.

In my opinion, one of the wisest “investments” a domain investor can make is in the formation of a business entity to protect personal assets. In a poll I ran on my blog not too long ago, 41% of the people who read the article don’t even have a simple LLC to protect their own assets.

If people aren’t protecting their own assets, does anyone think they are going to financially support organizations or associations that supposedly support their interests?

I can imagine someone thinking that their $100 or $500 donation will result in no recognition or support, even if they need an assist with a UDRP or some other issue that might impact their holdings. Instead, the money will be spent on lobbying or something else that can’t be seen and can be difficult to quantify.

I know that Phil Corwin works hard for the ICA representing the interests of domain owners. I also know that others are working hard to protect domain investors’ interests behind the scenes, but the truth is that we are a very fractured industry. People don’t agree on the smallest things, and in most cases, it’s every person and company for itself.

I really don’t know what can be done to “unite” this industry to support even the most obvious of objectives.  What do you think?

Can Firesheep Plugin Be Used to Steal Domain Names?

Elliot Silver
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There’s an interesting article on TechCrunch about a new Firefox plugin called Firesheep that exploits some websites’ non-usage of the secure https for logins. The jist of it is that if you log in to a website that is known to Firesheep from an unsecured network (think a domain conference or a Starbucks), and someone has Firesheep installed, they can access your account.

According to the Firesheep website, it’s this easy:

  • After installing the extension you’ll see a new sidebar. Connect to any busy open wifi network and click the big “Start Capturing” button. Then wait.
  • As soon as anyone on the network visits an insecure website known to Firesheep, their name and photo will be displayed
  • Double-click on someone, and you’re instantly logged in as them.

Further, according to the TechCrunch article, a number of large websites have vulnerabilities: “to give you a sense of Firesheep’s scope, the extension is built to identify cookies from Amazon.com, Basecamp, bit.ly, Cisco, CNET, Dropbox, Enom, Evernote, Facebook, Flickr, Github, Google, HackerNews, Harvest, Windows Live, NY Times, Pivotal Tracker, Slicehost, tumblr, Twitter, WordPress, Yahoo, Yelp.”

eNom, Demand Media’s domain registrar and partner company of NameJet, is listed as a website whose cookies could be captured by Firesheep.

I don’t know if it would be possible for someone to log in on someone else’s account using the Firesheep plugin, but that’s what the article seems to imply. Perhaps there are other domain registrars that are vulnerable as well?

I sure hope domain registrars know about this plugin, and if not, I hope they learn about it quickly. I for one generally don’t log in to secure websites while at domain conferences or in public places, but when I do, I change my passwords quickly after.

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