I think changes to privacy laws are going to pose an additional challenge to those who invest in domain names. More specifically, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will make it more difficult for domain investors to see who owns domain names, and it will become more challenging to get in touch with the domain owners to make an offer for the domain name.
A domain management firm called Brandsight and a domain name and brand protection firm called Yellow Brand Protection are co-hosting a free webinar to discuss these upcoming changes. I think domain investors and others within the domain name space might find the webinar to be informational. The invitation to attend the webinar was tweeted this afternoon:
GDPR likely to impact domain management and online brand protection programs – join this joint Brandsight / Yellow Brand Protection webinar on Wed., Nov. 29 to learn more about it – https://t.co/ucqRwAys5e
— Brandsight, Inc. (@brandsight) November 27, 2017
The webinar will be led by Bart Lieben, a European intellectual property expert, and it will be held this coming Wednesday, November 29 from 1-2:00 PM Eastern. Registration for the webinar is a requirement, and you can register here. I do not see any specifics about who can register to attend the webinar. You can learn more about the event on the registration page. Hopefully the organizers will upload a video of the webinar once it is completed.
Everyone that works with domain names should know about GDPR because it will impact domain registration information. This looks like it will be a helpful event to learn more about the impacts of the GDPR and how it will impact businesses that own or buy domain names.
On the flip side, as a domain investor with a significant portfolio, the last thing I want is to make it EASY for any Joe Smoe off the streets to be able to contact me.
Anyone interested in my a domain of mine should be sophisticated enough to find to way to contact me if I don’t already have a for sale page up.
What if Whois information doesnt exist and people cant find out who owns a domain name unless they are connected with law enforcement or something along those lines?
Personally I’d applaud that as all of mine go direct to sales landers. Very rare I ever see whois offers, majority is all spam for seo, hosting, etc…
GoDaddy non-PPC pages allow those interested to contact you via a link to a GoDaddy broker. So if you own Orange.com and it is non-ppc without content. It will direct those interested in purchasing the domain to contact a domain broker. I’d argue this helps filter out the spam and time wasters. If someone truly is interested in purchasing a domain name they will pay the small fee to the registry.
Selling a domain name via a Godaddy Broker is like sticking your head in a bucket of water. They want a hefty 20% of sale price. As a seller, why would I subject buyer to that ridiculous markup when I can handle everything myself with just a an escrow account?
In my years, I have been approached by the Godaddy Domain Buy Service more times than I can count. I always tell em to f’off.
They are a good, reputable domain registrar with excellent support base in America.
But you’d sooner catch me cycling my trike off a cliff than deal with their brokerage service.