What's In a (Domain) Name?
At age 21, Todd Stein is a real estate tycoon, reports CBS News Correspondent John Roberts.
But the property he owns can't be found on any county map. It exists only in cyberspace. The University of Texas business major owns 14 different web addresses, from a physical fitness site to one with the name of California Senator Diane Feinstein.
"I've had people tell me they're worth thousands of dollars to millions of dollars." Stein says.
Welcome to the world of "cybersquatting," where for just $70 you can reserve any name or phrase as a Web site name as long as it's not already taken. Lately, some people have been reselling those names on the open market for a hefty profit. The name of one site or domain name, "Wine.com," sold for 3 million dollars.
Click on "TomCruise.com" or "TomHanks.com" and web surfers are transported to a celebrity gossip site that neither Hanks nor Cruise has anything to do with. And Sharon Stone's domain name links to a pornography site.
But it's not just the famous who are getting caught up in the wave of name raids. Steve Farmer owns a small hemp products store in Laguna Beach, California with an unusual name: Hemp in the Hollow. When he attempted to register his store's name in cyberspace, he found someone had already beaten him to it. "I don't think there's another Hemp in the Hollow in the United States!"
No matter. The name snatcher wanted a thousand dollars before giving it up. Farmer calls that extortion and refused to pay.
"How could they do something like that?" he asks. "...It sort of shows me the darker side, creepier, sleazy side of the human behavior…"
Ivan Wong, 17, is now the unlikely focus of a cyber battle that may set precedent on the issue of who can own which names. The fight is over the domain name "MSDWonline.com."
It's a name coveted by the investment giant Morgan Stanley Dean Witter. Wong, who says he created his site simply to promote the sport of downhill mountain biking, says its coincidental that his site has Morgan Stanley's initials. But in court documents, Morgan Stanley charges it's one of dozens of domains Wong and his father are holding hostage in hopes of huge returns.
Wong, naturally, disagrees. "They think just because they're big and they have the money and power that they can just step on me, take my site, but I'm not going to let it go that easy. I'm going to fight for it."
The domain name scramble is moving the government towards regulating what has been unregulated. Rep. James E. Rogan, R-Calif., has sponsored a bill which would make it illegal to register a name on the Internet if the intent is to make a profit.
"This is just a recognition that the Internet has become a viable facet of commerce and that traditional trademark protection that we recognize in every aspect of commerce... It's now time to do the same thing on the Internet," Rogan says
Even Internet guru Esther Dyson, who's mentored some of Silicon Valley's chiefs, lost her own name. Estherdyson.com features rows of dancing hamsters. Surprisingly Dyson, who heads a non-profit agency trying to bring order to the cyber address chaos says, like it or not, it's an example of free-speech--something which should be tolerated and protected.
"People say what can you do in cyberspace?" asks Dyson. "What you really do is whatever you want to do in cyberspace. We just want to make sure you do what you want to do without trampling on somebody else."
Yet, despite the prospect of government intervention, to Todd Stein it's just a case of first come, first served. "We've all got property that people want, but that doesn't make you out to be a criminal, does it?"
At present, domain names are being registered at the rate of 300,000 a month.