Would You Pay $29K for CondoleezaRice.com?

The Hill has an excellent analysis of domain names tied to the 2008 presidential campaign, which have been targeted by speculators. "Many of the political domain names have been bought as investments with the intention of being sold to the potential presidential campaigns," notes The Hill's Kelly McCormack. "Other buyers acquired the Web addresses to post endorsements or bash the presidential hopefuls. Either way, the cyberbrigade has hit almost all the presidential hopefuls."

A bunch of 2008-related names are being for sale through a Blogger site titled Political Domain World, which touts names including condoleezzarice08.com and johnmccain08.net.

Laura Heymann, a law professor at the College of William and Mary, says First Amendment issues may make it difficult for candidates to file UDRP cases or lawsuits against the registrants. "The political-speech implications weigh higher in this case. The First Amendment [trumps]," Heymann told The Hill. If the address owners are not trying to deceive the public into believing that the site is official, the politician has no leg to stand on, Heymann contends.

One seller has priced condoleezarice.com at $29,000. "Whoever pays for that domain name may have buyer’s remorse, however, because Rice has two z’s in her first name, not one," McCormack notes.

Perhaps, but only if direct navigation surfers can spell. The active market for typo domains suggests that there are plenty of folks who'll only type one "z."

  Posted by RichM June 21, 2006 | Permalink | Newsletter

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Would You Pay $29K for CondoleezaRice.com? - Jun 21, 2006





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