Item — HN Reader

> I think there should be a subscription fee for domains in certain TLDs (especially .com)

I have a few .com's and I pay yearly subscriptions on them. And some domains in other TLDs have "premium" subscription prices which can be 10-100x higher than the normal domain subscription price.

> so that there is a real cost to holding domains. If you are using it for a business, you will have no problem paying the subscription

This sounds like it would make the cost painful, if not prohibitive, for individuals to own domains in those TLDs. Don't get me wrong, squatting is annoying. But I don't think raising the prices is the right fix, since it may end up with the side effect of making domain purchases in some TLDs only available to businesses.

2 comments

Don't forget that squatters will just rise the prices to cover holding costs. Instead of $10k silly domain starts costing $50k.

Since domain names are globally unique, there is no solution. The number of name consumptions by name consumers is larger than the number of useful names. If multiple parties want to use a name, only one gets it. Your hobby site is treated equally with any other commercial or social venture of any utility or economic size. Even if that size is zero. Free resources get wasted, free non-renewable are interesting to watch.

You and I can both name our daughters “Carla McIntyre”, all uses of their name will be context-sensitive.

On many sites, and for email providers, we need to be scoobydoo45478 because there were other scoobydoos that showed up first. Same is going to happen with domain names. At least a squatter won’t be able to claim copyright on the prefix.