.Co founder explains his opinion on domainers and cybersquatters.
There was a bit of a blogstorm earlier today about the video of Juan Deigo Calle and Loic Le Meur, founder of the LeWeb conference announcing LeWeb was changing its domain to LeWeb.co.
There are two people in the video, and both have differing viewpoints on some issues. But because this wasn’t an interview on Fox, they weren’t debating.
I still don’t see the big uproar over what Calle said. He basically said they don’t want every .co domain to be purchased by domain investors (let alone a cybersquatters), because then .co wouldn’t take off. (See .eu.)
But some people have viewed the video differently than I did.
On the other hand, I’m not a fan of Le Meur’s handling of LeWeb.com. As I wrote about earlier this year, he tried to grab the domain LeWeb.com through a UDRP. LeWeb.com was registered before his business started. That’s not cool.
Calle has responded to the allegations that he’s anti-domainer by pointing out he’s a domainer himself. He doesn’t want cybersquatters on .co. He goes even further by saying he doesn’t want “mass speculators”. That’s smart, whether or not you want to hear it.
(Oh, and by the way…when you get outside the domain bubble, you will find that most people hate us. Le Meur’s attitude, even though it’s wrong, is typical.)
adam says
Reminds me of a punchline : “What you mean ‘we,’ white man?”
A bit of irony isn’t it that the registry is likely the biggest holder of the .co premium domains or as some others would say, the biggest squatter perhaps?
RAYY.co says
Juan Diego Calle doesn’t quite know the definition of domain squatters, so he make big insults to all domain investors in his video.
To make it clear definition to domain industry, domain squatters are those domainers who buy trademark domain names ( eg BuyCocaCola.com )…and they are squatters.
Whereas domain investors who buy generic domain names ( eg. Coffee.com ) are not domain squatters…They are domain investors who entitled to buy thousands of generic domain names….
M. Menius says
Rayy.co draws an important distinction. People who don’t acknowledge the difference between “squatter” and rightful “investor” are either ignorant/uninformed or condemning out of envy. And that’s the end of the story. Yes, it really is that simple and clearcut.
John Berryhill says
As a lawyer, I just couldn’t imagine how hurt and upset I would be if anyone ever said anything untoward about lawyers. I’d probably have to go stand in a corner and cry my eyes out if someone said anything disparaging about lawyers.
Fortunately, that almost never happens, since everyone LOVES lawyers.
Andrew Allemann says
@ Ray – I don’t think that’s the definition of “domain squatter”. I think that’s the definition of “cybersquatter”.
Loic Le Meur says
I don’t hate anybody and I wasn’t well advised when we tried to get LeWeb.com, I reckon.
Larry says
“He basically said they don
RAYY.co says
@ Andrew,
I think domain squatters and cyber squatters are the same meaning.
Stephen Douglas says
John Berryhill gives the best assessment of this “non-story”. Personally, lawyers have made me a lot of money. Love ’em.
OrdinaryJoe says
Actually I think this is an inspired move. Pee off all the domainers a few weeks before renewal date, they all drop all the domains they are holding and – hey presto – plenty of good dames become available for all the start-ups who will actually do something good with these. Simples!