Company registers .com and .fox domains for news site.
This morning, as I perused lists of recently registered domains, I noticed that Fox media registered the domain name Coronavirus.fox.
.Fox is the company’s dot-brand top level domain name, so I knew this wasn’t just a defensive domain name registration. I typed it in and it forwarded to CoronavirusNow.com.
Coronavirus Now aggregates information about the novel coronavirus. It appears to be designed to showcase content from Fox affiliates around the country. (However, ironically, the top news headline when I visited today was from Fox rival The New York Times.)
I find it interesting that a news company created a site dedicated to this topic and registered a unique domain name for it. It’s also interesting that Fox registered a domain on its .Fox domain to forward to it.
(Note: I know some people try to capitalize on current, tragic events by registering domains for profit. Please don’t do it.)
CoronaNews.global
“(Note: I know some people try to capitalize on current, tragic events by registering domains for profit. Please don’t do it.)”
Give me a break, would you please? We all capitalize on tragedy, dude. Every time you drive for a non-essential purpose like going to the movies you contribute to the incidence of children being hit when they run out from between parked cars.
Stop bragging you’re “one of the good guys,” please.
I don’t see how taking an everyday risk has anything to do with trying to profit off of catastrophe.
Is this website not a commercial venture? So this blog entry is also profiting from the catastrophe, is it not? I don’t see how buying and selling a domain name for a profit hurts anyone. It’s legal and it should be in my opinion.
This blog entry made me zero cents.
The point, Andrew, to quote the philosopher Alan Watts, is “Deciding to live is deciding to kill.” We all profit from catastrophe of one sort or another and moralism is just plain stupid because, “Judge not that ye be not judged.” Moralism results in hate and is a huge contributing factor to I think most of the violence in the world.
We do have to draw a line in our society between legal and illegal selfishness – and we all have different opinions as to where that line should be – but I think it would be a gross violation of freedom of commerce to make it illegal to register, say, CoronavirusSuicide.com for $10 and put it up for sale for $1 million. Not only doesn’t such behavior cause any material damage to anyone but it may in fact help awaken people to a problem or possible solution.
But some people just like to criticize the character of others, either for material gain – as is the case with some journalists – or just in seeking respect. Again, I think that’s foolish because “what goes around comes around.” When you use someone else as a stepping stone, you aren’t making a friend.
I didn’t see it was illegal nor should it be illegal. I just don’t think it’s the right thing to do.
I agree with Andrew re the ethics of it, but it is a fine line sometimes. Last week I sold facemasks.net, a domain I’ve owned for eighteen years, for a three figure sum (I had not increased the price!). The buyer then relisted the domain on sedo for $10k (since reduced to $5k).
In a sense that’s simply a case of someone finding a (suddenly) undervalued domain and selling it for what he thinks he can get. I don’t blame him, that’s the business, but then again, there’s something a little off about it IMO. Or perhaps I was just foolish not to raise the price of the domain myself!
You can’t compare buying and selling a domain name to something like buying a huge supply of a necessary item and reselling it at a high price or, for that matter, hoarding billions of dollars of wealth, at any time, while others are unable to procure basic necessities through no fault of their own.
There is no shortgage of domains and even if you are going to argue that only a “responsible” party should own a domain like Coronavirus.com, who is going to decide who is sufficiently responsible? ICANN? The Trump Administration?
Personally, I think I could have done more “good” with Coronavirus.com than GoDaddy is doing in forwarding the domain to the World Health Organization website – even though I would have used it to make a ton of money, if possible, in addition to providing information. There is nothing on the WHO website about BHT, for example, an inexpensive compound which might be the best thing people can be taking to avoid a serious infection [ see http://projectwellbeing.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/BHTbook-StevenWmFowkes-141016.pdf ].