back to article WorldTradeCenter.com on the block

The owner of the internet domain name WorldTradeCenter.com is planning to sell it, just weeks before the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Aftermarket.com, a domain brokerage firm, announced today that it is looking for an "appropriate" buyer for the address, on behalf of its current owner. Potential buyers …

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  1. serviceWithASmile

    domain name brokers

    excepting the unmentionables, is there any other part of the web economy that is quite as scummy as the godaddy part?

    i don't really know why but domain name registrars and brokers / squatters in particular always struck me as a bunch of seedy drug dealers, happy to take money from anyone for something they know you need - with the price set accordingly.

    i dont mind paying for a domain name but i am of the mind that the domain name authority should be the one handing them out, and taking the (much lower, fixed price) cash rather than bob parsons.

    on topic: im surprised nobody has thought of the children yet and condemned this sale as praying on the greif of families or something.

    if i bought it i'd turn it into an ecommerce site where you swap one item for another with anyone else around the world.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Yup....

      I agree... A few years back I wrote a piece of shareware, and started selling it from my original domain. The shareware had an unusual name comprising of letters and numbers, and the domain was available. However, not knowing if the software would be successful or not, I didn't bother registering.

      The shareware was reasonably successful, so I went to register the domain a few months later, and found it squatted... I did a whois, found the expiry date, and made a note in my diary... When the expiry date arrived (a few days before Christmas), I jumped onto it for the regular price of an unregistered domain.

      I smiled all the way through Christmas :-)

      Of course, these days it wouldn't be that easy, the current holder gets priority renewal and all that, but I'm glad I did it whilst it was still possible.

    2. Pseu Donyme
      Devil

      Yup

      The "aftermarket" is particularily seedy: essentially this is about extracting a fee for a disservice, for being a parasite. The rest of the economy has to bear the cost and raise the prices of the actually useful products and services.

  2. Jolyon Ralph

    No big problem

    There are other "world trade centers" around the world that would make perfectly good use of the name. What's the problem?

    1. Robert E A Harvey

      Well, quite

      IWGTST.

      I've been to the ones in Dubai, Jo;burg, and Bucharest. Wasn't there one in Cardiff?

      1. Code Monkey

        Also

        Barcelona too

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Boston, Mass

          as well.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Go

    Capitalism - The American Way

    "An undisclosed portion of the proceeds of the sale will be donated to a 9/11 victims' charity."

    From Wikipedia...

    "The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund was created to compensate the victims of the attack (or their families) in exchange for their agreement not to sue the airline corporations involved. $7 billion was awarded to 97% of the families; the average payout was $1.8 million."

    Y'know I tend to think they'll be alright financially...Call me cruel if you like, 10 years on the hurt will still be there but I doubt Americans will have a problem with someone making a quick buck out of a domain name. Most likely it will form a tribute page and see plenty of traffic.

    It's not going to cause the same furore that the possibility of a "Mosque" being erected next to Ground Zero did.

    P.S. I am of course, giving the USofA the benefit of the doubt and assuming the rational people outnumber the idiots.

    1. Elmer Phud

      Here's hoping

      I'm hoping it gets sold to someone they find out later is called 'Ali'.

      But it'll most likely get sold to a bunch of crooks flogging 9/11 memorabilia

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      Sadly...you are mistaken.

      "P.S. I am of course, giving the USofA the benefit of the doubt and assuming the rational people outnumber the idiots."

      I live here...and trust me...they don't. ESPECIALLY in Washington, D.C.

  4. Candy

    If there was only one WTC...

    ...this might be interesting or exploitative. And I'm sure in any US-centric view-of-the-world context, it's both.

    But there are many World Trade Centres across the globe and I'm sure one of them will be only to happy to pick up the .com name for a suitably large sum. My money would be on Dubai...

    That the seller chooses to donate an undisclosed portion of the proceeds to charity? Who cares...

  5. Craig 12

    is .com still important?

    People are down with funky TLDs and a bit of shortening of URLs these days, so is a .com really that important? worldtradecenter.me is available for a tenner, and wrldtrdcntr.com is unregistered as well.

    I don't think domain people are especially scummy, unless worldtradecenter.xxx is taken...

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