Domain Investors are Used and Abused!! ICANN NEEDS to be FULLY Investigated!

Morning Folks!!

Hey Domain investors, aren’t you sick of getting used and abused? Whether it's ICANN as Konstantinos wrote about yesterday or is registries, registrars, auction houses, Mechanical Valuations, PPC companies, Google, Yahoo or anyone else, DOMAIN INVESTORS will always get the shaft. Ya know why? Because they can, and we aren't organized. Like I have said there is NO DOMAIN INDUSTRY! There are just thousands of soloist renegades that can't see past today. They party like drunken sailors regardless of the leaks on the ship and the threat at hand.

You know what the worst part is?? We are the ones that enriched these people. We are the ones that helped grow their companies and gave them the power they have. We are the ones that have been taken advantage of at every stage.

We are not the bad guys. We are not cybersquatters. We are the capitalists that create wealth and opportunity for us and others. We are the people that invest our time energy and money into something selfish, but that’s what opportunity is all about. But this selfish opportunity is very widespread. It's a worldwide opportunity. Why don’t they look at a person in Nigeria that had perhaps no chance at a decent life and he’s making his fortune on the Internet. With domain names. With many domain names. It’s a passport out of the wilderness and into the mainstream. Why would anyone mess with that??

The Internet has probably lifted more people out of poverty than every governmental program in history combined!! It's so obvious. Why mess with that??

The Internet and domain names have been the greatest equalizer the world has ever known. Never before in world history have so many benefited so quickly. As bad as things are there has never been more opportunity worldwide than there is at this very moment. NEVER!!

As domain investors we created an ecosystem that many companies have made a lot of money with. I believe without what we did as investors and risk takers the entire picture would have looked quite a bit different than it is now. We made people very rich!!

Now, unfortunately, there’s a lot of bad apples in what we do that go over the line and abuse the privilege of what they have. Like I have said many times, some people can be put in a diamond mine full of diamonds for free and they’re still steal something or do something that’s not right or otherwise abuse something that shouldn’t be abused.

I am proud to be a domain investor. I’ve never ever been ashamed of it for a moment. I did something that was taught to me all of my life: become successful. And many of us have found that same success. And of course in time they would want to take that success away from us. They did that in American history, it’s nothing new. They've been doing it in Europe for centuries. Governments seize land that it wants. That's valuable.

Of course this will be happening with domains I saw that. the day I got online. I’m just shocked and surprised that it took a quarter of a century. Thank goodness for that!

But that’s also why I’ve been very conservative with domaining. To me, it's like "Musical Chairs". The music will eventually stop. Those that are overextended will be destroyed.

See what happens, you are flying along and then SMACK! You are dead meat. You owe a lot of $$. You had a fantastic year. But then after the income stops, the tax man cometh. Many have been destroyed cuz the good year was followed by a terrible year and they can never dig out of that tax debt and what they owe on cars, mortgages and toys.

So expect to get it up the arse as time goes by and prepare. We did have a lawsuit at one time that may have prevented this fiasco, but it was not supported and eventually we had to give in. That's what happens when an industry has no organization and has no purpose. And it's even worse when there is no industry to fight back and make their case.

The price of pigeon shit farming is about to go up so maybe time to focus on prime domains. Remember, 10 really good domains make you a domain investor. 1000 silly names, will make you go broke and you are a pigeon shit farmer. The only good thing, farmers will ALL be washed away!

I got into this when domains were $100 a pop. If they go back to $100 so be it! All I know is for $10 you can be worldwide in a moment and change your destiny forever! It's the greatest bargain the world has ever known. It's the greatest opportunity the world has ever known. It's just amazing!


In my STRONG opinion, ICANN is a corrupt racketeering organization. It's a crime syndicate that advances interests of a few insiders at the expense of the masses and the general good. They have abused their power and their role.

Racketeering refers to crimes committed through extortion or coercion. A racketeer attempts to obtain money or property from another person, usually through intimidation or force. The term is typically associated with organized crime. The law defines 35 different offenses that constitute racketeering in the U.S.

I think ICANN and each member should be investigated FULLY and I would go back to the origins of the new gTLD program. The demolition derby of corruption. ICANN leaders profited from their conflicts of interest, and they never did it for the purpose they were chartered to do. They abused their leadership roles and profited PERSONALLY many millions of dollars. To me, that is corruption at the worst!

Is ICANN Corrupt??? Many think so! Count me in that camp!

Rick Schwartz

11 thoughts on “Domain Investors are Used and Abused!! ICANN NEEDS to be FULLY Investigated!

  1. Jay

    Fish rot from the head down and that’s ICANN. I am convinced a lot of back room deals and corruption. Please investigate!

  2. Richard

    The full magnitute of their corruption shows in the many many industry heads that at one point worked for ICANN or were part of ICANN ”working groups” and now work for private companies in the domain space where they directly benefit from ICANN policy changes. What we need is a complete reset, independent audits and unfortunately we need government oversight in order to protect consumers and the stability of the Internet as a whole.

  3. Richard

    A .sucks TLD for example would have never happened under a government-supervised ICANN.

  4. Anunt

    Well said…i agree 100%.

    Maybe the Asheville meetup at the mountains can move mountains and make history with the icann issue.

  5. Mark Thorpe

    ICANN has been doing whatever it wants for far too long!
    There are way too many conflicts of Interest, people coming and going to and from ICANN to other domain Industry roles, the new gTLD fiasco, whois privacy mishandling, women mistreated at meetings and now wanting to remove domain price caps.
    It’s time to put an end to the dictatorship that ICANN is!

    I just might have to go to ICANN 66 in Montreal, and if I do, ICANN will wish that I did not show up!

    Clean up your act ICANN.

  6. BullS

    So much corruption when there is only one agency that controls this…needs transparency.

    File a class action lawsuit!!

  7. Domain Observer

    That’s why I insisted 7 years ago in a famous blog that there should be a stronger domainers organization that should unite the domainers to protect their rights and domains. Unfortunately my suggestion was ignored as a lot of domainers were enjoying money making under the umbrella of ICANN. I hope your voice in this article will not be a single man’ shouting in the wilderness. Thanks for the insightful article.

  8. steve fox

    uuhhh I thought as a government entity all money made went to the government or agency and no person could touch said money…….


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