“The man who owns the Internet”

It always pisses me off when I hear about people buying up domain names for cheap and then selling them back at a huge mark up. I’ve heard everything from people snatching up domain names as soon as they expire to people registering the names of possible future basketball stars.

Some people argue that this is the same as buying up land. I see it slightly differently. People don’t create land, it’s already there. People do create domain names though, it’s basically their product name. Buying up all the domain names, to me, is like buying up all the possible product names one could use without ever having a product yourself. Maybe I’m totally off base here, but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth when I hear about people buying up all the domain names they can think of just so they can screw over people who may actually want to use them.

Anyway, this little tirade was inspired by what has to be the most interesting article I’ve read in a long time:

The man who owns the Internet

If you’re a fan of reddit.com (which was, interestingly enough, started by someone I went to high school with - though I didn’t know him), you’ll probably already have seen it. However, to those of you who haven’t seen it, it’s worth a read. Highly recommended!