Double Dutch NuDoms Hard At Work

Still questioning the value of pure numeric domains? Seems that at least two of our Dutch brethren were chomping at the bit to stake their respective claims on thousands of numeric domains in the recent Netherlands (.nl) land rush.

My Album, the sleeping wolf-in-sheeps-clothing, superbly represented (above) by the innocent looking Pixie in purple, and Martijn, Wim, Joost (1), Joost (2), Timon, Tony and the rest of the BliXem frat house (one of Top 50 Dutch internet publishers) went above and beyond the call of duty to nab their respective piece of the rock.

It hardly seem like a case of hijacking. Nonetheless, SIDN flatfeet were equal to the task and convinced (forced) the the enterprising dippers to return of some of the hard-gotten booty (ill-gotten, shurly, ed).

Trebles all round'!

   Two Dutch companies must return thousands of numeric domain names they got on a first-come-first-served basis from SIDN, the Dutch .nl registry.

   Numeric domain names are names made up entirely of numbers (eg 1234.nl), or numbers separated by hyphens (eg 12-34.nl). SIDN expected a landrush when it made these domains available late February, but wasn't prepared for domain hijackers, who initially claimed that "we were just being smart"

   During the landrush 14,409 unique numeric domains were registered by 298 companies. The most requested domain was 007.nl.

   Photo sharing company MyAlbum.nl registered 2,579 numeric domains by mailservers. It got one sixth of the numbers available setting up 35 different after two months of preparation and an investment of €35,000. BliXEM Internet Services acquired 2,341 numeric names.

   SIDN has now made an agreement with the two companies to return a substantial part of the numbers they registered.

   The organisation says it will have to dictate "more regulating and limiting measures" against domain name brokers, and that it will monitor the process more closely in future. ®