leech behaviour
Why is ICANN not doing anything about "leech" behaviour when it comes to purchasing domain names. I find it really frustrating that aside from companies that actively engage in "front running", there are others who have just snapped up domains in bulk with a view to selling them on for hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
For large corporations this kind of money may not be a problem, however for already financially challenged charities, institutions, health organizations and so on it is impossible to have to submit to such unethical behaviour.
In my view there should be a rule which disallows one to sell a domain for more money then domain names currently sell for. If this is legally not possible, then ICANN should come up with alternatives that address not only future purchases but also domains that have already been snapped up by scrupulous companies. For instance there is no reason why any company or organisation should own hundreds of domains. Similarly any domain owned by a company but not being used in a meaningful manner and only having advertising or domain resell should have their domains forcibly made avilable for sale. Another measure would be domain churn - I suspect that bulk purchasers are buying a selling a lot of domains all the time.
If ICANN does not get tough then there will be no reason for ICANN TO exist. We may as well have chaos like we do today. Perhaps it may be appropriate to also check to see who is represented on ICANN's decision making boards - are these people mostly working for registrars and leech companies - after all it would be in a registrars interest to sell as many domains as possible and so bulk purchases are great for business.
At the end of the day, ICANN should in my view serve the needs of larger society and public. This cannot be achieved if the majority voice in ICANN is from people who have a financial interest in the buy/sell/management of domains.
