Metafilter Zombified A service of Bottlecap Labs, you too can infest any website with zombies using ZombieUrl.
posted by jeremias on Apr 24, 2008 - 40 comments

Tired of people sending you links you've seen weeks before? Old News Baby lets you create a list of urls you've seen, so you can refer back to your inherent coolness when people are talking about them. via ResearchBuzz
posted by Katemonkey on Apr 20, 2005 - 14 comments

Barney is a 6 year old boy whose dad bought the .co.uk domain of his name so he can use it when he's older. Barney is a 60 million year old malevolent purple dinosaur and wants "his" domain name back. Hilarity, thinly vieled contempt and common-sense ensues .. (via NTK)
posted by Pericles on May 29, 2004 - 15 comments

With its latest security update Microsoft has disabled the ability to pass username:password pairs in URLs. If you usually use this format for connecting to your site via either FTP or HTTP, it will no longer work after you install this update.
posted by johnnydark on Feb 4, 2004 - 34 comments

Verisign modifies the infrastructure of the net to point back to themselves. Verisign has rigged all .com and .net mistyped domains to reroute to their branded search page. This makes them effectively the biggest cybersquatter on the net, and will make it impossible for most spam filters at the network level to operate as well as seriously complicating the lives of network administrators everywhere.
posted by dejah420 on Sep 15, 2003 - 64 comments

VeriSign Can Be Sued for Losing Your Domain Name A Federal appeals court (Ninth Circuit) has ruled that the owner of the sex.com domain, who lost the domain when VeriSgin transferred it on the basis of a forged letter, can sue VeriSign for damages resulting from VeriSign's mistake. The sex.com case is worth millions, but anyone who has lost a domain name due to VeriSign's incompetence may now be able to draw their pound of flesh straight from those entrusted with making sure the registry process works.
posted by mikewas on Jul 27, 2003 - 7 comments

Use a misleading domain name, go to prison. A new bit of pending legislation (warning: PDF) called the "Child Abduction Prevention Act" (and really, who WOULDN'T vote for that?) has made the use of misleading domain names for sites of "purient interest" punishable by a sentence of up to two years in prison. Seriously. This is going to be very troubling to the White House. No, this White House.
posted by jonson on Mar 28, 2003 - 22 comments

ICANN disses the the dot. The guy who runs the Internet Multicasting Service teamed up with the guy who runs the Internet Software Consortium and submitted a proposal to mange the .ORG registry. ICANN's conslutants [sic] dumped on the proposal (300KB PDF) claiming it is among the worst proposals from a technical standpoint. Mind you, ISC produces the software that runs the DNS and actually operates root and top-level servers. And ICANN thinks they lack the technical mojo? Wow! Are we all ready to admit that ICANN is completely corrupt and beyond saving? More info here. (via IP)
posted by chipr on Aug 31, 2002 - 12 comments

Pornographers jack domain name from Florida sheriff. Aycock said the Sheriff's Office had owned the domain name since 1995, and that its registration is current. "When I was told about this, I thought they were kidding," he said. "We dug out a receipt and we're paid up through November. When we find out who's responsible for this we're going to go after them. I am not very happy that this has happened."

The Sheriff may discover that precious few laws protect him and that prosecuting a Canadian company could be tricky. Link from Delaware Law Office.
posted by mikewas on Jul 9, 2002 - 5 comments

Anyone who ever spent any time on the Domain-Policy mailing list before NetSol shut it down without warning a year or more back (it was starting to look evidentiary, you see, and they didn't want to get sued...) will be familiar with much of what's in this Salon piece about John "Gnu" Gilmore, CORE, ICANN('t), and the Great Domain Registration Fiasco.
posted by baylink on Jul 3, 2002 - 7 comments

Are these the hardest domains in the world to register, despite the changes that took effect 1 July 2002? Businesses can now own more than one domain name and the new .id.au domain space provides somewhere for individuals to live, but there are still many restrictions, not the least of which is the 21,322 word exclusion list. Given the recent instances of domain hijinks discussed here, it is not surprising to see that it has already started in the .au world. Are these restrictions good or bad news for the .au domain space?
posted by dg on Jul 1, 2002 - 6 comments

Last week, Iambic registered the domain names Datebk5.com and Datebook5.com. However, Iambic does not make a product called Datebk. Pimlico Software, Iambic's closest competitor, does. (more inside)
posted by dobbs on May 8, 2002 - 10 comments

The president of ICANN, the organization that has been attempting to coordinate the Internet's domain name system, has suggested that the body virtually eliminate public participation and be more controlled by governments and corporations. If you're concerned, one thing you can do is join ICANN at Large.
posted by tranquileye on Mar 8, 2002 - 4 comments

Washtech.com hacked The Washington Post's tech site was hacked yesterday. Here's the text (via FuckedCompany) that appeared after the hack and before the WaPo crew shut the site down. As of tonight, it is still not back up at its own domain. Not sure why this gives me glee. I just wish one day someone could hack something and leave something profound in the way of a message.
posted by brookish on Jan 29, 2002 - 6 comments

"Google effect" reduces need for many domains. Dan Gillmor says effective search engines can and should stop people from freaking out that "Wah! All the good .com names are taken" and compulsively registering all the .biz, .info, .tv, .to, and other .crap domains which the registrars would like us to believe are vital. Bob Frankston agrees, [link via Ev] adding that reducing our dependence on semantic (i.e. keywordy) web addresses will improve the stability and usefulness of the web. (I agree too!)
posted by Tubes on Jan 14, 2002 - 5 comments

Take that Meatfilter.com... On Monday, Oct. 1, the FTC plans to announce the beginning of a campaign against scores of Web sites that capitalize on typo variants of popular domain names in order to dupe unsuspecting Internet surfers. I think this is a good thing, but how far can the US government truly influence shady internet practices? Should it even try?
posted by thewittyname on Oct 1, 2001 - 18 comments

Internet Domain Names May Have Warned of Attacks “Internet domain names like 'attackontwintowers.com' and 'worldtradetowerattack.com' were registered more than a year ago. It's not known at this time who registered the suspicious names or what their purpose was.” Hmm. Just (un)lucky guesses, or inside information?
posted by kd on Sep 19, 2001 - 26 comments

Opportunistic post-disaster domain name registration? In the light of an international tragedy, why not secure yourself a relevant and potentially lucrative URL?
posted by skylar on Sep 16, 2001 - 13 comments

Gosh, it seems as though we have run out of words! Jesus Christ, when will it ever end? Sigh.
posted by tweebiscuit on Jul 25, 2001 - 37 comments

NTIA to sell admin rights to .us domain Flying mostly under the radar of the mass media, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration is getting ready to sell off admin rights to the .us domain, which has largely been the province of state and local governments and their various departments. Libraries, schools, etc. argue that the namespace is a "public trust" and should not be turned over to the highest bidder for commercial interests.
posted by briank on Jul 23, 2001 - 8 comments

they are linking to us. Or we are linking to you. Or something like that. Anyways, right at the bottom of the page there's a little one-letter link to mefi. Wonder how many people have drifted in via k5... Got any referer stats matt?
posted by fvw on May 19, 2001 - 5 comments

Meatfilter? Mistyped URL's usually serve you up a porn site, annoying ads, or endless spawning windows. This one though, gave me a chuckle.

note: you probably don't want to click on any of the links 'cept for the meatfilter one
posted by skwm on May 14, 2001 - 25 comments

Too delicious for words: A guy registers walmartcanadasucks.com. Wal-Mart sues. Guy wins. Guy sues Wal-Mart to get them to fork over all the walmartcanadasucks.x they registered defensively after he registered the .com. Cajones, mi amigo.
posted by NortonDC on Apr 12, 2001 - 8 comments

$65 million awarded in the Sex.com case to the rightful owner.
posted by paladin on Apr 4, 2001 - 9 comments

Worried that the ICANN might take away your personal .org site address? Join the fight at handsoffmy.org.
posted by hit-or-miss on Mar 31, 2001 - 0 comments

Sighting of the day, note the one for March 22.
posted by bjgeiger on Mar 23, 2001 - 10 comments

Go Daddy Domains

1 Year ($8.95/yr).....$8.95
2 Years ($8.75/yr)...$17.50
3 Years ($8.55/yr)...$25.65
5 Years ($8.05/yr)...$40.25
8 Years ($7.45/yr)...$59.60
10 Years ($6.95/yr)...$69.50

Getting a domain name has never been easier or more affordable!
Yeah, or so they say. So far, I can't seem to find a catch. It just sounds funny to me when they say that you'll be using Go Daddy software to get your domain. Maybe I'm being too cynical? Maybe this is just an honest-to-goodness, good deal?
What about it, MeFiers, what's the bottom line, here?
posted by lizardboy on Mar 6, 2001 - 21 comments

Feeling Safe about the Keeper of Domain Names Anyone notice that at least at 10:30am EST that Network Solutions homepage brings up an Error page? Doesn't that make us all feel safe. And then there was the Registrars.com registrar transfer form which didn't think the domain I was trying to transfer had been registered (but if you used their WHOIS it showed it was).
posted by matte on Jan 31, 2001 - 18 comments

Ford Motor goes after 13 year old girl for her domain name. Personally, I'm disgusted with corporate America right now.
posted by tj on Jan 24, 2001 - 54 comments

Microsoft properties down again. This time due to DNS routing. How embarrassing for them.
posted by quirked on Jan 24, 2001 - 15 comments

Gadzooks!! What in the name of H-E-double-hockey-sticks is going on here? Check on the products and then visit this site. Then do a little WHOIS sniffing and try to wrap your mind around the fact that they are both registered to
Registrant: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
(E-COM-CON-DOM)
10201 W. Pico Boulevard Los Angeles, CA 90035 US
sort of via memepool.
posted by donkeysuck on Dec 22, 2000 - 16 comments

Now this could possibly be Schadenfreude at it's best!! "eToys Expects Lower Than Estimated Fiscal Third Quarter Operating Results" Net sales are expected to be between $120 million and $130 million, rather than the $210 million to $240 million previously estimated. How could they be off their estimate by HALF? Oh yeah, maybe if they hadn't spent so much time (and money) pursuing ETOY? Who's got the last laugh now?.....
posted by 120degrees on Dec 16, 2000 - 13 comments

If you tried to switch hosting services only to have your domain held hostage, and if no one else can help, maybe you can hire DomainRescue.
posted by jjg on Dec 5, 2000 - 8 comments

Who are these guys? And why have they registered a thousand or more domains, only to have them all point at the same generic portal? I bumped into them three times today while doing searches for DHTML, Budd Uggly, and boxing. No banners, no logo, no company info, and search results are a framed page from goto.com. Strange.
posted by nikzhowz on Nov 18, 2000 - 12 comments

ICANN announces new international TLDs
Apparently they resolved the problem of businesses buying up their domain names in the new namespaces by choosing TLDs that no one would want. Visit me at www.rattanchairs.info! My personal web site is www.ryan.name...
posted by rschram on Nov 16, 2000 - 12 comments

Network Solutions faces 'hoarding' allegations. "Networks Solutions Inc. has illegally restrained trade and willfully maintained monopoly power over expired domain names, according to a class-action lawsuit recently filed by an Alabama businessman."
posted by Zool on Oct 22, 2000 - 0 comments

Adobe.com gets hijacked. At the time of this posting, he still has it. Find out how you can hijack domain names in this step by step guide.
posted by kaefer on Oct 20, 2000 - 6 comments

Somebody call a lawyer! Now this is a blatant case of someone ripping off someone else's trademark in a URL if there ever was one. (Courtesy of Hard OCP)
posted by Steven Den Beste on Oct 17, 2000 - 7 comments

All of this talk about madonna.com and string.com seems to me to be just a mad scramble to grab a 'scarce' resource (ie. the .com TLD). The only problem is that the scarcity is completely artificial. Networking expert and lawyer Karl Auerbach has just been elected to ICANN as the US at-large rep on a platform of reducing ICANN's role from it current one as a overreaching international law making body. He says that the DNS system is capable of handling far more than just a few top-level domains like .com, .org, .net, .uk, .au etc. He says it could handle millions.
posted by lagado on Oct 17, 2000 - 5 comments

Proprietary URLs? How many of these non-standard prefixes does your system support?

Just off the top of my head with the programs I have running right now, I can handle nap: aim: hotline: and a few others, not counting all the ones built into my browser.

More inside...
posted by anildash on Sep 15, 2000 - 2 comments

"But officer, I don't even HAVE an Pornograph!" Or, "Why we need some kind of indentification technology when it comes to registering domains."
posted by kristin on Aug 21, 2000 - 9 comments

DaimlerChrysler is taking the Webmaster of DodgeViper.Com to court after he tried selling it on eBay. What gets me is that the owner of the site claims he had to defend himself, because he couldn't afford an attorney, yet he says he owns a Dodge Viper? Just another dispute on who can own what domains, and what they can do with them.
posted by Mark on Aug 3, 2000 - 0 comments

Free domains, it looks like. Register a .cc domain, and get some coupons to register some .com domains. The catch seems to be is that the .cc people are the administrative contact for the first year, which I guess means they "own" it. Should be okay though, as long as you don't do anything naughty.
posted by endquote on Jul 12, 2000 - 1 comment

Not for sale at any price. A UK businessman has just turned down millions for the e-buy.com domain name and trademarks. Not sure I'd be able to resist an offer like that.
posted by Markb on Jun 2, 2000 - 5 comments

Random Hells. I remember some guy was selling Hell.com for about a billion dollars. Whoever bought it did a nice job.
posted by Nyarlathotep on May 30, 2000 - 5 comments

.ca slightly less tightarsed En tout cas, the Canadian domain administration has "streamlined" its application process (like an NSI manqué), but hasn't improved its Victorian-era rules (one domain per entity, hard to get a .ca, etc.). But searches now only show if a domain is or isn't available, not who owns it. Ewww.
posted by joeclark on May 25, 2000 - 2 comments

dot-god domains now available! Don't get too excited yet, though. You can register, if you're lucky, because the server's overloaded. And once you do register, you can't actually use the thing until July. But still, get in now, while the getting's good. Full details are available in the email from the registrar.
posted by endquote on May 24, 2000 - 9 comments

The good guys can win, but it's not cheap. If Clue.com can beat Hasbro, surely Mattl has a case against Mattel. As if we didn't already know that.
posted by luke on May 11, 2000 - 0 comments

Unbelievable news nugget of the day: my friend Matt Lavallee has been slapped with a cease-and-desist order from the Mattel Toy Corporation for his personal domain, mattl.com. I guess no one with a name that sounds like a misspelled company is allowed to buy domains from now on? Something needs to be done, corporations do not own the web.
posted by mathowie on May 8, 2000 - 62 comments

HTML Tags the new porn
posted by dangerman on Apr 18, 2000 - 7 comments