Boobtube.com Shenanigan: Domain Name Exchanges Open to Market Manipulation?

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Boobtube.com Shenanigan: Domain Name Exchanges Open to Market Manipulation?

By CircleID Reporter
June 08, 2007 Views: 18,724 Add Comment

VentureBeat is running a story by Mark Coker, going over the recent boobtube.com auction and its eventual cancellation due to misrepresentation of ownership. Mark writes: “Sedo, the world’s largest domain name auctioneer, sold a popular URL, Boobtube.com, for $41,688 last week, but then turned around and canceled the sale because the seller didn’t really own it.” The author, who was also one of the boobtube.com auction bidders, questions the maturity and trustworthiness of the domain name exchanges, which are currently handling several hundred million dollars of trades. From the article:

If Sedo serves as any example, the domain exchanges have a long way to go…

Imagine you’re at an art dealer, negotiating a price for a painting and at the last minute, the dealer ends the negotiation by saying, “sorry, I think I’ll auction this at Sotheby’s instead.”

If these shenanigans were taking place on the Nasdaq or NYSE, you can bet the exchanges and the Securities Exchange Commission would want to hang the perpetrator from the nearest lamp post.

Read the whole story over at VentureBeat website.

By CircleID Reporter

CircleID’s internal staff reporting on news tips and developing stories. Do you have information the professional Internet community should be aware of? Contact us.

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