Borrowing Unused Domains For Free - Any Legal Issue?

[dekree81]

Hi, I have many unused domains (refer to www.namesnamer.com) and thus I think I want to borrow them for FREE to bloggers. Is there any legal issue regarding this?

My idea was to borrow them for free for bloggers and I have the right to take it back any time (just by deleting/replacing CNAME) when I want to use it or sale/lease it to other people.

Can someone help me to foresee any bad complication especially in legal point of view?

Thanks.

 

[tricolorro]

Hi, I have many unused domains (refer to www.namesnamer.com) and thus I think I want to borrow them for FREE to bloggers. Is there any legal issue regarding this?

My idea was to borrow them for free for bloggers and I have the right to take it back any time (just by deleting/replacing CNAME) when I want to use it or sale/lease it to other people.

Can someone help me to foresee any bad complication especially in legal point of view?

Thanks.

:hi:

I am going to assume English is not your primary language.

I think you want to "loan" your unused domains. Not borrow.

Hope this helps.
Patrick

 

[Dave_Z]

My idea was to borrow them for free for bloggers and I have the right to take it back any time (just by deleting/replacing CNAME) when I want to use it or sale/lease it to other people.

Whatever you do, get it in writing. And be sure to capture their info (e.g. time
and date, IP address, username, checkbox beside "I've read the terms and do
agree to them", etc.)

The tricky part is working out the devil in the details.

 

[dekree81]

:hi:

I am going to assume English is not your primary language.

I think you want to "loan" your unused domains. Not borrow.

Hope this helps.
Patrick

What is the different between "loan" and "borrow"? I want to borrow for free, not loan for free.

Sorry if I don't understand. Please explain.

Whatever you do, get it in writing. And be sure to capture their info (e.g. time
and date, IP address, username, checkbox beside "I've read the terms and do
agree to them", etc.)

The tricky part is working out the devil in the details.

Thanks for your answer. Maybe I can start doing this with my personal friends.

I hope this idea works: bloggers use my unused domains for free & my domains earn appreciations through Overture (keyword activity).

 

[MikeBigg]

If your friend has a bicycle you would like to use, you would borrow it from him. He would lend it to you.

So in the case of your domains you would lend them to others.

Quite honestly, I understood what you were talking about, so pulling you up on your English is a bit harsh.

Take care,

Mike

 

[dekree81]

If your friend has a bicycle you would like to use, you would borrow it from him. He would lend it to you.

So in the case of your domains you would lend them to others.

Quite honestly, I understood what you were talking about, so pulling you up on your English is a bit harsh.

Take care,

Mike

Thanks MikeBigg! Take care.

 

[Peter]

You will need to draw up a contract between yourself and the person who will be using the domain. This will state what they can and can't do with the domain whilst they are using it.

However doing this will also make you agree to some terms as well. For example you say you want to be able to pull it at any time. This will not be too pleasing for the blogger who spent 3 months publicizing his blog only to have you pull it with no notice.

Usually such deals may have a clause that it can be pulled if they break any of your agreements but otherwise they can use it for x amount of time (or even indefinitely). They can as well (but depending on the agreement) have the right to buy the domain from you at an agreed price.

Remember as the domain owner you are responsible for what is contained on that website. If say a wipo was brought on you because of the content you would be held responsible and I doubt they would accept the excuse that the domain was rented out. If a contract had been drawn up you could chase them up for the loss of your domain (providing what they did went against the agreement) but all in all you would still lose the domain.

 

[tricolorro]

If your friend has a bicycle you would like to use, you would borrow it from him. He would lend it to you.

So in the case of your domains you would lend them to others.

Quite honestly, I understood what you were talking about, so pulling you up on your English is a bit harsh.

Take care,

Mike

Mike,

If your comment of harshness was directed to me I must say you are the one being harsh.

I have a lot of admiration for anyone trying to "operate" in a language not native to them.

I read the post and it seemed to me he meant "loan" NOT "borrow" but I wasn't 100% sure..

I offered my comment to be helpful to him and so he would learn.

It is also of no help to him if you do not make a friendly, gentle correction.

Gentle- NOT harsh.

How did you misconstrue it as a criticism.

Patrick

 

[tricolorro]

What is the different between "loan" and "borrow"? I want to borrow for free, not loan for free.

Sorry if I don't understand. Please explain.

:hi: dekree81

Loan: to allow the temporary use of something you own and that you expect to be returned

Borrow: to take possession of something with the promise to return it

If you own a domain:

I would borrow it.

You would loan (lend) it.

I hope you did not think I was criticizing or making fun of your English.

I was not.

Sometimes when you are busy and trying to do things quickly , comments
could come across as being abrupt.

Over a 6 year period I spent the equivalent of 2 years in Thailand.

I had learned the written language and spoke it as much as possible
so I could learn. Of course, I could not always speak properly as the native Thais could but always appreciated it when my errors were pointed out.

I always asked my Thai friends to correct me.

If no one helps to correct you then you cannot progress in the language.

I have seen people on many forums criticizing someone's poor use of English.

I object to those people's lack of sensitivity.

I think it takes guts to operate in a language not your own and I applaud
you for it.

Patrick

 

[Michael]

Honestly I'm not sure someone would be willing to do all the work building content and making your domain more valuable through increased traffic if you are just going to snatch it back once it gets hot.

It may work with extended contracts, but unless your domains are amazing they'd be better off just getting their own.

But in terms of legal ramifications, just make sure you have a contract stating the terms very clearly and you won't have any trouble as long as you keep your end of the deal.

 

[bocanames]

Disagree - I think there's plenty of room for trouble. Suppose for the sake of argument the "borrower" decides to use the domain as a spam clearinghouse. Suppose they use it in a highly offensive way to house content from hate groups or political radicals. Suppose it's used in some other way to break the law, like as a warez site? You may think your contract limits your liability, maybe it will. I'm just saying...

 

[dekree81]

Hi guys, thanks for all your replies.

tricolorro - you are forgiven. You had given a good and reasonable explanation.

Anymore comment on this?

 

[Dave_Z]

Disagree - I think there's plenty of room for trouble. Suppose for the sake of argument the "borrower" decides to use the domain as a spam clearinghouse. Suppose they use it in a highly offensive way to house content from hate groups or political radicals. Suppose it's used in some other way to break the law, like as a warez site? You may think your contract limits your liability, maybe it will. I'm just saying...

That's why I said the tricky part is working out the devil in the details, namely
the potential terms in the potential contract. The technical thingies are really
easy, it's the legal issues that's really tough.

Good luck to the OP trying to figure those out.

 

[dekree81]

Preparing the legal agreement for this purpose is not an easy task. Any example - such as from domain-leasing agreement letter?

But I think that domain-leasing & free-domain-loaning are two non-identical twins. Two differences set them apart: flexible loan period; and (free) loaned domain is free, while leased domain is not free. Thus some minor tweaks in domain-leasing agreement letter can do to write a domain-loaning agreement letter.

Again, appreciate if someone could share example(s) of domain-leasing agreement letter.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[kayley]

Why in the world would any one borrow/loan your domain names to write their blogs, just so that you can profit on them, when all they have to do is register a domain for ca.9$ and do what ever they want with the domain? No hassel of having you in the picture or the paper work. Unless of course you have a premium domain, which I doubt.

If you are already profiting on these domains you would not have come up with this ''genial'' idea. It seems to me that people try all sorts of tricks to make money and the internet has opened doors to the very sickest of ideas of making money specially when it comes to domains. The thousands of domains in the lists of domains for rent are not worth the trouble of setting up a website, the ones that are good are usually priced very high.

Whatever you do, stick to good ethics and the law. Usually the harder the paper work the further is the project from normal accepted norms and the law.

 

[IMguru]

I am wondering that who will do this and will work on your unused domain. Is there any benefit to has a deal like this? There are many confusions.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

Yes you could do it, but why for free? If you just want to develop traffic and links to your name, they they would fall off when you took it back. The blogger has the risk of losing valuable address without much warning. You risk the name being used for porn, spam, phishing, or something else that could blacklist it. In addition, they user could copyright a non-generic name based on first use, making it useless to you in the future.

If it truly has keyword value, I would do one of the following:

1. Rent them the name parked or redirected on their address. They pay for keyword/traffic incoming value, you get real income based on value provided.

2. Rent or lease the domain for full use long term with a strong contract on who can do what as far as actual use, TM, content, renewal cost, etc.

3. Become a true partner in the blog where they are the editor and you are the technical or marketing partner.

4. Sell them the name instead of leasing.

5. Use the name yourself as a directory and charge them for banners, listings, or links from the directory.

 

[dekree81]

Thanks everyone.