Coronavirus.es confiscated temporarily by Spanish Government.

Alright alright. Get ready for a chuckle. As I hinted before in other threads. Government's might confiscate domains using country code extensions.

In this case it was .es .

Not going to complain as they said they would give back the domain after this crisis is over (supposedly).

I should have grabbed that $10k offer.

But after I blew off that offer because they tried to scare me that Spanish Gov would take it. I cut all communications. I don't like scare tactics just to get my domain.

I suspect buyer took revenge and notified Spanish Gov and they took action. Or maybe not and Spanish Gov did so anyways.

Marcaria said this domain would be "returned".

What are my rights in regards to this? I guess they can legally do this?

I mean after coronavirus is "over" what point is it to own coronavirus.es?

Also FYI as part of this also COVID19.es and covid-19.es was confiscated "temporarily".

Currently the domain resolves to no where but I'm sure soon it will.

Is this all legal? Will I lose this domain completely?

The wording from Marcaria is that it will be eventually returned after this crisis is over.

Pretty slick. Spanish Gov. I had planned on developing this domain to monetize now nothing.

Wonder what other. Countries will do this?

Are my rights being violated here by a Government? I suspect no but just curious.

 

Perhaps it will be a passive cash cow if/when they return it?!?

 

Most likely, Spain sees this domain name as being important given the current situation and doesn't want it to fall in the hands of people who may push disinformation.

It could even be canceled (but likely won't). Rules from here:

An ".es" domain can be cancelled either by the Registry or at the request of a party in the following cases:

a) When the names of the “.es” domain are requested by individuals or organisations with no legal personality that have no interests or maintain no links with Spain.​

 

doubt it. I'm a perpetual pessimist. I'll just consider it a loss unless otherwise.

 

yea well it's always been blank.

I mean when will this coronavirus pandemic end? The whole point was to sell it or monetize. now I can't do either. who will buy it once the coronavirus pandemic blows over.

 

Governments can change legislation/laws at the flick of a switch in times of national/international emergency.

They are not messing around with this one. Misinformation, profiteering and public relations are very real concerns and they will take steps to guard against these and other areas...

 

that's fine because I have not being providing Misinformation or profiteering or public relations.

That's just an excuse really. They needed it and they rather take it than pay what it's worth.

 

$10K was a good offer for a hand reg that would help educate people, you should not have been so closed off.

 

corona/./es is available.

 

Not you, but anyone who owns these types of names could be a government target because of their potential for misuse if developed.......

 

yea it was. I was actually close to accepting it. Just needed to "sleep on it". but the more this guy kept saying to the effect "the Spanish is about to declare State of Alarm and will take your domain by force so you better grab this offer now". I mean in hindsight yea should have taken it but how does one even confirm that the Spanish Gov would have taken it? No way really. When has this ever happen in domain history?

not that track such things. did it ever happen?

based on lack of knowledge I figured this guy was just trying to scare me to sell a domain that it's keyword "coronavirus" in quotes has 5,480,000,000 results on Google.

and intitle:"coronavirus" has 619,000,000 results.

How many domains do you know has that many results?

I mean for comparison the most popular term since the birth of the internet is SEX.


intitle:"sex" 581,000,000 results

"sex" in quotes 4,260,000,000 results

Sex as a keyword has been around since the time of Jesus. Coronavirus fairly new yet it overtook Sex in search results.

That's significant.

 

that's odd. Go for it!!

here's the screenshot that was sent to me by Marcaria

Anyone spanish care to translate? I can't because it's a PNG file so can't copy and paste the words.

also the person who offered me $10,000 I will say had to have found me via Namepros because the whois data for .es domain is impossible to get. They went from $2000 to $5,000 and finally $10,000.

Originally I had offered a partnership where they can use the domain and they provide the content but I host the website and ad profits would go to me. This was discussed after the $5,000 offer.

After which I guess they just simply wanted the domain to keep all ad profits or what I suspect is to resell to the Spanish Gov for a huge payday.

Maybe they had some way of preventing the Spanish Gov from confiscating it better than me?

And Namepros was the only place I ever mentioned my Coronavirus domains.

So that person is a domain and probably reading this right now.

Why hide in the shadows buddy? Out of spite because I blocked your emails after you repeatedly tried to scare me. Probably gave the Spanish Gov a heads up about Coronavirus.es. or maybe not but for sure that person found me as the owner of Coronavirus.es here.

 

got it. I've sold domains like that ones you are talking about to companies that did not want the domains "out there" to trick people while using domains containing their mark. But their mark is so generic they can't really prevent people from registering them.

I've learned a lot from domaining about branding.

Next time I brand my company I will make sure it's totally brandable and not a generic keyword that people can register and be allowed to keep and nothing I can do about it.

I guess this is where ultra unique domains come in. It helps because then you really don't need to have to pay to trademark in different goods and services.

 

My whois shows it's been taken since '05. Would be very unlikely it's available.

 

hmm it begs the question what whois do you use to actually get any whois data for .es domains? ones I use show error or nothing at all.

 

Yeah, namecheap is bad about that. They show things available and they are not. I didn't try adding to cart. That's when it really checks I think.

 

My own whois server but verified it in case my code messed up:

 

.es doesn't have a whois server, you need to check the domain at https://www.nic.es/

 

On subject

I know it sucks that you missed a payday but I get them. No time in situations like this to negotiate. Anything seized by governments is fair game.

These type of names could be saving people's lives. Look on the bright side, you're attributing to saving lives!

Stay safe people!

 

That $10K in this market, and if things could get worse could buy what probably $25K bought 3 months ago.

That is going to be a tough opportunity cost to bite, I doubt they return it after, you know how hard it is to get a hold of people at that hierarchy later. Interesting enough the legal process totally bypassed, very strange.

 

Basically, they say Spain has declared a state of emergency - by Royal Decree - and needed to seize those three domains. They did so in order to protect the health and safety of citizens. The domains should be returned once the state of emergency ends.

As a domainer, I do understand your frustration. You didn't use the domain for anything inappropriate, obviously. But, once sold, you would have had no control over it.

 

I don't mind them taking it since they said they will return it. That's fine and good. But currently I'm a full time domainer.

From this point on the economy will suck.

God only knows when it will pick up again. In uncertain times like this having an exact match domain is or was a comfort income wise. People have labeled me as "all about money".

But people who say such things speak from a vantage point of wealth or "well to do" or of comfort and stability.

To take this domain at a crucial point where it has its highest potential for a high ticket sale is just wrong.

I mean we're talking about a government taking these and not a corporation with a budget. Government that justifies spending billions on Fighter jets jets or bailing out rich Banks.

So instead of making an offer they choose to take?

I'm not gonna argue as they might just take it totally and never return it. Glad it is being put to good use. Still could have been put to good use of they bought it.

 

Like I said, no time to worry about the legal side or complications of the decisions made when lives are at stake. They've got citizens to protect.

I feel you though, Corona is definitely messing with my cash flow so profiting from a related domain sale would set the score.

Once (if ever) they return that domain it will hold some value based on the backlinks I suppose. It's not the best outcome, but also not the worst, long term.

 

No doubt. I think they took it because they could rather than pay. We're talking about a government not a budget conscious corp.

I hope I don't start hearing "you should just let the poor Spain Government have it out of the kindness of your heart because they don't have to money to pay your six figure price.

Countries can afford to buy $100 billion dollar jets just for the hell of it.

But would rather take a domain from a domainer who is going to experience like everyone else economic hardship.

I mean if it asked by a charity or info site then I'd probably would have donated it to be used temporarily.

But to not be asked first? Not to give me an opportunity to rise to the occasion and just give it over?

This is why I suspect now that that $10,000 offer was from the Gov rep.

They figured "this guy just wants alot of money."

I wonder. If it can be proven that the Spain Gov had a rep contact me to negotiate for the domain but I asked for too much or I just blocked them but they needed these domains immediately so they just took it.

It's like when an inbound comes in and negotiations fail and the inbound decides to use UDRP.

isn't that like a form of reverse hijacking?