Sedo Blacklisting Campaign Domains

[Ms Domainer]

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I just received the following email from Sedo:

Dear Ms. Domainer,

We are writing to inform you that the domains listed below have been suspended from Sedo\\\\\\\'s services because this domain(s) is a potential violation of Sedo\\\\\\\'s policy against domains that include obscene or illegal subject matter. While Sedo strives to protect our users rights to exercise free speech and maintain a marketplace with a vibrant and diverse collection of domain names, we apologize any inconvenience that this may cause.

------------.org

This is a political/campaign domain, with absolutely no relevance to p0rn or obscene language. In fact, the domain is on a blog with favorable content to the presidential candidate in question.

Meanwhile, the domain in question has an offer, and I keep getting "reminders" to answer the offer.

What the heck?????

:yell:

Meanwhile, Sedo continues to sell TM domains.

Has anyone else encountered this nonsense?

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[johname]

cant really coment on this without seeing the domain.

 

[Ms Domainer]

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Okay.

ObamaPresident.org

It's on a simple blog.

I was going to send the domain to auction and simply switch the URL to another Obama domain that I own, but I have had second thoughts because I don't want to sell the domain to someone who might use it against Obama.

Besides, the blacklisting has made this a moot point.

I swear, in the future, I'm going to avoid political domains altogether.

This blacklisting is scary stuff; it would be interesting to know Sedo's rationale for blacklisting this domain, when they have thousands of clear-cut TM's listed.

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[weblord]

politics might be illegal subject matter for sedo, try other parking companies.

 

[Ms Domainer]

Sedo

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politics might be illegal subject matter for sedo, try other parking companies.

I can't imagine why. Sedo does business in the US, the domain is registered in the US, and political speech is protected in the US.

I don't see the problem with this domain and how I'm using it.

This name has been parked at Sedo since 2/2008, along with four or five other political domains (not blacklisted).

Has anyone else received this notice from Sedo?

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[Ms Domainer]

Email to Sedo

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I have emailed "legal" over at Sedo and posted about this on my blog:

Ms Domainer

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[netmeg]

I would suspect they're more objecting to the name Obama in it than the fact that it's a political domain. Have you searched on Sedo to see if they are listing any other domains with the string "obama" in them?

At any rate, keep us posted and good luck!

 

[johname]

I would suspect they're more objecting to the name Obama in it than the fact that it's a political domain. Have you searched on Sedo to see if they are listing any other domains with the string "obama" in them?

At any rate, keep us posted and good luck!

Totally agree, thats the only thing that could possibly be wrong with this in sedo's mind, not mine lol


but sedo should have wrote her a different letter, not "obscene or illegal subject matter"

 

[netmeg]

True dat.

 

[Seabass]

I disagree.

You are trying to profit off of Obama's name through PPC, so you are infringing on his name.

Public figures like Obama don't have the same rights as say, Madonna does to here name, but you are not allowed to "trade" off the Obama name and profit, and there is nothing else in this world called "Obama", so there is nothing you can do with it other than a fan site that does not profit.

If you did not profit off the name or trade off the name, in relation to Obama, then no problem.

You are in the wrong with this domain with the way you are using it.

Kudos to Sedo for being proactive for a change! That is the first time I have EVER said anything positive about that company.

 

[johname]

if obama wins "ObamaPresident" is a historical statement

my guess is sedo doesnt want to be partner on a situation where somebody buys this name and the puts up an Obama degrading website.

 

[Seabass]

I do believe whether it's a "person, place, or thing, etc." - that's what we as domainers do.

It's safe to say that I indeed am trying to profit off of all of my domain names. Every last one of them. Even www.idiotsforhire.com

Like in Netmeg's sig - I hope all those idiots out there don't kick me off of Sedo for profiting from them!

L2

BTW, there's also some law out there that if a person is a "public figure".... fair game.

I don't get your statement. Person, place or thing is cool as long as it is generic or non-infringing proper name, like idiotsforhire.com is.

The public figure statement I made was alluding to that. You can register the domain, you just can't profit from it. It just means Obama is fair game to use as a fan site, historical site, etc... but not a PPC site or a site that profits.

 

[YourIdealDomain]

Hi. Just yesterday, I got the same email about a similar domain. It is "ObamaCountry.com". I was going to remove it from my Sedo account anyway since it is currently up for auction elsewhere. I sent a reply asking for an explanation, but I haven't received one yet. If I do get a reply, I will post it here.

On Sedo, it seems that there are only 17 domains left with "Obama" in them. Some of the 17 domains that they have allowed to remain on Sedo have hyphens such as " o-b-a-m-a.com" and "o-bama.com".

There are only 6 domains left with the keyword "Mccain" at Sedo and 5 of them have hyphens. The other domain (mccainmartinez2008.com) was obviously bought by a speculator who predicted the wrong running mate and I guess they allowed it to remain at Sedo. "Mccain" is a fairly common last name and it seems that almost every domain with the keyword "Mccain" was banned. So if your name is Joe Mccain and you registered and parked the domain "JoeMccain.com", that would have been blacklisted as well.

It is strange that they would claim that they have "obscene or illegal subject matter" instead of just stating the real reason.

 

[johname]

Hi. Just yesterday, I got the same email about a similar domain. It is "ObamaCountry.com". I was going to remove it from my Sedo account anyway since it is currently up for auction elsewhere. I sent a reply asking for an explanation, but I haven't received one yet. If I do get a reply, I will post it here.

On Sedo, it seems that there are only 17 domains left with "Obama" in them. Some of the 17 domains that they have allowed to remain on Sedo have hyphens such as " o-b-a-m-a.com" and "o-bama.com".

There are only 6 domains left with the keyword "Mccain" at Sedo and 5 of them have hyphens. The other domain (mccainmartinez2008.com) was obviously bought by a speculator who predicted the wrong running mate and I guess they allowed it to remain at Sedo. "Mccain" is a fairly common last name and it seems that almost every domain with the keyword "Mccain" was banned. So if your name is Joe Mccain and you registered and parked the domain "JoeMccain.com", that would have been blacklisted as well.

It is strange that they would claim that they have "obscene or illegal subject matter" instead of just stating the real reason.

Good info YourIdealDomain, thanks

Looks like sedo waited until both canidates where offically nominated before pulling the plug, you cant blame them for being "neutral" on the election, allmost all of these names are worth very little if anything. These names belong on ebay lol

 

[Ms Domainer]

New Sedo Message

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I received a new message from Sedo:

It appears that you have received the wrong message. I apologize for any confusion this may have caused. The message that you should have received reads as follows:

Greetings,

We are writing to inform you that the domains referred to in the previous email have been suspended from Sedo's services because we have made a business decision to remove any and all domains that include the names of presidential candidates or other politicians as we are in an election year. While Sedo strives to protect our users’ rights to exercise free speech and maintain a marketplace with a vibrant and diverse collection of domain names, Sedo does not endorse or disparage any political candidate or party and have therefore made the decision not to allow such domain names. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

Very truly yours,

--
Legal Intern
Sedo.com :: 161 First Street :: Cambridge, MA 02142
fax 617-499-7202
http://www.sedo.com
​

I have removed adsense from the site and will be sure to donate the pitiful pennies I have made from it to the Obama campaign.



At this point, I don't care what Sedo thinks. I'm pulling all my domains. They are two-faced. Just put the word Google into their search box and see what you get.

Sedo is making millions off TM domains. I wonder how much they have made so far from candidate domains?

You're right; I shouldn't have activated the ads.

My bad.

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[Seabass]

I don't think you should pull the ads, and I don't think you've done anything wrong. At all. Period.

"They" sure aren't thinking of you when "they" collect our taxes and charge $5,000 a plate for fundraiser dinners. Why should you worry about a couple of pennies that aren't rightfully his either? If it was such a crime to have Obama in a domain name - I sure don't see Google pulling their fees on what they're charging people to advertise, and I don't see Google worrying about the pennies they may pay the publisher, while they keep the lion's share.... And I don't see the registrar worrying about it either. They all got paid, why shouldn't you?

Why would you pull the ads when you took the risk on the domain name and spent your hard earned money? Nobody was going to bail you out if he didn't get nominated now would they?

I think was you did was forward thinking and positive.

L2

These are big companies that do this. They take unethical, calculate risks, which means they have a unpublished formula that goes like this:

Dollar amount made from breaking the law = $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Dollar amount for court settlement = $$$$$$$$$$$

We make = $$$$

Now, on the other hand we don't normally make millions/billions and can dish big lawyer fees to get tied up in court for months and burn each other's bank accounts to see who can run who dry first, or who can make who sweat first.

Just my opinion.

 

[Ms Domainer]

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I don't think you should pull the ads, and I don't think you've done anything wrong. At all. Period.

"They" sure aren't thinking of you when "they" collect our taxes and charge $5,000 a plate for fundraiser dinners. Why should you worry about a couple of pennies that aren't rightfully his either? If it was such a crime to have Obama in a domain name - I sure don't see Google pulling their fees on what they're charging people to advertise, and I don't see Google worrying about the pennies they may pay the publisher, while they keep the lion's share.... And I don't see the registrar worrying about it either. They all got paid, why shouldn't you?

Why would you pull the ads when you took the risk on the domain name and spent your hard earned money? Nobody was going to bail you out if he didn't get nominated now would they?

I think was you did was forward thinking and positive.

L2

Thanks, 2ride55, but that cost analysis wasn't working in my favor, anyway.

I had an offer on it (low)--that's when it was blacklisted.

Pissed me off, so I have pulled all my domains from Sedo and changed their nameservers; I made all of $2.00 last month. I agree with Rick Latona--I hate domain parking.

Maybe this will give me the kick in the pants to develop more content for that site--do my part for Obama.

:hearts:

BTW, I also have BarackHome.com; they never caught that one; I guess it didn't fall within their keywords. I actually feel a little queasy about that one because it could be really misleading. It's redirected to ObamaPresident.org, though, so I should be okay.

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[whannel]

haven't heard from them yet on spinobama.com tho it's listed there as spin-o-bama.com but the description mentions the sale covers both

 

[VisualArtistFrankBonilla]

Hillary

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I just received the following email from Sedo:

Dear Ms. Domainer,

We are writing to inform you that the domains listed below have been suspended from Sedo\\\\\\\'s services because this domain(s) is a potential violation of Sedo\\\\\\\'s policy against domains that include obscene or illegal subject matter. While Sedo strives to protect our users rights to exercise free speech and maintain a marketplace with a vibrant and diverse collection of domain names, we apologize any inconvenience that this may cause.

------------.org

This is a political/campaign domain, with absolutely no relevance to p0rn or obscene language. In fact, the domain is on a blog with favorable content to the presidential candidate in question.

Meanwhile, the domain in question has an offer, and I keep getting "reminders" to answer the offer.

What the heck?????

:yell:

Meanwhile, Sedo continues to sell TM domains.

Has anyone else encountered this nonsense?

*

I received the same letter a year or so ago. It had to do with a domain related to Hillary. I just decided it was no big deal, it wasn't as if I was going to get rich on this name. It was another impulse registration, where I jumping on the bandwagon. Maybe Sedo wants to politically correct?

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Thanks, 2ride55, but that cost analysis wasn't working in my favor, anyway.

I had an offer on it (low)--that's when it was blacklisted.

Pissed me off, so I have pulled all my domains from Sedo and changed their nameservers; I made all of $2.00 last month. I agree with Rick Latona--I hate domain parking.

Maybe this will give me the kick in the pants to develop more content for that site--do my part for Obama.

:hearts:

BTW, I also have BarackHome.com; they never caught that one; I guess it didn't fall within their keywords. I actually feel a little queasy about that one because it could be really misleading. It's redirected to ObamaPresident.org, though, so I should be okay.

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I gave up on dreaming I am going to get from parking domains. The question for me is: I am listing my names at Sedo to sell them, or make money from parking? I list them to sell, and consider whatever I make from parking is just a little extra.

Frank

 

[stingrae]

Day after day

I get another reason to dislike Sedo. It is "two-faced" as one of you describes, IMO.

Not to mention all of my high paying click through keywords keep getting miraculously changed to pennies per click on my traffic names so I get this generic parking page.

Sedo = good for selling, sucks for parking.