This company is clearly harvesting WHOIS data in violation of their ICANN agreement to send official-looking “expiration notices” to domain owners, many of whom unwittingly send in payment, unaware that the “Domain Registry of Canada” is merely a company attempting the entirely unethical practice of domain slamming.

Since 2001, this company has been soliciting domain transfers under the guise of renewing the registration with the existing registrar. Of course, their prices are ridiculously expensive — $40 per year for a domain name — and that’s part of why I didn’t fall for it, since I operate my own domain registrar and I know the value of domain registration services aren’t that high.

An early example of the domain letters from 2002 is published online.

In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission settled with the sister company “Domain Registry of America” to stop their misleading business practices. The way they decided to comply was by adding a little blurb that blended into the text, one that few people seeing an official-looking letter would read.

They’ve changed it a bit now, to uppercase and bold text, but the premise of their operations is still the same.

The letter comes in an envelope that almost looks like it's from the Government of Canada; my address is redacted

The envelope is misleading. Indeed, the colour and layout of the envelope nearly exactly matches that of an official Canadian government letter, except for the return address in the top-left. And there they’ve neatly placed a maple leaf, knowing that it is associated with the country, and by extension, the government.

Even the NAME is misleading.

The letter has been changed in recent years, but still carries the same layout that I recognize from as early as 2005. The prices are ridiculous; a .net domain isn’t worth $40/year. (I know; I was selling them for $7.99 last month.)

The letter is sure to make inexperienced domain owners panic.

That letter just irritates me. Sentences like “take advantage of our best savings” when you actually pay $30 more, misleading phrases like “You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights”, and worst of all:

“Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customers and friends to locate you on the Web.”

It’s rare for me to be this angry. But it’s a ripoff.

One of the amazing things that the Internet has led to is the ease of publishing to the World Wide Web. No longer do you have to be a large media outlet to get the word out and to publish content.

Blogging has capitalized on this freedom on the Internet, allowing (literally) hundreds of millions of people to create their individual online presences. That’s why there’s so much content that can be accessed, and one of the reasons why Google has billions of pages in its index.

Does it cost you a cent to read a blog?

I think it’s an interesting question. Sure, you (probably) have to pay a monthly fee to get your Internet access, but you’re usually not charged by the blogger to read his or her content. In other words, posts on blogs are valuable content given away for free.

There are many free services like WordPress.com, Blogger, and even my own PersonalLog which let you easily get your site on the Web. That means that a good portion of those “hundreds of millions of people” don’t have to pay anything to get their site on the Web.

Of course, those free services aren’t without costs to operate; they need some sort of return on their investment on the infrastructure to keep the service going. That’s exactly why WordPress.com offers upgrades (eg. CSS customization, domain names, storage upgrades, etc).

In other words, it doesn’t cost you or the blogger to read a blog that is hosted for free by these services.

Then let’s take a look at people who need to pay for shared hosting or those who have dedicated servers to run their blogs. This blog, for instance, depends on paid hosting.

Most of the blogs like Frederick’s Timelog don’t charge the end-users to read or access their content.

Most of us need to support our hosting, too; that’s why we often need advertisers and sponsors to keep the blogs on the Web.

In other words, it doesn’t cost you to read a blog that needs paid hosting, and the cost incurred by offering this FREE content to you is recovered through a third party – the advertiser.

Blogging is an amazing way of getting content on the Web and also a great way for ordinary non-bloggers to read free content. The non-bloggers are getting the content without having to pay the bloggers, even though they’re driving up costs. The bloggers act as an intermediary between the cost-incurring readers (you) and the cost-paying advertisers.

The advertisers aren’t just losing their money for no reason, though; they either promote their image or entice you to take action (ie. sign up or purchase something).

Thus, in this case, free stuff (or what appears to be “free”) is good for all parties.

Does it cost you to listen to a podcast?

Most of the time, podcasts are offered for free. This also means that you, the person on one end of the complex relationship, are getting FREE content.

Surely it costs something to run a podcast. Let’s take a look at two scenarios.

First scenario — the podcaster hosts their content on free services like Blip.tv that provide the bandwidth. Sometimes, such services may inject advertising; at other times, such as with Blip.tv, that’s not the case.

In this case, neither the podcast, nor the listeners, are paying for the content or bandwidth. The free service is, and they usually recover their cost through advertising or through other revenue.

Once again, you are getting free content that doesn’t necessarily cost the podcaster to produce.

Second scenario — the podcast pays for a service like LibSyn to host their media. The podcaster is spending money, and you are still getting free content.

Why? Because the podcaster has often accepted advertising deals to recover the cost of bandwidth (or even to make profits). Still, the advertisers are getting something — new users, subscribers, or customers. Still, the podcasters are gaining something — listeners/subscribers, possibly money. And you are getting something — valuable content.

Do you see why I like free stuff now?

Free content benefits the end-user most

You, as the “end-user” (as we geeks sometimes say), are gaining the most out of this deal. A single cent never leaves your pocket/wallet/bank account/PayPal account/credit card. Free content is exactly what it sounds and seems like to you — free, which means no conditions, no trial periods, simply free content.

Often, the intermediary, which is the blogger or podcaster, will need to have funds exchange hands. From them to the hosting services. To them from the advertisers.

But it’s all hassle free for you.

Now do you understand?

I believe I’ve made my point clear. I like free stuff… and you should, too!