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You can buy domain names with competitors names in them. People do this all the time. If you don't want people doing that you need to register the names yourself.


No, no you can't. I don't know where this misconception comes from.

Trademarks are trademarks, regardless of technology. I can't open a store called McDonald's that isn't a McDonald's but I sell cheeseburgers. Simply... moving this online doesn't magically make laws disappear.

Tech people have a strange misconception that tech overrides laws. No, it doesn't. Calling it "disruption" doesn't count, either.

If bought googlesearch.org but it's my own search engine that's illegal. You can't do that. Even if I did g00glesearch.org that's still illegal.

Even if I don't use the Google name, but I use something similar, maybe with a similar font, that's still illegal. Because, obviously, the intent is to deceive consumers. You can't do that. You can't pretend to be a brand you're not.


So someone who has written something and made it available for the common good, and makes no money from it, should now go and buy every possible domain that people might use in a deceptive manner.

This is a great example of what drives people away from providing anything for free.


Yes, all the ones actually worth owning are only a few dollars if you have a unique project name, you don't need "every possible domain" you just need one that looks legit.

Unfortunately this is the world we live in where if you don't then someone else will and they'll abuse it so you have to act defensively.

Either you put the time into the project and care about it in which case you should spend the few dollars a year defending it from drama like this, or you don't care even a few dollars worth about the project in which case just let whatever happens happen because you don't care, a .org is the price of a few coffees.

Only a few parts of the world you can leave a bike unlocked on the street, and the internet contains the whole world.


there are to many top level domains that look legitimate:

    https://putty.app
    https://putty.at
    https://putty.click
    https://putty.cloud
    https://putty.codes
    https://putty.co.uk
    https://putty.com
    https://putty.computer
    https://putty.dev
    https://putty.digital
    https://putty.domains
    https://putty.engineer
    https://putty.host
    https://putty.hosting
    https://putty.info
    https://putty.io
    https://putty.media
    https://putty.net
    https://putty.network
    https://putty.online
    https://putty.org
    https://putty.software
    https://putty.solutions
    https://putty.tech
    https://putty.technology
    https://putty.website
i could not tell which one of these should be more legitimate than any other. registering even just a few of those is going to add up to a sizable yearly bill.


> https://putty.com, https://putty.org, https://putty.app

These three are the only legit looking one in that list, it's absurd to pretend things like https://putty.solutions, https://putty.at, https://putty.click, https://putty.codes, etc are even in the running when they actively look like scams.

You only need one legit looking domain because if it's legit and a domain it will be top of the search anyway.


It's a namespace problem. You can't just ban people from registering anything that might be confusing like that. If we followed your idea the internet wouldn't work.

EDIT: They're not deceiving users though? The first section on the index page links directly to the real putty site. They're very clear about all of it.

EDIT2: Nope. We really don't want DNS "moderators." All of us have seen what happens with forum moderators. Like I said if that were done the internet would not work. It's not about the cost it's about being unable to clearly define what should be banned.

If you want to see a great example of how moderation like that both stops legitimate use and fails to stop malware go look at smartphone app stores. The result is borderline unusable garbage.


You absolutely could, though.

Deceiving users? Warning, temporary ban, permanent ban!

Selling mushy stuff for plumbers and kids? No problem!

It takes a simple reporting system, couple moderators costing peanuts compared to what we pay for the names and a clear set of rules forbidding intentionally misleading users.


That's a good way to lose your domain name




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