An enterprising Internet domain registry named Vox Populi -- NOT AFFILIATED WITH OUR PARENT COMPANY VOX MEDIA FWIW -- will begin offering access to “.sucks” domains in June. For example: Company.sucks, Business.sucks, PresidentialCandidate.sucks, SportsTeam.sucks, etc. Knowing that sports fans are hateful and mean, sports teams are rushing to buy them. The Blackhawks have reportedly purchased “ChicagoBlackhawks.sucks,” according to Crain’s Chicago Business:
Somebody is selling ‘.sucks’ domains, so sports teams are scrambling to buy them
RUN! MAKE SURE NOBODY SAYS YOU SUCK ON THE INTERNET!
Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports
So far, Chicago entities including McDonald’s, Edelman and the Chicago Blackhawks have ponied up the $2,500 (which must be paid annually) to claim their .sucks sites and deny someone else the opportunity to exploit them.
It’s a pretty cynical cashgrab: In September, the domains will go on sale for just $10 a month. But Vox Populi has set aside certain trademarks -- like the Blackhawks -- and told businesses that if they want to prevent them from ever going on sale to the general public, they have to pay $2,500 up front.
“We can call it a scam, a form of extortion or predatory pricing, but these guys are cloaking themselves in the First Amendment and saying that consumers deserve a place to air their grievances against companies,” [Congressman Jerry Nadler] says.
Honestly, we don’t really think teams should go crazy snatching these up. Annoying fans can already make “chicagoblackhawkssuck.com” or things like that, and if you buy “ChicagoBlackhawks.suck,” someone can just buy “Blackhawks.suck” or “TheBlackhawks.suck” or “BlackhawksReally.suck” or a million other things.
At some point, the cost of letting a company extort you outweighs the value of preventing angry fans from being angry fans on the Internet. No rational fan is going to actually look down on a team because someone bought “ChicagoBlackhawks.suck.”
They will view it as a person dumb enough to spend $250 a year to host a website with the intellectual value of a drunk dude yelling at a sports game.
That said, the Nets should’ve done this with Nets.com.
See More:
