According to the registrant of Coronavirus.es the Spanish government has confiscated the name. They did say it would be returned when the crisis was over.
@WhoaDomain.com said he turned down a $10,000 offer on the name.
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.
.com or bust!!!!
The US government may well have the power to requisition coronavirus.com also.
Think it is unlikely but anything is possible. Agree with your sentiment though, it kind of does suggest the namespace is unstable but if it helps to get public health messages across then I’d say it is worth it.
Pretty sure the Spanish government would be able requisition assets based in Spain at a time like this. The $10k offer was probably from the government or their agents. If you owned a large building suitable for a hospital or a factory suitable to make masks in Spain they could likely take control of that also.
I would say the owner has some moral issues to think about in terms of complaining about the government taking control of it.
In Portugal at this moment the government has power to take control of companies that in same way can help in the coronavirus fight. It’s a special moment and all the official state institutos gave this power to the government. It’s temporary and after the coronavirus crisis the state can’t anymore continue to control privates companies( I’m totally convinced that in Spain similar decisions were token to give extra powers to the government, and so in a parallel view, the state can control your domain during this crisis.
My principal question is if you can obtain some money from state as result of the use of your domain. You can try.
Ha! It meant if you bought a land that has a particular mineral resources; you know the land is automatically belong to the government.
Perhaps if it is .com, I doubt if they can take it over as such.
I had been watching what the owner was doing with covid19.com. Before it went private whois showed a guy out of Greece. I feel like I recognized the name too so from other whois searches over the years.
First it went to an esty.com sales page, week later to sedo parked page, week later regular parked page, week later to a “germproof.com” affiliate link, now (drum-roll please) The World Health Organization’s page for the outbreak.
My guess is the owner’s guilty conscious didn’t point it there..
covid-19.com still goes to Chinese page tracking the virus.
Of course I meant efty.com sales page. Other than that, no more to add 😉
Since the NameServers are still at DynaDot, then that would suggest that his domain was not confiscated/taken:
Name Server: NS1.DYNADOT.COM
Name Server: NS2.DYNADOT.COM
So he really is pointing it to http://www.who.int.
This is ridiculous… The government confiscates it in a hurry, and then they don’t even do a minimum redirect to the http://www.who.int site until it get’s developed.
How can this be explained?