An old friend sent me an email from Seattle last week. Things have changed in the 18 years since I last talked to Jothan Frakes. For starters, he's now an industry expert in the domain name industry, which didn't even exist the last time we talked.

What brought about the email was a conversation I had earlier with Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN, an organisation that includes in its tasks the managing of domain names and IP addresses .

I won't go into all the details of the conversation, partly because the details are in dispute, but the general gist of what I wrote is that domainers are going to be an issue in the Middle East. Twomey has since said he said nothing negative about domainers. Well, we're going to have to agree to disagree there, although Paul's words were not as critical nor as directed as some websites portrayed them.

What really seemed to confuse the issue is my description of domainers, who despite what the industry will tell you, do not have the best reputation as a whole. I have received emails saying that I had blackened the names of a solid and wholesome industry. Please, who are you trying to fool?

Domainers in general buy domain names, such as buy.com or hotel.com. Often, they buy them in mass on the basis that domain names they purchase have value. That per se isn't bad, but sometimes the real value comes from waiting around for the guy who wants the domain more.

One of the silliest legal cases from the last ‘90s involves the domain name panavision. Panavision is a brand of movie camera equipment which is trademark protected, but some some smart guy registered the domain name Panavision, claiming he wanted to build a website showing Pana, Illinois.
When Panavision came calling, the defendant happily agreed to sell the domain for $13,000. When Panavision refused to pay, the defendant then registered Panaflex.com, another trademark held by Panavision. The court ruled the defendant had violated the trademark and awarded Panavision both domain names.

Despite what some of the emails I received said, this type of activity is not unusual. Unscrupulous domainers often cause chaos, confusion and a lot of lawsuits.

Now, this doesn't mean there aren't good guys in the domain name business. Unfortunately, according to my friend Jothan, the more dramatic bad actors often drag their legitimate compatriots into the gutter with them, much to their frustration and ire. I speak from experience.

What's really unfortunate is the good domainers actually provide a service to web surfers, which allows the domainers to make money, legitimately.

Good domainers register names like www.homeroofingrepairs.com. I intentionally picked a domain that doesn't work, but the idea is that a legitimate domainer would develop the site so that anyone who types that domain directly into their browsers would find links to sites dealing with home roofing repairs. There's also likely going to be an advertisement on this page that deal with roofing repair. The domain owners get some cash for the traffic the site generates, too.

How do you tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys?

That's difficult, because there seems to be some grey areas. However, Jothan pointed out a group who is trying to develop a sort of a better business bureau for domainers. Here's their code of conduct: http://www.internet commerce.org/member_code_of_conduct.

Unfortunately, heavy penalties for breaking the code are non-existent, but this at least provides some way to separate the good from the bad.

Why should you care? Because the one thing Paul Twomey was very specific about during our conversation was that domainers would be coming to this area of the world. That means the good and the bad. You might as well get ready for it now.