Why do they charge for domains?

[Jedi Penguin]

I don't get it, how can they do that? The internet isn't owned by anyone, even the government!

So who died and gave them the right to sell internet domains? I can see those who maintain the internet charging, like ISP's etc, but these guys aren't maintaining the internet. Why can they sell domain names? Why aren't they all free?

Also, if the internet isn't owned by anyone, how come it costs money to own your own site(like FP does)?

The only thing I can think of is copyright for the domain name. Maybe you get a copyright that comes with it. Otherwise it seems unfair(especially to me who would desperately like to get more users on my forum but fear I may need a TLD, which either cost money in some tricky way or other or require 25 users pay day or something.)

 

[iron hide]

Believe me if all domains were free, then you won't be able to find any good domain name. Everyone will have 1000 domains, just sitting there doing nothing.
Now that people have to pay, only that people buy it that are serious and want to make good use of them. If it was free, everyone would register 100s per day and you will be left with no quality domains. Everything happens for a reason! 😉

 

[Tecca]

If there is a limited resource, expect to pay for it. Gas isn't owned by any one person, but many people profit from it.

As for hosting a website, servers and things like that cost money, which is why it isn't free a lot of the time.

It's also about what people are willing to buy.

 

[Zuinag]

Tecca nailed it. If something is limited, expect to pay for.

 

[Gimgak]

If you knew how domains worked you wouldn't ask this. Running a TLD costs money.

 

[Jedi Penguin]

When you buy one though, it it automatically copyrighted?

I mean, if someone bought,

[email protected]

would that automatically stop all others from making a forum called

[email protected]

?

Yeah, I kinda figured online space costs money.

I'm just wondering how certain people got the rights to these domains.


I mean, to be a domain seller or host.

Also, is my forum hard to register often, or just every once in a while?

This is getting annoying having a few people saying they're unable to register.

That might be what's keeping me from getting a lot of traffic.

 

[Mik.]

You've got a point. But, if they were free you've got a .05% chance of getting a domain.

 

[Jake]

BTW,
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
Does in-fact run that area of the internet. They run the domains, and TLDs, and 3rd Party Domains. It all runs through ICANN somewhere.

More info:http://www.icann.org/