Profiting From A Child’s Death
A Domainer Goes Too Far

Domaining is the business of buying, selling, developing and monetizing Internet domain names not for primary use as a website, but with the goal of profit generation with the intent of resale, like real estate. The noun form is domainer. A domainer is a person who engages in domaining. A person engaging in “domaining” is alternatively referred to as a “domaineer” and the activity is labelled “domaineering”.

There are ethical ways of domaining that I think I great like buying generic domains, expired domains, or popular general topic domains like “SwineFlu.com”.

Then there is a nasty immoral way of domaining. A perfect example of this nasty technique is what I found today when I was researching the death of Mike Tyson’s 4 year old daughter (Exodus Tyson).

Being a semi-domainer and savvy internet user myself I was curious and went straight to the TLD about Exodus Tyson, ExodusTyson-DotCom (I refuse to give this John Gall guy a back link). I understand why John Gall purchased the domain name, I understand the reason behind it, but I do not agree with it in this case.

Being a father of 5 daughters all under the aged of 9 years old, I am a little sensitive on the subject of profiting from a child’s death. When I went to the domain in question (ExodusTyson-DotCom) I expected to see a memorial type of site up or a typical “Ad Free” support the Tyson family site or something of that nature.

What did I see? A domainer’s (John Gall) attempt at a $2.00 profit, a single splash page with a picture of Mike Tyson, A heading that said Exodus Tyson – Daughter of Mike Tyson, a paragraph most likely copied from news stories about the tragic accident, and a weak ass disclaimer that said “This website is not associated with Mike Tyson, Exodus Tyson or the treadmill industry”.

When does buying/registering a domain name for a couple of dollar profit go too far? I will admit I have registered some domains that were other people’s names before, but these people were alive, older, and simply were not a small child, a little girl who tragically lost a battled to keep her life after an accident.

The domain ExodusTyson-DotCom was registered by a guy named John Gall, the registration info is below and contains his cell phone number. I actually tried to contact him for a statement without a response. John Gall owns about 400 other domain names and is obviously a “Domainer”.

Registration Information ExodusTyson-DotCom:

John Gall
12502 194th Lane NW
Elk River, Minnesota 55330
United States
Phone: (651) 335-4385
Email: galljc@sherbtel.net
Created on: 26-May-09
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.HOUSTON-TOYOTADEALER.COM
NS2.HOUSTON-TOYOTADEALER.COM
Registrar: WILD WEST DOMAINS, INC. (AKA Godaddy.com)
Source: http://whois.domaintools.com/exodustyson.com

Let me get something straight right now. I am not against domainers or domaining at all, I simply think that profiting from or trying to profit from a SMALL CHILD’S DEATH is wrong. I think that this “domainer” John Gall of Minnesota went too far. I do not know how to express my true feelings about this other than saying this to John Gall: “You should be ashamed of yourself and transfer this domain to the Tyson Family (at no cost) or design a tasteful memorial domain without ads for this little girl.”

I strongly urge others that read this to post their opinion on the subject in the form of a comment. What would you do in this situation? Would you register the domain name? If so, what would you do with it?