According to a report in hawaiinewsnow.com,  one domain name registration, universityofhawaii.xxx, has the University of Hawaii asking legislators to toughen laws to make it easier to go after website operators who “fraudulent use domain names.

In a story a couple of days ago the University of Hawaii (UH)  is none to happy that someone registered universityofhawaii.xxx and put up some porn on the domain and is trying to sell the domain name on eBay.com for $100K.

The UH has already threatening the porn web site operator with legal action if it doesn’t stop using the school’s name as its domain name and has given the site until Friday to stop using its name or the university has threatened to file a suit a federal suit.

Now “UH wants lawmakers to consider amending a bill on unauthorized computer use to include fraudulent use of Internet domain names.”

“We believe that individuals who willfully and purposely attempt to profit through misleading the public by misrepresenting governmental organizations should also be held accountable as the wrongdoers they are,” wrote University of Hawaii President M.R.C. Greenwood in written testimony to the State Senate Committee on Economic Development and Technology.”

“The committee’s chair, State Sen. Carol Fukunaga, said Wednesday she planned to work with the university to amend the bill to incorporate UH officials’ concerns.”

“One approach might be to update Hawaii’s decade-old statutes on ‘cybersquatting’ to include the fraudulent use of domain names, such as the kind of malicious representation we are now seeing.”

“I think it’s important to us that people who try to besmirch us don’t get to do it without some penalty,” Greenwood said.

It would be yet another attempt by the state to regulate the Internet.

However there is an old saying in the legal profession that basically says bad facts make bad law.

In this case, it could only take one domain name registration for a state to impose criminal and/or civil sanctions on those who register domain names.

According to Cnet.com “Google is reportedly getting ready to take on Dropbox with its own cloud-based storage service”.

“The service called Drive”….will allow users to upload photos, documents, and videos to Google servers for sharing with others and later retrieval”"

Drive, which is expected to launch in the coming months, will be free for most consumers and business, with a premium service offered for those who want to store a large amount of files, the paper reported.

The domain name Drive.com has been owned for many years under semi privavy with a Paul Ginsburg listed as Administrative contact.

The domain name Drive.com inexplicably is going and has been going to a Network Solutions holding page.  The domain does get traffic with an Alexa rank of 2.1m, and gets according to compete.com between 1K-5K per month.  Of course that was before the news that Google is going with Drive.

The domain name TheDrive.com, is owned by Marchex.

Arbel Arif  and his partner Natan, acquired the domain name Baseball.net for an undisclosed amount in the five figures from DomainCapital.com in the last month and has launched it within the last week to “build a vast community of baseball enthusiasts who gather to talk baseball.”

“In fact, we are prepared to transform our domain from a great place to find out everything you need to know about baseball’s past, present and future, and virtually become the “Facebook” of the baseball genre!”

“It is the wish of everyone here at Baseball.net to create a place for baseball lovers to share their videos, news, pictures, and other information. It is our hope that you will publish an article about Baseball.net to help us in our efforts to introduce our site to the baseball-loving masses.”

The domain name last sold in 2008 for $52,500

At the time, in 2008 many thought Baseball.net at $52,500 was a steal.

Although Arbel wouldn’t say how much he paid for the domain, the price was in the five figures.

It’s obviously a great domain name.

We congratulate them on the acquisition and wish them the best of luck in creating a must visit site for all baseball lovers.

The domain name ePhoto.com just sold on SnapNames.com for $16,000.

The high bidder’s ID was Maxbid.

In all there were 174 bidders in the auction with 7 bidding $5K or more.

The domain name ePhoto.com was a pure drop domain, meaning it didn’t drop to a certain service, and could have been caught by anyone.

According to DomainTools appears to have been last owned by Verisign and registered at melbourneit.com.

Whether Verisign actually owned the domain or took possession of it years ago on an earlier drop, and why they would simply allow it to drop again is anyone’s guess.

According to Screenshots.com the domain has been parked for a number of years.

Here is the old whois record:

Domain Name.......... ephoto.com
  Creation Date........ 1995-10-18
  Registration Date.... 2009-09-27
  Expiry Date.......... 2011-11-19
  Organisation Name.... Verisign Inc.
  Organisation Address. 21355 Ridgetop Circle
  Organisation Address.
  Organisation Address. Dulles
  Organisation Address. 20166
  Organisation Address. VA
  Organisation Address. UNITED STATES

Admin Name........... Verisign Hostmaster
  Admin Address........ Verisign, Inc.
  Admin Address........ 21345 Ridgetop Circle
  Admin Address........ Dulles
  Admin Address........ 20166
  Admin Address........ VA
  Admin Address........ UNITED STATES
  Admin Email.......... vshostmaster@verisign.com
  Admin Phone.......... +1.7039484300
  Admin Fax............ +1.7039484331

Tech Name............ Melbourne IT Tech
  Tech Address......... 636 Ellis Street
  Tech Address.........
  Tech Address......... Mountain View
  Tech Address......... 94043
  Tech Address......... CA
  Tech Address......... UNITED STATES
  Tech Email........... tech@melbourneitdbs.com
  Tech Phone........... +1.8669073267
  Tech Fax............. +1.6509633266
  Name Server.......... f4.nstld.com
  Name Server.......... g4.nstld.com
  Name Server.......... l4.nstld.com
  Name Server.......... a4.nstld.com

According to a post on Paidcontent.org, Blip.tv has dropped the .Tv from its name and now rebranded as just Blip.

“”Online video network Blip.tv announced a $12-million round of funding, and a rebranding. Now it’s known simply as “Blip.”

I went to DomainTools.com and see that Blip Networks, Inc.  acquired the domain name Blip.com in August of 2011 from Marvel Characters, Inc.

Of course we don’t know what Blip paid for Blip.com but now that they own both the .Com and .Tv domain name they simply changed their domain to Blip which they couldn’t have done if they didn’t own the .com

Interestingly enough Blip.com forwards to Blip.Tv not the other way around.