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I think this is fine. Too many good domains are held by squatters. Domains should be put to productive use, not speculation. I don't know what forum.dev is used for, but when I visit it, I get a Cloud Flare error page.

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Yes, squatting should be mitigated and is worth some collateral damage. OP mentions having owned “hundreds of domains” and the domain in question appears unused, so my sympathies are… let’s say low. It’s a widespread problem that that squatters can sit on good domains for years, at a very low cost, waiting to extort someone who wants to use it for something productive. That could potentially be fixed with higher fees for popular words and names. Changing the price at renewal time is deeply problematic though, since it increases the surface area for extortion (by a different party).

However, why should Google or Verisign make money from selling names? Other than operational costs, it would be better to auction off domains fairly to extinguish the squatters and use the surplus for non-profit internet infrastructure work.

I don't think Google is really making money here. The amount of money they collect for the registration is surely a rounding error to Google. Rather, the high price must be to deter squatters.

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