Slashdot Mirror
100-Year Domain Renewals?
Ryosen writes "I received an email this morning from Network Solutions. Seems they are offering their current customers the ability to renew their domain names for 100 years. Is this is a realistic investment considering most companies don't last 100 years? Given that the Internet is a recent phenomenom, is it realistic to expect it to be the same in 100 years? Will Verisign be around that long? Does this make sense?"
I can't imagine this is a worthwhile investment for the myriad of reasons the submitter. Stick with the 10 year renewl option.
Maybe they are better informed than us /.'ers and everything is going to change in the near future rendering your 100 year domain useless.
Synical, me? Naaaa.
Nice to be paid up front for a service you may well not end up providing.
For the users, it's pretty much equivalent to being able to buy your domain name for all time, with no risk of it somehow falling to a domain squatter because you failed to renew. If you've got the money to throw at that sort of peace of mind, then why not?
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
100 year registration is plain silly. Ten year ones currently are popular but really only to those who have very valuable names or dont want the hassle of re-registering names every year.
The idea of allowing a user to specify a date for renewals is best, for example April 1st could become the date all the domains for a company are renewed, rather than scattered dates throughout the year.
My Auction: Pan Tilt Moveable Ethernet Webcam, UK!
...for Network Solutions' bottom line. ;-) But in all seriously, this is the kind of short sighted, pump up stock crap I would expect from the MBA set. Take in a huge amount of money up front at a severe discount and then lose the regular income over the long haul. The only way this would work for netsol is if they invested most every dime of it in long term investments and were really conservative with it. The reality is, there will be a peny or two higher dividend this quarter.
Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
Don't assume your domain will be useful for more than 10 years. Given that, if it still makes sense price-wise then go for it.
It looks to me like they are out of decent ideas to generate revenue and also want to give the impression that this service somehow is going to be around for that time period.
Face it, the current system will not last through leaps and bounds of technology that are coming. We are still in the stone age compared to what is ahead.
It would be better to take that money and buy ten years and invest the rest so it is actually doing something useful for you.
Best,
BJ
the thing is, if you're a company like MS or IBM, spending $1000 on a domain is worth the tme it would otherwise take to get it renewed every 10 years. You don't know the paperwork, the invoicing, the bills, the accounts, the 'why do we need this domain' questions... buy it once for $1k, forget about it.
and, as far as Network Solutions is concerned, they get the full money, even if the client does go bust! Its win-win all round.
The submitter makes valid points. On the other hand, for a large company, we're really talking about very little money here and the internal administrative costs of dealing with a renewal are probably fairly significant. So , for a Ford or GM or whatever, it may well make sense to pay the few thousand dollars for their various primary domains and then not have to worry about it.
I really don't think that would be useful. Not only will you be dead in 100 years, but the company issueing these names may not be. But, I guess its up to you, at least you wouldnt have to worry about someone trying to steal it.
I don't have time to comment my code, the program is late already.
For some people, heck for most, money can buy you conveniences.. This is just an additional service offered by them for a nice round number of years. They're just promising to take care of the hassle of domain renewal. At the end of the day, 10 year or 100 year renewal makes little difference. The person/organization which is organized won't need ANY renewal services, while others may opt for this service.
Some people pay money to buy tax software, while others hire an accountant and yet others do their taxes by themselves. It's the degree of customization and service which differs. Isn't that all there is to it ?
I'm not sure if the internet as we know it will exist in a 100 years, but then, people were arguing that snail mail would be extinct and there would be paperless offices throughout the planet. That hasn't happened yet. Let those who want this service spend some additional cash and buy themselves peace of mind, if they have the cash to spare and wish to do so.. Simple.
If network solutions dies, where do those ownerships go? That's a critical question, and one that this article is really asking. Suppose Microsoft steps in and buys the outstanding interest in Network Solutions... the results could be really disastrous. On the other hand, the government could step in and regulate ownership of domain names, and then it would be like getting a business license or something like that. One last thing - it's spelled PHENOMENON.
stuff |
Just before the Nationalists fled mainland china to Taiwan, they pre-charged everyone something like 50-years worth of taxes.
Let's just say that for everybody that paid, it wasn't a very good investment.
(That said, it's not that people had a choice in the matter or anything)
My life in the land of the rising sun.
You have godaddy.com which is alot cheaper. Others maybe cheaper...
:)
With godaddy, you can subscribe for a few years, I know at least 6 years in advance. I can't remember if it's more.
With the money you tie up, you can invest, use the investment earnings to pay for more years or hosting. Or even better yet, free beer for your friends.
I'm not affiliated with godaddy, they're just my domain name registrar.
Money cannot buy happiness, but can buy something soo darn close, that you can't really tell the difference
Coolbeans, now I can check out tubgirl.com until the day I die.
of course, if it's cheaper than the renewals for say, 4-5 years then why not grab it and see how long it lasts.
-
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I thought about registering iamanidiot.com, but found it is already registered to network solutions. Oh well should have seen that coming.
A Fatal OE Exception has occurred, Sig will now reboot.
your one of those small scam campanies who change their name every year?
Or, in the immortal words of P.T. Barnum: " A sucker is born every minute ".
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
Another interesting thing to consider -- as a recent snap names customer, (for a domain I feel I have the right to but don't own and dont want to pay ICANN $1000 to arbitrate) this would really negate the value of snapnames. In fact if the ower of the domain I want were to purchase 100 years I would certainly want my money back from snapnames.
meep
...what is the chance in that 100 years that some large company decides that your MyName.ImNobodyReally.Com name would be a nice marketing gimmick and sues you for typosquatting?
'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
If it makes sense to you, I've got a piece of the moon for sale!
DROS - Open-Source Robot Software
Well, some idiot will probably buy it. (Obligitory MS bashing) Wasn't MS having a problem with forgetting to renew domains? :)
* * *
It is a dada story -- it has no moral.
Was there anything in your e-mail about bridges for sale, or maybe ocean-front property in Arizona?
While the company is not one most geeks would trust I do admire this move.
Other registrars are complaining about the control and lack of innovation by ICANN yet Verisign is finding ways to intruduce new products.
If nobody buys this service then it is a failed experiment but I suspect they will do a slow but steady business selling these virtually unlimited domains. I know many companies that went out and registered their domains with the longest expiration possible at the time. If a 100 year registration was available I'm sure at least one would have done it.
Of course in 100 years from now and your company has moved 6 times, phone numbers have been extended many times, email addresses in the form used now don't even exist anymore so all the contact info on your record is completely stale. Is someone going to remember to renew? Will the renewal notices ever have a hope of arriving?
For those of us with Family names as domain names, holding that domain name for 100 years.. while debatably evil.. does become a viable use. It can be passed on from generation to generation. A legacy kinda thing.
"If you are falling off of a mountain, You may as well try to fly." -- Sheridans Father
This does not even come near the truth. If one dollar that you're paying now is used in a hundred years, you would actually have $131 when taking interest into account (assuming 5% each year).
What a loss!
In 1759 Arthur Guinness, rather speculatively, took over a deserted brewery at Dublin's St James's Gate, moreover he leased it for 9,000 years at a rent of 45 per annum - obviously intending on staying awhile.
Source:
I guess he made a great deal don't you?
I only read slash. for the articles...
VeriSign is selling the functional equivalent of a lifetime registration.
You know, like US copyright law.
Sure, it's not for every domain, but $1000 for 100 years of not having to rely on the kindness of others (who may even hate you) because the boneheads in your internet services division let your company's registration lapse is dirt cheap. It probably won't sell like hotcakes, but jalapeno poppers isn't out of the question. Speaking corporately, it's a lot cheaper than lawyers and bribes you'd need to fund to win your lost domain back.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
If you buy a domain for cheap, build up a decent web site (profitable would help), your 100-year lease on your domain becomes one hell of an asset.
Take the property market in the UK, for example. In London, most properties are "lease-holds", which means even though they're owned by private entities, when the lease-hold runs out (about 100 years), the property is given back to the Queen (so people can't just buy up all the expensive real-estate, and keep it). Most people use a long lease-hold as a selling point to buying their house. It guarantees you the house for as long as the lease-hold. It's the same with domains. You can't just look at the obvious financial aspects, but see how it pans out over time. A guarantee is sometimes worth more than the product itself.
www.microsoft.com isn't very useful if it's only yours for 2 minutes. A 100-year lease, however, would be worth billions.
And thus Cain rose up and slew Abel for their father had given Abel his birthright, the domain name of Abraham.Com, and witheld FTP rights from Cain.
And God said unto Cain, 'Why aren't thou using the latest kernel as they brother?'..............
Don't park drunk, accidents cause people.
Beyond the fact that whether the company will be around in 100 yesrs, do you think the internet will be around in a hundred years? It's very possible that what we see now is nothing but an evolutionary process that will give way to bigger and better things. Forget the company... Will .com mean anything in a hundred years, period??? 100 years is a lot of time for changes and revolutions to happen.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
The overhead of offering the option to Verisign is very nearly nil.
If some of their customers want to renew for 100 years at a stretch, it makes perfect sense to permit them to thrust the money into Verisign's pockets.
And for a company with a valuable domain name it's a lot safer to pay a relatively small amount of money up front and have zero risk of the domain expiring. Remember, Microsoft has accidentally let vital domain names lapse before now !
I loathe VeriSign as a company, but this is just plain common sense.
D.
--- These are not words: wierd, genious, rediculous
I don't think the problem is whether or not my company will last 100 years (or, for that matter, whether I will last for 100 years). I would ask whether Network Solutions would last for 100 years.
The max term of a domain name lease is 10 years. Network solutions provide this 100 year lease by automatically adding an extra year to your lease on a yearly basis. If Network Solutions suddenly disappear, then your lease it left at 10 years, and you loose the other 90 years that you paid for.
T.
in one century I do not think my corporate maintenance procedures created today will be available / archived
in one century I do not expect to be working any more, so procedures & knowlegde will be lost
in one century I do not expect to be able to find my Verising login/password neither my bill to renew my corporate domain name for another century
when you do not regularly work with nor do you maintain something it disapears from your thoughs.
In one century many corporations (if they live that long) will just forget to renew.
What happens if they do not renew in 100 years ? Do they disapear from the internet ? What can Verisign tell us ? Noone at verisign will be there in one century. There is really no engagment from a corp that will probably not be there in one century.
Besides, would you dare give your provider the responsability of calling you in one century to remind you you must pay ?
I would not dare that.
That total nonsense.
moreover, who can say if domain names will not be free in 30 years ? Therefore you would have paid 70 years more, will Verisign give you change ?
If that's serious news, it's probably more some kind of advertisement from Verisign than a real product. It means "we are confident we will be there in 100 years, you can trust us to register for any length of time".
Sorry mister VS I do not trust you.
The world belongs to those who get up early. - I'm far from being the king of Earth then
I mean like, it's $9.99 per year. That's like, your paying for only ninety-nine years as opposed to $10.00, you'd pay for the full one hundred years!
Here is an article on the event.
This service is also being bundled with naming a star after your company as well. Who cares, it is the stupid customer who ultimately pays.
If enough people sign up for this... and the company continued to care at all about their customers... then if, at some time, the current model becomes obsolete, the company may offer some kind of resolution... such as carrying over the current registration to the new system... or if the company is taken over by a major corporation, and the product discontinued, there may be some reimbursement.
If enough people do it, then they will fear making them angry by just cutting it all off.
As foretold by Nostradamus!
(Mad props to Futurama!)
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
After you get your snazzy new 100-year copyright you just won't be happy with your frumpy old 10-year domain name ownership. 100-year domain name ownership is the perfect accessory!
-Rich
In the United States, long-term structural businesses leases -- typically for an office or shop in any structure from a one-story to a skyscraper -- top out at 99 years, oftentimes because of state law. For instance, Alabama limits leases to a maximum of 99 years. So the 100 year domain name extension is in line with that rule-of-thumb.
In 100 years we'll probably address everything with brainwaves or someting.
If I had a kid (and I won't.. really my nightmares involve me having to deal with myself. I don't want a kid like me around)
I'd reg his name as a domain name and give it to him when he is able to maintain his own website.
Only I would never do business with thies guys.
My plesant dreams involve companys like this going under.
Now I can have nightmares where they go under and my kid asks me what happend to his domain name...
I don't actually exist.
Things on the internet change so often over the course of a year that I never register / renew domains for any longer than 1 year. You never know when you can find a better price to renew your domain at.
used to be the standard advertising slogan for webmail - didn't help much when 90% of the webmail outfits went bust.
100 (or 99) year leases make sense only at government level - hong kong and macao were leased for 99 years, as is guantanamo bay (the agreement was done before the communists took power, but they honoured the deal).
Well the real problem of having a domain name for a hundred years can be a loss to a community. Lets say a really good shopping name like idealgifts.com was purchased for a hundred years. This is quite possible because the company has been around for 50 years that it is pretty solid. But what happens if it goes out of business? Because the Domain is not costing the family of the old business anything why not keep it because it is a good domain name. So say an other company comes up and can really use that name. It will have to fight to obtain that name from the family probably paying a lot of extra money then they should or can because they are a startup. 100 year domain names are only good for squatters.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
You have to keep in mind that even at a paltry 6% return rate, the value of money doubles every 12 years - or about 8 times by the time 100 years rolls around. That's why these company's love these long-term domain renewal options - even if they charge you one half of what you'd pay over 100 years, they'll still, in the long haul, get 4 times as many real dollars out of you.
In business, it's always better to get money sooner over later. 100 years early isn't a "trick", it's almost theft.
paintball
(nt)
Ladies and gentlemen this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about that. That does not make sense. Why would a Wookiee, an eight foot tall Wookiee want to live on Endor with a bunch of two foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!
Rocket science is easy. Neurosurgery, now *that's* difficult.
I'll be dead in 100 years so what good will it do me. I'm not seeing a plus to being dead and owning a domain.
Evolution or ID?
I see some registars allow you to register for 10 years. It's just as conceiveable that those registers won't be around in 10 years either. So 100 years seems okay with me.
1. Charge lots of money for a 100 year domain.
2. Know in your head your not really going to be around that long.
3. Profit.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
>Is this is a realistic investment considering most companies don't last 100 years?
families last a century. and while a company can easily change names, this is a whole lot harder for a family.
No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
--Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
...of responsibility being removed from people's lives. Really, how tough is it to renew a domain? If you can't manage a simple task like regularly renewing your domain, you deserve to have it snagged away from you. It's all a matter of priorities. If you don't view your domain as something valuable then you deserve the consequenses of being irresponsible with managing it.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
A quick googling reveals this. Long-term domain name registration could conceivably be marketed to companies like Kongo Gumi, although I'm sure that in the real world this service will be abused.
So why not offer 20, 50, or 100 years at $12/year? I'm sure MANY businesses will leap at this, since it's the equivalent of guaranteed online trademark protection for your single most valuable asset, your domain name and online identity.
Dude, where's my packet?
Let me see, what did we have 30 years ago? Oh, we didnt have the internet? The Arpanet might had been working? Did they have DNS? Not that I know off (I could be wrong). Who can guess who the world look like in a 100 years, for 15 years ago I still had my Amiga with 2400baud modem, calling BulletinBoardSystems. No BBS that I used to call is around anymore, the BBS Systems (software) people used is no longer around or hasnt been ported from Amiga to Linux. The internet totaly killed the BBS world. Why wouldnt the internet as it looks like today work totaly diffrent in say 30 years? Scotty, Beam me over!
tough deal....
have you paid for the next 98 years registration for the sumbitch that took the name away from you?
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I can't help but feel that the domain name market will be rather diluted 100 years from now.
Just how many tld's do you think there will be in 50 years time, let alone 100.
-- duh
is as old as Canada.
Dunno how much longer they'll exist, but they are more than 100 years old.
...I will least you any requested domain name that meet my approval for the period 2700-2800 AD inclusive for just $229.95. That's less than $2.28 per year! And, of course, what with inflation, who knows what GoDaddy may be charging by then?
I will not actually register the domain names now, of course. I will only accept domain names I think are unlikely to get taken. As the year 2700 approaches I, or, um, rather, my company, will research the status of your domain name and either register it or buy it from whomever owns it.
And for just $108 more, I'll throw in a free Star Registration. That's right, I'll have the International Star Registry name a star after your URL! That... almost like... getting two registrations for the price of one!
But wait, there's more. Act now and also get a 100% valid title deed for one square inch of land zoned residential on planet Smegma, I mean Sedna. Now how much would you pay?
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I think MS will buy this service. Some years ago the forgot to pay a domain affected to hotmail and produce an outage. It was "fixed" by a linux user who paid the domain. Isn't it ironic?
(btw, he was compesated by Ms and he resold his check at ebay).
DNA in your Linux: DNALinux
Is this is a realistic investment considering most companies don't last 100 years? Given that the Internet is a recent phenomenom, is it realistic to expect it to be the same in 100 years? Will Verisign be around that long?
Is the human race going to last that long?
Moderate this comment
Negative: Offtopic Flamebait Troll Redundant
Positive: Insightful Interesting Informative Funny
Nothing to see here
Domain names seem like a pretty precarious thing to own to begin with. Do you really "own" a domain name now, or are all domain names merely rented from ICANN? Are IP numbers "owned" or rented from ICANN? It all just strikes me as a fee to participate, not something that you actually possess, even if possession is defined liberally in terms of intangible intellectual property.
Furthermore, this just seems like a play by Verisign to grab domain names. For example, if an entity buys something lucrative for 100 years and then dries up and blows away 5-10 years later, doesn't it seem like it allows Verisign to retain some kind of rights to the domain name, including the right to resell it to a high bidder if the owning company is perceived to be no longer in existance?
It's not like Verisign has done anything in the past to try to claim ownership of the domain naming systems *cought*sitefinder*cough.
The other thing that strikes me as odd about this is that it presumes that the present naming system and DNS as we know it will continue to operate for the next 100 years. I don't doubt there will always be a directory system of some kind, but will it be DNS and will it be something necessarily managed by Verisign? What if the new directory system is managed by another entity? What if it manages or allows for duplicate names?
What they really mean is that if you get a domain registration with Network Solutions, it'll take 100 years of hassles to transfer it to anyone else.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Sorry, should have said typically top out at 99 years.
.. answer this
I've seen a few comments targeted against MBA's in a few weeks and the one I saw today just was too much BS.
The argument that this is a stupid "gain money quickly move" doens't stand.
Well some people obviously have neve heard of NPV, or Net present Value of money.
Net present value gives you the value today of a series of cash flows to happen in the future.
The formula is as follows:
NPV = SUM(Cash Flow *(1+i)^-n) | Where n ranges from 1 to 99 in our case.
i is the opportunity rate. In a company money typically has a greater return value than the money market. IE you would expect money invested in a company to be more profitable than on the money market.
This means that if the money market rate is 5% than you would expect a higher internal return to compensate your risk (risk premium principle). Thus the internal rate of return of a company would be market rate+risk premium.
So the IRR could be 10% in a company.
Let's just imagine these guys at NetSol are a bunch of losers and will only offer the market return rate, or will simply put the money in government bonds at 4% (constant over 100 years for simplicity skaes).
Let's say also that the cost of a web name renewal will be $10 per year for the next 100 years (it's more likely to be more as the inflation cathces in, but heck let's keep it simple).
Even with these very pessimistic variables, the NPV of these cash flows is $306!!! Tha's a $700 profit for the Netsol guys.
So please, don't say they are making a stupid move doing this as you have no idea what you are talking about. This is a very profitable operation.
It is very likely to be a success as people will think " hey 100 years * 10 dollars = $1000. So I am not getting ditched and it is peace of mind. Let's take it"
BTW, if the NPV is $1000, than the discount rate is only 0.12%. Impossible.
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity
This is not the problem. The problem, is that no matter what, you can fail to renew it, even if you have 99.99% chances of not failing. For instance, change of both physical mail address, and email addresses, will prevent you to get the warnings (happened to me, although I still re-registered of course), and in a case of a company, restructuration where for instance WWW managing responsability switch for teams to others.
Simple probabilities, shows that if your domain is worth more than $1,000,000 (this is the case for amazon.com, google.com, ...), a probability of failure of 0.1% equals a cost expectancy of $1,000.
Of course, I think this is aimed at larger companies that don't care all that much about price. Less hassle the better -- but for the average joe -- I don't recommend it.
I have a current reseller plan that lets me register names for $6.99 per year -- one year at a time. I really don't have an incentive to register for longer -- other than less hassle.
SPAM solution made easy: 1 spammer, 5 cords of rope, 5 hourses, and fireworks. Be creative.
So when I read about the 100 year domain thing, I thought, "that would be pretty great." Just pay a relatively small amount of money up front, and you're set for life.
But then I realized that there's a pretty big anti-social aspect to allowing 100 year domains. It may not be totally fair that the dotcom domain name ownership thing was a first-come, first take lottery. But we're stuck with it, and, fortunately, nobody owns a name forever -- they have to reregister each year or two or ten. If you can't make a go of flowerpots.com, then it won't be long until it goes back into the pool of unclaimed domains for somebody else to take. Well, that's sort of true anyway. I know at least one company has arrangements with a registrar where expired names fall directly into their hands.
But anyway, my point is that there ought to be some mechanism where the scarcest property in cyberspace, dotcom names, falls back into the hands of the public if they are not being put to full use. And it's not in the public interest to allow 100-year domain names. All sorts of people will register all sorts of useful domain names, fail at making them profitable, and give up on the domain name. However, like neglected inner city property, the domain name will stay in their possession for a friggin century, and deprive the Internet community of using it for any value.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
... and the CEO Dan Carp asked if it could be refunded or transfered at a date in the future....
So when I pursuade everyone to use *my* root servers instead of the current ones and sell them domain then the people who have wasted their money on this are not going to be happy. Ok, so it's not likely I'll do this, but someone might. The current "official" DNS system is nothing special. Anyone can run one
Sig is taking a break!
A little maths is required here to point out the meanness of the offer!
...
If we assume that the true interest rate of money is around 5 per cent, then assuming a fixed cost of 10 dollars of maintenance for maintaining a single domain, so the cost does not go up:
Year 1 - 10.00 dollars
Year 2 = 9.50 dollars
Year 3 = 9.01 dollars etc
Year 100 = 0.05 dollars
By the time we get to year 100 the net present value for year 100 is close to zero.
The NPV for the maintenance of the service is about 10 x 20 = 200 dollars.
The NPV for the maintenance of the service for the next 100 years is I would imagine somewhere between 190 and 200 dollars.
The NPV for all the registration years beyond year 100 is small indeed. I don't understand why the offer wasn't just "for ever" rather than for 100 years.
In other words, the cost of supporting a service for the next 100 years is almost the same as the cost of supporting a service for ever. So why not just sell the unlimited option?
-----
sig.
Businesses operate under the principle of "going concern," meaning you plan as though your business will continue indefintely. You can easily find cases in real estate where companies and organizations sign 99 year leases for buildings and facilities.
Frankly, the similarity to real estate goes even further. I hear the echoes of an old mantra ringing in my ears, "Invest in land, because they're not making it anymore." Well, with the structural constraints of the DNS schema, you could say they aren't making new Slashdot.org's or Amazon.com's anymore.
Hmmm does this now mean that hotmail.co.uk will NEVER expire and be taken over again? :P
Take good care of this DNS Zone, it's been in the family for generations.
Use the 100 year registration to lock up your competitor's name.
Seems they are offering their current customers the ability to renew their domain names for 100 years
Oh, jeez, they stole this off The Apprentice three weeks ago. They had to sell "Trump Ice" bottled water, and Troy figured they could scam the masses by signing people up for a month's supply at a time. Leave it to NetSol to rip off reality tv.
Look, people, don't fall for this scam. This is worse than a tattoo. It's a digital lamer prison that NetSol will charge extra to get out of, I'm sure... In 95 years, you'll get mail from Network Solutions reminding you that your domain name davidhasselhofffan.com is due to expire, and your grandkids will IMMEDIATELY put you in an old folks home in disgust -- assuming they haven't been issued Death Rays by the Eternal Ruler of America, George W. Bush's floating head kept alive in the chemical broth of Zoonosta-15.
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
I mean, seriously, people here talk like its some huge discount, 50% or whatever crap floating around about this.
it's simply not true. Get a decent registrar and you can pay $6 US$ per yer for a domain, some places (good reputable ones) cost as little as $4 a year for a domain.
now, at $6 per year, yer talking $600 total for the 100 years, and Netsol is charging $1000? This is still not savings...
and btw most medium-large companies (even small ones) use an automated renewal script, so no worries. can't be helped that Microsoft is a bunch of idiots and cant be bothered to code something so simple...
what happens if a company registers a website with a n ICANN sanctioned registrar and that registrar goes out of business? i'm sure ICANN set up some type of system where the domain name would be administrated by another company, but which one? would the company who registered their domain name get notified?
Why did I lurk so long before registering for a Slashdot account? I could have had a Slashdot ID of less than 100000.
Reminder: Renew domain name. If there is still an Internet. Refill the antimatter tank in the hovercar too.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." --Unknown
on the other hand, eye gas y'all are still holding your breath (& your hands over your .asps), hoping that most words don't mean anything?
yikes almighty. lookout bullow.
While the answers to all of those questions is open to debate, it is obvious that Verisign knows that offering a one-hundred year service is a great way to get free publicity.
We'll be around forever.
Signed,
Pan-Am
You would think that buying a domain name for a century would score you a better price break than that. For the 100 year registration, NSI charges $9.99 a year while GoDaddy.com and other companies charge $7.99 a year for single-year registrations.
In addition to that, GoDaddy includes several services for free (domain forwarding, email forwarding) that NSI charges extra for.
The truth doesn't care what I think.
Microsoft and Time Warner (when it was AOL) have both issued 100-year bonds. Clearly they and their investors (at least, those who purchased the 100-years) think they stand a good chance of being around that long.
Read jack phelps dot net
Remember, scientology makes you sign a billion-year contract.
If you read the linked page from Netsol, you would see that this works by Network Solutions registering your name for ten years (the maximum possible), and then re-registering at the end of each ten year period. They specifically state that if you transfer your domain name, you will only have the unexpired registration period (a maximum of ten years) and will not be eligible for any refund.
Now that the idea is out in the public, Look for competitors to do the same thing, but with prices as low as 3 or 4 dollars a year. Like someone else pointed out, the companies will get more cash up front and might not even have to keep their end of the bargain 75 years from now.
Network Solutions... Seems they are offering their current customers the ability to renew their domain names for 100 years.
Imagine all those people that registered their names as domainnames. Barring the hand me down names of their children having the same name as them, others could conceivably be waiting in excess of all of their lives for the domainname of their name. One hundred years is a long time to wait for your name.
I Hope verisign won't be around for even 100 days.
> Given that the Internet is a recent phenomenom, is it realistic to expect it to be the
> same in 100 years? Will Verisign be around that long? Does this make sense?
No, no, no and, let's see, no. The .tk domain has a plan where you can register a domain name for 9 years. That is quite a long time, IMO. Registering a domain name for 100 years is just a con to get lots of money.
--
If I actually could spell I'd have spelled it right in the first place.
...so there is every chance that domain registration could actually stay the same price. Computers are cheaper (in actual dollar values) now than they were fifty years ago. How much did telephone service cost in 1904?
How does the 100 Year Domain Service work?
Network Solutions will register your domain name for the maximum term available at the underlying domain registry and then, as long as your domain is registered with Network Solutions, we'll add additional years to that registration on an annual basis, ensuring that your registration is always renewed until it has been registered to you for a total of 100 years of registration service from the date of your purchase.
What if Network Solutions fucks up and forgets to add additional years to my registration 30 years from now? Can I get a refund for the remaining 70 years if my name it taken?
That won't happen <wink>.
Edith Keeler Must Die
Really why just a measly 100 years? Why not more?
As long as you're going to sell something the you can't really sell further than 10 years in advance why not go for even more money? They have just as much ability to guarantee your domain name 10,000 years in the future as they do 100.
I'm still wondering how this is even legal. Can I start a business offering to rent various properties to people in advance for the years 2200-2300? Even if I don't own those properties?
Life is too short to proofread.
I need to put registrar locks on my domains and obfuscate the whois. Thanks.
It will take you that long to transfer your domain away from them, anyway!
A 100 years is easy with Verisign...it will take you that long to pry your domain name away from them.
No kidding. The worst customer service experience I've ever had was with Verisign during the Network Solutions days. It took me months of phone calls, faxes and legal threats just to get them to update my domain information so that I could transfer it to another registrar. No company has ever made me that miserable.
If they were an airline, I'd be stuck in Antarctica without my luggage, listening to elevator music on the dwindling battery of my cell phone...
With 100 year domain renewals, it should be obvious to everyone, that it is no longer our network, if ever it was.
Why can't we just buy them outright?
For some companies it's worth the $1000 to register their domain for 100 years so they don't need to have someone worry about it. Granted, it takes 5 minutes to renew your domain, but if they save some money on top of that, it's totally worth it. (Not to mention $1000 is nothing to most companies)
now you have mike rowe buying a domain for 100 years, for which MS will sue or settle and get (they already have) so now MS will hold the domain for 100 years, and how can that be good?
basically anything or anyone who does or buys anything from network solutions is an idiot since you can get whatever they offer from someone else for 20% the cost. yay bloated NS.
By all accounts, this planet we're living on may not even survive 100 years, at least not the current lifeforms that inhabit it...
Well, at only 100 years, they don't have to worry about the IPV6 rollout.
It doesn't make sense to renew for 100 years, which is exactly why they're offering it.
They'd get more money out of folks by not offering such a long renewal period. The fact that they are suggests to me that they don't feel third-party domain registrants will be around that long and they're trying to squeeze as much money as they can now.
My sig sucks.
It's for suckers and idiots, in this case one and the same. Only a sucker AND idiot would believe that it is reasonable to assume a company, any company, will last 100 years. It is good for the registrar of the domain, who makes money off the sucker-idiots regardless of how long or short the company actually lasts. It is a sucker play by the sucker-idiot who gives money on the assumption that they will be around in 100 years. Sheesh. Pay for 10 years at a stretch seems much more reasonable for the long end. Simply renew in 10 years if you haven't gone down the terlit.
In Bushworld, they struggle to keep church and state separate in Iraq as they increasingly merge the two in America.
and It can go in my filing cabinet right between my lifetime to Tivo and lifetime to Kali. Then again, they were both reasonably priced, $999 is a bit steep for a name.
Even though the CPI is holding mostly flat, concerns over deflation are a red herring as there is actually inflation in all goods right now save for one. If you look at the basket of goods that make up the CPI, you find that the only thing that has gone down is the price of housing, which in the CPI is based only on rental values. Normally this makes sense, since mortgages are mostly fixed on won't change much over time. However, given the exceptionally easy credit market we are in right now, all kinds of people are qualifying for cheap mortgages that they didn't qualify for previously. So, people are leaving the rental market in droves, driving down the price of those rentals as they try to get people to lease.
Further increasing speculation that we're heading for more inflation is the sharp increases on the prices of raw materials over the last 12 months. Once that starts to affect consumer goods (and I've noticed my groceries are getting more expensive), the credit market will tighten (because that's the almost reflexive action of central banks), and the rental exodus will stop, driving those prices back up. Higher interest rates AND inflation. It will be 1979 all over again. The best counter argument to my concern is that the drive up of raw materials is in large part driven by this same easy credit market. I'm not too convinced of that yet, but time will tell.
I'm not too worried about deflation right now.
Why would I want my domain to be locked into one company for 100 years, no matter which company it is?
ok, TFA (as in RTFA) mentions transfer to another provider is still possible, but the "unused" part of the $1000 is gone. $1000 is not a small amount, even for companies.
And what if you want the domain to expire? Yeah, it happens.
I wouldn't recommend this deal for anyone but big companies (and not even then because I don't want to give NetworkSolutions/VeriSign any business).
First problem is you are still using NetSol. Don't even worry about the 100 year thing.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
It so happens that the 100-year maximum domain name term approximately matches the 95-year term of copyright in a work made for hire and first published in the United States.
Every large company has an asset management department. Their job is to make sure that stuff like this dosn't fall under the cracks. There isn't one single person who is charged with making sure that the domain name is renewed, there is a friggin department charged with making sure that company assets are appropriately inventoried and maintained. Any large company should list their asset management group or their purchasing department as the billing contacts for domain names.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
If Verisign can trick you into believing that they can guarantee your domain name for 100 years, and get you to pony up for it, they've found a way to boost their cash flow, without any added expense.
Proverbs 21:19
The Walt Disney Company has been around for three-fourths of a century. Quick quiz: How long will its copyrights last?
One last thing - it's spelled PHENOMENON.
The copyright in the audiovisual work PHENOMENON will last nearly a century, all because of the lobbying led by its publisher.
I worked with and knew Al Donkin...
His Call Sign?
W2EMF
That's a Catchy Call Sign !
Even if you get the 100-year renewel, Verisign could still give it away. They've got a history of not properly authenticating transfer requests, so you're not really buying any piece of mind.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
100 year renewals could be good...if the deal is right. An example of a case where this could be good is a state run college. It isn't going to go away and many state run and alot of private schools have been around ALOT longer the 100 years. It also, again if the deal is right, is a good way to make sure you don't ever forget to renew.
Gorkman
W2EMF
Thanks! Now I can send him nasty letters now that I have his home address!
thehomeland(.org)
Please excuse the tackiness of replying to my own story...
.com TLD. You cannot register one anymore. If you have it, you can keep it. But if you lose it, you cannot get it back. Versign et. al. will not allow to register a two-letter domain. The only thing on the ICANN site that comes close to explaining why is this TLD Agreement. While most of my domains are registered through GoDaddy, I keep my two-letter domain with Verisign. They seem to have the greater chance of longevity.
In reading one of the links here, I saw an interesting (and unanswered) question raised. What if your registrar goes out of business? One person in this thread mentioned that his registrar had closed shop. Prior to doing that, they changed the registration on his domain to that of the registrar's company and now he can't get it back.
I own a two-letter domain and the possibility of something like this happening is of concern. ICAAN doesn't address this in their FAQ. One thing that they *do* discuss is that they are eliminating two-letter domain names in the
Does anyone know what recourse is available if a register closes shop?
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
Remember, according to US law, a corporation is a legal entity (i.e. it is a person, for most intents and purposes). So as long as the corporation exists, this is valid. And this means that this is an asset transferable with ownership of the corporation (unlike yearly registration, which would have less value). If I evaluate assets by replacement value, and the cost of domain registration goes up, this asset even appreciates in value.
If they go out of business, I take the percentage left of my lease and multiply it by the present replacement value and declare a one-time loss of that amount - which makes a nice tax break.
I can think of many scenarios where this could generate interesting tax breaks that are salable...
By the way, they are also doing security for US military websites - so they aren't going out of business anytime soon.
"Let's say also that the cost of a web name renewal will be $10 per year for the next 100 years (it's more likely to be more as the inflation cathces in, but heck let's keep it simple)."
NetSol charges $35 per year for normal registration. That would give an NPV of $1071 (using your numbers) or a $71 loss compared to what they would get.
It's also worth noting that ignoring inflation in domain prices is an optimistic outlook, not a pessimistic one. If the price were to increase, it would increase the NPV of the cash flow. It looks to me like NetSol expects prices to *fall*, not increase. Otherwise, your numbers suggest that this is a bad deal for them (they are sacrificing $1071 NPV of cash flow for $1000 cash now).
Of course, I think that they do give some kind of discount for 5 and 10 year renewals already.
If anyone is serious about taking an issue with this, then try making a complaint to the relevant authorities. Considering recent activities by Verisign, they are annoying too many people.
It is possible that the consumer / competition commissions would take an issue with their activity, as 100 years is plainly too silly: even trademarks (which are intertwined with domain names) have re-registration periods that are not more than 10 or 15 years. This is certainly more appropriate. There examples of these commissions (e.g. the OFT in the UK) in other fields of activity requesting that terms of contracts are shortened.
100 year is plainly to the advantage of verisign and to the annoyance of everyone else for all the hassle with dealing with gunk of unused domains around the place and so on.
Verisign (or for that matter, a host of other companies too) will remind you to renew with an e-mail, regardless of whether or not your domain name is registered with them.
So I suspect that the person responsible for renewing it will be called "info@yourdomain.com".
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
Every post about DNS has someone saying we need to make DNS more complex, more resource-intensive, and more prone to problems. I don't get it. DNS works great.
This goes out to all you bozos saying "Verisign this, Verisign that".
-- Spankmeister General
Initially, I thought this was a play by Verisign to help them keep .com registry, but ...
...
the
If I recall correctly, Verisign sold their retail registrar site
(aka Network Solutions). As someone has suggested, this is
probably the new owners trying to get some $$ in the door.
Is it a good deal for Netsol: definitley.
Will it provide value to some owners: yeah probably.
Is there a risk that the name willl become worthless: some.
Even if the underlying mechanism (the DNS) is replaced,
naming is a fundamental building block of systems.
And for compatibility and transition, it is likely that
current name resolution/ownership would be supported
should a new system evolve.
Further, you shouldn't expect a naming scheme to be
replaced all together
Yes, the Internet has been missing a directory system for
years, and we will find better ways to navigate/specify
online resources. However, these sytems will most likely
be built on top of the underlying naming infrastructure.
like Microsoft, IBM, oracle, ....... would do such a thing, espically after that incident where MS forgot to renew their domain microsoft.co.uk, and the English guy registerd it for them, registering te domain for a 100 years would ensure no such thing would happpen in the near futuire :)
actually such a service is not intended for individuals with personal web pages or small scale businesses.
The lunatic is in my head
On the other hand, they still want to take the money and run. It's unlikely that the price of domain name registration will go up significantly, the price might go down, it's pretty pure profit to them, and it's highly likely that the organizational structure for domain name selling will change, and it's also highly likely that any current customer of theirs could get annoyed and leave sometime in the next 20 years.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Is this is a realistic investment considering most companies don't last 100 years? Given that the Internet is a recent phenomenom, is it realistic to expect it to be the same in 100 years? Will Verisign be around that long? Does this make sense?"
Chewbacca is a wookie from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about that; that does not make sense. Why would a wookie, an 8 foot tall wookie, want to live on Endor with a bunch of two foot tall ewoks? That does not make sense! But more importantly, you have to ask yourself, 'what does that have to do with this case?' Nothing. Ladies and Gentlemen, it has nothing to do with this case. It does not make sense!" - Johnny Cochran in his Chewbacca defense
Awesome!
But this is really a tradeoff between the chances that Netsol will screw up some year after you've bought the 100-year service, leading to the domain name getting stolen, vs. the chances that Netsol or you will screw up some year if you don't buy it (which is more likely), leading to the domain name getting stolen, vs. the chances that Netsol will die / get sold / etc. (which has problems whether you did or didn't buy the upfront service, and will cost you well over $1000 in lawyer-time), vs. the chances that you will want to sell the domain name (your company splits, or sells off the service using that name, or goes broke and tries to sell assets), which may or may not cost you less money if you buy the service.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
Everyone who has said that 100 year registrations are pointless has missed the point. This is not about protecting your domain name... it's about Verisign milking the market for all its worth before their contract with ICAAN expires. I see this as a sign that Verisign doesn't expect this contract to be renewed and has decided to thing of "innovative" ways to make an extra buck.
... unless we increase the renewal time and jack up the prices. Even if we offered a discount for larger time periods we'd still be making more money than we would if we just did nothing.
.coms and .nets in a few years... lets make it a 1000 year renewal!
Marketing Rep: Sir, I've come up with a new way to make more money before our ICAAN contract expires.
Marketing Manager: Well, I'd like to see you beat my SiteFinder idea... Thats what got me where I am today!
Marketing Rep: Well sir, when the contract expires we'll loose all revenue from renewals unless...
Marketing Manager: Unless what?
Marketing Rep:
Marketing Manager: Hey... I like it! And like we really care... we're not actually going to be managing
Marketing Rep: Um, sir, might that be a little too transparent? Those slashdot geeks would eat us alive if they figured out what we were doing. What do you think of 20 years?
Marketing Manager: 100... that sounds good. Lets do that!
100 years is just silly. That's like a company in 1904 signing a 100 year maintenance contract on their coal heating furnaces or their horse-drawn delivery carriges. Technology changes too quickly to buy _anything_ in increments of 100 years.
Silly.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
You've got to love Marketing Math (I should copyright that). Yes, it's 70% over re-registering it year-to-year, but their next step down from $9.99/yr. for 100 yrs. is $14.99/yr. for 10 yrs. That's only a 33% savings. So, your break-even point is 67 years. And you're going to go to your boss and say,
"Hey, I just save the company $500.00 by the year 2071 by paying twice that much up front!"
-=- Many seek good nights and lose good days.
I kinda regret paying for the 9-year renewal last year on my .com address. Ever since then I have payed more attention to Network Solutions, and have come to the conclusion that they are NOT the kind of company I want to do any more business with than I have to.
I suppose the 9-year renewal is okay. I really do intend to keep using my domain that long, and the volume discount means less money for Network Solutions.
But 100 years? After the "site finder" mess, I certainly home Network Solutions LOSES the .com registry to some more responsible organization LONG before that.
Will Verisign be around that long? Does this make sense?"
The way things are looking now with all their lawsuits and monopolistic practices, Verisign might not make it to 2005, never mind 2104.
Hypocrisy is the 8th deadly sin.
Wow, MBAs have a completely different incomprehensible stew of acronyms and terminology than us techie geeks do. Fascinating.
Of course, your figures make the assumption that NetSol will continue to be around for the next 100 years, and with the way the Internet business was evolving (who was doing name registry services 15 years ago?) that's far from a sure bet.
Expiration of the name after 100 years is a non-issue, as the person who originally registered the name will be retired and/or dead. So will all of the company's current shareholders. Any problem you can solve by leaving it for the next generation is not a problem at all.
And it does deserve a stupid answer. Mod me down if you want, but why did the poster need to ask such stupid question? He could have presented the facts like he did and feed the discussion. Why the rethoric questions which leave us all wondering whether life's hardships made him a moron or if he was born that way?
I disagree. Stick with one or two year renewals, and don't renew with Verisign. They're unethical slimeballs that do not deserve your money or respect.
Catherine
do those systems support dates over 2040?
"Your logic just makes me want to chuckle and shake my head."
You only wanted to. What stopped you from actuallyy chuckling and shaking your head?
I agree, it seems silly. But if you consider some Japanese companies, they plan as far as 100 years out in some cases. Fundamentally, it's not a stupid idea, but in todays market, I'm not sure that most of these companies will be able to survive for that amount of time. This could simply be a ploy on Verisigns part to get more money out of it's customers... who knows.
The Mighty Bill
People are still using Network Solutions to register domains these days?
Give me their names, because I have an iPod I wanna sell to them for $2000.
eTrade SUCKS
Yeah, I can see NetSol with even more reasons to provide less service; --they've already got your money. Short-term renewals are better for the consumer to demand service (and more features) from a name registrar; --and you can easily take your business elsewhere if they don't provide it.
Chalk it up to Yet Another Netsol Cash Grab
Along with WLS and sitefinder.
Does this make sense?
My house stands on a piece of land owned by a landlord. I own the house, but have to pay rent to the landlord for allowing my house to exist on their land.
My lease renewal period is 99 years, but it is not uncommon to see lease periods of 999 years.
Why? Because it's as good as owning the land for the tenant, but the landlord still keeps ownership.
This is no different. Of course Network Solutions don't expect you or them to be around in 100 years.
Consider many other forms of business communication that have come and gone (or are at least in decline). Some of these are already all but dead and most likely none of them, except perhaps 800 numbers, will have a 100-year useful life span. Why should a .com domain name be any different? Even postal address forms change more often than that.
TELEX Numbers -- there was a Telex machine at my first employer (circa 1987) and it was a relic even then.
AOL Keywords -- a few years ago in the dot com boom, ads for www.FOO.com would also include "AOL Keyword: FOO" (or worse, "AOL Keyword: FOO.COM") as if nobody could figure it out otherwise. Is that still common or on the decline?
RealNames Keywords -- the same thing in a browser plug-in from some start-up.
800 Numbers -- still going strong but at one time this was the only way to run a mail-order business. Now you can have a huge mail-order business without a phone. (Ever tried to find a phone number on Amazon's web site?)
900 Numbers -- initially promoted as useful for all kinds of information delivery, orders, etc. Now nearly unheard of except for phone sex lines.
FAX Numbers -- being replaced by email, more or less
"Bang" email addresses -- e.g. "uunet!batcomputer!kremvax!joe" Try to send one of those today.
Compuserve user ids -- remember when high-tech companies would actually offer support via a Compuserve account number like "71432,651"?
"Enterprise" Phone Numbers -- forerunners to 800 toll free numbers. I think these died out at least 30 years ago.
I'll give you half off the already incredibly low low price of $9.99/yr when you renew for a million years! That's right, only $4.99 per year for a million-year renewal*! Think of the convenience! No more tiresome renewal reminders -- for a million years!
* All sales final. Domain names not transferrable.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I found we are both right - they wholesale from dotster - they aren't "really" a subsidary though - so I was wrong
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Everyone is asking why pay for 100 year DNS fee. Just think what it would cost if you forgot to renew during 1 of those 100 years. For a few thousand dollars it cheap insurance.
Domains that were registered pre-1996(?) I think are indefinitely registered. I seem to remember ml.org mentioning this back when they started doing the dynamic dns thing.
I use them for my registrations and have never had an issue. I might consider a switch to godaddy if there was a compelling reason.
When restaurants are built, the land is often leased with either 30 or 50 year term. Of course, that land will be worth something no matter what happens (unless it falls into Pacific) while same can't be said about domain names.
"Is this is a realistic investment considering most companies don't last 100 years?" Do you even need to ask? This is almost on the level of selling papal indulgences. "Get your domain for the next 100 years on special offer and I'll throw in this sin-absolvence certificate at no extra charge!"
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
... will we even *have* domain names in 100 years? If so, will they still be bound by the same structure of www/ftp/whatever.sitename.TLD? Will the internet even exist in the same way that we know it today?
Remember where automotive technology was 100 years ago? How much good would a 100-year warranty have done you on a 1904 model-A?
I think we're vastly overestimating the constancy of the internet. I'm sure it will still be around, but I'd be surprised if it's still called "the internet". I'd be likewise surprised if it still used present-day naming conventions.
They will never stop until somebody makes the
You don't have to be an MBA to understand the Time Value of Money
network solutions wants $10 per year if you buy 100 years worth..
I registered my domain through godaddy.com for $7 per year because I bought 10 years worth.. Heck had I only wanted one year it would have only been $8.. why in the world you pay the extra $2 (or $3) per year..
Oh, cool. Outlook lets me set an appointment for 2104. Strangely, I seem not to be available, though. Now why would that be?
-- SYS 64738 --
If I got one and say, 40 or 80 years from now one of my descendents noticed they had moved on to some other technology and didn't migrate me, they could sue. I would like that to be my legacy.
Because they spammed me, that's why. So, I'm not very forgiving. Deal.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
...Great-Grampa paid City Telegraph, Telephone and Illuminating Gas the whopping sum of fifty whole dollars so he could lock up "Main 123J" as his phone number for the next 100 years.
Where do I go to renew?
Would it be a likely guess that either you are, or you know someone who is a ham radio operator? The comment about the "particularly catchy morse code callsign" makes me wonder. 73, Jim
I'm suprised no one has brought this up yet.
Several "leading" companies went through the public embarassment of such stupid flops as not being able to track their domain name expiration dates- the equivalent of dentists with toochaches or editors making spelling and grammar errors. Some websites that lost their domains for some time:
hotmail.com
norton.com
For more information, I refer you to RenderMan's Art of Domain Stalking
Buying domains for a long time makes a lot of sense for anyone who's budget is over dozens of thousands of dollars - it's cheaper than having a department or even a single employee tracking the expiration date of your domains.
$30'000 in employee salary versus $1000 for 100 years of registration- see the benefits?
--- Nothing but Blood and Kosmos
... because the Y10K bug will destroy everything after that point.
No, wrong on both counts, I'm afraid. But I'll take your comment as a compliment on my ability to make stuff up and sound convincing ;)
evil math within Nature's Cubic Creation!
I did not read this entire thread as I am very lazy. So if someone has already posted a similiar response please accept my apology. That being said, it would seem to me that there are very simple reasons for Network Solutions to offer domain names that last a century. The answer is ofcourse $$$$. They don't care if your company lasts 6 months or a millenia, they got theirs. They can disguise this reason by saying lots-o-things, "Never forget to re-register again!",or "Set it, and forget it...", etc. etc. This is actaully a brilliant move on their part, as they only need to deal with the customer one time and then leave it alone until 2100.
A hundred years from now who will know or care.
Domain names as they stand now will just not be there in 100 years. Technology advances too fast. If I were a big company I would want to register my domain for maybe 20 years in advance. The cost is minimal if you go with a low cost high quality registrar like godaddy. As long as the registration is actually made for 10 years and not just renewed every few years by the company. It actually needs to be your for ten years regardless of whether the registrar goes under.
As for 100 years being too far ahead, in the US big companies generally plan 10-25 years ahead however Japanese companies often have 100 year plans. Its not that uncommon.
On a side note, I want a computer case with all the fans on the side closest to my feet so I can use it as a foot warmer.
Any corporation that would consider taking advantage of this deal does not understand the time value of money. I own 50 domain names. I would much prefer to invest my $50,000 at 5% for 100 years and have my company reap the over $6.5MM than to squander it on this deal. Besides, if I can't figure out how to keep my own domain names renewed, why would I entrust it to someone else with a less vested interest?