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Old 01-04-2009, 08:09 PM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
10,447 posts, read 49,513,057 times
Reputation: 10614

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Lets say you like a specific web site that you admire. But it is so outdated with so much potential if only some one with the smarts and time to make it great and even a profitable one. And at the bottom, like all web sites there is a date or a date range (and is expired) and even a link to the designer of the site.

How and who would I contact about purchasing this site? If the site is abandoned but still comes up on the WWW is it because the site has been paid up for some time to come and will drop off the WWW when it expires?

Thanks in advance.........
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Old 01-04-2009, 09:20 PM
 
28,455 posts, read 84,928,817 times
Reputation: 18723
This might be helpful:

Mike Davidson - How to Snatch an Expiring Domain
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Old 01-04-2009, 10:48 PM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
10,447 posts, read 49,513,057 times
Reputation: 10614
Quote:
Originally Posted by chet everett View Post
Thanks Chet...I learned a lot. But I also now have more questions then before. That is quite fasinating.

At least I have some ideas what to search for.

Thanks again !
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Old 01-04-2009, 10:58 PM
 
Location: Vero Beach, Fl
2,976 posts, read 13,335,567 times
Reputation: 2265
Go to Register Domain Names at Register.com - Business Web Hosting Services and Domain Name Registration Provider and locate whois from the drop down menu which may give you enough information to contact the individual or entity who owns it. You can proceed from there. You also don't need to go to register dot com as there are many other ways of locating "whois" on the web. You may also find that the page is private and you would not know who is the owner, but even so, there is always a way to find out.

Good luck and let me know if I can help you.
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Old 01-04-2009, 11:05 PM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
10,447 posts, read 49,513,057 times
Reputation: 10614
Ok 2 important questions for you both:

The date at the bottom says 2000. There is information that is outdated and there has not been any updates in quite some time. How do us peons find out the expiration or do we have to register with those domain snatchers cause only they know how?

Second: I know how to do a Whois on an email from headers but not a web page. A right click any place on the page says right click is disabled.
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Old 01-05-2009, 01:12 PM
 
673 posts, read 2,709,733 times
Reputation: 421
The expiration of content is governed by copyright law: http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-duration.html. The site may also have underlying trademarks and patents.

Last edited by aaauger; 01-05-2009 at 01:23 PM..
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Old 01-05-2009, 01:49 PM
 
22,768 posts, read 30,601,478 times
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Do you want the "site"? i.e. the business, the content, the customers..

Or do you just want the domain name, in order to create your own site?

One way or the other, I would recommend looking it by doing a whois. re-read what JHL said, I am not sure if you are following him.
Whois.net - Domain Names
This should give you all the contact information you need.
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Old 01-05-2009, 01:57 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles Area
3,306 posts, read 4,131,693 times
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The date at the bottom of a website means nothing. The content and the design of the website are protected by copyright for a long time regardless of what the date at the bottom of the website says.

Anyhow, if you want to contact the owner then look up the whois which will have contact information. Contact information is suppose to be up to date...of course if they don't respond you have no real way to know if they are ignoring you or if the information is no longer valid.

You can find the expiration date of the domain in the whois also, but even if it expires in say 6 months that doesn't mean much. They can easily renew it before you could get it. In fact most domain registrars will "renew" the domain a bit after it expires to prevent people snatching it before you can renew it.

If the site still comes up, it means its still registered to someone, they have DNS entries for it and its being hosted by someone. Its unlikely someone simply forgot about it 8 years ago, they would have to pay for all of these things.
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Old 01-05-2009, 03:07 PM
 
8,652 posts, read 17,180,901 times
Reputation: 4622
The date at the bottom is a copyright date and a copyright if registered is good for 80 years. My son does several web sites and he does not always change the copyright date because it has the original copyright date on it. And the copyright may only be for the web site. It does not cover your products in the site unless they are also copyrighted. But he does keep the names registered in his name even if they have the name of a company he does the sites for. That way he can shut the site down if they don't pay their bill for his work on the site. And some of the sites he does, there is no need to up date them that often but he still gets the hosting fee, as he does host them on his server.
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Old 01-05-2009, 04:16 PM
 
242 posts, read 732,745 times
Reputation: 192
Quote:
Originally Posted by desertsun41 View Post
Lets say you like a specific web site that you admire. But it is so outdated with so much potential if only some one with the smarts and time to make it great and even a profitable one. And at the bottom, like all web sites there is a date or a date range (and is expired) and even a link to the designer of the site.

How and who would I contact about purchasing this site? If the site is abandoned but still comes up on the WWW is it because the site has been paid up for some time to come and will drop off the WWW when it expires?

Thanks in advance.........
You can do a 'whois' search (just google whois) and look up the domain. You can find the owner.

The person may not tend the site, but if it is still up, then that person still is paying something to keep that site up.

I have a server and it costs me a couple bucks a month. I can host hundreds of sites and leave them there, so not being tended means not much.

I would suggest just buying your own domain name, getting a host, and enjoy your new hobby and get your own site going. No real reason to buy someone else's, especially if it is old. Just go with their idea and take it further.
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