This guy has had this domain for 5 years... is his registar information has a his old domain on it called "MYCITYS"Domains.com, where mycity's is the name of my city. I contacted him about this domain that doesn't have a site built for it and expires in 3 months, and asked if he wanted to sell it. "Yeah.. do you have a loan or something? I want $12k".

When is it considered squatting?

It's considered squatting when they own a domain that infringes on copyrights/trademarks, and they buy it for the purpose of holding out on big money from the company that owns the trademark/copyright.

Since you don't own the trademark to *yourcity*domains.com, he is not squatting. Rather, he invested money into a domain, and if you want it, you need to negotiate a price with him.

Gotcha. (damn!) Thanks... :)

Offer him what its worth to you, and if he turns you down, you might see him again a couple weeks later.

<edit>I might do that......</edit>

Put a - or get a .something else and tell him to shove his $12k with $12k you could do enough investing in advertising to supplement the loss of a .com And if your venture that you plan on doing with the site makes the big bucks, you won't have a problem buying it from him in the future..

speaking of that, some dude owns myfamilyname.com where myfamily name is my domain. He is using sedo on it and wants a lodda $$$ for it.

Any idea of how i may get that domain through legal ways? Its not trademark, but i feel that people have rights to thier last names.

I had a guy who knew I was going to register hqgamingforce.com... well guess what he did? He registered it and wanted $65 for it. THAT is cyber squatting.

Originally posted by saffar
speaking of that, some dude owns myfamilyname.com where myfamily name is my domain. He is using sedo on it and wants a lodda $$$ for it.

Any idea of how i may get that domain through legal ways? Its not trademark, but i feel that people have rights to thier last names.

Not really, there are plenty of celebrities that don't own their domain names and legally can't get them unless the owner wants to give them up..