The tragic death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter, and seven more people came as a shock to many of us.
I was having a late business lunch with a developer when the news was blasted all over the restaurant’s televisions.
Everyone thought it was a mistake. Broadcasted news double-triple check their sources, however; this is not social media gone amuck over a hoax.
Unfortunately, the news of Kobe’s death is real, and we mourn the untimely loss of one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
Basketball is popular as soccer where I come from, and perhaps even more popular. It’s a passionate, personal sport that enhances teamwork through acts of heroism, and Kobe Bryant was a true demigod of the sport.
Riding on a wave of immense appreciation and feeling of loss, fans shared their condolences and professed their pain in public.
Some went after registering “Kobe Bryant” domains that indicated either the cause of the accident, or the status of Kobe Bryant’s life.
I noticed a couple of such domain names immediately, KobeIsDead.com – parked at GoDaddy – and KobeBryantIsDead.com, which displays a makeshift memorial by some self-professed fan.
First off, anyone can register any domain name for any reason and any purpose. The ethics of domain registration, however, dictate that profiteering from someone else’s loss in this manner is seen as a desperate and despicable act. It lacks human dignity and complicates the ability of those at loss to pick themselves up.
These two domain names are not even the worst that were registered following Kobe Bryant’s tragic death. Raymond Hackney shared a big list of such domains offered up for sale at GoDaddy auctions, and the list is expected to grow.
Perhaps GoDaddy should man up and acknowledge that such monetization of domain names does not go well with the new entrepreneurial attitude its CEO professes. They should pull down such auctions immediately.
Kobe Bryant – Photo by TJ Dragotta on Unsplash
