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Statement by the ICANN advisory committee ALAC:

On Domain Monetization
We note that there is a meaningful difference between Domain Tasting and Domain Monetization. Monetization is a straightforward arbitrage between the cost of domain registrations and the revenue from as much pay-per-click traffic as the domain owner can get from people who visit web sites in the domain. It’s a fundamentally sleazy business, since the web sites have no useful content and the way they get the traffic is basically by tricking people, either via typos or recently expired domains. More importantly, the presence of such website makes web-surfing by ordinary users far more difficult and confusing than they should be.

Sure, developed web sites might be nicer and more useful than parking pages, but this does not mean that domain monetization is a “sleazy business” or in any way misleading people. Quite the contrary is the case. What is more useful: An error message saying that a domain that has not yet been developed does not resolve or a parking page with targeted links that help the visitors find what they are looking for? The answer is very obvious, in my opinion.

You can read the full ALAC statement here: http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org/2007q1/000431.html