Fuckwad of the week: The merchant of disease who wants six figures for Ebola.com

[cali]

Jon Schultz is a cigarette-thin man who will, upon requests for a photograph, don a ruby robe and strike a regal pose. Schultz is a businessman and he wants to look good. There’s money to be made everywhere — even off tragedy and disaster. For the right kind of entrepreneur, Shultz said Monday night, calamity affords a very unique business opportunity. And Schulz, merchant of disease domains, is that kind of entrepreneur.

Name a disease, and there’s a chance Schultz owns it. He has birdflu.com. He has H1N1.com. He has one for the deadly mosquito-borne disease, Chikungunya, and another for Marburg. And finally, there’s the jewel of his trove. Ebola.com, which Schultz bought in 2008 for $13,500.

The time for the payout has arrived. Schultz wants $150,000 for Ebola.com — a price he thinks is more than reasonable. “According to our site meter, we’re already doing 5,000 page views per day just by people typing in Ebola.com to see what’s there,” said Schultz, who monitors headlines the way brokers watch their portfolios, to gauge his domain’s worth. “We’re getting inquiries every day about the sale of it. I have a lot of experience in this sort of domain business, and my sense is that $150,000 is reasonable.”

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Others, however, haven’t been nearly so forgiving of Schultz. “In today’s information economy, there are few more useless money-grubbers than domain squatters, and that is exactly who owns Ebola.com,” commented Elias Groll in Foreign Policy. “…On Monday, the director of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, called the outbreak ‘unquestionably the most severe, acute public health emergency in modern times.’ Naturally, there is money to be made.”

And made now. Schultz told the Washington Post he wants to sell the domain soon because he’s worried something may “ameliorate” the outbreak, diminishing Ebola’s news value – and the worth of his domain. “Ebola is either something that could become more of a problem, or it’s something that could ameliorate and not be a big news story for that much longer.”

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/10/14/the-merchant-of-disease-who-wants-six-figures-for-ebola-com/

[KamaAina]

1. He’s WORRIED something may “ameliorate” the outbreak?!

Today's Worst. Person. In The World!

[cali]

2. He's holding on to birdflu.com because it has more potential

to wreak more death and havoc. And he compares himself to doctors 'cuz they make money off of illness too.

It's horrid of me but it would be karmic justice if the guy died from one of the diseases he's so gung ho to make money off of.

[cyberswede]

3. I wish Anonymous would hack all his URLs and redirect to legit sites.

[Initech]

5. Please let it happen!

This guy needs to be taken down a peg or two.

[LawDeeDah]

4. I thought domain squatting was illegal.

But I suppose it is if you use a corporate name like ford.com - man, somebody made bundles in the early web days by squatting. Diseases and names of things probably not the same.

Vulture just the same, he had intent that is not unlike corporate domain name squatting.