Domain names – they’re the real estate of the Internet. Without them, we’d have nowhere to go, and our lives would be spent staring at an empty computer screen (or maybe filled with time spent outside and connecting with real, live, actual people). However, they work a little bit like rental homes and apartments, don’t they? You can never "own" a domain. Eventually, they expire. Sometimes, they just aren’t available.

How would you feel if you couldn’t buy the house you wanted simply because someone else owned it, but they weren’t using it? How would you feel if you forgot to pay rent, and someone moved into your apartment with no questions asked? Yeah, I’m sure it would feel pretty bad. However, these types of things happen daily on the Internet, and today, we have some of the more humorous occurrences available for you to read about.

Baseball Fan Pranks Red Sox With Own Domain

Although I'm not a big baseball fan myself, I come from a baseball family. With that said, I know how intense baseball fans can get, and based on my family's team affiliation, that goes double for Red Sox fans. Now, as some of our American readers may know (not to leave anyone out), there is an intense rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. However, when a Chicago Cubs fan recently jumped into the mix, things got a little out of hand.

Let's go back a little. Not too long ago, the Red Sox recently built a spring training complex in the Southeastern United States. What was the name of the place? Jet Blue Park. After hearing about the park, Cubs fan Eric Engelman jokingly purchased the domain name JetBluePark.com in an effort to cause all kinds of riff-raff. What made it worse was this - he set the domain to redirect to the New York Yankees website.

To this day, the domain is still in the hands of Engelman, and as a matter of fact, you can check it out right now.

Note: Technically, the Red Sox franchise was not yet the owner of JetBluePark.com, but you get the picture.

(NESN)

Ticketed Speeder Informs Public Of Local Law

In Bluff City, Tennessee, a gentleman by the name of Brian McCrary was caught speeding by one of local law enforcement's anti-speed cameras. However, he actually had a valid case to back up his reason for speeding. Fact: McCrary was going 56 miles per hour in a 45 mile per hour zone. However, the road he was traveling on was originally a 55, and for no explicable reason, it changed to a 45 (which he didn't notice). McCrary later explained that other locals believed that it was simply a speed trap.

After going to the Bluff City Police Department's website in search for some answers, he noticed that there was a notification on the site from GoDaddy stating the site would be expiring in about 40 days. McCrary, already having experience in computer network design, decided to wait things out and see if the site would be renewed. As you may guess, it wasn't. In a swift act of vengeance (let's be honest as to what it was), McCrary bought the domain. Furthermore, the alleged speeder decided to put the site to good use and slather it with educational material concerning the Bluff City PD.

(TriCities)

BF3 Gamer Expresses Disdain For MW3

Remember how Modern Warfare 3 and Battlefield 3 came out at roughly the same time? Oh, and remember how there is this whole rivalry as to which game is better? (Personal choice? MW3, but that's only because I don't have the time to get into BF3. To the real gamers out there: I'm sorry.) Well, when the MW3 domain was purchased and covered in Battlefield propaganda, things got a little hairy.

According to a few Whois Records, Anthony Abraham of Florida was the purchaser of the domain name ModernWarefare3.com. He set the site up as a parody of the Modern Warfare series, offering fake customer reviews and jabs at the Activision series. Naturally, Activision took legal action (and spent $2,600 on a panel to figure out the mess), and as of now, the site remains in their possession.

(Fusible)

Employee Spruces Up His Boss' Homepage

We pretty much love Reddit on MakeUseOf (some of us more than others), and as you know, the site welcomes most pranks as long as they are unique. This includes user Chris Erwin's hilarious skylarking when he bought his boss' domain JonLax.com. Erwin purchased the domain name back in June and decorated it with moving images of Lax's face paired with a soundtrack that sounds strikingly similar to a smooth jazz version of Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" (I may be wrong about that, by the way).

What makes this even better is that the domain name is motion-activated for mobile devices. The site is still up, so you can take a look for yourself. Oh, and as for Lax's response to the whole ordeal? Well, he left this tweet.

(Reddit)

Conclusion

As a reminder to all of you, it's a good idea to always remember to renew your domains. Trust me, it would be a sad day if you lost them to auction or even worse, to someone who doesn't particularly care for you.

What other domain horror stories do you know about? Has anyone ever bought your domain?