What to Do When Your ISP Steals Your Domain? 68
sahonen asks: "Some web hosting providers also provide domain registration on the side, which is great for users who want to keep things simple. What ends up happening, though, is the user will want to switch hosting providers, but their old host will hold on to the domain to try and lock the user in. I've seen this happen many times and it's not pretty. This happened to a friend of mine just recently and he's asking me for advice. I don't want him to have to buy another domain when he's worked so hard to establish his old one. Aren't domains legal property (we are in the US here)? Can he nail the old host for cybersquatting? And for the philosophers, how do these hosts expect to maintain a good reputation when they engage in such unscrupulous business practices?"
Maintain your DNS with your registar (Score:2)
Re:Maintain your DNS with your registar (Score:1)
slashdot effect (Score:4, Funny)
A: Slashdot Them!
Are you really surprised? (Score:1)
Re:Are you really surprised? (Score:2)
I made my own car out of wood, organic tea leaves, and bamboo. It's hard to trust any auto maker in this day and age, so I do it myself.
Re:Are you really surprised? (Score:1)
Re:Are you really surprised? (Score:2)
I use the same provider for both my DNS service and my domain registration. The rest I handle myself through a cobbled together web of broadband connections and a virtual server at 65535.net.
It depends (Score:2)
Re:It depends (Score:1)
Re:It depends (Score:1)
Cheers, though!
Re:It depends (Score:2)
Hopefully you friend did his part (Score:2)
Re:Hopefully you friend did his part (Score:1)
Personally, I think this phenomenon falls under the auspices of two adages: know what you're agreeing to and don't put all your eggs in one basket. If the terms of service for this registration did not specify an owner for the domain, or explicitly made the ISP the owner, then he's screwed. The WHOIS record for this domain looks like a person owns it. I don't see why the registrar wouldn't accept changes from him provided he can authenticate.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:5, Informative)
If that is the case, then you don't have a domain squatter. You have theft through deception. Take them to court.
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:1)
Fortunately, my name was still Administrative contact, so I simply logged into the Network Solutions site and kicked the loser off. It's not like my domain gets any traffic; I mainly use it for email, so either NS screwed up or some hacker screwed around...
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:2)
Yeah, just like the University of California is somewhere in Canada.
Maybe some 'hacker' had been screwing around with Google?
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:1)
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:3, Informative)
Some might argue that nz is our eighth state tho. Theres actually a provision in the aust constitution welcoming them in. They seem to of declined the offer
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:2)
Whereas the more astute will know that Australia is properly considered the West Island of New Zealand.
(To make that slightly less localized humour -- NZ has two main islands, imaginatively named the North Island and the South Island. There's also a third very small island at the bottom, but nobody talks about it very much because it's called Stewart Island, and that confuses the system too much.)
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:2)
Hehe. Perfectly honest dude. If one really did have a melding of countries, I'd probably rather us become nz's west island then other way around.
Our government is quite the menace at the moment, whereas I've been quite impressed by the kiwi's.
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:2)
choice a
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:1)
Solution is simple... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:1)
Find a new company to do your DNS, and e-mail and
contact the registrant to move everything.
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:1)
If OLM doesn't allow you to point the domain to another nameserver, all you have to do is transfer the domain from OLM to another registrar. The transfer will go through without any problems because your friend is the contact. This will all happen without OLM's approval.
Once you've transfered
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:2)
Re:Hold Onto the Domain? (Score:1)
What about CORE? (Score:1)
Read the fine print (Score:4, Informative)
BTW, domain name disputes cost $1000 to $2000 [internic.net]. So if the ISP is asking less than $1000, that may be your cheapest route out of this mess, as morally repugnant as that sounds.
checked the policies (Score:4, Informative)
Re:checked the policies (Score:1)
Domain buying (Score:2)
If, however, you insist on having your ISP do this, make sure that you are at least one of the listed contacts and, if the admin is done via a web form, make sur
What happened? (Score:1)
That's obnoxious. Your friend should transfer the domain to another registrar with less obnoxious policies. Alternately,
He should check his account to see if his domain is "locked". Allegedly, registrars allow customers to lock their domains so as to prevent unauthorized/"accidental" transfers to other registrars. I say allege
Re:What happened? (Score:1)
Use domainmonger.com for important domains. I've been using them for several years now, they will always get on the phone and resolve problems if need be, and their support and reliability are fabulous. They will never bend over and hand a domain over without a full ICANN d
Re:What happened? (Score:1)
i've used godaddy for several years now. mostly good experiences. their "lock" system didn't work right when they first implemented it and the almost obsessive compulsive urge to stick "buy this too" ads in the process of registering a domain is the bad bits. but in their defense, a quick email
Buy it yourself from the get-go (Score:1)
Easy, but shady. (Score:2)
Reputation doesnt matter for most of them. All they need is to gain an equal or more amount of customers a month than they lose and theyre making money.
Most of the hosting companies out there just want to make money, they don't care about whats right. Most are just paper engineers that want to make aquick buck and end up bugging me for the most simple stuff.
I've h
YES! Domains are like property (Score:2)
The Register [theregister.co.uk] reports that domains are like property.
IF you own the name you own it like property (in the USA). Whose name is on the records?
If not your friends then look at the registration advertisements and agreements and see who was supposed to own the name he paid for, maybe fraud took place at registration
Sam
Now he's annoyed his new provider... (Score:2)
Re:Now he's annoyed his new provider... (Score:1)
Not difficult (Score:2)
Get thee to a barrister's office, my friend.
2 options (Score:1)
- the ICANN/WIPO route
- register the trademark and sue for trademark infringement in a US court*
*this might work even if it's not registered, but I'm not positive. I say definitely consult a lawyer on this one!
Re:2 options (Score:1)
They will probably not bother to renew it when it expires. It all depends on whether someone else will get hold of it, and whether you can be bothered waiting until it expires.
Related Situation (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to work for a software company. I registered a domain for that software company through register.com and *MY* name was on the domain registration. I never actually transferred ownership to that software company, but leased the domain to them under a verbal arrangment. Their website was handled by XO and the domain registration was still handled by register.com
Software company gets acquired, and the new owner doesn't want to use the domain. Instead, appoints some scumbag to try to auction it off. Only problem, of course, is that the domain is still owned by me, and it was never theirs to sell.
Scumbag decides he wants control of the domain and sends a threatening lawyer-writ letter to both XO and register.com. XO AND register.com decide that the whole UDRP thing is just too complicated and simply lock me out of the website, my POP account, my register.com domain management account, and everything else related to that domain. Unbelievable. Take my credit card off the account, basically pretened that I don't exist anymore -- EVEN THOUGH my name was on the account, I was paying for the hosting, paid for registration, etc. I called, yelled, screamed, etc. Neither company cared...they just caved to the most scary-sounding letter and "wanted to avoid trouble". Scumbag thought he won.
So what did I do? Transferred the domain to new registrar (domainmonger.com -- very cool guys who actually respect the UDRP). Luckily, the automated register.com system let that happen, and all of a sudden, the domain was back in my (rightful) hands. Lots of people got pissed off when all of a sudden they realized that many lawyerletters had changed hands (and money was spent) and they had nothing to show for it. Tried the same approach with domainmonger, and got a simple "please refer to the UDRP if you wish to dispute ownership of this domain" right back in their faces. Upon realizing that a dispute takes time and money, they quietly shut up and went away.
Re:Related Situation (Score:2)
What an amazingly bad idea. Why in the world would a company let someone else own the domain name that they use? Why as an employee did you allow your employer to enter such a bad deal? Why did you only go with a verbal agreement?
Keep Control to Begin With (Score:1)
I run a Linux Virtual Private Server Hosting [rimuhosting.com] company.
I've been considering providing a domain name service. But I think its in people best interests to decouple their domain name from their hosting provider. Why?
You can probably get the domain cheaper from a domain name specialist. GoDaddy and the like.
Places like ZoneEdit [zoneedit.com] offer an unbeatable, easy to use, reliable and free DNS service. Or you can just to it yourself on your VPS [rimuhosting.com]. You have root right?
If you need to move hosts then there is no th
As the owner of a hosting/domain company... (Score:2)
To a large extent its a problem that can only be solved through e
Word of mouth (Score:2)
if you didn't read the contract (Score:2)
when you do things for the first time , learn to ask the important questions and don't assume.
before you leave the old host, put a message on them forwarding users to the new domain name, and a copy of your account on what is happening. the old host is only going to hold on to the domain for as long as it seems useful
Warning: The real information is down at level 1 (Score:5, Insightful)
"Dan Cervantes is the owner of the Big Boy Drum company. The problem is that the ISP won't let him transfer the DNS to the server he wants to move his web site to, actually a web host I run. No, I won't plug it, 'cause we're near our bandwidth limit already."
Since when has a ISP had any control over DNS changes? Why even talk to them about it? Go directly to http://www.corenic.org/ and move the damn thing yourself.
"As much as a refund would be nice, the site was down before it got linked to on slashdot, I think the ISP took it down when Dan cancelled his hosting. But they kept the domain name."
They don't have the domain name. Whois clearly says that Dan does. It sounds to me that you simply don't understand the difference between an ISP and a DNS.
Re:Warning: The real information is down at level (Score:1)
"Changes to CORE domain names must be executed through the CORE member which is associated with the domain name."
In this case, the CORE member is olm.net, the ISP in question. I DO know the difference between an ISP and a DNS, thank you very much, the whole point of the article in the first place was that the ISP and DNS record keeper in this case were the same company.
We're gonna try to initiate a registrar transfer, but OLM can reject the transfer, and I have an odd feeling t
Re:Warning: The real information is down at level (Score:2)
Years ago I transferred a domain in which I was listed as the registrant and admin but the registrar was the tech contact. An email was sent to me and to my registrar since those were the contacts on the domain. I approved the transfer and the registrar refused it but since I was listed as the registrant the transfer went through, so I don't think there's anything they can do to prevent
Legal Doctrines that should win (Score:2, Interesting)
2. No Electronic Theft Act and DMCA both could apply.
3. Attack "boilerplate" contract terms as non-bargained for contracts of adheasion.
4. Quantum Meruit (for what it's worth); a method of retaining your work product.
5. Promissory Estoppel: We HOST YOUR DOMAIN does not mean we host our domain that YOU BUILT.
Three of these actions can be brought in courts of limited jurisdiction (NOT SMALL CLAIMS), and they can be very quickly decided - but yo
Domain name ownership is a pain in the ass (Score:2, Interesting)
However whenever a clie
I'm posting late, but: (Score:2)
2) If I had it to do over again, I'd provide this as a service for
OLM.net reply (Score:1)
At your disposal (Score:1)