Tatu
02-05-2001, 12:29 PM
I found this disturbing post at http://DomainNotes.com :And, *poof* The Name was Gone
gkwinfield - 02:03pm Dec 26, 2000 EDT
Just in the last week, NSI and Bulk Register abruptly took a clearly available domain I registered almost a month before hand. Apparently it previously belonged to someone else who had registered it at NSI and wanted it back very strongly. NSI (Registrar) notified Bulk Register that a mistake was made. Bulk Register immediately complied based on this representation. And, *poof* the name was gone with no recourse and no
warning. Just an email after the fact including notice of a credit of my
registration fee.
This happened after I had already invested significant resources into the
site. The basic explanation I got was it was an NSI Registrar error. Now,
the NSI whois record shows a brand new registration, not a reinstatement of a previous one. Doesn't seem like the way you correct an error to me.
The ability to do this may be within their rights in the various agreements. What disturbs me a bit, is the abruptness in nature, the ability for them to do this nearly a month after registration, and the total lack of the current registrant to have any input or notification
during the process.
Not sure if this might disturb anyone else. But, what's to stop any previous registrant of a name from coming back at any time and claiming something similar? What mechanism is in place to insure the error is as represented and that this process is not being abused?
However, two lawyers I contacted indicated this could cost well over $10,000 to take to court. So having to spend $10,000 - $20,000 per domain registration that someone
takes back this way doesn't seem realistic. And there is no guarantee of success.
This post could serve as a warning to those who this might happen to in the future. As I understand it, not all registrars would respond to this matter the way Bulk Register did. From the information I have, Bulk
Register had to agree to the request from NSI and did so without any invesigation into the matter. They received the request dated Dec. 19th and by 9:19 AM that same day they had already notified me that it was taken away. It doesn't sound like they gave it a second thought. If this is the
case, something you can do is choose your registrar carefully. Someone that might at least do some serious investigation, instead of rolling over, could help.
And sure, if you have $10k - $20k or more that you can toss at problems like this, just take 'em to court.
Greg Abrams
Consulting First
NSI seems to be quite the bully.
-Tatu
gkwinfield - 02:03pm Dec 26, 2000 EDT
Just in the last week, NSI and Bulk Register abruptly took a clearly available domain I registered almost a month before hand. Apparently it previously belonged to someone else who had registered it at NSI and wanted it back very strongly. NSI (Registrar) notified Bulk Register that a mistake was made. Bulk Register immediately complied based on this representation. And, *poof* the name was gone with no recourse and no
warning. Just an email after the fact including notice of a credit of my
registration fee.
This happened after I had already invested significant resources into the
site. The basic explanation I got was it was an NSI Registrar error. Now,
the NSI whois record shows a brand new registration, not a reinstatement of a previous one. Doesn't seem like the way you correct an error to me.
The ability to do this may be within their rights in the various agreements. What disturbs me a bit, is the abruptness in nature, the ability for them to do this nearly a month after registration, and the total lack of the current registrant to have any input or notification
during the process.
Not sure if this might disturb anyone else. But, what's to stop any previous registrant of a name from coming back at any time and claiming something similar? What mechanism is in place to insure the error is as represented and that this process is not being abused?
However, two lawyers I contacted indicated this could cost well over $10,000 to take to court. So having to spend $10,000 - $20,000 per domain registration that someone
takes back this way doesn't seem realistic. And there is no guarantee of success.
This post could serve as a warning to those who this might happen to in the future. As I understand it, not all registrars would respond to this matter the way Bulk Register did. From the information I have, Bulk
Register had to agree to the request from NSI and did so without any invesigation into the matter. They received the request dated Dec. 19th and by 9:19 AM that same day they had already notified me that it was taken away. It doesn't sound like they gave it a second thought. If this is the
case, something you can do is choose your registrar carefully. Someone that might at least do some serious investigation, instead of rolling over, could help.
And sure, if you have $10k - $20k or more that you can toss at problems like this, just take 'em to court.
Greg Abrams
Consulting First
NSI seems to be quite the bully.
-Tatu