On Domain Ownership and Registrar Responsibility

MasterK asks "I am wondering if anyone out there has found themselves to a situation similar to mine? Last month I went to a Web site I frequent and it was gone. Upon looking into it for a whole day I discovered that the domain was available from Network Solutions. I figured they had gone out of business or something so I bought it. That was Monday. On Friday I finally get a call from someone at the company that USED to own the domain accusing me of stealing it, not "a mistake was made can we have our domain back". Just accusations right off the bat. Well, the last thing I wanted was a legal battle, I'm not a domain squatter, but I didn't do anything wrong and I am out $70 plus setting up DNS and so forth. Oh and for the record I could not find any record of them trademarking the name (so I am). Just wondering if anyone has any advice, legal or otherwise." (Read on...)

As far as I can see this guy at least deserves a refund of the $70 he spent in good faith registering his domain. Network Solutions made the mistake (as usual) why don't they take steps to fix it without screwing people over? Is there anything a dissatisfied Network Solution's customer can do to force them? Again, I think it's high time folks looked into alternative registrars since it seems Network Solutions is rapidly losing what limited respect it had among the Internet Community.

Comments?