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AOL Stealing Domain Names?
zack writes "Observers.net has an interesting story about someone who registered the domain aolbeta.com after finding out it was available to purchase on August 20. The next day, it was somehow magically transfered to AOL's own registrar, and under their name. Since AOL is an ICANN accredited registrar, apparently they can have any domain they want. Do you really own your domain name?"
I just registered AOLstealsdomainnames.com ....guess I'll wait and see if I get any nasty letters......
On-topic: One of the biggest fears I've had of a shared registration system is the ability to do exactly what AOL has apparently done .. Since there's apparently no user-level authentication built into the registry (why should there be? you don't own your name, according to the Big Boys), as evidenced by having to prove your identity to the registrar, then what's to prevent slipping someone who has the technical equivalent of "root" access a bit of cash to harass your competitors by swapping their names around?
Unfortunately, there's probably not a way to fix this in the current system, as adding authentication for the individual domain name holder would most likely require a re-write of the existing shared registry system, and I think we can guess the chances of NSI&Cartel letting that go through.
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...then folks will simply start up their own "name lookup system" that is independent of the current DNS setup.
Build it on freenet, submit an RFC that defines a new class of URL, say ihttp, iftp, or blabla.com.i, etc. for "independent" or whatever. There is no rule that precludes a complete "shadow" or parallel naming system from being constructed.
You and I can do this today. Set up a new root server, using different ports than the defaults for named, patch bind to first check the alt-dns database servers and if the name is not found there, check the "real-dns".
There are lots of possibilities and none of them are "regulated".
Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
- W. Wriston, former Citibank CEO
how this can happen? My friend registered a domain name a couple of years ago in his name, but used my address. I wanted to change all the information to my name but could not (Network Solutions is NOT very friendly, even though the hosting company offered to verify that I paid the bills for the registered name). Doesn't Network Solutions have some kind of protective service, that does not let others change the site's address? I remember that I had to email all this information to them, and a week later they emailed me back to confirm that it was indeed me...yadayaada.
If this proves to be true, and you have proof that you have actually registered the site, why not try to get ICANN to change the ruling?
Sig it.
Um. The Albino Organization of Liberating Banana-Enema Therapies for All?
Dunno...Just a guess.
Sig it.
No. Army Of Lawyers Busy Engineering The Alibi.
The really stupid part of this whole thing is that, given the current precedents as far as domain names go, AOL would have had no problem legally gaining rights to that domain name. AOL is one of those world recognizable trademarks, and they probably wouldn't have had to be in court for more than a week to get it legally transferred to their ownership. Not to mention the fact that a lot of people are still very sympathetic to a company's right to protect its trademark, and AOL's public image would not have been impacted much by this kind of trial (other than to piss off even more the people who already hate AOL anyway). :)
NOW, however, they have gone and stolen the domain, bypassing the courts, and setting themselves up for a MAJOR PR disaster. If this manages to go to trial, I'm sure it will be a notorious battle that will seriously tarnish AOL's image. It's one thing to initiate a court proceeding to fight for your trademark -- it's quite another to be taken to court for what amounts to theft and a serious abuse of power. We probably couldn't have tied the noose any better for AOL than they've done for themselves! Now we just have to get this article up front on Slashdot where people can start reading it
If AOL can defend their trademark through direct action, and other non-Registrar companies have to go to the courts, then AOL have an unfair competitive advantage. We have laws to govern trademark disputes, and the WIPO is there to adjudicate, so AOL can sit and wait like everyone else, IMO.
You go to a registrar, and lookup "aolbeta". Then you request to register it. You may or may not succeed.
Meanwhile, someone else goes to a different registrar, and looks up "aolbeta". It's not taken, so they request to register it. They may or may not succeed.
It's called a race condition and it happens in all distributed databases of this nature. This doesn't mean AOL are throwing their weight around. They may simply have registered it before this other guy.
The fact that AOL had it the very next day seems to bear with this analysis. Let's focus on real issues, not some guy who's peeved because he doesn't understand the domain name registration process.
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It's a
-- Danny Vermin