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Inexpensive Alternatives for ICANN Disputes?
SerialHistorian asks: "The commmunity college newspaper that I was once a staff member and webmaster of had its domain name expire recently without realizing it, and it was snatched up by a porn merchant from the Dominican Republic. Unfortunately, we found that the ICANN dispute fees -start- at $1500. For a college paper whose full annual budget is $10,000, that's not a realistic price... so is there any alternative to the ICANN dispute method so that they can get their domain name back?" According to ICANN's website, there are a limited number of approved UDRP providers, none of which will arbitrate for anything less than US$1100. Are there cheaper methods that one can use to challenge a domain name reassignment? Is it possible to challenge domain name transfers without invoking the UDRP? Why does the handling of such disputes cost so much?
I'm asking a question here, not trying to say anything.
Why should you get your name back? You didn't reregister it when it expired. Someone else did. Isn't domain name allocation supposed to be first come first serve?
The masses are the crack whores of religion.
It costs a bundle to keep people from arbitrarily challenging any domain name at any time -- if it's going to take > $1000 to challenge, you're going to be PRETTY damned sure you have a case before you undertake.
In essence, it keeps the channels clear for serious challenges.
If you feel you have a case, challenge, then sue the party when you win to recover court costs.
Oh, and IANAL.
Scott
I really don't see how you have a case. The domain expired, they bought it. Deal with it.
without realizing it
Please give me your secret! Seriously though, given the hawk like gaze that most registrars have on expiry dates, I can't believe you didn't get hounded with renewal notices. Heck - one of my domains is up for renewal in febuary and I've been getting at least one mail a week asking me to renew it. Sounds simply like the person who was the contact wasn't doing their job, so as everyone else on Slashdot will point out eagerly, I think you're just gonna have to deal with it, and that's the best and fairest way there is - I for one sure would be pissed if I registered a domain only to get it taken off me because the former owner suddenly decided he still wanted it after all.
Try NetBSD... safe,straightforward,useful.
If as you say your domain is now owned by a porn site operator do you really want it back? Its probably quickly getting black listed across corporate proxy servers all over the country as we speak. Cut your losses and get a new name. Perhaps since you are part of a community college you could just get a sub domain off of them? It would be a lot cheaper and would probably make more sense. If you haven't soured your relations with the porn guy you could even ask him to link to this new domain.
In Republican America phones tap you.
Why does the handling of such disputes cost so much?
Obviously because it was designed to let corporations take domains away from the little guy and not the other way around. Yet another case of the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.
X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
Have you tried calling the pr0n merchant directly and negotiating with them? It obviously will be the least expensive route, and is probably your only real chance at getting the domain back anyway. They may accept a payment far less than ICANNs arbitration fee.
Why do people so often look to involve the authorities when they havent yet tried a neighborly approach that is so often more effective and far less expensive?
include $sig;
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For $1200 in the Dominican republic, you could arrange for the domain to become free again quite easily - dead men don't need domains.
But seriously -register a new domain and move on - your old domain will be on blacklists and won't be accessible from NetNannied systems.
How about just creating a subdomain under your school's domain - if the school is skuul.k12.ar.us, create paper.skuul.k12.ar.us and use that. That way, you save a domain fee, and you will only lose the domain if your school does something incredibly stupid.
www.eFax.com are spammers