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?

Comments

why should you get it?

[oyenstikker]

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?

Not realise?

[OrangeSpyderMan]

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.

Do you really want it back now?

[Samus]

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.