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Register.com Loses Class action Lawsuit
Anonymous Blowhard writes "I found out today I am a member of a class that just beat register.com in New York Supreme Court!! The suit was filed by Michael Zurakov because register.com pointed his newly registered domain(s) to 'coming soon' web pages. Mr. Zurakov receives $12,500 for the harm caused by register.com while members of the class can look forward to a settlement of $5 off their next domain renewals. Register.com will also pay 'reasonable Class Counsel attorneys'
fees and costs in an amount not to exceed $642,500.00, subject to Court approval.' If you want to exclude yourself from the class, giving up any settlement and not being bound by its terms, you have to opt-out."
...and all I got was a $5 off coupon.
$650,000 in court fees, huh? Guess we know who the lawyers were fighting for.
Isn't a Coming Soon page pretty common for most new domains?
Here's what I do: Bitty Browser & Andromeda
$12.5K for that? How was he harmed? He had tools to point it elsewhere.
I regged my first domain with them, when I didn't know any better, and quickly moved it to addresscreation when I saw the alternatives. Are there any advantages to paying the premium registration charge for rdc?
Now I can sue apache for that horrible advertising page that informs me I've successfully installed the apache server and welcomes me to my new home in cyberspace.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
You have to opt out to exclude yourself from a class action suit? - What a world!
Grundgesetz * 23. Mai 1949 - 30. November 2007 - http://www.vorratsdatenspeicherung.de/
Just stupid. I've got several sites registered on register.com. I don't see what is so offensive about having a Coming Soon page until it switches to your DNS. That's like 2 days?
What an idiot!
Now, he's costing them $600,000. Which ain't pocket change. I hope they can handle it. They've done pretty good. Customer service is okay. A little slow, but they answer their phones.
Such is the infinite Grace of Popeye.
wow, now you only need 4 more coupons and then what you have left is the average price of a DNS from a company that doesn't rip it's customers off.
Comment: Yes I realise the username 'fuckfuck101' makes me sound intelligent, no you cannot buy it from me.
He didn't win. It was a settlement. Register decided to settle, rather than fight this stupid lawsuit. Note: the lawyer made more money than anyone else in this stupid little charade.
Is it obvious that I'm not exactly impressed with this? Register initially pointed his domain to a "coming soon" page when he registered his domain, and they should have put that they would do this in their contract, fair enough. Is that worthy of a lawsuit? Hell no. Is that worthy of hundreds of thousands of dollars in "damages"? Hell no.
What exactly is the harm in a coming soon website?
I think the harm is that register.com can use these coming-soon-websites to get advertising revenue by putting adds on 'property' (the domain) they don't own.
this sig has intentionally been left blank
NY is different than most states because the title of their trial court is the "Supreme Court", which is what most people think is the title for the highest court in the state.
But this is the kind of stuff we here in the UK hear about Americans, if they trip over because they're drunk they sue their shoe companies, or the council who made the pavement.
This is a real turn-off, it portrays Americans in a really bad light, I know your corporates are all like this but do you the people need to be to?
Comment: Yes I realise the username 'fuckfuck101' makes me sound intelligent, no you cannot buy it from me.
I think that register.com wanted to offer a service, because maybe in their eyes a "coming soon" page is better than a 404 page. It would have been better (in my opinion) to just write them that you don't want to have this "service" than to suing them. But you can see this as you want...
".Sig Stealer" was here
You get $5 ... so who really won?
Lawyer gets : $642,500
Presumably all the company will do is add a clause to their terms and conditions that allows them to explicitly do this anyway.. But tying up every new attempt to use the technology in clauses and legalese is hardly going to free people to experiment...
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Class Members will also agree that they remain bound by the terms of Register.com's Services Agreement, as it is amended from time to time.
Yes! Let's agree to agree on things you never agreed on in the first place! Not that this is NOT worded in quite the same way as their current services agreement words it (which includes a 30 day period in which you can up and leave if they change the services agreement); it would seem that this class action settlement overrides such common sense provisions. Nasty!
The remedy seems worse than the disease.
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
Seems to me it would be a no-brainer to opt out of a $5 class settlement. Why waive all future claims against a measly $5??
Does everything include nothing?
I mean, come on now. I read a post a while back here from some guy defending lawyers... and it made some sense. But then you get this kind of nonsense, which is quite obviously a frivolous lawsuit -- and noone really gets anything but the damn lawyers involved...
And the lawyers wonder why we want the vast majority of them boiled in oil?
Oooohhhh Ahhhhhh my domain name pointed to a shitty "coming soon" page for two days!! The humanity!! I want to go bitch slap that guy.
...and all I got was a $5 off coupon.
Register.com today announced their fees are increasing by $5 for new domain registrations and renewals.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
This case was just a shakedown. To prevent it from happening again, members of the class can object to the attorney's fees awarded in the settlement.
See Sec. VII (C) of the linked document for reference.
RDC actually sends me coupons for more than $5 to entice me to keep using their service. This is pretty much the same thing. So they're effectively paying me nothing, paying the plaintiff $12.5K and paying the lawyers $650K.
I Object!
I used to work for Register.com. They sell domains to people that have less computer knowledge then your average AOL user. Once people have a clue about domains they tend to shift to other Registrars. Register.com domains are costly because of the support given. Guys that don't even realize what a domain is or how it is used tend to be the client base for RCOM. As for the issue with the coming soon page I think the fella was doing a money grab.
I think the harm is that register.com can use these coming-soon-websites to get advertising revenue by putting adds on 'property' (the domain) they don't own.
So does this mean that once a house is sold, the realtor must immediately take down their sign rather than leaving it up for a week advertising their name with the "SOLD" sticker across it? Now *there's* a class action waiting to happen!
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
The woman sued because the coffee was simply too hot. It was hot enough to instantaneously destory skin, flesh and muscle.
The woman who spilt it was hospitalized for 8 days and suffered 3rd degree burns on 6 percent of her body.
Sunny Dubey
However, the article is published on register.com's own website, and I get a feeling that we're only getting one side of the story. Nowhere does it explain how he was possibly harmed by this redirecting. A quote on another site seems to point to something else going on -
Michael Zurakov, the lead plaintiff in the suit, which has yet to be certified as a class, claims it took him several months to stop his Web address -- Laborzionist.org -- from redirecting to the "Coming Soon" page.
No more details on why it took that long, but if it was the case that it took several months until he was actually able to use what he'd paid for then it might put a different slant on the story.
It used to be that the "American Dream" was owning a home. Now, it seems, it is to be able to find something that bothers you ever so slightly and then try to sue someone for it. The "American Dream" is to hire lawyers to take your case and to win a few bucks. If you do it right, you can get several million and invest it and retire at the age of 30. If you screw it up, like Sienfeld's Kramer, then you just keep on trying until you get that million bucks. That is the "American Dream." Screw buying a house. With a million bucks I can buy a mansion!
"Time is long and life is short, so begin to live while you still can." -EV
It is a tiny minority of Americans that file stupid lawsuits.
Americans laugh at these idiots too.
Frequently, the media portrays the lawsuits as idiotic, but when you dig into the details and hear the other side it is not so idiotic. Case in point, the famous case of the old women suing McDonald's for the hot coffee spilled on her. Stupid lawsuit until you read the full story behind it. That McDonald's coffee was the hottest in the industry. That McDonald's coffee temperature was on the "knee of the curve" where a few degrees made the difference between a minor burn and a 3rd degree burn. The women received 3rd degree burns and had to go to a hospital. By pushing their coffee temperature to an extreme, well beyond industry practice, McDonald's created a hazard. The lawsuit is not so stupid in that context.
The case sited in this story does sound stupid, but I would like to hear the whole story before I judge.
So, let's suggest I purchase some acid. This company, they screw up, I purchased 10% acid (enough to burn through my skin in 1 minute) but they packed in 100% acid (enough to burn through my skin in 10 seconds).
I decide to carry this dangerous item using my genitalia. Being a moron, I crush the relatively fragile carrier with my thighs and spill this acid all over myself. Rather than being able to wash this stuff off and avoiding sexual pleasure for a week, I have to be hospitalized.
Do I get to sue also? No, I clearly misused a product that, either way, wasn't labelled to be used in that manner. If it were labelled "Please spread this item on your genetalia", I'd have a pretty good case. But it wasn't.
If she sued because the correct usage of the product harmed her, THAT'S FINE. She could sue for 3rd degree mouth burns. That would be fine with me.
You do NOT get to sue, in my books, for ANY unintended usage of a product that turns out to be dangerous. Otherwise what happens when one of my $29.99 power supplies gets used in a heart monitor? Do I get sued for it failing at the wrong time and KILLING a patient?
Certainly not. That's misuse of the product. And at least in that case, it was doing something related to proper use of the product. In this lady's case, the item in question wasn't even NEAR where it belonged. This woman assumed the coffee would only cause some burning if she crushed the cup, not a lot. If she assumed none, then honestly, she's really dumber than some of the unfortunate bedridden, braindead people waiting for death at various hospitals not visited by Dr. Kevorkian. At least their natural reactions cause them to shy away from hot items.
Jesus, how can you be so stupid to take a risk of even some burning?
"Damn, lost my ring in with the boiling carrots. Well, I think they've only been on for a minute, I'll just reach in there and get it." "Oh, shit, I burned myself because this stove heats up faster than my usual one. I HAD BETTER SUE FRIGIDAIRE FOR MILLIONS RIGHT AWAY BECAUSE I'M KING DUMBSHIT! Or should I phone emergency... so hard to decide."
>The woman who spilt it was hospitalized for 8 days and suffered 3rd degree burns on 6 percent of her body
I'm sorry she's an idiot and drinks beverages (hot, cold, lukewarm, of any type really) with her vagina. However, someone that stupid really needs hospitalization for something; I'm just glad they caught her before she did more serious damage to herself.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
That's what I'll be doing - here's the linked section:
C. IF YOU WANT TO OBJECT TO THE SETTLEMENT, BUT STILL BE A PART OF THE SETTLEMENT CLASS.
If you do not request exclusion from the Settlement Class, you may object to any aspect of the proposed Settlement, including the fairness of the settlement, the attorneys' fees and costs or the adequacy of Plaintiff or Class Counsel or Notice, by filing and serving a written objection. Your written objection must state the case name and number ((Zurakov v. Register.com, Case No. 01-600703), the grounds for your objection and your full name and address, and your objection must be filed with the Clerk of the Court, 60 Centre Street, New York, NY, 10007 with a copy to Counsel. SUCH OBJECTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED NO LATER THAN OCTOBER 14, 2003. If you mail an objection to the Settlement, then you bear the risk of any problems with the mails. Such objections will be considered at the Settlement Hearing (see section VIII below), at which you may appear if you wish.
What happened to the Opt In Class Action?
I think that would be a violation of your legal rights. So who's going door to door to see if anyone ever used register.com to allow them to opt out in case they wish to bring their own lawsuit?
There's a small article at law.com about it:
2 6
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=10510282390
Apparently he was unable to change it to direct it to his website for several months after registering it.
I suspect that register.com may have shot themselves in the foot by claiming that the contract did not explicitly give Mr Zurakov
exclusive control over the site. The judge did not agree, saying that if if it wasn't explicit in the contract 'to register' a site should give you more than just a listing in whois.
Register.com should have just admitted that something went wrong with their DNS assignment system and settled out of court. They probably could have gotten away with $5000 or so.
So does this mean that once a house is sold, the realtor must immediately take down their sign rather than leaving it up for a week advertising their name with the "SOLD" sticker across it?
I did it for them on my new house. Nobody gets to advertise on my property. I wouldn't let my barber carve his logo into my scalp, either.
Register.Com's 'coming soon' page is a garish, crowded, visual assault. Nobody would want that thing on a web site that they paid for.
BN
You seem to forget that water boils at 100 degrees celsius. No more. If it was any higher, it would be vapor, not liquid. It's water, not molten lead, nor hot oil.
That temperature is _not_ high enough to "instantaneously destory skin, flesh and muscle". And it will _never_ produce 3rd degree burns.
It will be unpleasant, yes. It will cause minor damage, yes. But the horror story about instantaneously destroying flesh is so much bulls**t, it could fertilize a few acres.
You _could_ destroy flesh by holding it in boiling water for a longer while. You will notice that boiling meat (to make food) takes some time, it's not something that happens "instantaneously". By that time a little spilled water will have cooled off already.
But that's still missing the whole issue: coffee _is_ hot, and it's _supposed_ to be hot. It's prepared with boiling water. Whether you get it at a restaurant, or make it at home, or get it out of your office's coffee maker... guess what? It'll be hot. Even kids are supposed to know that.
Anyone who pours hot liquid on themselves and expect it not to hurt, is a _retard_. Plain and simple. They should be laughed at, not awarded ludicrious sums of money.
No, in fact make that: they should be fined for starting a ridiculous lawsuit with the sole purpose of getting money without work. Maybe that'll encourage people to actually _think_, instead of expecting money for being stupid.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
McFact No. 1: For years, McDonald's had known they had a problem with the way they make their coffee - that their coffee was served much hotter (at least 20 degrees more so) than at other restaurants.
McFact No. 2: McDonald's knew its coffee sometimes caused serious injuries - more than 700 incidents of scalding coffee burns in the past decade have been settled by the Corporation - and yet they never so much as consulted a burn expert regarding the issue.
McFact No. 3: The woman involved in this infamous case suffered very serious injuries - third degree burns on her groin, thighs and buttocks that required skin grafts and a seven-day hospital stay.
McFact No. 4: The woman, an 81-year old former department store clerk who had never before filed suit against anyone, said she wouldn't have brought the lawsuit against McDonald's had the Corporation not dismissed her request for compensation for medical bills.
McFact No. 5: A McDonald's quality assurance manager testified in the case that the Corporation was aware of the risk of serving dangerously hot coffee and had no plans to either turn down the heat or to post warning about the possibility of severe burns, even though most customers wouldn't think it was possible.
McFact No. 6: After careful deliberation, the jury found McDonald's was liable because the facts were overwhelmingly against the company. When it came to the punitive damages, the jury found that McDonald's had engaged in willful, reckless, malicious, or wanton conduct, and rendered a punitive damage award of 2.7 million dollars. (The equivalent of just two days of coffee sales, McDonalds Corporation generates revenues in excess of 1.3 million dollars daily from the sale of its coffee, selling 1 billion cups each year.)
McFact No. 7: On appeal, a judge lowered the award to $480,000, a fact not widely publicized in the media.
McFact No. 8: A report in Liability Week, September 29, 1997, indicated that Kathleen Gilliam, 73, suffered first degree burns when a cup of coffee spilled onto her lap. Reports also indicate that McDonald's consistently keeps its coffee at 185 degrees, still approximately 20 degrees hotter than at other restaurants. Third degree burns occur at this temperature in just two to seven seconds, requiring skin grafting, debridement and whirlpool treatments that cost tens of thousands of dollars and result in permanent disfigurement, extreme pain and disability to the victims for many months, and in some cases, years.
This is totally wrong.
ICANN requires that every registrar have a transfer agreement with another registrar in place in case it goes out of business.
GANDI used to have more about this, but it still has a little: GANDI FAQ.