Slashdot Mirror
Taking Domain Control Back from the Registrar?
Patrick Clinger asks: "I run a large community Web site, and today I woke up to find that one of my domain names (proboards21.com) was disabled by my unnamed registrar -- my name servers were changed to NS1/NS2.SUSPENDED-FOR.SPAM-AND-ABUSE.COM and I no longer have access to that domain in my control panel. I am in no way involved in any spam activities, and the registration for my domain expires in 2007. I would expect at least a courtesy call or an email letting me know what happened, but neither was provided by the unnamed registrar. What can you do when suddenly a registrar goes off and takes control of your domain when there was no violation of your agreement with them? What is to prevent any registrar from taking over any domain when they feel like it? Right now my domain is in limbo, waiting for them to hopefully restore it to the correct name servers."
My registrar just went out of business. Of course before they did, mysteriously, all of the contact information -- except billing -- was switched to them. And so I've got a couple of stranded domains that I can't move anywhere, at any price.
Proving "ownership" is turning out to be harder than expected.
Get off my lawn.
I'm not sure there is anything you can do other than ask them to reinstate the domains unless you want to take this to court but that takes money and perhaps even more importantly, time. I'm not even sure suing them would get the results you want. It depends on what you agreed to when you registered the domain. It's vitally important to read all the fine print when making a business arrangement (like registering a domain). I think the rights and responsibilities outlined in the contract should be the prime factor when choosing a register, not price. All of that aside, a registrar suspending a domain for 'abuse', real or imagined, is ridiculous.
How about don't let your webhost register domains for you, and don't give your webhost administrative contact status in your domain? Do it yourself at a registrar that respects your rights, like GANDI.
I had something similar happen. I registered a domain with a fly-by-night registrar. They took the money and closed down. I actually managed to find his home phone #. His mother (?) answered and actually said that the guy just got out of jail again.
Anyway, I explained this to the registrar upstream from the scam company, and the upstream registrar unlocked it for me, without having to have any communications with the jailbird. My money was lost, but I was able to move the domain elsewhere.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
https://www.gandi.net/contract.en.txt
"The Client owns the Domain Name registered. Gandi simply acts on the Client's behalf."
No, I'm not affiliated with Gandi, but I do use them for my registration services. They're the only company who makes such a statement in their contract (AFAIK).
I got more details from GoDaddy as I talked to their abuse department on the phone. This is what they told me:
/.'s registrar disables their domain by changing their name servers.
1) Some person (a person I do not know) sent out an email to a bunch of people with their newsletter, and included a link to their message board that was hosted by ProBoards.
2) Another person received a copy of that email, and took it as spam (it may have been -- although the email looks like a newsletter).
3) That person SpamCop report, and contacted GoDaddy regarding it.
4) I deleted that message board account about 2 days prior to GoDaddy disabling my domain name.
5) GoDaddy disabled the domain because it was "associated" with spam.
Now let me make this clear if you don't understand it: Some person out there on the Internet sent an email to another person out there on the Internet and because that email mentioned my domain name in the body of it, my domain was disabled for being associated with spam.
The email did NOT originate from my servers, it was not sent by me or a member of my staff. It is just like if I opened up my mail program and sent an email to a hundred people mentioning somewhere in the email "slashdot.org" and then
To top the entire situation off, GoDaddy charged me a $250 fee to get my domain name back! I am now looking to transfer my domain names to a new registrar, so time to start looking - and time to start considering legal action.
If you read my message, I never said my server was used as a spam relay -- it wasn't. My servers are locked down, I don't leave them as open relays. I'm not an idiot.
GoDaddy disabled my domain because some person sent an email to another person, and mentioned my domain in that email. It is as simple was that. The email did not originate from my servers. The email had nothing to do with me, except it mentioned the URL of one of the over 500,000 message boards that ProBoards hosts.
Don't make accusations when you don't know the facts.