This is an update on the termination of RegistrFly as an ICANN accredited registrar.
As was previously advised ICANN sent a notice of termination to RegisterFly effective 31 March 2007
Under the agreement RegisterFly can initiate arbitration challenging the termination.
RegisterFly has decided to do that and has notified ICANN.
That means the termination has to be stayed by at least an additional thirty days.
Consequently there will be no bulk transfer to another Accredited registrar until further notice.
This clearly does not help registrants. It is another example of RegisterFly putting its own interests ahead of its customers.
ICANN is committed to pursuing RegisterFly under the terms of the Agreement.
ICANN has filed suit in Federal Court in the Central District of California to require RegisterFly to turn over all registrant data and to require them to provide updates every 48 hours and open up their books for audit. This will assist in making sure the data is accurate when a bulk transfer does occur or if the data is otherwise not available from the operators of RegisterFly. ICANN
RegisterFly is still required to assist registrants who want to transfer to another Registrar.
ICANN will provide more updates as information becomes available.
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{ 52 comments }
mnlni 03.31.07 at 4:31 am
Dear Paul;
Do you & ICANN had still hope and lot of belief on Kevin Medina?
I understand that you are giving Kevin more time to escape. NO, it should not be happend. You have to be very bold to take decision.He just told you on last day that he will go for arbitration, understand how intelligent he is.
I strongly believe some one from ICANN is helping him lot.
Do you ever feel our mental pressures and tensions as domain registrants, never, so you cant understand.
Any way i left 4 my domains for him and i am no more interested. I left him a tip of 4$ in my registerfly account
But i can say one thing, I am really not happy with ICANN’s method of execution and operation and management
If still i am registering new domains and using them for my business, I am doing a major mistake in my life.
Thank you Paul & ICANN
Micky J 03.31.07 at 5:14 am
What’s going on??? My domains are expiring in April and I’m not even able to access my RF account! And you are giving RF even more time. At least help me get my domains out
I’m very disappointed.
krish 03.31.07 at 6:22 am
Hello ICANN,
You have to be more powerful. For off line crimes there are Courts and they do contain people/Corporations committing/committed crimes at a very fast pace when reported.
Why is that ICANN is so slow, 100,000 people have their domains at stake, for many of them websites are there for a living, being virtual is not a joke, internet and domains are not a joke either.
When this kind of problems arise why is that you are acting slow, why you have not thought that this kind of situation might occur with any registrar.
Are these 100,000 customers of registerfly lying? can’t you believe that registerfly committed fraud, can’t you show the evidence to your Local county Sheriff and get registerfly offices seized immediately, We are loosing our domains, they are getting dropped, we are at great pain.
Why give the thief a chance to survive, please contain registerfly and let them fight in court. While ICANN and registerfly are exchanging letter’s following the procedure we are dying, please save us. Please show the FBI/Local Sheriff fraudulent acts committed by registerfly and get their offices and data seized.
Other than this there is no way you can help us, by the time you decide we will all be in grave loss and you cannot get our domains back, if their offices are taken over you can at least save us by helping transfer out or something.
Please save us, please save honesty, please save our trust in you. thank you.
Rui Barbosa 03.31.07 at 6:35 am
What’s going on??? My domain will expire in April 01 and I’m not even able to renew! And you are giving RF even more time. At least help me get my domain out I’m very disappointed.
failed 03.31.07 at 6:57 am
Transfer Request Failed for…
Transfer Request Failed for…
Transfer Request Failed for…
Transfer Request Failed for…
Etc.
That’s all I’ve gotten.
Status says: Client Transfer Prohibited.
Pushed to new account. No Protectfly.
Still get:
Transfer Request Failed for…
Who controls the status?
VideoWeb 03.31.07 at 7:04 am
An Alternative course of action for access to valid authcodes would be helpful please. Re-instate RRP transfer for Registerfly accounts and make it work like it did before this EPP intervention last October.
Whomever put this EPP system in place should be accoutable for this current authocode difficulty, persue and provide a remedy for us. Right now would be a real nice opportunity to do that.
This issue has caused the Webmasters/develpers market segment financial harm, since website owners do not know ICANN, or Registerfly or even that the “leasing” of a name for thier website is how it works, that it is held at a Registry and sold through a Registrar. A domain name that fails to resolve fails the website, Site down for a few week looks like “out of business”. ICANN doesn’t get the heat, Regsiterfly doesn’t get the heat, the “damn webguy” gets the heat. Print your website name on al your business cards and have that name dissappear. see what happens.
The scenario of a $5k website.com vanishing over a $10 renewal or transfer squabble stuck in a bureaucratic bungle is quite possibly an hourly event now. The most that the actual website owner understands is that the name of his site has a yearly renewal requirement. Thats the webguy’s job. He isnt doing his job. Fire that guy. Never outsource again. This is a global issue.
In the old.com.days – simply call Network Solutions, supply user info and hand over some creditcard numbers, done deal in 10 minutes back online with the site. We dont want registrar-only access, we want Registry access, and alternatives to authcode problems.
John Watson 03.31.07 at 8:49 am
Many of us are getting harmed just because other people don’t care. I personnaly have a loan to refund and I can only do it with what my domain names, I don’t want to go to Jail just because Kevin Medina don’t care about my kids and my Family.
Please ICANN listen to us, We need you to reeinitate RRP codes or to allow us to transfer these domains.
Please save us!
John
cgates 03.31.07 at 8:51 am
I don’t understand why ICANN is not acting in more interest of those of us who are being hurt by not being able to deal with our domain names. Why isn’t ICANN putting our interest first? I don’t understand.
Doesn’t the RegisterFly’s past behavior tell you anything about how seriously they take your threats? Please go there with law enforcement officials and give me back my domain names. My gosh, we’ve gone to the moon, have conquered countless diseases, but we let someone like Medina at RG get away with locking all of us out.
Please, please get in there and let me have my domain names back!
Micky J 03.31.07 at 9:20 am
This has gone way too far. Icann, please understand that we are humans and we have our limits. How long shall we suffer? We lost our time, our money and our health….. and our patience.
Paul Berman 03.31.07 at 9:26 am
I am concerned tha tfor month ICANN and myself get no reply from registerfly for 6 domains I still have stuck there, I am also concerned for the 74 domains I transferred away from registerfly as they are all still in my account even though they have been moved.
Are these safe from a mass transfer if thsi ever occurs? They are locked wit hthe new registrar but I have little trust in the system after this
Just need a clarification please
Samson 03.31.07 at 11:36 am
Well it looks like the only remedy which is going to have some teeth to it now is lawsuits. Medina is playing the system now and the only one he won’t be able to game is the courts. It’s probably high time for those of you with valuable domains who are losing business to consider joining the class action lawsuit which was recently announced.
cgates 03.31.07 at 11:53 am
Can you fill me in on the details about joinging the lawsiut?
Concerned Person 03.31.07 at 11:57 am
When it is asked of registerfly.com to open up their books for audit what will happen when you find out that registerfly.com never kept books and has never filed a tax return?
There is no customer information. You have received everything that there is. Nothing more could be given to you.
Do something to do a bulk push of registerfly.com names before Kevin Medina leaves the country with funds that should go to the tens of thousands of people that he stole from (there is proof of him planning this and someone has it). Or, assist Kevin with crimes and someone will continue to assist the Federal Government with shutting down ICANN.
ICANN has made a lot of mistakes in this matter and something will be done to prevent this in the future.
I know of someone who lost hundreds of thousands of dollars because of ICANN not helping (this information is being provided to The Dummit Law Firm which is leading a class action lawsuit against registerfly.com and ICANN).
No one should remain silent about these serious issues that could have been prevented. It would have been better if you acted like a business rather than a bureaucracy.
Shame on ICANN!
Nadeem Kh 03.31.07 at 12:24 pm
I am really upsit about how ICANN is dealing with this situation; i read other people’s comment and i agree with everyone. ICANN has to take proper action because its ICANN’s responsibilty. 4 domain names from my account has expired and i was not able to renew them. I lost around $70 on renewing my domains and i haven’t recieved any service. THEY are holding 22 Domain names of mine, among them i have some great names that i have offers of UP to $5000 dollors for a domain.
ICANN has to take action now, and by now I MEAN NOW this very second.
Randy 03.31.07 at 1:30 pm
i rescued 28 of 31 domains from RF. it took just short of telling registerfly i will kill them in the parking lot(not really but we all have dreams)… i spent way too much time, effort and complaing to do what icann is supposed to protect us from, so i still have 3 domains, some of 10+ year clients. thanks for nothing, icann.
if you use a registrar, the “ICANN ACCREDITED” logo means nothing.
use internic or get screwed, bottom line.
corporate interest at ICANN is out of touch and kieren mcnada has no clue what he is doing, maybe if he spent half as much time on his blog site resolving these issues, we wouldnt be in this mess.
kmfkm 03.31.07 at 1:30 pm
Yes, I can confirm that domains transferred to enom, godaddy, and namecheap (enom reseller), are still in my registerfly account as well.
If Icann does get the database from registerfly, it will then have duplicate domains showing registerfly and godaddy as the registrar.
Hopefully, registerfly is keeping track of this, just not in their system yet.
kmfkm 03.31.07 at 1:32 pm
I still think Kevin has broken more than civil contract law. I think he’s broken some jail-time criminal law, too.
He put himself down as the owner of several stolen domains, reports of this have been on the internet for years.
Put him in the slammer.
AlexG 03.31.07 at 1:51 pm
If you get faied transfers / client transfer prohibited,
(procedure from memory)
get into the registerfly control panel, manage domains, click the individual domain. Check it will indicate “Locked” somewhere in the upper left corner. Click on it and it will provide you the path to disable locking (unlock).
Notes:
1. It may take several hours to propagate. I.e. change will NOT appear instantly in the third-party whois.
2. Bulk tool does not work. You have to go through the domains one-by-one.
Tim G 03.31.07 at 2:18 pm
Note that this method does NOT work in every case (probably most cases, as far as people who are still with RF). I was able to transfer out a few individual client domains this way, but the unlock feature in the interface does not work whatsoever when I sign into my own account (roughly 15 domains). That’s why (along with missing auth codes – thankfully, I’ve only got one domain with that situation) so many of us are stuck. To make matters worse, Registerfly outright deleted my whole support history where I made repeated unlock requests over the course of several weeks.
As for those who are complaining that ICANN is uncaring or acting too slowly by granting another month – remember that they are simply observing the terms of the agreement, and they cannot do any more than that. They are not a government agency, and they are bound by the terms of their contracts just as everyone else is. Bad news for us that Registerfly appealed, but it’s not ICANN’s fault.
AlexG 03.31.07 at 2:22 pm
I always started with pushing domains to a brand new Registerfly account, with resetting contact info (to get rid of protectfly, even if no protectfly was in effect). Although I have a small number of domains (handled around 20 in total, on behalf of several people/accounts), unlock always worked for me (in a brand new account).
David G 03.31.07 at 2:44 pm
ICANN HAVE CONTROL OVER DOMAINS DATABASE, OR IT MUST MAKE SOMETHING WITH VERISIGN OR ANYONE WHO IS THE RESPONSIBLE OF THE DOMAINS DATABASE… WE ARE THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE THAT ARE LOOSING BUSSINESS, CUSTOMERS, FRIENDS AND EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF REGISTERFLY, WHO IS GOING TO PAY FOR THIS…
IF THERE IS NO SAFETY, WHY IS THE PURPOSE OF ICANN?
Stephen Grant 03.31.07 at 2:46 pm
Whats going on is correct!!!!!
I CAN NOT believe the crap that i have gone through because of RegisterFly — AND ICANN!
In December i called ICANN when i noticed that someone had stolen my domain. How did I just “notice” you ask? Because they left my nameservers intact so that everything continued to work — who stole it you ask? Take a wild guess — RegisterFly! And the new contact person doesn’t even exist! it’s a fictitious person and address!
So; i call ICANN — and am given one hell of a run around — only to be told to contact a third party arbitrator; and was provided a telephone number to do so. When I called — the arbitrator says they no longer handle matters for ICANN!!!!!!!
OMG — it is UNBELIEVABLE — and then; to add insult to injury; after filing a formal complaint with ICANN; they DENY my request because the theft occurred six months prior!!!!! (Even though, to this very day; the nameservers remain pointing my my nameservers!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
How — on Gods green earth — am i supposed to get my domain name back when ICANN acts like this?!?
Beyond pissed….
Samson 03.31.07 at 3:02 pm
[Comment deleted]
toly 03.31.07 at 3:52 pm
Did anybody hear about any approximate resolution date of the whole thing? Is 30 days a certain time frame, or there is more surprises in the agreement?
Tim G 03.31.07 at 4:14 pm
Thanks. I thought I couldn’t do the push if I had already initiated transfer to another registrar. But it looks like it’s working.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t do anything for the two domains that expired, and one was my main web biz domain (the other I’m not all that concerned about). I guess there’s no way to push an expired domain, and by the time Registerfly’s extra month is up, I guess the domain will be fair game on the open market. :\
Anonymous 03.31.07 at 4:30 pm
I said this the other day, I have been doing for awhile to work with the whois and Autho Code.
I see someone was WATCHING MY COMMENTS.
Phill K. 03.31.07 at 4:43 pm
Well knowing Kevin he waited until March 30 to give notice so he could delay for another 30 days, I assume to continue collecting credit card payments from the unsuspecting.
Anonymous 03.31.07 at 4:45 pm
I am stupid here but can I ask, does america own internet? I think no but can be wrong. If america owns the internet we can go after g bush for what we lost here from icannot do … i like that
icann.ot do
puzzled 03.31.07 at 4:59 pm
Yes registerfly is better really I get reply from them but this took how long to get and they only want more money. I will also want to stay at registerfly. They are being watched so I am safe at registerfly. Nobody is watching GoDaddy and or ENOM so I am not safe there.
Please let me stay at registerfly…
I am puzzled why this is so hard in the first place, they have the right to do business.
Thank you for contacting Online Support.
We do not transfer domains for free and we can not assist you with any legal issue trying to get your domain name from registerfly.com. If you would like to transfer the domain name to GoDaddy.com then you will have to purchase a transfer for the domain name as this is not a free service. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Mason G.
Online Support
Technician
Anonymous 03.31.07 at 5:18 pm
Can we send to the court to if we are not american or just for american to send? I want to send to them to say REGISTERFLY should be stay in busines but I not know if can say. I like them to be business long. I use them I want to stay use them.
ok
ning 03.31.07 at 5:31 pm
Do not sould like ICANN is for RegFly. I think they have someone from enom peple in there. Enom people are not even in troble or see them here. Did enom send spam to RegFly customers when this happen? If do that they are in fault yes? Tell me why they not here to?
icann is not doing protection, you wrong, enom have someday there.
ning 03.31.07 at 5:35 pm
I think yes, I have many emails from RegFly in past and until we get spam good, now we are in troble and think enom is cause. Americans do not see good yes? No logic in mind to see if enom do send 100,000 spam to damage RegFly enom should pay.
icann has to see logic but that is america for you yes
ning
ning 03.31.07 at 5:41 pm
We use RegFly because we get email when we send. They always have send back us email telling we fixed and sorry for troble. We try many company and wait long time with no answer. We test many to find one do before use many. I see americans only wait to see troble to find answer. You do what we do and see but now can no do so enom broke it. Order domain all, and test if they can work or not by make problem to find they fix. Just RegFly do so we use RegFly just. Now you tell we that need new one and have to do again. I am not happy now with icann for playing game with us.
ZEN 03.31.07 at 5:56 pm
I agree, no more from your playtime. ICANN you do not hear or listen but act like many American do just keep acting no matter right not right.
We feel in Thailand at our business you worry just American. We awake now and you are sleep now but you do not want to hear us.
You no right to play with our business and if you damage business for Thailand we will have government come after you here. Internet is not American it in all so do not damage us here to play time or we get mad. You will not stop hear us when we start to make sound or do you wish we make sound now? Our way is to let fix but we see you not same way and make me think I will not want to work with much American from what we see now.
We feel sad to day for America way.
ZEN
ZEN 03.31.07 at 6:06 pm
If you sue and damage Thailand business we have the right to bring to International court for appeal. We have lawyer to looking into what to do. We paid for service and America ICANN is not in right to take our business. They do not know what they can even do but peple at RegFly are doing something and know his system. ICANN will take to many time.
I need to know if RegFly can do by ICANN stopping. They can no do with big dog bitting leg. ICANN is blaming email to no reply but make RegFly can do? No make logic, we say American? We hope this is not American but just greed peple want more money.
We read that you law say if you make flash charge court to charge lawyer and client crime. If this is true Thailand will file to charge lawyer for damage business Thailand to make greed for American.
We will contact business in China, Korea, Japan and other Asia partner to see if we can stop America from damage us in International Court.
ZEN
Randy 03.31.07 at 7:00 pm
im not sure what the hell you are talking about in your broken english babblings, but this is how you deal with RF, ICANN and enom. they refuse to accept responsibility for their actions.
“GREEDY SUERS” got screwed and we spent 100s of hours sorting the mess out. at 25 per hour times 100, i am owed 2500 and fees lost during the fraud RF perpetrated while enom and ICANN stood by and allowed it. YOU SHOULD BLAME greedy RF(Kevin Medina), ENOM and ICANN for doing NOTHING to help us.
it is unlawful and illegal to threaten retaliation for participation of an ongoing legal action, you can go to jail for for it, thats what the mafia does.
say hi to bubba for me and dont drop the soap. im sure this will be removed by ICANN as they value freedom of speech as irrelavant and claim the blogs are for being nice and polite.
nice and polite just ended, now we will go after thier personal assets.
Chris 03.31.07 at 7:18 pm
Having read all of the other comments, I am surprised that virtually all treat this news as ICANN “giving” RegisterFly more time.
Please understand that ICANN is not the police. All of the power they have over RegisterFly comes from a contract, the registrar accreditation agreement. If the contract provides for arbitration and RegisterFly chooses to exercise that option, ICANN can’t refuse — or they themselves will be in breach.
We can argue about how wise it was to design the RAA this way, but hindsight is 20/20 and ICANN is obviously looking into changes in the future. That doesn’t affect the current agreement between ICANN and RegisterFly being what it is.
While ICANN has to follow its procedures, there may be other ways to light fire under RegisterFly. I’d suspect that many small claims suits may succeed by default, as RegisterFly probably won’t show.
Something else that is worth considering is why RegisterFly has chosen to go through arbitration. They are either just buying time (and I can’t see what’s in it for them) or they are hoping they may cure the breaches in the bought time, demonstrate they have, and remain accredited. In the latter case, I would expect huge improvements in service, soon.
Sander J. Rabinowitz 03.31.07 at 7:35 pm
Wow.
Paul, here’s a question I have. Suppose there are willful violations of the agreement on the part of R’fly during this 30-day arbitration period. Is it ICANN’s position, then, that even these violations would not pre-empt the stay? –SJR
here again22 03.31.07 at 8:04 pm
here here… cheers to you
nung 03.31.07 at 8:41 pm
I am in Thailand to and feel same. Have domains at rf, and like them, until yesterday did no any problem at all.
I donot do thing and wait to see. This icann peple if on charge donot give me my domains will sue them. I remember friend talking me say that if you know you do wrong and keep to do in america can sue. I do that and wait like banned one say to know what one to sue. I donot no to much this but what friend tell me. I see banned say same to wait or not no to sue.
funny we can no sue so good here but in america all sue nobody not sue.
Tom 03.31.07 at 8:43 pm
So Registerfly appeals, meanwhile more and more people are losing their domains and in some cases their sole means of income.
I would think, because of the damage being done that ICANN would somehow not honor the thirty day extension and seek some type of court order to force a bulk transfer.
I was hoping April 1st would bring some good news, but I guess I was wrong.
It appears that ICANN is just letting Registerfly walk all over them.
nung 03.31.07 at 8:45 pm
we wait see first, sue wrong and no win. Sounds not to “theaten” to make fear meaning or hurt? He want to safe every domain. Why not help him do to?
We hear joke and ask of soap, american tell us and now that to fun.
nung 03.31.07 at 8:53 pm
We here do you here? Close rf no have any domains long time. Only hope to rf do like they do. I here every say rf help to move. Can icann do easy why not to do if can do.
We think icann canot do we think icann is wrong and do we to sue but laywer say here only sue some that do wrong. We find no law rf do bad but see icann and the enom people do
we see at end who to sue if sue. We hope to no have to sue and rf can do for us what we pay.
We have no troble with rf we look every work domain and no broken and now we think you play game yes?
If we no troble you waste me time and make me angry icann people.
nung 03.31.07 at 8:55 pm
what meaning of willful
kmfkm 03.31.07 at 9:00 pm
Going after enom won’t help at this point. If you have any domains from the old enom days at registerfly, there are EASY ways to get them pushed to your account. The old enom domains are not even at registerfly, even if your RF account says they are.
kmfkm 03.31.07 at 9:04 pm
yoda, ‘willful’ meaning person do thing without outside coercion, under free will.
Randy 03.31.07 at 10:49 pm
i said “broken english”, what does that have to do with america? did you read the message?
REGISTERFLY wont help me.
ENOM wont help me.
ICANN wont help me.
THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH AMERICA!
it has to do with being ripped off, kinda like when i buy any item from china.
maybe you should register a .CN domain and be happy.
Randy the "AMERICAN" 03.31.07 at 10:54 pm
i am done posting here…
nothing but people defending RF and chinese people all mad at america.
this blog offers nothing.
i cant believe anyone would defend registerfly after what we have gone through.
im glad i only lost 3 domains. i hope you all have success and get them out of there.
Jason 03.31.07 at 10:58 pm
The domain [@@@@@@.com] is not owned by Userid , this is a security violation and your IP ADDRESS IS RECORDED
WHAT THE HELL is THIS poping UP in my acount at RegisterFly ?
Bigfoot 04.01.07 at 12:55 am
First up wasn’t the granting of an agreement with ICANN, it was the purchase of a company that had an agreement already. Then a change of name.
Bigfoot 04.01.07 at 1:08 am
In all of this ICANN may not have acted with due haste, but I don’t see what they could have done differently except do it quicker.
I’ve had problems with RF for many years (I don’t know why I stuck with theim). Problems pre-date the change from being a reseller to a registrar (which they got by the back-door, buying out a registrar).
RF have, either corporately or individuals within RF, removed funds from my RF account without my authorisation and without providing a service for those funds. This, in my opinion, is theft. When I contacted the local law enforcement they couldn’t intervene as I’m in the UK.
For the small sum (individually) of $70 the cost wouldn’t be justified.
RF has changed the registered ownership and like many who have posted in past threads I have paid for domains to be renewed and only found out that they weren’t when I tried to visit the site to find ads for ……. well you can imagine!
RF aren’t innocent as many in this particular thread seem to claim.
ICANN are guilty of not acting quickly enough, but the delays we’re now experiencing would have happened in 2006 or 2005 as the RAA is the contract and arbitration is the option that RF decided to take.
It does seem a silly system whereby they give 15 days notice yet the arbitration period is 30 days, but if that’s in the RAA then it needs changing for the future and it’s no good crying over it now.
eNom haven’t been perfect but, for me at least, they’ve tried to be helpful and I have successfully transferred over 100 to eNom.
Things at RF seem to be working ‘automatically’ as I’ve received renewal notices for domains I have moved and moves seem to be going reasonably smoothly. The main problem, for me, seemed to be the Registry locks but the system seems to be able to transfer them automatically.
My only problem now is keeping track of which ones I’ve retrieved, which ones I don’t want any more and which ones are mine but can’t be retrieved. Many hours to go, but I’m winning the battle if not the war.
Kieren McCarthy 04.01.07 at 2:08 am
We are closing this post to comments as it has descended into aimless abuse and at times overt racism. We have removed the offending comments.
ICANN is a not-for-profit company that helps with the technical side of the Internet and this blog will only deal with matters that help improve the technical job that ICANN does. This is NOT the place for idle chit-chat, and most certainly not the place for racist comments.
If people continue to abuse the open and useful dialogue we seek to encourage we will start reducing posting rights.
Kieren McCarthy
General manager of public participation, ICANN
Comments on this entry are closed.