As this process proceeds I feel it is important to keep in mind two simple truths:

1) Whatever “rules or regulations” ICANN comes up with must be enforceable – everyone goes into the agreement knowing this.

2) When the rules are broken, aggressively carry out the consequences. I know ICANN is not staffed to chase down every complaint, but when hundreds of thousands of people are affected decisive action is needed.

I do wish you guys the best and that it is easy for people with no knowledge of International laws to give advice. I hope though that this “REGISTERFLY MESS” won’t be swept under the table so quickly that the affected parties aren’t properly helped…

I am still trying to get the domains back that I legally bought and were illegally dropped & purchased by others and also figure out which ones still in enom’s system I can afford to get back.

Anyway, as I attempt to do this is there a page on ICANN’s site that is designed for the purpose of helping us get our domains back.
I.E. a brief description of the registerfly debacle, that ICANN is committed to getting the affected domains to the rightful owners, and that the ethical and legal course of action is to return the domains to the rightful owners at a fair compensation level. This would also be helpful when I deal with a foriegn registra when I try to get http://www.shopchina.cn back.

Thank you,
Scott Reese
webevangelist@gmail.com

And it can be very easily demonstrated why this apparent lack of “imagination” is a red herring.

At some point in the next five to ten years, there will be another issue just like RegisterFly – where domain owners are up in arms and ICANN finds its current policies are not sufficient and it will have to deal with it and then change the policies to fix the problem for the future. And when that happens someone else will complain that ICANN should have foreseen the problem.

So, here’s the question: what changes does ICANN make now for that not to happen? We don’t want it to happen, no one wants it to happen, so come up with the changes now and we’ll do it.

As a quick indication of where the problem is going to come from, bear in mind these following changes to the domain name system that will happen in the next few years:

* A range – potentially a very large range – of new top-level domains will be approved and appear on the Internet. It will no longer be dotcom domains but dot-coffee, dot-hotel, dot-tree, dot-whatever.

* With a larger number of TLDs, it is inevitable that at some point an entire registry will fail, rather that just a single registrar. That will mean that all domains under that registry will be at risk – and they will have been bought through dozens of different registrars. Could you draw up the rules for this scenario please – and make sure there are no loopholes?

* It will not only be English TLDs. Very soon, there will hundreds perhaps thousands of new top-level domains in a range of scripts so people all over the world will be able to represent their language. This in turn will mean new registrars situated all over the world. Registrars operating in different countries, under different laws, who may never sell a dotcom in their life but only Chinese scripts or Arabic scripts. Do you think the rules are currently sufficient to cover companies right across the world? If not, could you please provide the wording – and then accurate translations of those rules in 25 languages?

* Are the rules in place sufficient to allow someone based in the US, who registered a domain in the Arabic script to get it back off a registrar based in Russia? If not, could you please provide the watertight wording that will mean ICANN can protect the registrant? And not just that registrant but the hundreds of millions of new registrants all over the world that will buy domains for the first time – very few of whom will understand how the system actually works?

* How many staff do you think ICANN would need to adequately protect 100 million people? Has there ever been an organisation in the world that has been able to protect that number of people? So if ICANN can’t do that, how can registrants be protected? Would people be willing to pay an extra $5 right across the world for every domain because of the one-in-a-million chance that they might lose their domain? Or should it be left to market forces? Allow companies to offer protection services and promote their stability? What if people buy a domain from an unscrupulous registrar in Taiwan anyway just because it’s 30 cents cheaper? How does ICANN decide what is a good and what is a bad registrar? What if a previously good registrar turns bad?

* What if a new registry sues a new registrar and the domains are put in limbo?

* What if a new registrar sues its own customers, pointing out an obscure clause in its Indian contract, and takes control over thousands of valuable domains? Do you have the wording for this scenario?

* What if a registrar declares bankruptcy but starts the next day with all its previous domains under a different company name with a different contract – which is then enforces to get everyone to pay an extra $30 or lose the domain?

I would say that was a fairly imaginative set of scenarios. Now all we need to do in produce the rules and guidelines that mean there will never be another problem like RegisterFly.

Incidentally, if you *do* have some ideas that you think have been overlooked or would make matters easier, please do get involved and put them in front of either ALAC or the GNSO. If they solve a problem they *will* get through – that’s how the ICANN model works.

Kieren McCarthy
General manager of public participation, ICANN

“Thank you for contacting Online Support.

Unfortunately, we are unable to assist you with your issue. When your domain names were migrated from Registerfly, we received them exactly as they were including all of your original account information. If you renewed your domain name through Registerfly and it was not showing the correct expiration date before your recent renewal with our company, you will need to contact Registerfly or ICANN for assistance. We apologize for any inconvenience regarding this issue.”

2) Also- godaddy isn’t allowing me to transfer out… holding me hostage to renewing with them because they hold for a 60 day period.

Before,When I had registered domain by Godaddy from Iranian IP address or domain owner address , they inform me thet I have 48 hours to transfer domain to another registrant.

now What can we do? from here we can not access godaddy and all domains move to this , and until now we dont receive any information about our account on Godaddy ?

And now I learn by chance that all domains under registerfly.com will going to be transferred to godaddy.com. But when I go this new registrar’s site, I need to complete a bunch of complex procedures in order to access my domain accounts.

I think ICANN is liable of making this transfer as smooth as possible in order keep up the satisfaction of previous customers of Registerfly.com. And I am asking from you to retrieve all of the rights of my domains regisgtered in Registerfly.com since you accredited this firm beforehand and you are liable of keeping the security of the customers.

THus I declare that I won’t take any action or procedure to collect all my domains into GoDaddy.com (or some other site). THis is YOUR TASK!

If I don’t find all of my domains control in order and working smoothly in two weeks time, or if any of my domains registered before in Registerfly.com has been captivated by someone else, I will use my international rights to sue you in international courts and demand my financial loss.

2.6.07

This seems improper since the automatic transfer from Registerfly to Godaddy does not constitute a customary transfer (payment to Godaddy, acceptance of their TOS, extension of expiration date, an explicit and willful action by the registrant to use Godaddy, etc.)

While the registry requirement for transferring out are met (lock status can be removed and the AuthCode obtained from Godaddy) Godaddy is unilaterally and automatically rejecting transfer out requests. I maintain Godaddy does not have such authority – whether based on its agreements with ICANN (which has not been posted at ICANN’s website) or based on a user agreement (which has never been established with the registrant due to the ICANN sanctioned automatic transfers).

On its website Godaddy states: “ICANN named GoDaddy.com the new custodian of the .COM, .NET, .ORG, .INFO, .BIZ, and .NAME domain names that were previously registered at RegisterFly. ”

If Godaddy is the “custodian” of these transferred domain names it should not have the authority to place constraints on the domain names over and above that what existed while the domain names were at Registerfly. This would not include an additional 60 day prohibition on transferring out and imposing mandatory renewals on expiring domain names.

If Godaddy is allowed to forcefully place this 60 day hold not only will expired registrations have to be renewed at Godaddy and no other registrar but also those registrations that will expire in the next 60 days will have to be registered at Godaddy!

In effect Godaddy will not be the “custodian” of these domain names but rather the new registrar imposed for an additional year – under its own terms and conditions and its own fee structure – without such authority by the current registrant.

One would hope ICANN’s agreement with Godaddy was not supposed to impose such a huge windfall for Godaddy by forcing a long term relationship by the Registerfly registrants with Godaddy.

According to Godaddy’s website “more than 850,000 domain names will have been moved.” Assuming 2/12 of these expired during the past two months at Registerfly due to the acknowledged problems and 2/12 will expire in the next two months a total of 1/3 of the automatically transferred domain names (280,000) will be forced to be renewed at Godaddy for an additional year – without any such consent currently existing by the registrant. This constitutes a windfall of some $2,800,000 in sales for Godaddy simply for entering into the agreement with ICANN, and a sizable profit based on its $9.17 price. Adding insult to injury Godaddy will charge these domain names at its renewal fee of $9.17 instead of its transfer fee of $7.17.

If Godaddy is allowed to enforce this 60 day hold policy this arrangement would not by definition constitute a “custodial” and interim relationship with Godaddy but rather a forceful acceptance of a third party registrar with its own TOS (which we never agreed to) and an ICANN sanctioned unilateral and coerced acceptance of Godaddy as our registrar for one more year.

I have called and emailed RF many times.

When are we going to see something from the good guys?