Bob Nicholson on mon 24 feb 03
At least two members of the clayart list have recently
been victimized by domain name squatters. If you operate
a website with your own domain name, you should be VERY
DILIGENT about renewing your registration well in advance.
There is actually a small "industry" that snaps up domain
names as soon as they expire. The new "owner" will then
sell the name back to you for what is essentially a ransom.
If this happens to you, you MAY be able to get the name
back through the ICANN arbitration process, or through the
courts, if you have a strong legal claim on the domain (such
as a federally registered trademark, or a corporate name),
and the new "owner" does not. Even if you have a strong case,
your domain will be unavailable for weeks or months, and
you may incur some legal fees as well.
Other options include: paying off the squatter to get
the name back, getting a new name, or waiting for the
name to expire (in a year) and hoping you can get it back.
Your domain registrar probably cannot be held accountable
for the loss of the name, even if they neglected to send
you a renewal notice, or failed to follow your renewal
instructions.
Obviously you don't want to be in this situation!
Be sure you know when your domain name expires. (Check
it today!) Renew several months in advance, so if there
are errors or problems you have time to get them
corrected.
- Bob Nicholson
Helen Bates on tue 25 feb 03
I just happened to visit a Canadian Gallery site Sunday,
the day its renewal was due. (I didn't know that then.)
It wasn't available, couldn't be found. When again on
Monday the same thing happened, I checked using one of
the "Whois" services. This is how I found that the site
was "suspended."
I wondered whether the gallery was failing in
business or what?
I had also checked the search engines, and found that:
1. The gallery had just updated its page this month;
2. The gallery web pages found by the search engine
had provided several bits of information that were
displayed in the search results, including an e-mail
address; the street address; a telephone number; and
a fax number.
I tried the e-mail address but since it had the same
domain name as the web site, the postmaster robot sent
back a message that it couldn't find the host to deliver
the post to.
I then decided (though it was close to 6:00 P.M.) to
telephone. Someone was there, and knew there was a
problem, but hadn't known why. She couldn't do much
herself, but told me her associate had written the
site and had the site administration duties. Well, I
gave her the phone number of the domain registrar, and
their street address too, and I hope their name is kept
available for at least a few days... it's not apparently
up for sale yet, so they may be lucky.
As Bob wrote, there can be real problems if you lose the
domain name through inadvertent neglect. As the woman
I talked to said, "Two years goes by awfully fast!"
Helen
Janet Kaiser on wed 26 feb 03
In addition to what has been said, our domain registration renewal was due
c/o netnames.com mid February and we were mailed the first reminder in
November, then again marked "urgent" in January. What has been interesting
since about early December, have been the large numbers of unsolicited mail
offering better good-better-best deals, low-lost hosting facilities, etc.
etc. That indicates just how many are out there scanning for domains coming
up for renewal within the next three months...
Domain piracy is an absolute pest... David & Margaret Frith had all the
possible combinations of their Brookhouse Pottery bought up under their
very noses and then offered to them at vastly inflated prices. The strange
thing with that episode, was the variations were only snatched away as they
were applying for the first time and looking to register... Almost as if
someone was aware that they were looking and "got in fast" with an eye to
making a quick buck. The Friths had the last laugh because they refused to
cough up for any of them, so the smart alec was left sitting on domains
that no one wanted or wants.
Sincerely
Janet Kaiser
**********************************************************************
TRUTH is too precious to tell every fool who asks for it...
****** This post was sent to you today by Janet Kaiser *******
The Chapel of Art / Capel Celfyddyd
8 Marine Crescent, Criccieth LL52 0EA, Wales, UK
Tel: ++44 (01766) 523570 URL: http://www.the-coa.org.uk
**********************************************************************
Frank Gaydos on wed 26 feb 03
Yes Helen,
There are nasty folks who buy lapsed domain sites and then direct Porn to
them. I had this happen to one of my Link sites on my homepage. It is a
good idea to check your links each month to make sure you are not
directing folks to a who knows what site.
Frank Gaydos
Eleanora Eden on sun 2 mar 03
A related problem is to be sure when you do renew your website registration
that you are not inadvertently changing your website server.
Eleanora
At 10:29 AM 2/24/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>At least two members of the clayart list have recently
>been victimized by domain name squatters. If you operate
>a website with your own domain name, you should be VERY
>DILIGENT about renewing your registration well in advance.
>
>There is actually a small "industry" that snaps up domain
>names as soon as they expire. The new "owner" will then
>sell the name back to you for what is essentially a ransom.
>
>If this happens to you, you MAY be able to get the name
>back through the ICANN arbitration process, or through the
>courts, if you have a strong legal claim on the domain (such
>as a federally registered trademark, or a corporate name),
>and the new "owner" does not. Even if you have a strong case,
>your domain will be unavailable for weeks or months, and
>you may incur some legal fees as well.
>
>Other options include: paying off the squatter to get
>the name back, getting a new name, or waiting for the
>name to expire (in a year) and hoping you can get it back.
>
>Your domain registrar probably cannot be held accountable
>for the loss of the name, even if they neglected to send
>you a renewal notice, or failed to follow your renewal
>instructions.
>
>Obviously you don't want to be in this situation!
>
>Be sure you know when your domain name expires. (Check
>it today!) Renew several months in advance, so if there
>are errors or problems you have time to get them
>corrected.
>
> - Bob Nicholson
>
>______________________________________________________________________________
>Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
>
>You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
>settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
>
>Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
>melpots@pclink.com.
Eleanora Eden 802 869-2003
Paradise Hill Road eeden@vermontel.net
Bellows Falls, VT 05101 www.eleanoraeden.com
| |
|
