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Registerfly's Accreditation Terminated by ICANN
Posted by
CowboyNeal
on Sat Mar 17, 2007 08:02 AM
from the enough-of-that dept.
from the enough-of-that dept.
Punker22 writes "Effective immediately ICANN has terminated RegisterFly.com's accreditation. Between now and 31 March RegisterFly is required to unlock and provide all necessary Authinfo codes to allow domain name transfers to occur. Any and all registrants wishing to transfer away from RegisterFly during this period should be allowed to do so efficiently and expeditiously. 'Terminating accreditation is the strongest measure ICANN is able to take against RegisterFly under its powers,' Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN said today."
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Technology: Some Hope During Registerfly's Meltdown 123 comments
hookmeister writes "If you registered your domain at Registerfly.com, then you should know it may be locked, and you are at the moment unable to access it through Registerfly's website (video). You may even be unable to renew your domain because it has expired into a status known as 'redemption' through no fault of your own. By all accounts there are just under 2 million domains at risk here. Enom dumped them as a reseller; their SSL cert has expired; it's a mess. Fortunately the principals in this are trying to restore order. The external website registerflies.com, originally crafted as a gripe-zone and forum for Registerfly users, has gotten inside the ranks of the post-shakup Registerfly management, made some friends and connections, and is creating a back-door problem-reporting form that goes directly to those who can correct a domain problem. The official Registerfly support ticketing system remains clogged with thousands of unanswered complaints."
[+]
Technology: ICANN May Act Against RegisterFly 63 comments
1sockchuck writes "ICANN says it will terminate RegisterFly's accreditation as a domain registrar if the company can't fix its problems within 15 days. The edict comes with RegisterFly in chaos and current management blaming a departed executive for its woes. The situation is complicated by the fact that RegisterFly sold some of its domains through a reseller agreement with eNom, and others using its own accreditation."
[+]
Technology: ICANN Set To Review Accreditation Policy 31 comments
tinkertim writes "ICANN is re-evaluating the scope and purpose of its accreditations, apparently sparked by the recent collapse of garage domain name registrar Registerfly. In a press release dated March 21, 2007, President and CEO of ICANN, Dr Paul Twomey is quoted as saying : 'What has happened to registrants with RegisterFly.com has made it clear there must be comprehensive review of the registrar accreditation process and the content of the RAA.' Dr. Twomey is blaming (in part) 'weaknesses in the RAA' for severe and undue hardships that many registrants encountered when trying to transfer names away from the failing registrar, Registerfly. Many new points to be discussed include allowing registrants to view the performance of registrars in an 'independent comparative way', as well as new language to allow ICANN to forcibly intercede in the face of wide spread, persistent and consistent complaints. 10 good points for discussion are listed by Dr. Twomey in the release, who invites all ICANN stakeholders to participate in re-evaluating the RAA. Registerfly, the catalyst for this re-write does not officially lose their accredited status until March 31, 2007, and continues to display the ICANN seal on their web site."
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So when is it GoDaddy's turn? :p (Score:4, Interesting)
She's so frustrated with it that at this point, she'd rather wait for the domain to expire and just re-register with someone else. Understanding how easy it is for someone to snatch up a freshly expired domain, I'm thinking that's a bad idea.
Has anyone else had a similar problem (or success?) trying to transfer away from GoDaddy? We are running out of ideas.
Re:So when is it GoDaddy's turn? :p (Score:4, Interesting)
For domain management, their interface is great, especially if you have more than just a few domains. I have about 150 or so (no squatting, thank you) and basically just ignore everything about them except for the domain control panel.
If you just want to use DynDNS services, just point the domain's nameservers and you've got all the benefits without what has apparently been quite a hassle for you. I have transferred in and out of Godaddy well over 50 domain names and the only times I've had problems are with odd TLD extensions, usually because I don't have the right auth codes, and almost always from the other registrar, not GoDaddy.
Good luck
EK
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Re:So when is it GoDaddy's turn? :p (Score:4, Informative)
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Political Issue (Score:5, Interesting)
Your dislike of GoDaddy for political reasons may be valid, but functionally, they aren't bad at all.
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Re:Political Issue (Score:4, Interesting)
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That's why I have auto-renewal. It's a business, there to make money. NetSol is worse, but yes, I'll agree $89 is steep. On the other hand, if I forget about my domain for so long that I'm out of the grace period, who's fault is that?
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Re:Political Issue (Score:5, Informative)
More accurately, they caved to a DMCA request from News Corp because a list of MySpace passwords were posted on the full-disclosure mailing list, which seclists.org archives.
You can see the seclists.org posting [seclists.org] and the
What's more, GoDaddy offers to unlock domains it has shut down for a fee. I don't know about where you come from, but where I come from, we call that "extortion."
Here's where things went wrong. (Note: IANAL) In order to file a DMCA with GoDaddy, GoDaddy's relationship with Seclists.org would have to be subject to one of the first four provisions of Title 17 Section 512.
Those are:
a. Transitory Digital Network Communications (i.e. network routing, No)
b. System Caching (No)
c. Information Residing on Systems or Networks at Direction of Users (No, it's not hosted by GoDaddy)
d. Information Location Tools (Not by the definition given in this section, which is linking to it from a search site/directory)
So, where is News Corp claiming to get this justification? For that matter, since when do passwords fall under copyright?
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Besides, how often does one really need to use the web interface at their domain registrar? Reneweing, transfering, updating the list of DNS servers for the domain... not things one does very often.
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I don't know about you, but I'll take those days over the days of loosing your domain to anyone who can write a DMCA takedown notice.
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If you're just looking to register domains with GoDaddy, their "tools" get in the way. Every page looks like it's designed by the same people that design glossy flyers t
Re:Political Issue (Score:5, Interesting)
That said, I have had no trouble with godaddy. The only reason I began to switch was thier increasing annoying registration process. It was just easier to register at another provider, a provider that gave extras for almost the same money. In particular I did not like the fact that godaddy encouraged people to register domains for the sole purpose of flipping them. I hate to want a domain only to find that someone has picked it up just to flip it.
It was in fact that process of looking for a less hostile registration process that lead me away form Godaddy. One of the places I tried, cheapnames.con, looked very similar to Godaddy. On surmise,with no evidence, this lead me to believe that godaddy might be losing lots of customers due to customer service issues, and rather than fix the service, they created another firm to try to catch them on the backend.
In the spirit of not putting all ones eggs in one basket, I have been using two registrars for the past year. I am now happy with the new provider, and recetly tried to move my last domain to the new provider. In spite of all my efforts, godaddy will not let me transfer. No matter. The domain expires soon, and I will not be in a hurry in go back.
You see, there are no political issues, just customer service issues. Although I was happy at godaddy, another service gives me a better value with less annoyances. All too often the paranoid business community creates these conspiracies to cover up their own incompetence and greed. They think that the liberals or conservatives are out to get them, when in fact the business leaders have just let their personal political beliefs distract them from the core function of a firm, which is to provide a good value in goods and service to the customer. Pretty much more of the US is agnostic enough not to care if the CEO is worrying the sheep, as long the value is good. It is, more often than not, the short sighted firms that brand themselves as "christian" or "conservative" or whatever in hopes of attracting those few people that shop on solely on the basis of politics. It can be a good strategy, because those people will buy the goods and services no matter the quality of price. Just look at Whole Food market, which I also like, but has gone down since it has become hip and mainstream political.
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go to "manage domains" -> click domain ->
1. unlock it: "domain lock" on the right unlocks it
2. get auth code: domain contact information -> see bottom
2. make sure email is yours. If you used domain privacy, it points to support@registerfly.com, thye never answer mails or approve requests
I used Joker and successfully xfered 2 of my most important domains, 30 more to go.... I lost a few it seems as they are unchangeable and not renewable.
So Joker works, bu
The Marketplace is not always right (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, duh. That's what happens when you make domain registration an open market. Registration is not a complicated product, so the only way vendors can compete is price. The natural result is a service like GoDaddy which charges a few bucks for a single registration, and provides a corresponding level of service. And why is it news that they facilitate domain squatting? They (and a lot of other registrars) have been advertising cheap bulk registrations for years. And why shouldn't they? If we say, "Compete any way you can", this is the natural result.
If it were up to me, we'd go back to one having one registrar that charges $35/year for every second-level domain. No, better yet, raise it to $100 a year. Allow the registrar a reasonable profit, and put the rest of the money into something useful: research, or bridging the digital divide.
Shazam! No more domain squatting. It's not longer profitable. And that single registrar has every incentive to provide good service: if they don't, they lose their cash cow.
"No way! Why should I have to pay that much for my personal domain name??!!" Hey, if a vanity web site is that important to you, you should shell out. If not, get a third-level domain. When a web site contains nothing but family photos and rants about gun control, nobody cares whether its on JoeBlow.com or JoeBlow.CheapISP.com.
But of course that's never going to happen: ICANN couldn't possibly stand up to all the whinning that would result. So we're stuck with the current situation, and there's no use complaining about companies like GoDaddy. So you're just going to have to live with domain squatting. And remember that when it comes to registering your domain, you get what you pay for.
Parent
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Where would the internet be today if we allowed it to be based on sensible, commonly agreed, standards?
How about some back story as well? (Score:2)
Re:How about some back story as well? (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
Tucows (Score:4, Informative)
I have a domain at with of their resellers which can not be contacted. (In fact their site certificate expired last October.) Unfortunately, Tucows offers absolutely no recourse, and the phone number listed in the whois will let you sit on hold forever, and eventually (after an hour or so) spit you into a voicemail box, which goes unanswered. Likewise, the email contact forms simply forward to the resellers. Very useful.
The reseller is domainsnare.net, which is also related to mailsnare.net. Not recommended...
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In your situation, Tucows is closer to eNom, with domainsnare.net serving in the RegisterFly role. Apparently [slashdot.org], RegisterFly used to be an eNom reseller, got dumped by eNom, then went through various gyrations en route to being canned by ICANN.
From your description, it sounds like Tucows doesn't handle deadbeat resellers as well as eNom (which apparently contacted RegisterFly's customers and gave them transfer options). However, I don't think the actions of
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https://manage.opensrs.net/ [opensrs.net]
The same username & password that you use with the reseller should work.
Mod parent up (Score:2)
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Obviously they're jumping to attention. (Score:3, Insightful)
They seem to be taking that letter very seriously.
whats going to happen to the dog (Score:2)
Effective immediately ICANN has terminated RegisterFly's right to use the ICANN Accredited Registrar logo on its website.
Funny how they [registerfly.com] seem to be paying no attention whatsoever. In fact if you look at their site its just business as usual... I wonder if this constitutes phishing now.
Really all I want to know is what happened to th $6000 chihuahua [wikipedia.org] and if someone will manage to pick up Michael Jackson's website because the news is always exactly 758.34% more entertaining when Whacko Jacko and chihuahuas are involved.
Namecheap (Score:3, Informative)
I had heard very good things about Namecheap [namecheap.com] for sometime so I transferred all my RegisterFly domains there this morning and everything went smoothly. For those interested in Namecheap, use coupon code "marchmadness" to get $7.99 transfers instead of $8.88. This coupon code isn't associated with me in anyway.
Ugh. (Score:2)
RegisterFly hasn't turned over the data to ICANN (Score:3, Informative)
ICANN had already invoked the "provide backup copy of registrar data" provision of the Registrar agreement, which requires that, on demand, any registrar provide ICANN with a backup copy of the registrar's data in a standard format. RegisterFly didn't comply.
That data isn't lost, though. There's a source of backup WHOIS data. Try DomainTools [domaintools.com], which maintains copies of all WHOIS and DNS data. So if you need to prove domain ownership after RegisterFly shuts down, there's a way.
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Thanks! (Score:2)
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Re:story? (Score:5, Informative)
2 owners got into power struggle. One locked the other out, the other locked everyone out.
Effect:
1. you cannot renew domains,
2. Support cannot help (just promise)
3. You do not have auth codes to move your domains away
4. Finance system does not work
5. domains are changing data randomly -> dns settings
For me: my domains were to expire, so I deposited money. Renewal failed, money disappeared, domains expired.
I spent hours on the phone, they promised to renew manually. Now whois shows it is renewed, Regfly shows it is not. Info changed back to their nameservers and "expirefly".
So some of my domains I renewed and I paid for are making pay-per-click for them, losing ranking and customers, and I cannot even change the nameservers or transfer them, because they show up as "expired" in their system.
Just make a search for "registerfly" and you will see all kinds of horror stories.
I am looking at spending over $400 for unnecessary renewals, and who knows what in revenue. I am in the process of finding a good lawyer and see what I can do about this mess
I fear though, that for the time a lawsuit would go through they would declare bankruptcy and retract to their Miami Beach villas (yes one owner lives there).
Parent
Re:story? (Score:4, Informative)
People get confused about the protections of a corporation. It protects investors that aren't involved in the decisions. If the two owners caused the trouble, and it would be possible to prove in court (provided you subpoenaed the right documents), then sue the company and name the owners as co-defendants. You can't sue owners just because you think the company will go bankrupt. But you can sue the person at the company who made the decisions that harmed you (regardless of whether they are owners). That way, you can get judgements from the owners directly. If they have director/officer insurance (nearly all do) and you have a reasonable case, you will get quick cash. Insurance companies know that settling is cheaper than a court battle, no matter who wins. And if it does go to court, you'll get your losses, and your lawyer will have a nice new Miami Beach villa. If the company declares bankruptcy, as well as both owners and neither had appropriate liability insurance, then you'd be screwed, but I think the chances of that are relatively small, not to mention the changes in bankruptcy laws designed to screw the little guys would actually hit them (it's harder to get judgements wiped away via bankruptcy now).
Parent
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It is at the point when it is interfering with my 9-5 job, and adds a stable extra layer of stress on top of my not-so-relaxing admin 9-5 and priva
Wrong... (Score:5, Informative)
Meanwhile ICANN was had issued several notices to correct these issues are lose accreditation. This week ICANN made good on its threat. A lot of people lost domains due to problems RegisterFly started having long before the news picked this up.
Mike Zupke from ICANN has stepped in and has been helping RegisterFly customers obtain authorization codes on locked accounts (with a good deal of luck). Likewise eNom, whom RegisterFly was originally a reseller, has been helping customers who were unaware of the shift (eNom terminated its agreement with RegisterFly effective I believe at that start of this month) retrieve domains RegisterFly had hold of (ProtectFly, RegisterFly's whois/privacy service made some of this more difficult).
Renewals for clients that were eNom registered (though the reseller program) probably didn't even realize RegisterFly wasn't in fact their registrar (RegisterFly communicated the eNom's whois through a backend API, so you could manage domains seemlessly without realizing it).
Auth code can be difficult to get, but no matter what now that ICANN finally has stepped in a little patience and you will get your domain.
The best single source for real information is RegisterFlies [registerflies.com] who apparently intend to stay on after the end of this debacle and become a source for information and help with other domain registry issues. They have a big help and there are a lot of people there going through the same thing.
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404? (Score:5, Funny)
RegisterFly.com, which according to ICANN has its offices at 4th Floor, 404 Main Street, Boonton, NJ
With that address, what did people expect?
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Just in case you didn't notice.
Re:NamesDirect (Score:3, Interesting)
The registrar I've had the best luck with is eNom, thou