Transferring Domains From NSI?

Dr.Doom asks: "So, the latest change to the service agreement by NSI is the last straw. I want to switch registrars, but I've heard some people say that NSI makes it very difficult to do so. My question is how can I do this with the least amount of trouble (and least amount of risk of losing my domains)?" There is some mention of the fact that NSI reserves the right to revoke a domain if it is to be transferred. Does anyone know how likely NSI is to do something like this? Is there any way to prevent it?

Re:Cost?

Domaingeeks looks better than NSI (the only way to look worse at this stage would involve sodomy and microsoft products), but here [domaingeeks.com] are some problems:

You agree, during the period of this Agreement, that we may: (1) revise the terms and conditions of this Agreement; and (2) change the services provided under this Agreement. Any such revision or change will be binding and effective immediately on posting of the revised Agreement or change to the service(s) on our web site, or on notification to you by e-mail or regular mail as per the Notices section of this agreement, Section 20. You agree to review our web site, including the Agreement, periodically to be aware of any such revisions....
You further agree that we, in our sole discretion, may modify our Dispute Policy at any time...
You agree that we may, in our sole discretion, delete or transfer your domain name at any time.

What I'd want out of a registrar, based on our experiences sofar, would be:

1. Any changes to policy either come from ICANN or don't go into effect until the end of a reg term, when you will be notified of changes beforehand.
2. The domain is yours, and we won't turn it off so long as you've paid and the courts haven't ordered it shut off and our server's aren't on fire.
3. We protect your privacy -- including that we won't spam you, or let anyone else do so through information of ours.

Re:What happens to NSI now...

In the current domain system, NSI will never go bankrupt even if they lose their last "dotCom bizcard" (funny letting something as important as domain registration go to a company that doesn't even call it a domain).

NSI runs the master registry database. A version of the agreement [icann.org] can be found on the icann website [icann.org] but even further digging there will even show the exact amounts NSI gets from the Dept of Commerce and from the registrars for running the registry and which bank accounts to use for payments.

A very interesting conflict of interest could arise between the role of Network Solutions as database keeper and Network Solutions as competing registrar although the contracts try to close any holes.

I found this yesterday as I was digging for "when does an expired domain become available again" which isn't answered by NSI or ICANN at all.

Depends On When You Registered

If you registered your domain before NSI claimed the rights which they currently are asserting, then you are only bound by the obligations of the contract at that time. If you renew your domain name with them, though -- you will be subject to the new contract.

I don't have a credit card unfortunately, but I'm going to see if I can get my webhost or someone else to transfer my domains as soon as possible. I'm fed-up with NSI and all the problems I've seen them cause people I know. It's rediculous that something so simple should be so complex.

NSI acts as if they're god's gift to the internet and hopefully they'll find themselves bending over to AOL as just another luser concept that only people with AOL accounts would bother to use. NSI and AOL deserve each other.
---
icq:2057699
seumas.com

It simple, or it can be simple

Find the registrar you want to use, contact them and ask them to transfer your current domains at NSI to them, your new registrar.

They want your business and most are happy to do it. I just did this myself a few weeks ago and switched from NSI to DomainDiscover.com [domaindiscover.com]. All in all, it was a pleasant, painless experience. DomainDiscover doesn't charge a transfer fee, but has you instead sign up for an additional year through them for $30 USD. They honor the rest of the time you had on NSI's contract.

Re:Use OpenSRS

...I'm leery of a registrar who feels it necessary or apropriate to run a site like this -- blatant spamdexing, Arial-only fonts, etc....

To your first point...check out What Is...spamdexing (a definition) [whatis.com]...I have a hard time believing that our use of metatags qualifies as spamdexing.

To your second point, it's actually Times New Roman exclusively.

It's not pretty, but it is full of content and conforms to a reasonable estimation of standardized HTML (with the exception of some lame font elements in a list item array). If it matters, it has less than 1/2 of the standardized design problems of our competitors...

;)

Does the "Evil NSI" really exist?

Everyone's always talking about what hosers the guys at NSI are. Yet, I'm old enough to have gotten several domains directly from Jon Postel, and I have never known NSI to screw anyone who wasn't actively trying to be a dick.
Sure, they yank domains from cybersquatters, because otherwise it'd be impossible to control the costs of doing business on the Internet. What makes a cybersquatter less reprehensible than a company that is just trying to serve the needs of the majority of their customers?
NSI has made a couple of big mistakes, and they've been crippled by Jon's death. But they are not the evil moneygrubbers the propaganda makes them out to be. In fact, for years they didn't even charge for domains despite having the legal right to do so.
What exactly are the motivations of the people who insist that they are evil? I don't see the AlterNIC guys in the headlines too often anymore... are they mad that nobody paid any attention to them, or something? They had good ideas but poor public relations, it seems to me.
--Charlie

Jumpdomain

...Ask me this question again in 5-10 working days. After the last story about NSI, I went to www.jumpdomain.com and filled out their form to transfer a domain from someone else to them. The form was simple enough, if anyone's interested, e-mail me in 5-10 working days and if the mail gets through to me, the transfer most likely worked out okay. =)
Or, for that matter, has anyone out there every used jumpdomain to transfer off of NSI?

/GUINEA PIG MODE ON

speechless

I had to pause before posting this (because it looks like flamebait at first glance), but the community should be figuring out how to cram a spinning lawnmower up the financial tailpipe of NSI, not how to organize damage control. I mean, pardon the knee-jerk reaction, but this positively rivals the audacity of any FUD that MS has thrown our way.

I'd say this calls for a Stallman-esque boycot of NSI. Find out about places like dotster.com [dotster.com] or processing innovations [archer.net] (I have a domain registered with each). This is absolute bull****, and I'm sorry to see the community diving for shelter. How many /. readers sit in a position to select which registrars their company uses? Just a few, I'd guess...

My .02
Quux26

Discretion of the losing registrar...

As I stated, any court of law can clearly recognize that a person should be able to transfer a domain that they have purchased, and promptly paid for. It's only when there are problems with the domain initially that there should be any reason to delay the transfer.

Network Solutions could refuse to transfer domains to other registrars, but if they do for many institutions, they risk being audited by the government for refusing to give up their government instituted monopoly. ie, bad news for NSI, they are out of the 'give us free money' business of being a registrar.

But, if you never try, you'll never find out, will you? I know many people that have transfered domains around with no problems. But, how they react to a mass exodus, we'll see.

--
Gonzo Granzeau

Wow, scary..

I do some research this morning, and I get an 'ask slashdot' today...

Okay a couple steps for Register.com [register.com], my current domain registrar choice.

1. Get the PDF form [register.com]. There is a web based version here [register.com], but it prints worse.
2. Fill it out
3. Get a photocopy of your drivers license or something and have it notorized.
4. Fax it or mail it. It takes around 3-4 days.

NSI can only block you if:

• The transfer request was initiated within the first 60 days of the original registration date
• There is a dispute over the domain name
• There is a pending bankruptcy of the domain name holder
• There is a dispute over the identity of the domain name holder
• At the discretion of the losing registrar

So be careful of the last clause. In theory, they are only shooting themselves in the foot, and the legal notification to change should hold up in court. and of course, the implied IANAL.

I garnered all this info from the Register.com [register.com] help [register.com] pages in preperations for my domain transfer today. Also, I've been quite happy with Register.com's hosting so far, so this is all IMHO.

--
Gonzo Granzeau

Re:Use OpenSRS

I used Discount Domain Registry [discountdo...gistry.com], an OpenSRS affiliate, and had my domain transfered away from NSI in about 2 business days. It was simple and painless and now I'm saving money as well as being able to manage my domain without annoying emailed templates.
-Rusty

Use OpenSRS

The OpenSRS "affiliate" admin screen has an option to "transfer a domain" that as easy as clicking on the option, typing the name of the domain you wish to transfer to OpenSRS, clicking the "submit" button and they do all the rest of the work. We've transferred literally hundreds of domains away from NSI without a hitch.

Either try to contact the OpenSRS people directly about becoming an affiliate, or otherwise try to contact an OpenSRS affiliate to handle your domains for you.

-=-=-=-=-

Re:Depends On When You Registered

If you registered your domain before NSI claimed the rights which they currently are asserting, then you are only bound by the obligations of the contract at that time. If you renew your domain name with them, though -- you will be subject to the new contract.

Read Section 6, "Modification to the Agreement," of NSI's domain service agreement. It's your standard-issue God clause that says they can change the terms of the agreement anytime they want.

The best part is: You've agreed to it. You're damned if you do...

It's always been in there (to my knowledge, and I would assume they're pretty smart about screwing the little guy), so they can always get away away with it. ISPs do the same thing, typically.

Cause a run on the bank

Good domain names are so difficult to obtain that they sell for millions. There are a lot of large institutions with big legal departments out there that would be horrified to learn of NSI's legal claim, but I'm willing to bet that few of them know about this yet. Once they find out, we'll have some powerful allies.

Imagine if your bank were to declare that your deposits with them were not physical, but electronic, and as such were merely forms of information that were the product of your contract with the bank. Therefore, they actually owned your money, allowing you to use it at their "sole discretion", and if you tried to move it to another bank, they had no legal responsibility if the "information" somehow ended up in the hands of a third party.

I would guess that if this move got out, there would be a run on the bank. That's exactly what should happen to NSI as well as any other institution that claims ownership of something I deposit with them for a fee.

I suggest that we generate a Slashdot effect on NSI by getting the word out anyway we can, to everyone who will listen, hopefully causing a run on this "bank".

NSI would then either have to publicly change its policy, or publicly explain its unchanged policy. The latter would probably put them out of business as all the folks in the world who give computer advice decided en masse to advise against NSI. Either way, it would make news.

All eyes would be on them, with the press sniffing around for stories of NSI "losing" domains that were transferred away from them, probably making them much more careful. At the same time, there would probably be a few large organizations willing to combine their legal resources in a bid to stop NSI. After all, NSI isn't just setting its own policies, it's setting precedents -- precedents that organizations with billions in intellectual property and large legal departments wouldn't want set.

This approach is about the only way I can think of to increase our likelihood, as small fish ourselves, of maintaining possession of our hard-won domain names in the face of this sort of outrageous behavior.

What happens to NSI now...

Now that Network Solutions has decided to do this, this is what is going to happen next:

Business will drop dramatically from those who know what they are doing.

Eventually this drop in business will effect them so much that they will consider repealing this new clause to their contract.

Due to their way-too-big egos, they will not repeal it for fear of looking like idiots (too late).

To make up for lost revenue, they will start taking popular domains away for frivilous reasons. A few hell.coms auctioned off here and there and they make up quite a bit of money.

If people haven't moved away from Network Solutions yet, they will now.

Pretty soon Network Solutions won't have any domains left and will go bankrupt unless they decide to fess up and give in (fat chance).

Re:What happens to NSI now...

This brings to mind a question: if NSI did take away a domain, say amazon.com f'rinstance, could it auction it to the highest bidder, or are they in any way legally bound to give it to the first applicant for $70? If the former, there'd be quite an incentive for NSI to set up some sort of easily-violated 'rules' in order to seize and resell domains that have high value. Sort of like many law-enforcement agencies have a tremendous incentive to seize private property since the revenue goes directly to them.