GODADDY may be violating ICANN's Registrar Accreditation Agreement

[THESTOKIE]

New Orleans, LA, November 17, 2003 - Webcaster Alliance, Inc. has begun the process of formally petitioning the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to open an investigation into the domain registration practices of GO DADDY Software, Inc., for potential violations of the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).

"We believe there are serious issues with the Domains By Proxy service offered by GO DADDY," says George Bundy, Secretary of Webcaster Alliance and CEO of BRS Media in San Francisco.

"We made the horrible mistake of registering our domain name through GO DADDY's service and have been caught since August in a hellish nightmare that has included GO DADDY hijacking our domain name for their own profit and gain, which clearly indicates they are warehousing and speculating on domain names" Ann Gabriel, President of Webcaster Alliance explained. "We have spent some time researching this service and apparently we aren't the only ones this has happened to. We encourage others who have had problems with GO DADDY's 'Domains By Proxy' service to contact us to see if they are eligible to join in on any legal action we might pursue against GO DADDY Software, Inc. in this matter."

The problem began when Gabriel contacted GO DADDY in August to update the DNS information. She was then informed that the domain was registered under Domains By Proxy, and unless she could provide specific information, GO DADDY refused to allow any changes to be made.

"From there on the whole process went downhill," Gabriel explained, "The person who had originally taken care of the domain registration was out of business and I had no way to provide GO DADDY with the personal information given at the time of registration GO DADDY was requesting."

"I submitted every document they requested of me and they said they would get back with me. I explained verbally and in writing that our organization had filed suit against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and thousands of people, including journalists from all over the world visited our site on a regular basis for news and information. They kept promising to look into the matter, but nothing was ever done and despite my pleas, they refused to update the contact information and forced our domain name into expiration. Shortly thereafter, they redirected our URL to their own page advertising GO DADDY products and services and began benfitting from the respective traffic we've built up over the last year, for their own Corporate gain."

"I have dealt with similar situations through other domain registrars, especially Network Solutions and have never, EVER run into anything like this. When it became apparent that GO DADDY was going to force our domain into expiration we immediately took steps to register a new URL 'WebcastersAlliance.com' (http://www.webcastersalliance.com) and put the site up under the new domain to mitigate our damages as much as possible. The problem is we rely on the traffic and the donations from our supporters in our fight against the RIAA. If they can't find us they have no way of knowing what is happening with our organization and no way to donate and continue supporting our cause."

George Bundy states, "We want to encourage others who have had a problem with GO DADDY's 'Domains By Proxy' service to contact us and let us know, not only so we can pass the information along to our attorneys, but so that we can give the information to ICANN in support of our claims."

 

[Elefekt]

This is a follow up of a thread a few post down

 

[Dave_Z]

Based on the info above, I think what initially happened was that Go Daddy's agents won't give a domain's private info to so-called 3rd parties unless proof was given to substantiate the 3rd parties' claims.

The faxes Go Daddy got probably didn't meet their requirements so no callback was done. But Go Daddy should've at least emailed the customer why it wasn't accepted.

The next part that bugs me is why they eventually re-directed the domain to (I think anyway) their under construction page. Their policy, perhaps?

Me thinks Go Daddy had better learn their lesson well and rectify their procedures to definitely prevent this from happening again. :bah:

 

[redhippo]

well, go daddy sucks for me....still charging me for the 6th month

for non existence services which

I still cannot canceled.

i have reported them to BBB after waiting out three months.

but slow response.

the hassle of a charge back every month.


every re has is JINX

 

[Dave_Z]

Originally posted by redhippo
well, go daddy sucks for me....still charging me for the 6th month

for non existence services which

I still cannot canceled.

i have reported them to BBB after waiting out three months.

but slow response.

the hassle of a charge back every month.


every re has is JINX

Why not get a new card & cancel the one GD has?

 

[peaudecastor]

I think you can call Visa or Mastercard and just say that you don't want to pay them. And you'll be refund.

 

[Sharpy]

So was this a case of the company registering their name with a godaddy/wildwest reseller? The reseller didn't renew there account, and all the domains that had been registered through the GD/WW reseller were moved into domains by proxy account?

 

[oop_team]

official response

The situation related in the original post on this thread came about due to Webcaster Alliance's domain being registered by a third party. The domain was registered in a customer account belonging to the third party and registered in the name of the company and in the name of one of Webcaster Alliance’s representatives. Once the Domains by Proxy service is added to the domain, the only party that is able to access the domain or request changes to it is the account holder. As this was the third party, the registrant of the domain would have to request that the domain be moved into a customer account in their own name in order to perform any management on it. This is a basic security policy to ensure that domains registered through Go Daddy are safe and secure.

Webcaster Alliance was required to provide proof of ownership of the company that the domain was registered to as there was a problem verifying the identity of the person listed as the registrant. The domain expired while this was transpiring and as such, the name was redirected automatically. This is standard company policy with an expired domain and not an attempt to "hijack" traffic from their website.

Webcaster Alliance did not provide the required documents initially and was contacted by the Change Department (the group of people at Go Daddy responsible for processing all the information involved in cases like this) in regards to exactly what documents were needed for us to take action on the domain. Webcaster Alliance worked with Go Daddy's Change Department and after the required documents to prove ownership of the domain name were received, the Change Department was able to initiate a Change of Registrant process on the domain name to transfer control of the domain to the Webcaster Alliance representative. This was done on November 17th of 2003. Once that Change of Registrant process was completed, the domain was in their control in a customer account in their name.

Go Daddy does not participate in "warehousing and speculating on domain names". Go Daddy is an ICANN accredited registrar and has a history of looking out for the rights of the domain buying public and spearheading movements against unjust business practices in the Domain Name registration industry.

 

[csmaster2005]

well I'll admit that godaddy has it's flaws (domain transfer system) but I register all the domains I intend to keep for myself with godaddy

 

[armstrong]

Hello Douglas. Welcome to Namepros!

Can we expect visits from you once in a while to address our GD concerns or questions?

Regards,

Apollo

 

[NameFusion]

Domains by Proxy sucks, I don't think people's contact information should be disclosed, once someone stole my domains and added domains by proxy and I didn't know how to contact the person resposnible.

 

[Wilfredo]

I kinda like it ;D
Like enom more but....

 

[aww]

That first bit of "news" is a press release which sound very much like other group who is on a major tear threatening to sue GoDaddy also.

(Sollog) runs a pseudo news site and tries to get the news services to pick up their story:

domainnewsnet.com/news/2004/0517001.shtml
domainnewsnet.com/news/2004/0518001.shtml
domainnewsnet.com/news/2004/0522001.shtml

This is not industry news, it belongs in some kind of warnings/rants section which NamePros doesn't have (yet).

Note that for $80 you can do a press release rant on just about any subject or against any company. Here's a super whacky domain name press release for example that came out this week:
emediawire.com/releases/2004/8/emw149720.htm

 

[painperdu]

"I have dealt with similar situations through other domain registrars, especially Network Solutions and have never, EVER run into anything like this"

Interesting to note that NetSol lost a major suit for not following strict security guidelines.

I've had zero problems with godaddy.

 

[NameFusion]

GoDaddy rocks, its just the domains by proxy. :D

 

[armstrong]

Originally posted by NameFusion
Domains by Proxy sucks, I don't think people's contact information should be disclosed, once someone stole my domains and added domains by proxy and I didn't know how to contact the person resposnible.

Hmm. You seem to be contradicting yourself. You don't want contact info revealed, yet this is precisely why you were unable to contact the new owners.

By the way, I like GD, especially its discounted pricing (us and biz are still $4.95/yr). Support was reasonably responsive to the 3 GD issues I had, and all were resolved satisfactorily.

For me, the two things that suck for GD are:

- inability to bulk-purchase domains
- awkward push system

... both of which I can live with.

 

[lind]

Re: official response

Originally posted by oop_team
The domain expired while this was transpiring and as such, the name was redirected automatically. This is standard company policy with an expired domain and not an attempt to "hijack" traffic from their website.

So you did use their traffic to promote your company/services. Call it whatever you like, if it's standard company policy and happens automatically, it's even worse.

 

[aww]

By the way, just to show another problem with GoDaddy/WildWest's DomainsByProxy, I recently had a problem with a WildWest reseller. Well their domain was on DomainsByProxy - AND - GoDaddy wouldn't tell me anything about or how to contact the reseller! There was literally no way to contact them! Very weird situation.

 

[Banned User]

Legally "Private Whois" is in violation of ICANN policy in general as "Registrars are required to enforce there users to provide accurate whois information reflecting the registrants true and real contact information for publishing in whois"

But when has ICANN cared about these things? The only time I ever see ICANN doing its job is when they get sued hardcore!

 

[billinchina]

My Two Cents

well I'll admit that godaddy has it's flaws (domain transfer system) but I register all the domains I intend to keep for myself with godaddy

Me too. I buy names cheap elsewhere, but I register the keepers at GoDaddy. I love their phone support!

Legally "Private Whois" is in violation of ICANN policy in general as "Registrars are required to enforce there users to provide accurate whois information reflecting the registrants true and real contact information for publishing in whois"

I think ICANN needs to add a clause that prohibits proxy services which defeat the above rule, or else get rid of the rule...

 

[labrocca]

I prefer GD but I think the whois protection is scary...I wish it was banned.

the only thing that should be hidden is email address if requested

 

[LeeRyder]

I dunno, does anyone else think this whole thing may be by some gu/company/business that pissed that GoDaddy is stealing their customers by being so good?

I really dig godaddy and while their not perfect, so far they've been the best Ive dealt with.

 

[Domainut]

So you did use their traffic to promote your company/services. Call it whatever you like, if it's standard company policy and happens automatically, it's even worse.

GD did not steal anything, it is standard policy for not only GD, but any registrar. When a domain expires, the domain no longer resolves to the original DNS. (Why should a customer still recieve the traffic, if they haven't paid their bill?) Not saying they didn't want to pay their bill, but they could not prove it was their bill in the first place.

If they were smart, they could have easily paid the bill anyway. Just call them up and say you want to renew a domain. So what who owns it. You are paying for it. Easily prolonging the registration until the customer can find some way to prove their ownership of the domain.

So you did use their traffic to promote your company/services. Call it whatever you like, if it's standard company policy and happens automatically, it's even worse.

The domain resolves to a GD page, when the domain expires, so that the owner can simply click a link to begin renewing the domain, as with any registrar.

 

[Anthony]

Sounds like a lot of confusion going on here. There always seems to be problems when the RIAA is thrown into the mix, right?