I just read a very disturbing notice at GoDaddy. "NOTICE... November 2004 ICANN Transfer Policy Email We are sending customers an email regarding a new ICANN-enforced domain name transfer policy, effective 11-12-04. It dictates that IF WE RECEIVE A TRANSFER REQUEST (and your domain names are not locked) we must honor the transfer, even if you do not confirm it. You can eliminate ANY chance of your domain names being transferred away without your permission by locking your domains." A while ago there was an edic that this "ICANN" demands that all registration info for every domain must be full and exactly correct or you could lose the ownership of the domain. OK sounds fair but what if a person does not want their home address, personal phone number etc out there in the unprotected databases that are so fequently mined, stolen, sold and abused by spammers, telemarketers and criminals? Now apparently, if you do not "lock" your domain then anyone can steal if from you simply by asking for a transfer. What does the legit owner do after they have been robbed? Find out who robbed them and then have to hire a lawyer in places like China to try to retrive their property? All the black hats and scammers are going to have a field day with that new rule. Domains will be being stolen by the tens of thousands. Who the heck is ICANN and how can they be stopped from creating this insanity? Are there any organizations formed to get rid of ICANN or stop their abuse?
Most registrars worked that way already... Basically if a transfer request was initiated, and the owner did not deny it within 5 days, it was transfered automatically. So it's really nothing new. The only new thing is that ICANN (which is the governing body concerning domains), made what was already being done an "official rule". That being said, you should always lock your domain.
Thanks for the info Shawn - all my domains are locked. but how I was reading the new rules would be that there wouldn't even be a 5 day deny opportunity just a transfer? What country is ICANN located in? Where does it get its mandate for authority? Is it an international body like the UN? only for cyberspace?
I am locking my domains right now. <added> I had 57 unlocked domainnames, what was I thinking? </added>
You can read about ICANN on their website... http://www.icann.org (it would have more info than I would know). A clip from their inter-registry domain transfer policy: So really nothing has changed... If the domain is not locked, the owner is notified and they have 5 days to deny the request. Failure to deny it will end up in a transfer.
I always thought that the process was the other way around ie: Failure to "approve" the email notice of request for transfer, within 5 days, will end up in a "denial" of the transfer. I could be wrong but I think that was the way it worked way back when we could only buy domains at $35 each from only internic.
Good point Shawn. all that could happen then was an ownership name change etc. re no transfers, I was just over at my account at the ws extension domains registrar at website.ws (really west samosa) and there is no setting for locked domains there because that registrar does not allow transfers just renewals or non renewals.
Nice post. I immediately checked all my domains. Thannk heavens they were all locked. Had a friend have a domain registered to him grabbed by someone else. This explains how it was done. Shannon
Locking domain is quick and simple if all your domains was registered under the same registrar..else, if you are using multiple registrar, you may spend 15 - 30mins depending on the number of domains.