Hello Everybody, While this seems crazy, i think i am gonna hit the wheel and spend a little on a lawsuit against registerfly domain registrar. This thread was posted to get some information/advise from you about your thoughts in such a matter. They are no more there for us. I have like 300 domain names registered with them and some of those are expiring without me being able to renew or even transfer them out. All my support tickets are NOT BEING READ and the same with FAXes and phone calls. I have a good (wealthy) firm that i registered domains for willing to make the move, i suggested they take some advise from a local lawyer (Cyprus) and the news came-in nice; the lawyer said go ahead.. What do you think? One of the domains i have there is worth a fortune, not in domain name terms but in terms of business being run at that domain name. I simply want that transferred to somewhere else and they are not giving me any AUTH codes for the domains, this really sucks. What do you think will be my percentage of winning such a case? What do you think it will all cost? And finally, is it worth it at all? Thanks in advance, listening ...
Before you go hog wild with legal action ...think about this... If you're going for money, what will you get if there is none left?!
Hello, Thanks for your response, but them not having any money left is actually none of our business. btw, thanks for the link. I also think ICANN should be held responsible for giving the accredited status to everybody who asks for it. In some way i bet.. I am not going for money, i just need control over my domains in a way or another which is my right. Any supporters for my aggression?
I support you morally. But before doing anything, make sure that you are legally right. The law in Cyprus and in US is different. You might contact a domain lawyer from US for free counselling. Regfly is under US jurisdiction.
Thank you for the tip, i will make sure to get my armor prepared before striking.. This ain't just a piece of cake to grab i know it. Thanks again, still listening..
Ditto what sukantab said. If you really want to sue Registerfly, then make sure your US-based lawyer is competent enough to understand the situation and be able to get as much facts as possible. One question, while possibly dumb, is what exactly you want to sue Registerfly for. Reading the terms of their registration agreement can give you some hints on whether you have any ground to sue for or not. If you want to sue ICANN as well, then good luck. That's one thing I'm just not optimistic about, for various reasons. One main reason is you have possibly no enforceable claims against ICANN. But I'll let your lawyer figure that out.
I blame every webmaster living in USA for not charging registerfly i had domains there that vanished and i lost my sites
If even half of what I am reading is true I would assume there will be a class action lawsuit(s) filed to at least give control of their domains back to registrants.
Internet property law is really tough. I'd invest the money elsewhere if I were you, but you also could look for a firm that would be willing to take the case on the basis of earning 1/3 of the judgment/settlement. If you have a good case it's definitely doable.
I think one problem may be that you cannot place a definite value on a domain name. Therefore, you may only get less than half of what you've expected especially after the lawyer pockets his share.
If it's an active revenue-generating domain that was lost then it is easier to determine damages. The main problem will be that RegFly has (or will have) few assets to claim against. A contingency lawyer would be better off doing a million dollar class action lawsuit against ICANN for neglecting their duty and TOS for almost a year. The letters from the ICANN Ombudsman & from Mike Zupke, and ICANN's letter to Regfly are all damning evidence against ICANN. http://registerflies.com/icann-communication-for-the-record-5.html Enom shouldn't be off the hook either. They let their reseller screw up and lose domains all thru 2006.
I think also part of the difficulty with getting EPP codes is that they are protecting against an impending loss with many people transfering domains because of the current situation.
We are representing registrants who have lost control of their domains and those who have lost registration to third parties. All of the comments on this thread make solid points which need to be factored into the analysis. I would add that owners may have personal liability for their actions, inactions. Class actions are difficult to put together in consumer cases like these because there are so many variations between the problems that individuals face in dealing with Registerfly. In order to work, everyone who had the exact same problem would have to be a class. Whether a court agreed to that all the plaintiffs in the class were in the identical position would be a key factor as to whether a class action would be certified. People with EPP-related issues would be an example of an issue which might be similar enough to meet the class test. ICANN may very well have some liability here given the fact that they are paid money out of each Registerfly registration. Certainly, people used Registerfly relying on the oversight which accreditation is supposed to provide. While not all issues for each Registerfly customer would be identical, the legal issue of whether ICANN owed a duty for Registerfly customers would potentially be identical. We are attempting to obtain the reseller agreement between eNom and Registerfly to see if there are any obligations and/or disclaimers there which might lead to or preclude liability. For instance a "no third party beneficiary/liability" clause might preclude litigation by Registerfly customers. Registrants with a lot of money tied up in domains with Registerfly (i.e. valuable domain names, domain names with high traffic, domains serving company web sites, etc) will want to obtain injunctions against Registerfly freezing the domains so they don't transfer away will be important. For domains that have already transferred away, those third parties would have to be joined or cybersquatting arbitrations pursued. Most people won't have enough money in play to make legal actions worth the attorney fees and costs. That is the real crime. For most people, there cost of civil justice will be too great to receive justice. You can find more information at the Registerfly litigation page. http://tcattorney.typepad.com/anticybersquatting_consum/registerfly/index.html Enrico Schaefer, Attorney www.TraverseLegal.com TheTechnologyLawyer.com
Good to see you here, Enrico. I should've guessed you'd be looking into this. I hope you don't mind I share your link to a couple of people in some forums who might be interested in this matter. Good luck with the issue.
Dave: How you been? Yeh, the Registerfly debacle is the old ‘canary in the coal mine’ for all things ICANN. If ICANN doesn’t take a more active role in ensuring compliance of registrars, consumers will continue to suffer. I can't tell you home many people have indicated that their primary business web site is down or that they lost their primary domain. This is costing many people tens of thousands of dollars in lost business, not to mention the loss of value in the domains themselves. While some registrants have enough skin in the game to make attorney action worthwhile, there will be many who are left holding the bag because there is no enough money at risk for them. I just did an analysis of the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement. Of course, ICANN disclaims any liability to registrants for their own failures. http://tcattorney.typepad.com/anticybersquatting_consum/ Enrico Schaefer, Attorney Traverse Legal, PLC
Try more like tens of MILLIONS of DOLLARS. All the money in the world couldnt pay for their damages. If they 'make a come back' i will never register another domain. Every cent to there name needs to goto customer damages. He was better off going to town hall and deleting 125,000 property records and changing ownerships ... thats pretty much how i see it and how serious he needs to be delt with.
Hello, I'd like to thank everybody for theit time and efforts updating this thread. I just want control over my domains, the point is not just popping into that court of law where i just know that i am not as powerful as they might be. So i will pass on legal action, im just not willing to play US law games specially that i am not a citizen and have no hands there of any kind. After all,.. and after reading a big bunch of files, PDF's and etc.. What do you think will happen to all our domains there? Will we 'in short' be ever able to gain control over them again? Thanks in advance, Ruslan
If Registerfly gets de-accredited (knock on wood), the domain names will stay in limbo until one of 2 things happen: 1. They finally expire, get deleted, don't get redeemed, and become available. But they stand a high risk of getting swiped by various parties. 2. ICANN finally selects a registrar who will take over those domain names. But it can take a while, and number 1 might occur by the time one is chosen. Edit: I forgot this update from ICANN's site: http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-02mar07.htm An interesting highlight:
I think a class suite would be extremely EASY to prove. Dont know if anyone is familiar but Yahoo/Overture was successfully sued for allowing fraudulant clicks from 1998-06.. that settlement is finishing later this month. I received a knowtice in the mail a while ago and I should be receiving good compensation as soon as its over. Details of that are here .. www.checkmatesettlement.com This situation is 50000000x times more obvious and easy to prove.. all the facts are all ready spilled and ICANN can back it all up with documents of failure to comply. and lets just say they cant prove that CEO is reliable .. or one way or another doesnt lose the case.. who loses now? WE DO! PLEASE!!!! someone get this MOVING ..