Website ownership is elusive at best. You "lease" a virtual name from only a handful of companies. What if GoDaddy shut down one day unexpectedly? Would you still "own" your domain name or would your site suddenly go off line?
good point, I think you still own it as it is registered through the countries registrar, but it would be a pain to sort out getting them re-pointed.
IF and that if is very important, you are dealing with an accredited registrar, not some part time reseller like your hosting company, ICANN will see to it that your domains are transferred to another accredited registrar and even protect you from short term loss if a short term expiration hits during the process. I went through this when registerfly lost there accreditation. Another damn good reason to only buy from an accredited registrar and not a third level reseller.
What do you consider an accredited registrar? Godaddy, enom, which is the best? Dreamhost considers themselves accredited also
Godaddy,enom, and I think domainsite, name and quite a few others. There is an emblem they are allowed to display if they are. Here is the link to http://icann.com/ . I sure it is all explained there some where. Found it. http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html Dreamhost does not seem to be on that list. But it should make a nice shopping list for you.
Dreamhost uses resellerclub.com to purchase their domains. Resellerclub.com is a branch of Directi which is ICANN accredited.
I seem to remember reading something about a connection between the two quits some time ago. But anyways I see it now. From here:
Is internetbs.net accredited registrar? I cant find it in this list http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html
The change from Internet.bs to Internetbs.net has been a recent one. One of the owners explained the change on another forum. From here:
We will still own the domain. You should search for the history of registerfly. They do gone out of business and the domain name is still safe.