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ICANN Moves Against GoDaddy Domain Lockdowns

Posted by Zonk on Tue Apr 08, 2008 06:25 AM
from the they-delved-too-deep dept.
The Internet Businesses Networking
An anonymous reader writes "ICANN is finally taking action against Domain Registrar GoDaddy's controversial 'lockdowns'. GoDaddy has long had a policy of 'locking down' domain names for 60 days after a customer updated their contact details. This put customers in a Catch 22 position: ICANN requires customers keep their contact details up to date, or risk having the domain forfeited. Yet during the lockdown period the customer is prevented from transferring the domain from GoDaddy to another registrar. If the lockdown ran over the domain's expiry date, customers were forced to renew with GoDaddy or lose the domain. ICANN proposes to ban this practice. ICANN who is charged with overseeing the Internet has long been accused of giving domain registrars a free ride. But recently after ICANN failed to discipline Network Solutions over a front-running scam, they found themselves both on the wrong end of a lawsuit by lawyers Kabateck Brown Kellner. Is ICANN's action a signal of increased vigilance in policing registrars, or is it a PR move paving the way for a complete removal of US Government oversight?"
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Submission: ICANN moves against GoDaddy Domain Lockdowns by Anonymous Coward
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Mordok-DestroyerOfWo writes "According to the BBC, ICANN is considering opening up the wholesale creation of TLDs by private industry. While I'm sure this is done for the convenience of the companies and has nothing to do with the several thousand dollars they will be charging for each registration, I was curious what the tech community at large thought about this idea. It seems to me that this will simply open the doors for a never-ending stream of TLD squatters."
[+] ICANN to Add Anti Front Running Charge? 63 comments
shashib writes to tell us that ICANN is considering a new $0.20 per-transaction fee for large numbers of domain registrations in order to curtail domain tasting abuse. Network Solutions, previously accused of front-running, is offering their support of the new approach and promises to remove the security measures that caused such a commotion back in January. "Because of the prevalence of these practices, earlier this year Network Solutions enacted an opt-in domain protection measure for our customers that reserves available domains for four days. If ICANN adopts the anti-tasting provision, Network Solutions will feel safe in discontinuing its service since the non-refundable fee will deflate domain taster's profits and provide a substantial blow to front runners who use and sell search data for tasting purposes."
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An anonymous reader writes "A GoDaddy Vice President has been caught bidding against customers in their own domain name auctions. The employee Adam Dicker isn't just any GoDaddy employee; he's head of the GoDaddy subsidiary that controls the auctions. Dicker won some of the domains he bid for, and pushed up the bid price on auctions he didn't win. The conflict of interest is unethical, but could this practice also be illegal? Said a representative for a competitor, 'Even if controlled, that practice has bad news written all over it.' This comes hot on the heels of news that despite earlier promises to ICANN to end their 60-Day ban on transfers, GoDaddy quietly circumvented it by forcing customers to agree to the ban anyway. ICANN doesn't appear to be investigating or asking follow-up questions about this. What can be done to force ICANN to police the registrars for which it is responsible?"
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  • Does anyone have a list of the smaller/more honest registrars? I remember on the last Network Solutions article there were a few people talking about the better service at some of the less well known ones.
    • "Mein Furher! ICANN Moves!"
      Yarr Yarr
    • I always use 1&1 Internet, which has excellent support and is extremely well priced. For hosting, Joyent is your friend.

        • Re:I'd rather not buy from the likes of GoDaddy or (Score:4, Informative)

          by dmoisan (111138) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @08:10AM (#22999216) Homepage
          I'm soured on 1&1 too. At work, we have one domain (our primary one) on Netsol, and the rest of the names on 1&1. Unfortunately, 1&1 bounced an email to us and put us in collections and never bothered to give us a phone call.

          We only found this out when we wanted to consolidate all our domains with 1&1. (Of course, I found that our 10-year old domain had the contact info from our old ISP!)

          Because of the transfer screwup, we kept it status quo with one name on NS and the others on 1&1. It was such a hassle with 1&1 that I am thinking seriously about consolidation again, only to Netsol instead! (and that is saying much!)

          I'd like to see reforms at ICANN, so I don't have to worry about being screwed when some registrar is bought out by someone or when some different set of suits is put in management.

          P.S. Direcnic is not the cheapest, but I use them personally and I have no reason to switch. Besides, considering their location, they have disaster preparedness down pat. :)
    • Chances are, you'll end up buying from GoDaddy or NS, but with the retailer's extra charge.
      • After a little bouncing around through bad registrars, I moved all of my domain names to Moniker. $11 per domain name, great customer service and tech support, and I'm not shafted left and right like I was with GoDaddy. Even though I have told GoDaddy repeatedly the issues they caused (tech support recommended an upgrade to Plesk that fubared by server and they refused to fix it), they have followed up about a dozen times checking to see if there's anything they can do to help my account (e.g. sell my more

        • Re:I'd rather not buy from the likes of GoDaddy or (Score:4, Insightful)

          by paeanblack (191171) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @09:05AM (#22999728)
          GoDaddy is like $10 a year, which I think is plenty cheap, so while I don't like their tactics, I don't think their pricing is exorbitant, and their online tools are pretty nice.

          In this case, GoDaddy's lockdown policies are probably worth the trouble they cause. On the down side, you need to cough up an extra $10/domain if you happen to change your info, AND want to move registrars, AND wait until there are less than 60 days on your contract. On the up side, if your account gets compromised, you have 60 days to notice and fix things before it will cost you thousands of dollars in legal fees to maybe get your domains back.

          GoDaddy is slimy, and they will take the spammers dollars as readily as they'll take anyone else's, but that doesn't mean they are pure evil incarnate. If you ever do have a domain you care about compromised, you'll be very, very happy with their lockdown policies.
    • I tend to use Joker and 123-reg
      • Joker shits me... anytime there was a support query or we needed to transfer a domain with non-current details the turnaround was in the order of weeks.

        For the few customers we've taken over with domain issues, this wasn't acceptable by any means...
        • anytime there was a support query or we needed to transfer a domain with non-current details the turnaround was in the order of weeks.

          I can't comment on this since I've never needed to make a support query.

          However, I have always found that running your own name servers, rather than relying on the registrar's (or anyone else's) does make life a lot easier - you can make changes to your domain immediately instead of waiting around for someone else to do it, you have more chance of the changes being correct (the number of times someone has screwed up when copying and pasting from a change request email is mind-boggling) and you get to do stuff that commercial name servers usually won't let you do (set very low TTLs when shuffling servers around, set up records that aren't just the usual A and MX records, etc).

          The less third parties you have to trust to run services for you, the better off you are.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by birder (61402)
        I've used Joker for a few years and have been happy with the service.
    • Not to be a shill here, but I use Crystal Tech, which resells Melbourne IT and I've been happy with it. YMMV.

      ~S
    • I've always used changeip.com. While they are reselling NS, you don't ever deal with NS. They even let you transfer NS domains to them with no drama.
      The company has been around for a while, the prices are reasonable, the control panels sane, and the support very quick to respond. I've even donated money to them in the past (I was a longtime free ddns user before using paid services).

    • Re:I'd rather not buy from the likes of GoDaddy or (Score:5, Informative)

      by neurovish (315867) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @08:49AM (#22999564)
      insecure.org put up a nice list at nodaddy.com when their domain was yanked. It looks like it is still there.
      http://nodaddy.com/#alternatives [nodaddy.com]
  • customers were forced to renew with GoDaddy or lose the domain

    So transfer it and then update your info. Although registrars shouldn't get away with this crap, I fail to see how this amounts to more than a minor nuissance.

    Even in the worst-case scenario (changing your info a few weeks before expiration, before realizing you want to transfer), a domain's owner only "loses" a couple bucks at most for using GoDaddy for one more year. Not a big deal, IMO, even if I do fully encourage the spanking of GoDad

    • Re:Just a matter of proper ordering... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mwvdlee (775178) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @07:20AM (#22998832) Homepage
      when you need to start thinking like this, there's something wrong to begin with.
    • Why spank GoDaddy? I'd rather just spank the advertising girls.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Kibblet (754565)
      They won't even let me transfer after the lockdown. It just won't transfer. So now I paid a new place, and Godaddy, and they are holding it hostage. They also didn't send a renewal notice and didn't charge my card for my more popular domain name, and sold it to a squatter. For whatever reason my firstlastname.com is popular, I guess. And now I don't have it. Squatter has had it for a while, too, I guess it wasn't as popular as they speculated, or they thought that I would pay extra to get my own name

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Ariven (256118)
        I just transfered a domain from godaddy yesterday. Since I had originally registered it with them, they had the auth code already, so I didn't need to do anything to get it.

        Funny thing was, I had to check a box that said I agreed that the person I was transferring it to was obligated to accept the 60 day lockdown after the transfer.

      • That's the way it's supposed to work; however, some registrars intentionally violate the rules. For example, BLUEHOST.COM SUCKS TOTALLY because even though I obtained an auth code and sent it to my new registrar, BlueHost still would NOT allow the transfer. I filed a trouble report with them and got back an email saying there was nothing preventing the transfer - hah! Perhaps not, but BlueHost.com never transferred the domain regardless, and I ended up forfeiting the domain and had to switch to another one
  • Hello

    can anyone please point to a decent non "evil" registrar

    Goddady = bad (see this article)

    Enom = bad ( see http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/09/025222 [slashdot.org] )

    Network solutions ( see http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/23/1914238 [slashdot.org] and http://slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=00/05/12/2141250 [slashdot.org] and http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/15/2121200 [slashdot.org]

    Anyone?

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by david.given (6740)
      I go with gandi.net, who are reasonably price, have decent service, and appear to be fairly white-hat.
    • If you speak (or at least understand some) danish, I will highly recommend http://gratisdns.dk/ [gratisdns.dk]

      It is free to move your domain to and use their DNS servers, and you get full control of the DNS records.

      If you want to register a new domain, the prices are very fair.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by JeepFanatic (993244)
      Check out dreamhost.com. I use them for domain names and hosting - reasonable prices, great service (my bandwidth and disk space grows every week for free), and (if this matters to you) they're carbon neutral.
    • Register.com is just as expensive as NetSol, but lacking any evil qualities as far as I can tell. Real people answer the phone if you need to call, and are helpful to boot. If your domain is going to expire, you get a PHONE CALL reminding you to renew, after the traditional emails. I have never gotten spammed at the email address I used for registration, aside from the occasional pricing specials or new service announcements.

      Granted, I don't own hundreds of domains, so price isn't a major issue. If it were,

  • ICANN who is charged with overseeing the Internet

    I thought they were responsible for assigning IP blocks and deciding that ".museum" was a good idea. When did that become "overseeing the internet"?

    • Re:ICANN (Score:4, Informative)

      by ThreeGigs (239452) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @07:45AM (#22999004)
      Actually, IP address allocations are handled by ARIN (http://www.arin.net/ [arin.net]) and other regional registries (like RIPE http://www.ripe.net/ [ripe.net]) and the NRO (http://www.nro.net/ [nro.net]). If you consider them the Phone Company, then ICANN is simply the Yellow and White Pages.

      • Re:ICANN (Score:4, Informative)

        by gclef (96311) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @09:02AM (#22999710)
        ARIN, RIPE, etc, get their addresses allocated to them from IANA. IANA is run under ICANN (ye, gods, too many acronyms). Basically, they manage the IP addresses of the 'net in much the same way that they manage the DNS of the 'net: they're the high-level policy folks, but not the ones you get numbers or names from.

    • I thought they were responsible for assigning IP blocks and deciding that ".museum" was a good idea. When did that become "overseeing the internet"?

      And DNS. Please, please don't forget DNS.

      "Overseeing the internet" is a good description. A very good one in fact. ICANN, despite its problems, keeps the system from splintering into separate, nation block controlled areas.

      It's also a good description in another sense. When they eventually do get down to censoring the web (for the children), ICANN will be the or

  • GoDaddy and the spam you received today (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Arrogant-Bastard (141720) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @06:48AM (#22998692)
    GoDaddy is the single largest registrar of spammers, phishers, and the like. On the surface, that might sound odd, given that GoDaddy has published policies that say they'll take action, but the reality is that those are propaganda, no better. GoDaddy's enforcement of its own policies against abusers has been laughable: it's pretty obvious to everyone that they only do so with reluctance and in the face of bad PR. (See Usenet's news.admin.net-abuse.email for many discussions on this.)

    This really isn't surprising, though: spammers and phishers buy domains by the hundreds, if not thousands, which makes them excellent customers. And if you're GoDaddy, you need that income (among other reasons) to fund your offensively sexist commercials.

    How does this tie in? It's all about profits. Profits for GoDaddy are maximized by selling as many domains as possible and then holding them for ransom. Given how weak and slow ICANN has been, this has been a viable strategy for a number of years; it remains to be seen if something meaningful will actually happen in this case, or whether GoDaddy will just continue cementing its reputation as one of the scummiest registrars out there.

    • The darkly comedic stumblings of ICANN just make a better case for continued government oversight. The simple fact is that the purpose of any business is to make a profit. The methods used to do so vary, but generally stay within reason when real market competition exists. ICANN has no competition and plays an important role in regulating the registrar market. It's actual functioning has been less like a regulatory agency and more like an enabler of abuse. Privatization will solve nothing.

      Even if they
    • GoDaddy : Silly name that does not describe what they do, Commercials that hide they are a very dull company providing a very menial service

      they talk about "product development" and similar ... but they just sell domain names

      They do not run any Root Nameservers, they do not police the system, they are selling registrations, and nothing else ...

  • Why the hell does anyone ever buy a domain from GoDaddy in the first place? I've heard nothing but bad things about them. Over here in the UK there are about a bajillion places you can get a domain name from, so there must be even more in the US.

  • GoDaddy not the only one (Score:4, Interesting)

    by WebGangsta (717475) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @07:04AM (#22998752)

    GoDaddy has long had a policy of 'locking down' domain names for 60 days after a customer updated their contact details

    I ran into this exact same situation a few weeks ago with either Network Solutions or Register.com (we were bouncing back and forth between the two services working on a few different accounts, so my memory is faulty as to which one was the culprit - though I'm leaning towards NetSol). My point is that the issue is not isolated to just GoDaddy.

    We wanted to transfer the account to a different registrar, but the email address on file was one that was no longer active. So we changed the address to one that was active so the transfer messages could arrive correctly, and we were told that there was a hold. Solution: I called and bitched about it. Took about 24 hours, but we were able to bypass the auto lock and move the account successfully. Not the most ideal situation, but at least there was a way around.

    • Re:GoDaddy not the only one (Score:5, Interesting)

      by capnkr (1153623) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @07:19AM (#22998826)
      Yes, NS does it too, it has happened to me. BUT...

      If you tell NS that you are trying/going to move the domain due to their (exorbitant) pricing, they will offer you a new price, much more in line with what other registrars like GoDaddy charge ($8.75/yr in my case). So basically, problem solved...

      I do think the lock-down policy is a simple ploy to retain customers, no matter who implements it.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by dj245 (732906)
        The problem with forcibly retaining your customers like this is that it makes them mad, and it doesn't really stop them. They're just going to call your technical support, which costs you money. Is making a couple bucks a year worth the support center time? Especially when you probably have made them more determined to leave? Its not a great way to run a business, and very short sighted.
        • I agree, dj, but then I remind myself:

          I am a geek/nerd/technologist, but I'd wager that a much, much larger portion of their client base isn't, and so that much larger percentage just goes ahead and pays whatever bill they get in regards to domain costs. A surprising number of people who come to me for web work are still paying NS $35 a year, with no clue that that is a very high price. So, if for some reason they ever find themselves in this situation, they still pay, forgetting the policy and the possibi

  • Not just GoDaddy (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 08 2008, @07:05AM (#22998764)
    Network Solutions does this as well. I had to update my e-mail address in my contact information in order to transfer a domain to another registrar. NS locked the domain down for 60 days because of the update. The 60 days would have lasted beyond the expiration of the domain name, meaning I had to renew through NS or risk having someone (possibly NS!) buy it first and charge me more to get it back.

    It took two or three encounters with their support staff and the threat of a complaint to ICANN to get the lock removed so I could continue with the transfer.
  • I have a bad feeling about the future of domain name registration. I fear greed will ultimately win out, and shady practices like lockdowns, and worse, mass squatting like sedo.com will take over completely.

    What can we do about it?
  • I've had my domains with Go Daddy for about 5 years, and I knew the company was crappy, but I didn't know they were this bad. Plus, every time I visit their website I feel like I need to take a shower. Off to a better registrar [pairnic.com] for me, then. Good riddance.
    • I've been using Pairnic for several years and haven't had a single problem. When I see stories like this I'm glad I'm with them.
  • A few people have requested a list of "good" ISPs so they can use them.

    I also advocate a list of "bad" ISPs so we can **avoid** them. Name and shame I say, the nets good for that.

    Its amazing how many business practices seem to be accepted or tolerated on the net that would be frowned upon or a cue for legal action in the real world. its as though virtual assets somehow seem less valuable then real ones, which is obviously not always true.
  • I have never had to deal with someone hijacking my phone number, and every time I have moved it to a new location or cell carrier it has taken effect in less than a day after requesting it. Why must we put up with a much more chaotic system for domain names?

    As for Godaddy being "evil", I've used them for years, had no trouble tranferring domains in or out, speak to live humans when I need to, and get phone calls from them when domains are expiring or when they have a deal that would actually lower what I pa

  • No no no! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spazmania (174582) on Tuesday April 08 2008, @08:19AM (#22999292) Homepage
    As someone whose ass was saved by Network Solutions' lockdown, let me tell you the lockdowns are a Really Good Thing.

    Hackers can break in to your account. It can happen even when you're being careful. A lockdown means that you have time to track down a real human being and get it reversed before the domain is transferred to some registrar in China whose support reps don't even speak English.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by xaxa (988988)
      All those $10 from dishonest companies add up.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by ouder (1080019)
      People who say it's only $10 per year obviously don't run web businesses of any significant size. It is $10 per year for one domain, but in practice most companies will have dozens is not hundreds of domains registered to prevent counter typo-squatting and to protect domains that we may use in the future. When designing a new product or service one of the first questions is "What domains might you want?" and then you need to grab them now. And I mean NOW before an employee or dumpster diver grabs them (i

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by pebs (654334)
      Godaddy is just $10 a year -- not a lot of money, even by poverty standards. What is it with all this namby-pamby BS when you'll spend more in a day's lunch than it's worth mulling over saving a buck a year with a different registar.

      I guess some people need something to complain about!

      I don't care to give money to assholes, personally, whether its $10 or $1000. Also, some people own multiple domains (I own about 10 personally), so it could potentially be more than $10.

      GoDaddy's been making stupid asshole m

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