ICANN Moves Against GoDaddy Domain Lockdowns 146
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?"
Just a matter of proper ordering... (Score:2, Insightful)
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 GoDaddy over such games.
Re:I'd rather not buy from the likes of GoDaddy or (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Give me a frelling break... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Just a matter of proper ordering... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:GoDaddy not the only one (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'd rather not buy from the likes of GoDaddy or (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
No no no! (Score:5, Insightful)
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:I'd rather not buy from the likes of GoDaddy or (Score:4, Insightful)
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.