Canadian Band tries to reverse domain name hijack (1 Viewing)

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The Canadian music group Simple Plan’s management company has been found to have engaged in reverse domain name hijacking in its attempt to get the domain SimplePlan.com back after it expired.



At the outset, you can sympathize with Simple Plan’s situation. It registered the domain name through a company that was apparently a Tucows reseller. That reseller’s website went dark when it was time to renew the domain. It expired and was auctioned through GoDaddy Auctions.



But Simple Plan decided to blame the person who won the domain at the auction, claiming his plan was to “fraudulently hijack” the domain from the band and then ask for a lot of money to transfer it back.



Simple Plan band tries to reverse domain name hijack - Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News



Thank you
 
No way they just hand-registered that domain, and it had to be an aftermarket purchase - so how did it end up at some backwater registrar?
 
Years ago I had the Canadian Band "Telegram" try the same thing with telegram.ca, I told them to pound sand. They never brought a CDRP, but huffed and puffed.
 
Yeah, they probably bought it around then, but no way a 1996 registration makes sense, as they only formed in 1999.
 
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At the outset, you can sympathize with Simple Plan’s situation. It registered the domain name through a company that was apparently a Tucows reseller. That reseller’s website went dark when it was time to renew the domain. It expired and was auctioned through GoDaddy Auctions.

So what is the situation here. If a reseller goes dark, as many are probably single person operations, how exactly does one get the code to transfer somewhere? Or can that still be done via the parent of the reseller?

It seems to me that there should be some obligation on expired domain names, prior to them being auctioned, to do a basic check if the name points to a well-established operating website, and the name withheld from auction for a certain period while an attempt is made to contact them.

Bob
 
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Bob Hawkes said:
So what is the situation here. If a reseller goes dark, as many are probably single person operations, how exactly does one get the code to transfer somewhere? Or can that still be done via the parent of the reseller?

If the reseller doesn't get back to you, you contact the registrar. If the reseller really is unresponsive, it is very unlikely that Tucows/OpenSRS would not have helped in this case. If things are still as they used to be, their compliance department would handle this type of request/complaint. If the registrar doesn't get back to you, you could contact ICANN (for gTLDs) or the registry (for ccTLDs).

https://tucowsdomains.com/provider-search/

rovider-Search-Mozilla-Firefox-2022-01-16-21-59-58.png


https://tucowsdomains.com/help/domain-management/my-domain-provider-is-unreachable/


Mozilla-Firefox-2022-01-16-22-01-49.png
 
Bob Hawkes said:
It seems to me that there should be some obligation on expired domain names, prior to them being auctioned, to do a basic check if the name points to a well-established operating website, and the name withheld from auction for a certain period while an attempt is made to contact them.

There should normally always be a "redemption period", even if the domain doesn't actually show as in redemption in the whois in this time. Also, ICANN requires for the domain to be "disrupted" (=to stop resolving, or to display a page with an expiry notice on top) after its expiry, along with the sending of mandated renewal reminders.

If every registrar was obliged to review each expired domain to verify that the client no longer wanted to use it, it would come at quite a cost to the registrar, which may be difficult to cover with the relatively low margins for domains.
 
Thank you for your information. I agree it would be expensive.

I had not realized this sensible requirement. As public information, I guess important for owners to check status frequently and act promptly when they see a disruption.
Also, ICANN requires for the domain to be "disrupted" (=to stop resolving, or to display a page with an expiry notice on top) after its expiry, along with the sending of mandated renewal reminders.

Assuming the band plan to stick with their new Official domain name, it may be a hard sell to find a buyer for the domain name. Globally there are a couple of active businesses with name SimplePlan.

Has the loss of band website been written up in public press, does anyone know? Has several important lessons applicable to other organizations.

Bob
 

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