[Hidden-tech] domain purchase at expiration

[Bruce Hooke]

It does sound like a fraud case would be tough to prove. The fact that
there's no logo in play, that the organization isn't a legal entity, and
that the site does not actually claim to represent the organization are all
working against you. If you can't bring the person around your best defense
may be:
1. Do your best to make sure that anyone who is making decisions about the
future of the organization knows that the site in question is false and does
not represent the organization. This can be a bit tricky since telling
people about the bad website may cause them to go there when they otherwise
would not. This problem gets even worse if the people "making the decisions"
are really the public. In that case bypassing the problem website and simply
doing your best to get good press for the idea may be your best bet. 
2. You can try to make sure that other websites are not linking to the bad
website. You can use this site https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/ to find
out who is linking to the site. If any sites are linking to the bad site you
can try to convince them to drop the link. This will suppress their Google
ranking.
3. Ideally, set up a website that does represent the organization and try to
make sure that other important websites do link to your website. This should
result in it being higher in the Google rankings than the bad site. 

If the domain name in question is not something that someone else is likely
to be keen to snap up then the cost to re-register it once it fully expires
should just be the usual registration fee. If it is a domain name that
someone might want to snap up then most likely it's a domain someone might
want to use for a totally unrelated project in which case you problem
basically goes away. But my guess is that if the person in question didn't
pay a lot for the domain then it probably isn't something that will get
snapped up if it expires. It's also worth noting that if the domain expires
the site should go off-line even during the grace period, which is good for
you since this means the content is no longer out there for people to see. 

Bruce 

-----Original Message-----
From: Stacy Kontrabecki [mailto:stacykontrabecki at gmail.com] On Behalf Of
Stacy Kontrabecki
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2017 2:22 PM
To: Sam McClellan; Bruce Hooke; Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net;
webmaster at hidden-tech.net
Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] domain purchase at expiration

The website is a strong opinion statement, presented factually, against the
organization and uses the organization's name as the domain xxxx.info. I
don't know that this constitutes fraud since they are not saying that they
are the organization. They are not saying that they are NOT the
organization, however. They use the org name and define the work of the org
inaccurately. There is no About section to say who runs the website. Short
is, I don't know if I could prove a case of fraud, per se, particularly as
the organization is not a legal entity, simply a project of a large
collaboration of organizations and individuals.

It's highly unlikely anyone will be able to afford a re-issued domain in the
slim chance the owner does not renew. I just wish the owner would say who
they are and that they are not, in fact, the organization they are
describing. I may address the person personally, but I have my reservations
about doing that.

Registrar is http://registrar.1and1.info Yes, I 've looked at complaints
mechanism and ICANN procedures. There is no actual trademark or copyright in
place to claim infringement (the organization/project is nascent and may, or
may not, become a stand-alone non-profit one day.) The misinformation
appearing on the website has a good likelihood of determining if the
org/project survives to become an entity in its own right.

Thanks.

Stacy


On 10/19/17 1:56 PM, Sam McClellan wrote:
> Hi Stacy,
>
> Rich and Bruce have pretty well covered it, I just have a few additions.
> There is an (often) 30-45 day period (depending on the registrar) 
> where you can renew the domain at the normal price then the domain 
> goes a into redemption period at which point it can still be restored 
> but for a lot more money ($70-120) for 15-30 days, then it gets 
> released for auction and then registration. So if 45 days pass the 
> likelihood that they will renew it goes way down due to the much 
> higher price. Once it's released, with some registrars it goes up for 
> auction and, if not purchased, then becomes available and the domain 
> can be snatched up pretty instantaneously by a bot for resale if it 
> looks like it might be popular, although that's much better since 
> ICANN tightened up the refund system.
>
> Sam
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