>Furthermore, we are conducting some product development >trials that relate to "dropped names" and will require a >few resellers to assist in these trials.
I still believe this is a very bad idea and a conflict of interest that could result in lawsuits against OpenSRS and any reseller that participates. During this past week we have been involved with a client that illustrates this. He transferred a domain to OpenSRS from Network Solutions which should have expired Sept 22, 2002 but was one of those domains where one year was revoked by the Registry. He did not renew the domain and lost it to a company that is now using it as a search portal with advertising banners on the top of each page. He is very upset, which is understandable, and is threatening legal action against us and OpenSRS, holding us responsible since we were involved in the transfer of his domain to OpenSRS. We had immediately notified him of the problem when OpenSRS notified us and stressed that he must renew the domain prior to November 30 if he wished to keep the domain. So we did notify him per the terms of our registration agreement. We sent him evidence that we notified him and told him that OpenSRS should have also sent him renewal notices as we had that option selected for our reseller account. Since we do not receive a copy of the OpenSRS renewal notices we could not provide him those notices but OpenSRS support could. He claims that he did not receive any notice from us or OpenSRS but states that he may not have received our email notice as his ISP was having problems with their mail server at that time. He also claimes that the domain worked until the day it was deleted, that it was not deactived between Nov 30 and Jan 5, which would have give him notice that there was a problem with the domain. This is the period of the OpenSRS "test" of dropped names so it would be interesting to know if his domain was one of those "tested" and then transferred to the company involved in the test. But reguardless we notifed him there was nothing we can do. We suggested he provide his attorney with the following information and then have his attorney contact our attorney if he had additional questions: 1. He specifically requested we use OpenSRS at the time of transfer as he has other domains with them so he knew OpenSRS was the registrar and we were just a reseller for them. 2. He has admitted in email that his ISP was the reason he may not have received our email notification. 3. He had 45 days from expiration to deletion to renew this domain, per OpenSRS policy and he did not renew the domain name during the hold period. 4. Our website where the domain name registration agreement, FAQ and web pages clearly state that all contact is by email and it is his responsibilty to keep these addresses current so he can received this email and a breach of his registration agreement which could result in the lost of his domain name if he fails to do this. We pointed out to him that he would have a better chance of sueing: 1. Network Solutions/Registry for removing the domain year that he paid them prior to the transfer. 2. His ISP if the ISP prevent him from receiving the notification. 3. OpenSRS if OpenSRS did not deactive the domain name during the hold period, preventing him from having adequate notice beyond the email notices that there was a problem. But we stated that we doubt that (2) happened as the email message was not bounced back to us as it would have been had his ISP not been able to receive it and that (3) happened as OpenSRS has a stated policy of deactivating domains during the hold period and I doubted that they would not have done so in this case. We also doubted he would have much luck sueing Network Solutions over the issue. While we are not concerned about losing such a law suit it would cost us to defend ourselves if he does file suit and we are a party to the suit. Can you imagine how much worse it will be if it turns out that OpenSRS did not deactive his domain during the hold period but allowed this other company to monitor hits on it and then transferred it to them instead of returning it to the Registry? Or even worse, had we been involved in this program with OpenSRS and collected a $50 or $60 dollar fee plus a registration fee for allowing this new registrant to register the domain name immediately upon expiration? We warned our domain clients about the Registry proposal for dropped names and recommended they contact ICANN and their government represenatives to protest this proposed action by the Registry. If OpenSRS proceeds with this, then to protect ourselves we must warn all clients the potential risk they face by continuing to have the domain registered with OpenSRS. While we do not believe that OpenSRS would ever fail to send the renewal notices we do not wish to expose ourselves to claims that the notices were not sent out so that OpenSRS and we could collect higher fees by allowing the domain to expire and transferring it to some one else. So we will not take part in any such program with OpenSRS nor any other Registrar that does not return expired domains to the Registry as we do not wish to risk our reputation and goodwill over the fees that this would generate. But this does give us an idea for another product to offer for domain name registrations and transfers. We are going to offer a service to send all notices by regular mail as well as email for an additional fee at the time of registration. Our prices will still be competitive, as the client would decide if he wished to pay the additional fee or just receive email notices.
