First of all, pardon my language. I'll keep it to a minimum. In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> James M Woods <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>What kind of scenario do you envision needing to opt a domain name >out of a possible auction? 1) General principle, for one. 2) My reading of the registrar agreements suggest that the auction service may or may not be contractually permissible, especially if it happens prior to the domain redemption process. The fact that "everybody else is doing it" didn't hold any weight when I was a teenager and everybody else was smoking or drinking or getting high, and it doesn't hold any weight with me now. Argue if you want, but until Tucows legally indemnifies me, including a contractual requirement for Tucows to pay all legal fees, plus my time for any time and energy I spend should any legal troubles arise, I'm not going to be satisfied. If I'm wrong in my reading of the agreements and there is no potential lawsuit waiting, then it shouldn't be a risk for Tucows, so lets see it happen, k? I would like to isolate myself from potential lawsuits from litigious customers, since my vendor has painted what I consider a bulls eye on my head, all without offering me anything substantial of value in return. The DNS hijacking thing is supposed to bring in an average of what, $50 for every 1000 parked domains? If I gave a damn about $50 I'd be at SRSPlus instead of OpenSRS, I'd be paying $2.50/domain/year less then I'm paying now and I'd make that $50 back in a fraction of the time it will ever take me to have 1000 domains expire. Yes I'm tiny, but size doesn't matter, by the time I'm at 1000 domains and making that $50 I'd have saved $2500. As for the auction thing, I've listed domains on eBay on behalf of customers before, rarely have I recovered my costs -- For my typical customer profile, I'm not expecting any resale of domains post-expiry. Yay, another risk, without the accompanying reward. 3) So what's this risk I'm going on about? Well, lets say it's not in violation of ICANN's agreements at all and I'm completely wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. I've been threatened more then once by a trademark holder's team of nimrods over domains which fell close to a legal trademarks. The most recent case was a gray area, but was potentially confusing to customers. Nobody wanted a fight though. I was CC'd on all the paperwork, the cease and desist letters indicated that I would be a target of the lawsuit both as a reseller and a host. My lawyer indicated I hadn't done anything wrong, but I'd still have to defend myself in court if I was sued. The trademark holder and the customer settled, under the terms of which the owner of the domain would cease use of the trademarked name as a business/trade name. The domain owner could continue to receive email for the duration of the domain registration period, but the customer was explicitly forbidden from sending mail, publishing the URL, or renewing, selling, giving away or otherwise changing ownership of the domain. Any attempt to profit from use of the domain was also explicitly forbidden. Both Tucows' hijacking of expired domains for advertising revenue and the auction service would have placed both myself as well as my customer in potential legal jeopardy as both myself and the customer could potentially have benefited financially from these actions. Lets step back from specifics here for a minute though, and look at why I selected OpenSRS in the first place, and why I'm still here. It's sure not for the price. With GoDaddy selling *retail* at $7.95/year, SRSPlus in the same ballpark in the wholesale world, and OpenSRS had the gall to raise prices? -- I'm paying more *wholesale* then my users can buy RETAIL. Luckily most of my users don't come to me for price or I'd have been out of business a long time ago. All I really want out of Tucows here is the minimum contractually required communications between *my* customers and *my* vendor, as specified by ICANN's agreements and my registration agreement. I don't want any value-added crap thrown in, I don't want auctions, or advertising. I don't want Tucows trying to sell some spam service to me. I especially don't want Tucows marketing to my customers. Period. Let me repeat: I don't want Tucows involved in my relationship with *MY* CUSTOMERS any more then is absolutely required by ICANN. Renewal notices, fine. WDRP reminders, I'll live with that (I'm not a fan, but the good outweighs the negative in the grand scheme of things.) Tucows' name when the domain is transferred in or out, again, I get that. I wish ICANN recognized resellers, but they don't, so I'll grumble, but that's not Tucows' fault. Beyond the contractually required minimum contact, all I want is for Tucows to stay as far away from my customers as possible. For many years you did that, and I happily paid more wholesale then the going retail price, but ultimately everyone was happy. _______________________________________________ domains-gen mailing list [email protected] http://discuss.tucows.com/mailman/listinfo/domains-gen
