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What Happened at RegisterFly and How to Protect Your Domains
By Ross Dunn (c) 2007

On March 16th, the International Corporation for Assigned Names
& Numbers (ICANN) publicly de-accredited (http://www.icann.org/
announcements/announcement-2-16mar07.htm) the domain registrar
RegisterFly.com (http://www.registerfly.com/) for fundamental
contractual breaches. BusinessWeek Online appropriately called
the RegisterFly.com debacle a "Train wreck
(http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_13/b4027077.htm)"
and although this is not SEO-related I think StepForth SEO Blog
(http://news.stepforth.com/blog/) readers should be kept in the
know about this situation. Perhaps this post will help you
protect your domain(s) and ultimately your livelihoods from
future train wrecks. To that end, I have outlined some tips at
the end of this post that will serve as a checklist to help
protect you.

So What Happened at RegisterFly.com?

Near as I can tell it all began when the owners of the company
began a power struggle that ultimately eroded customer support
to appalling levels. As a result, customers were not able to
transfer or renew their domains and in some cases personal
information on their domains were even switched to reflect
RegisterFly ownership.

Here is a comment from the BusinessWeek article
(http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_13/b4027077.htm)
that speaks volumes of the bad will well-earned by
RegisterFly.com:

"This has been a travesty. The transfer system was designed to
work between two trusted registrars and completely breaks down
when one has gone bad. RegisterFly has held customers hostage by
not providing the "auth codes," by arbitrarily locking domain
names, by changing the "Whois" info, and by arbitrarily putting
your domain into "ProtectFly", their service to protect your
identity but also keeps you from transferring your name.

We have lost domains and, more importantly, production Web sites
have just gone dead, heading to a RegisterFly parking page
instead. Try explaining this to customers depending on these
sites for their business. RegisterFly's debacle has ruined
businesses and lives. And this could have all been avoided with
a better process in place and more in-depth criteria for
accreditation. This process must be improved before the Internet
can truly be used for mission-critical applications."

What Has ICANN Done to Help?

The International Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers
(ICANN) came under severe criticism as a result of
RegisterFly.com's actions because affected domain owners were
frustrated ICANN took so long to act. Unfortunately it appears
that the domain registration system has some serious flaws
because ICANN, which is the only authoritative body in charge of
domains, had little power to wield. Here is a March 7th excerpt
from the ICANN Ombudsman Blog (http://omblog.icann.org/) that
provides some insight into ICANN's efforts:

"ICANN is not a regulator. We rely mainly on contract law. We do
not condone in any way whatsoever RegisterFly's business
practice and behaviour.

The options for customers to transfer their names to another
registrar at this stage are limited. We will advise if we have
more information on this point. Last Friday, ICANN convened a
telephone conference among those needed to implement a plan that
will help cease unintended deletions. This will prevent names
from being deleted from the registry and becoming available for
re-registration by others. RegisterFly has assured us (for what
that is worth) that they will process such requests as soon as
they are again technically operational. We will keep a close eye
on this.

We do hope this information is helpful and provides some small
level of comfort in what is clearly a stressful time for
registrants and others affected by these events. Check in at
both here and at our website www.icann.org where these issues
(amongst others) are being discussed."

For what it is worth, ICANN's 16th of March posting
(http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-16mar07.htm)
announcing the de-accreditation of RegisterFly also indicated
that "ICANN intends to hold a forum to discuss the reform of the
Accreditation policy and process at its Lisbon meeting in a
week's time." What will come of this meeting is uncertain but
there is no doubt that ICANN needs a far larger stick to wield
at future companies like RegisterFly.

Protecting Your Domains

Big thanks to jtara's post at WebmasterWorld
(http://www.webmasterworld.com/domain_names/3287198.htm) for
some of these points:

  1. Do your due diligence and check on the reputations of your
     prospective registrar before registering domains with them.
     Try searching with their name followed by "complaint" or any
     other related words and see if you find anything alarming.
     Most large registrars will have a complaint or two which is
     understandable but definitely go the other way if you see
     too many or if, in the worst case scenario, you see a
     movement such as http://www.registerflies.com .

  2. Do NOT host your website with your registrar or use their
     DNS records because any downtime on their part may turn
     your website into a 404 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/404_error).

  3. Be careful registering your domain with a hosting company.
     Just like a registrar, a hosting company can leave you in
     hot water if it goes South. Generally hosting companies are
     just resellers of domains so all is not lost; with some
     effort you may be able to skirt around the hosting company
     and contact the core domain registrar.

  4. If you must make your whois information private then use
     a 3rd party privacy service - one that is not directly
     affiliated with your registrar. This way you can be
     reasonably sure that your privacy options are under your
     control only.

  5. Do NOT allow your registrar or hosting company to have any
     stake in your domain whois records. For example, making a
     hosting company contact the Admin of your domain opens you
     up to potential problems.

  6. Make certain your whois information is accurate so you can
     be contacted should complications arise. You are out of luck
     if privacy is in effect but that should be an understood
     sacrifice of such a specialized service.

  7. Register important domains for a few years instead of just
     one so that you can be sure you will not lose your domain
     to renewal should you find yourself with a bad registrar.

Closing Remarks

My heart goes out to all of those affected by this horrid
situation. The idea that clients of RegisterFly may have lost
domains after investing thousands of hours and dollars in their
website - is a sobering thought. I can only hope that those most
painfully affected by this mess get some justice - better late
than never.

PS. I don't think this post would be complete without a creative
video that YouTube user "hd1080i" used to put the RegisterFly
events into perspective.

< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsrvUqj6cdU >

================================================================
Ross Dunn is the founder and CEO of StepForth Search Engine
Placement Inc. (http://www.stepforth.com/) Based in Victoria,
BC, Canada, StepForth has provided professional search engine
placement and management services since 1997. Ross is a search
engine optimization and placement expert with over 9 years of
marketing experience and is a Certified Internet Marketing and
Business Strategist (CIMBS).  Blending his experience in the art
of web design and search engine optimization, Ross offers a
unique and informed perspective on obtaining top search engine
placements. Ross can be reached at ross@stepforth.com
================================================================

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