Wikileaks Calls for Boycott of Domain Registrar eNom

[Kamloops]

Wikileaks Calls for Boycott of Domain Registrar eNom

By Edward Falk
Edward

In the aftermath of the shutdown of Wikileaks.org by a court order issued at the request of Swiss Bank Julius Baer, Wikileaks has called for the boycott of registrar eNom.

eNom is best known as the domain registrar that complied with the federal government’s order to shut down a Spanish travel agency because it did business with Cuba—the agency was not under U.S. jurisdiction and so was hardly violating U.S. law, but their domain was registered in the United States, and that was good enough for the feds.

Although eNom’s culpability in that incident is doubtful, since they were probably under orders from the federal government, their involvement in the shutdown of Wikileaks.info was not so innocent.

In a nutshell, bank Julius Baer was able to get a court order shutting down Wikileaks.org, but not wikileaks.info, which was a mirror site not mentioned in the TRO. However, learning of the court order against wikileaks.org, eNom apparently took it upon themselves to shutdown wikileaks.info as well—without a court order of any kind.

Wikileaks made repeated requests—and then demands—to eNom asking them to identify who, if anybody, had told them to lock the wikileaks.info registration, and what claims had been made. When eNom failed to answer, Wikileaks issued their call to boycott. Wikileaks accuses eNom, and their parent company Domain Media, Inc. , of a pattern of censorship and other unethical practices that goes beyond the shutdowns of Wikileaks.info and the Spanish travel agency.

[Acro]

GoDaddy is by far the worst when it comes down to censorship of domains.

[Rockefeller]

They should add 1and1 and Netsol onto that list. If everyone transfers their domains out of shitty registrars they will go bankrupt, they've forgotten where they make all their cash.

[incka]

I'll join the boycott (mainly as I'm happy with my resellerclub account and I'm moving all my domains there anyway)

[HuntingMoon]

all a registrar has to do is give you notice to move the name. why they should interfere with business is beyond me.

[Dave Zan]

why they should interfere with business is beyond me.

Well, will you allow anyone carte blanche on whatever they say or do in your
own premises which you may consider "bad" or so?

That thing with Wikileaks is arguably isolated with its own set of facts.

[wbengal]

In my own experience with eNOM, I have found them to be heavy-handed and arrogant and I stopped using my eNOM reseller account long ago due to this. There are plenty of fish in the ocean...

[socalboy]

Will be out of eNom myself by the end of the year. Had my own unfortunate experience with them a couple months ago.

You should add Namecheap.com, which is owned by eNom. Also add Register.com and Namebargain.com; I found out that they are only servicing agencies for domain registrations now, and that when you register through them the actual registrar is eNom.

[domainplus]

By far dynadot seems to be spot on and pretty "in the game"...no wonder people seems to be with 1and 1 for their cheap price

[BLazeD]

Been boycotting them for years.

Most stupud CSRs ever

[Dave Zan]

You should add Namecheap.com, which is owned by eNom.

NameCheap is currently using both their eNom reseller account and their own
registrar status. But they and eNom are 2 separate entities.

[BELLC1]

I'm still trying to find another registrar so I can move away from enom as they "pushed" my domain (without my permission) to someone else and won't give it back even though they know by audit I didn't push it. But there are far worse -- register.com certainly comes to mind -- though basic good stewardship of my purchases should be paramount.

[socalboy]

NameCheap is currently using both their eNom reseller account and their own
registrar status. But they and eNom are 2 separate entities.

Hi Dave,

I'm not so sure about that, but give me a bit of time. Got other things on my plate also.

NameBargain is in WestChester, a part of LA, and can check on that.

It is my understanding that eNom is now owned by Domain Media, as well as NameCheap. Real owner is a guy named Berkowitz I believe, who sold Facebook to NewsCorp.

TTYL,

SoCal

[Dave Zan]

Hi Dave,

I'm not so sure about that, but give me a bit of time. Got other things on my plate also.

NameBargain is in WestChester, a part of LA, and can check on that.

It is my understanding that eNom is now owned by Domain Media, as well as NameCheap. Real owner is a guy named Berkowitz I believe, who sold Facebook to NewsCorp.

TTYL,

SoCal

Interesting. AFAIK Richard Kirkendall's the owner of NameCheap, but I'll also check.

[Gerry]

I've been boycotting eNom on my own for perhaps 4 or 5 years now.

Bought 3 LLN.com. Seller opened an eNom account in my name with out my approval and placed them in there for me.

When I tried to transfer out later, the asshole would not give me the codes.

I lost those three names.

About the same time, I bought two more LLN.com. This seller was able to transfer one to me but not the other. He was experiencing the same issue. He could not even access the key for his own account that was set up in his name. I did get a refund for that one.

eNom's tiered reseller program is horrific.

I know many will swear by eNom.

I swear that if the domain is with eNom, I will not buy it.