What would happen if a domain registrar went bust?

[MAllie]

Can anyone tell me what would happen to your domain names if a registrar went bust? Presumably ownership would not be disputed, but how would you get access to your names? Just wondering.

[Acro]

The domains registered there would be allocated to a competent registrar. Not sure of the process but ICANN and the respective Registry would oversee that.

[Rockefeller]

Several already have, ICANN accepts applications from registrars on who wants to take over the domains and they are then transferred to the selected registrar.

[Acro]

Biggest registrar gone bust: RegisterFly

[katherine]

The major issue is when you have names expiring soon and the registrar has gone awol and you can't even renew them. Then there is risk that the names drop.

Many people have lost names in the registerfly debacle, as icann was late to step in, they only took action when registerfly had been in meltdown for months.
Now icann seems to have got the hang of the process. Actually (small) registrars are terminated on a regular basis.

[Rockefeller]

That's why you stay at a well know large registrar, the only thing regfly was known for was .49 .infos

[Acro]

the only thing regfly was known for was .49 .infos

And lavish corporate parties

[biggedon]

Biggest registrar gone bust: RegisterFly

yeah and all the domains i had at regfly went back to enom


actually, i think regfly was an enom reseller at one time.

[DomainMagnate]

Biggest registrar gone bust: RegisterFly

I think GoDaddy took over, but I still get emails from them saying I might have one domain expiring... yeah 2 years ago

[tristanperry]

I think GoDaddy took over, but I still get emails from them saying I might have one domain expiring... yeah 2 years ago

GoDaddy had a big push to take over any domains from RegFly, although I don't think they officially bought them out per se. (But effectively it's the same thing)

And yeah, ICANN do seem better recently. Didn't they cancel 3 small registrars earlier this month?

[katherine]

registerfly what a bunch of crap
The lawsuit seems to be going nowhere

[Acro]

Apparently a "fan" site http://registerflies.com

[MAllie]

Thanks, guys. All very interesting. I hadn't heard of registerfly before. It would be better if domain owners had the right to nominate the registrar they wanted to take over their domain(s), though. But I suppose they could always transfer them out if they weren't happy with the new registrar.

[denny007]

Well since all registrars must make mandatory whois data backup now, then is very easy to change the registrar, last two canceled registrars (don;t know the name) took over Directi and Answerable. So you will simply go to Directi/Answerable and chose "forgot a password".

THat's for Gtld, for Cctld depends on policies of each national registry...