For Sale Enom catching .info (for whom??)

[carlton]

I thought Enom only catch .com and .net. Well, they appear to have caught a very premium .info today. Registrant name (PocketDomain.com?) and host (Alfena) are unknown, but resolve directly to Enom homepage.

Warehousing? Opinions and analysis ...

 

[Domainator]

Can you share the domain name referred to?

 

[WhoWhere]

Enom seems to be catching .INFO through PocketDomain.com since a month or two. But not for the public. And they're very good at it too. They beat SnapNames actually.

 

[carlton]

Enom seems to be catching .INFO through PocketDomain.com since a month or two. But not for the public. And they're very good at it too. They beat SnapNames actually.

Bingo. But not for the public. And if true, what does that say?

That they are competing directly with their customers? Do ICANN discourage this? Are not domain speculation and warehousing a likely violation of one's registrar agreement with ICANN? Comments?

 

[NameYourself]

I think the new management has one goal, and they don't give a crap about the customers. They want names for themselves, and if what you saying about this private catching/warehousing is true, that just proves that point. And I do believe they have a no-warehousing clause somewhere in the ICANN agreement. Anyone know where to find that?

There have also been stories of expired names just being held and not made available again to the public. DmandMedia doesn't want customers, they demand your names.

 

[carlton]

Directly from the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement ...

3.7.9 Registrar shall abide by any ICANN adopted specifications or policies prohibiting or restricting warehousing of or speculation in domain names by registrars.

Also ...

Topics for New and Revised Specifications and Policies:

4.2.5 prohibitions on warehousing of or speculation in domain names by registries or registrars

This addresses a "crossing of the line" that registries and registrars should not be engaging in. I wish ICANN were not so slow in drafting a clear penalty or pulling the accreditation of any offending registrars. ICANN need to appoint a committee to specifically investigate these behaviors.

Extremely high quality names are being kept from the public as registrars build their own portfolios using their ICANN accreditation as a pass key through the back door.

 

[katherine]

...
There have also been stories of expired names just being held and not made available again to the public. DmandMedia doesn't want customers, they demand your names.

Oh yes there are keeping expired domains under the guise of their so called 'extended RGP' which is pure Enom 'newspeak'. They grabbed a name I lost and are hiding behing whois privacy :spider:
There is a conflict of interest here. Simply put Enom's interest seem to run counter the interests of registrants. If Enom were a private registrar things would be a tad different but they have a large customer base.
How are they going to handle this ? IMO the registrars will continue to do business as usual until ICANNT steps in (wouldn't bet on it) or they are exposed and get a really bad rep everywhere. Money tends to rot everything and there is money at stake so registrars have every interest to screw you :veryangry

 

[Name-Driver]

I dont trust eNom.

They've caught many (almost ALL) of my backordered LLL.info (at Pool)

 

[StockDoctor]

Directly from the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement ... 3.7.9 Registrar shall abide by any ICANN adopted specifications or policies prohibiting or restricting warehousing of or speculation in domain names by registrars.

ICANNT never adopts anything of any substance, and if they did, they'd never enforce anything anyway. All ICANNT exists for is to sell meaningless "accredations" to crooked registrars and instituting an ever increasing Tax on domain sales. That's the 25 cents you pay on every reg for absolutely no reason other than filling ICANNT's pockets. This amounts to Taxation without representation, and we domainers need a revolution and independence.

 

[carlton]

I'm high-fiving you doc! :clap2:

I did read a transcript of a fairly recent ICANN meeting in which the issue had come up, but I don't know if there was any serious follow up. The meeting had focused mostly on domain kiting (another registrar back door burglary, imo).

 

[Poker]

Great thread...they mave have the guns, but we have the numbers.

 

[t10host.com]

I knew they grabed COUPON.INFO
I lost the grab game by them.

 

[Estrange]

positive.info
eee.info
pnx.info
great.info
cps.info
sig.info
coupon.info
fur.info
commercial.info

just in 2 days by Pocketdomain.com and Alfena...

 

[carlton]

And ...

SanJose.info - the home of Silicon Valley and 10th largest city in America (pop = 897,000). Some of the most expensive real estate in the country and highest per capita income. I knew about Coupon.info and Commercial.info, but not the others. This is pure warehousing.

 

[msl]

pure and blatent profit mongering..... simple as! the less domains that become available to non registrars the more the big guns will grab! if someone / company / body, cannot do something soon.... domains will move like gold and oil has....

 

[WhoWhere]

Now who wants to give eNom a call and ask for an official response to this issue here?

By the way.. huge huge .INFO drops are coming in the next couple of weeks..

 

[msl]

maybe a whole sub forum devoted to all the illegal grabs would work wonders.... just a general list of URL's NOT to visit / NOT to advertise on / NOT to trade with / NOT to buy and sell with etc, would make the CEO's situp and look .... :flame:

 

[carlton]

maybe a whole sub forum devoted to all the illegal grabs would work wonders.... just a general list of URL's NOT to visit / NOT to advertise on / NOT to trade with / NOT to buy and sell with etc, would make the CEO's situp and look .... :flame:

This is an idea worth considering. There are three registrars (that I know of) who are engaging in warehousing. Post a public list of these registrars, the domains they are warehousing, the catch date. Also a log of letters sent to ICANN notifying them of each violation and all ICANN responses (if any) received so that the domain community can track ICANN's action.

Just looked up a few possible names

BadRegistrars.org = available
DishonestRegistrars.net = available
StopRegistrarAbuse.com = available

 

[WhoWhere]

There are three registrars (that I know of) who are engaging in warehousing.

I can guess who the 2nd one is. I wonder who's third

 

[msl]

spot on Carlton!

it would make financial and pure business sense for the offenders to STOP doing it, we have even seen some earlier tag holders, actually buying up "smaller companies" so that the Big guns can use that as "excuse" for grabbing the names in the smaller companies portfolios!

maybe DCG could step in here with an opinion... everyone likes to make a steady profit from their investments or DN portfolios but as the names get grabbed the industry suffers....

as the Registrars are actually breaking T&C's, a thread maybe outing their actions would do the marketplace a BIG favour....

think we might start a thread and see how many DNF'rs actually post a "grabbed" domain.... :thumb: