News of GoDaddy’s support of SOPA hit its crescendo over the Christmas weekend, spurred on by Jimmy Wales’ announcement of his intentions to move Wikipedia’s domain away from GoDaddy’s service:

From there, the exodus from GoDaddy began in earnest. All told, the registrar service lost over 70,000 domains, and that’s when the backtracking and double talk began. Of course, when large portions of the Internet population are speaking out against your service on sites like Reddit, and there’s a “Boycott GoDaddy” site getting attention, it’s hard not to respond, unless recent GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons enjoys watching his flock flee.

And flee they did. In fact, one of GoDaddy’s competitors, Namecheap, wrote a blog post discussing how GoDaddy was not facilitating the transfer process by returning “incomplete WHOIS information,” an accusation the domain registrar denied in a statement to CNet, which, in part, says:

Because some registrars (and other data gathering, analyzing and reporting entities) have legitimate need for heavy port 43 access, we routinely grant requests for expanded access per an SOP we’ve had in place for many years. Should we make contact with Namecheap, and learn they need similar access, we would treat that request similarly.

However, GoDaddy’s handling of transferring domains was not the issue at hand. Instead, the company’s support of SOPA/PIPA was the driving force behind the defections. So much so, in fact, GoDaddy issued a press release saying they no longer supported SOPA — conveniently leaving out PIPA — as they tried to reverse the course many of their ex-customers were taking.

The release is complete with a “please don’t go” feel:

“Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation – but we can clearly do better,” Warren Adelman, Go Daddy’s newly appointed CEO, said. “It’s very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it.”

Considering GoDaddy was potentially exempt from SOPA’s punitive actions, it’s clear GoDaddy’s SOPA reversal is motivated by business, or the loss thereof.

Was your domain registered through GoDaddy’s service? Does their previous (wink, wink) support of SOPA/PIPA inspire you to leave GoDaddy? Let us know what you think.

The registrars involved include South American Domains, which does business under NameFrog.com, Simply Named (SimplyNamed.com), and Tahoe Domains.

Each of these three registrars received notice of non-renewal of RAA letters from ICANN. NameFrog’s violation appears to be for not providing "an interactive web page and a port 43 Whois service providing free public query-based access to up-to-date data concerning all active registered names sponsored by the registrar for each TLD in which it is accredited."

The data would include the name of the Registered Name, the names of the primary nameserver and secondary nameserver(s) for the Registered Name, the identity of the Registrar, and the original creation date of the registration, the expiration date, the name and address of the Registered Name holder, the name, address, email address, phone number, and fax number of both the technical contact and the administrative contact for the Regsitered Name.

Simply Named’s violations appear to be failing to submit an electronic copy of a database to ICANN or a reputable escrow agent approved by the Registrar and ICANN, and failure to pay accreditation fees. Tahoe Domains’ violations appear to be about the same as Simply Named’s.

The letters do say that the registrars are able to apply for renewal if they can comply with the obligations of the RAA.

Beginning today, ICANN is inviting statements of interest from accredited registrars to act as a transfer provider, ensuring registrants have full access to their domains. That registrar will act as a temporary domain holder and aid in the transfer of domain names to any ICANN-accredited registrar of the registrant’s choice.

“Registrants are our first concern. ICANN is following a very determined approach to returning access to domain name registrants impacted by the collapse of RegisterFly,” said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN President and CEO.

In order to qualify as a transfer provider, registrars must be ICANN-accredited for at least two years, in compliance with the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, and able to demonstrate that it possesses the technical and financial qualification necessary to operate a registrar with the number of registrations that the applicant will need to manage if it is selected as the services provider.

“ICANN knows that many registrants are anxious for a transfer to occur. We are committed to making sure this process is put in place as quickly as possible,” Twomey said.

“While we understand that this process may be frustrating for some RegisterFly customers, it is the first time that ICANN has had to intercede in such a way and these steps are being taken to ensure that the system introduced works as effectively as possible.”

US Federal Court Judge Manuel J. Real is also requiring RegisterFly to post the following notice on its website immediately:

NOTICE TO CONSUMERS: THE INTERNET CORPORATION FOR ASSIGNED NAMES AND NUMBERS, THE NOT-FOR-PROFIT ENTITY THAT ADMINISTERS THE INTERNET’S DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM, HAS ISSUED A NOTICE OF TERMINATION OF THIS COMPANY’S ACCREDITATION TO SERVE AS AN INTERNET DOMAIN REGISTRAR. PLEASE SEE www.icann.org FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.

As of 11:30 a.m. EST, the notice is not yet posted on the site.

That’s an oversimplification, however, and is not meant to imply that Ross Rader (or perhaps Elliot Noss – view the article here and see if you can figure out who wrote it) wasted his time.  Rader (or Noss) outlines ten different subjects that individuals should research, and gives his personal recommendations on each of them.

Yet there’s some repetition between numbers one and ten.  “Understand what business your registrar is in, and also understand who owns them and what business they are in,” Rader/Noss suggests at first.  The concluding point then recommends that you determine whether the company is a registrar or a reseller.

Most of the rest of the piece delves into some seriously fine print.  “Understand all the rules and restrictions concerning transfers that your registrar employs,” writes Rader/Noss in his second point.  His third section is followed by the advice to “know whether your registrar locks names and if they do, how to unlock them.”

Number four relates to the details of registrars’ auto-renew plans, while number five suggests that individuals “[a]sk about and understand any restrictions on changing contact information.”  Number six: know about the privacy policies, especially as they relate to Whois privacy and any extra fees.

Rader’s/Noss’s seventh and eighth pieces of advice entail – you guessed it – more research and fact-finding.  “Know your registrar’s policies and practices with respect to compliance issues and how you contact the compliance department” is the take-away message from number seven, while eight adds, “Try and find the contact email addresses and phone numbers BEFORE buying.”

For all of the nitpicking and repetition up ‘til now, the ninth question is a big one: “What happens when my domain expires?”  The thing is, that issue is between you and you registrar, so Rader/Noss suggests that you “[f]ind a registrar that provides at least a 40 day grace period and that respects an actual or implied RGP for 30 days after that.”

And so there are some (perhaps just shy of “all”) questions you can ask when deciding between domain name registrars.

Then ICANN, http://www.icann.org/, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) that is the non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for the IP address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system management, and root server system management functions previously performed under U.S. Government contract by IANA and other entities, decided to change the rules.

The initial testing phase of the new competitive Shared Registry System for the .com, .net, and .org domains quietly began to take place in April of 1999.

It started with five participants who were the first to implement the new system for competition in the market for .com, .net, and .org domain name registration services.

Previously, registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains were provided by Network Solutions, Inc. under an exclusive contract with the United States government.

In the two years since this program began, things have really changed.

Just this last week, ICANN reported that two of their registrars, Tucows and New York-based Register.com, had recorded more new registrations for Top Level Domains (dot-com, dot-net and dot-org) than VeriSign’s Network Solutions.

This marks the first time ever that VeriSign’s Network Solutions was out-sold by any of the registrars and signals that their past dominance of domain name registration is certainly fading.

Why?

Because besides others being allowed to make domain name registrations, these new registrars are also cutting prices.

I just registered a new domain name, http://autopilotebiz.com/, that will not start Pre-Launch until April 2001, but for the price I used to register a domain name for two years, $70, I was able to register AUTOPILOTeBIZ.COM for 10 YEARS!

The RULES have most certainly changed.

The Shared Registration System (“SRS”), ICANN’s accredited registrars program, allows people to submit application to become a registrar along with a non-refundable $1000 filing fee.

After someone is accepted into the program then they must pay a yearly fee of $5000 to maintain their status as an accredited registrar.

This situation has created a very competitive environment which can only be beneficial to all of us as the price to register a domain name has fallen like a rock from a very tall building.

However, if you plan to register a new domain name using a virtual unknown registrar, make certain they do indeed have the legal accreditation from ICANN by visiting the ICANN web site and viewing their posted list of ALL accredited vendors:
http://www.icann.org/registrars/accredited-list.html

It will only take you a few moments to make sure you are dealing with a reputable vendor of domain names. Those few moments will make the entire process legal and worry-free.

A.T.Rendon is an entrepreneur and published writer. Subscribe to our FREE Business Classifieds Newsletter & receive FREE online access to our ENTRY Protected “FREE Submit To Over 3.1 MILLION FREE Ad Sites – DAILY!!!” subscribe_fbcn9@emailexchange.org Visit us at: http://emailexchange.org/?Articles