Am I the only one furious about this new policy? Are there grounds for some type of class action lawsuit or something? Who decided that there needs to be an exorbitant fee (in addition to the reg. fee) to renew one's own expired domain name, Netsol or Icann?? I want to be sure who to be furious with.....My clients are livid and so are we... Let's sue!!!! This is total abuse of monopoly power. If this isn't extortion, I don't know what is!!!

I agree that it's crap. I don't know if there are any grounds for legal action, though.

First off, until you actually pay this "exorbitant fee", you would not have a case for extortion. All you can do right now is speak your mind on forums like these, and email ICANN with your thoughts and hope they read them.

Second, it's not extortion because you aren't being forced to pay it. I dont' see why your clients and you would be livid if you don't have to pay anything :confused: Just make sure your domains are renewed well in advance and you'll be fine.

Originally posted by akash
First off, until you actually pay this "exorbitant fee", you would not have a case for extortion. All you can do right now is speak your mind on forums like these, and email ICANN with your thoughts and hope they read them.

We've paid this fee twice already on behalf of our clients. I have emailed Icann with my "thoughts"....

Second, it's not extortion because you aren't being forced to pay it. I dont' see why your clients and you would be livid if you don't have to pay anything :confused: Just make sure your domains are renewed well in advance and you'll be fine.

If you run an online business, having your domain name down for 30+ days is not acceptable. The only alternative is to pay the $150+ fee. The end user is FORCED to pay this exorbitant fee to stay in business. That IS Extortion:

x·tor·tion __ (_P_)__Pronunciation Key__(k-stôrshn)
n.
1.The act or an instance of extorting.


2. Illegal use of one's official position or powers to obtain property, funds, or patronage.


3.An excessive or exorbitant charge.


4.Something extorted.

If you run an online business, having your domain name down for 30+ days is not acceptable. The only alternative is to pay the $150+ fee. The end user is FORCED to pay this exorbitant fee to stay in business. That IS Extortion:


But there is still an alternative, is there not? It may not be one you want to take, but the courts will say the alternative exists. By most state laws, negligence (whether partial or complete) on the part of the plaintiff is grounds for dismissal or ruling in favor of the defendant. You probably wouldn't have a case.

Also, from the reverse point of view, if you had an online business, would you not run it responsibly and renew your domain before it expired?

Originally posted by akash
But there is still an alternative, is there not? It may not be one you want to take, but the courts will say the alternative exists. By most state laws, negligence (whether partial or complete) on the part of the plaintiff is grounds for dismissal or ruling in favor of the defendant. You probably wouldn't have a case.

I need to consult with a lawyer on this, because yes therer is an alternative, but I also believe that it can't be legal to essentially hold someone's name "hostage" with no alternative but to wait 30-45 days. I would argue that this puts the end user in the position of having to fork over the extortion fees in order to maintain his online business. I will need to do some more research to determine the legal ramifications if any, but at the very least it is a very slimy business practice designed to milk more money out of the end-user and to line the pockets of the registry, registrar and probably icann...

Also, from the reverse point of view, if you had an online business, would you not run it responsibly and renew your domain before it expired?

I do run an online business and while I make every effort to run it responsibly, I have had domain names expire unknowingly because of a change of email address, or some innocent mental lapse. I've now had 2 clients who (while maybe they shouldn't have waited until the last minute to contact us about renewing their domain names) can not understand why they need to pay these fees to get a domain name that only they would want!! I mean these are not the kind of domain names that any one else will wna to register as it is very specific to their business.....Once again, in a perfect world, people renew their domain names before they expire, but those that do not should not be imposed some type of arbitrary fee to get it back!

Hey Akash, do you mean alternative as in go out of business? How about this alternative, I put a gun to your head and either you give me your money or I shoot. You do have an aternative don't you? So I guess you would be happy to die or give me your money.

It sickens me that you would compare this to a live or death situation. IMO, if the domain is so important that one would go out of business without it, then it should be renewed on time - no excuses.

<mod edit>

please mind your language

First off, your words are extremely offensive and WILL cause you to be banned from the forum. Please edit your post now. <edit>Using the words you used, just diminishes your credibility. If you are going to argue with me, at least do it maturely</edit>

Second, I neither work for a registrar, nor do I have any relation to one other than me having a enom account for my own domains.

Third, I'm not arguing that the price of the fee is ok. I agree that $200 may be a bit too much. I'm arguing that the policy itself is ok. If they didn't have this policy, the domain would be deleted almost right away and if registered by someone else you may have to pay $100's of dollars to get it back.

One does not have to be tech savy to read renewal reminders(sent as much as 90 days in advance) or remember the date they have to renew the domain.

This was my direct insult and I apologize:

You must be some sort of icann lackey or something.

This is my view:

1) No way anyone would argue for someone lese' interest like you do. Unlees they are a sucker.

2) This is a big time scam to suck money out of the least tech savy folks. That is what this is. If you defend that, you are either a verisign sucker or a verisgn whore.

I apologize for offending you. You are right to call me on that. I am quite upset about the new policy because some very nice people who do not understand the difference between html, DNS, Registars, Web Hosting, etc Just had to pay 150 to release their domains. I found this to be a terrible scam. They are totally amateurs at tehcnology, they can barely open their email, but their site does do business. Now they are learning the hard way. In my view, this is only going to get folks who are less savy that is all. It is abuse of their ignorance. I find that far from fair. If the domain was charged a fair amout, like the extra month owed and such, that would be reasonable.

So my apologies akash for insulting you. It was wrong of me. But I still hold strong to my opinions and view on the matter.

Regards .....

apology accepted :beer:

again, I am not saying that the price is fair, I'm just saying that the policy is fair. And in reality if you look at it, it actually helps the "newbie" customers because their domains would not be subjected to deletion from the registry. They would have 45 days in which to pay a fee (that's another debate) and they would have rights to the domain back.

If the policy did not exist, their domain would be deleted and if someone else registered it, they would be even more upset because it would then be even harder to get back.

The issue of how much one pays is a different story. If it were my call, it would probably be between $35-$100 ($100 being on the very high end, low probability).

Akash is absolutely correct. It may take some getting used to; but I'll bet you're more keen to keeping track of when your domain expires now.

I think it's a good plan. I would much rather see the last registrant be able to get his domain back, then to see it stole by domain jumpers. The price may be high. But, what price is too high if the domain is lost?

Let me make it clear from the very beginning: I'm neither a registrar nor run a reseller service (yet), and I don't like paying even $80 for redeeming a domain name.

However, I do not see what's wrong with this Redemption Grace Periods thing, especially from the registrants' perspective.

If some of you are not familiar with the secondary market of domain names, the truth is: when your life and death domain name has expired and got picked up by one of our fellow domain name speculators, you probably end up paying $500 AT THE LEAST.

The RGP is actually your second chance to renew it EVEN when your registrar has already decided to delete it from their database.

And if you are not aware of this: Registrars USED TO hold expired domain names DEACTIVATED for months and even YEARS.

In short, it is an EXTRA step by ICANN to PROTECT the registrants. I'd suggest doing some more homework (research) before commenting in an uninformed manner.

Frankly, as a domain name "investor", I personally do not like it at all. I'd actually prefer all domain names to be deleted right away upon expiry.

I do not see what the problem is? Yes its a hefty fee to pay for forgetfullness.

The ATO (Tax Office) isn't very forgiven when you are late handing in your TAX form.... and they slug you a fee or penalise you in another way... is it their fault that you handed your form in late? No.

The tax office penalizes you because:

1) They are a governmental body with taxation powers
2) Your obligation as a citizen is to pay taxes
3) Your taxes are used to pay for services for the general good
4) These services are set forth in yearly budgets that must be funded
5) People are reluctant to pay large sums of money out in the first place, so it's a good practice to penalize them if they don't

On the other hand,

1) Registrars are not governmental bodies with taxation powers
2) You have no obligation to renew your domain name
3) The monies registrars collect go to line their own pockets
4) The collected monies go to satisfy investors, like VeriSign who once valued NetSol at $22 billion (today the two are worth $2 billion)
5) Domain owners are willing to pay a reasonable fee for late renewal so suspension of service should be threat enough

Originally posted by adland

5) Domain owners are willing to pay a reasonable fee for late renewal so suspension of service should be threat enough

Yes. A reasonable fee is one thing, but this is beyond ridiculous! I run a hosting company and I have customers that for one reason or another exceed their billing cycle and pay late (I'm sure we ALL do). But I can't imagine I'd have any customers left if I just shut off their account as soon as it was 1 day past due and refused to reactivate it unless I was paid 10-15X the annual fee!! Of course my angry customers could go seek out a reasonable and fair company to host with. Victims of this ICANN/NETSOL extortion scam fall prey to this money grubbing monopoly and have nowhere to turn..pay up whatever they say ($150-$200!!) or live without your business's domain name for 30-45 days. There is no recourse, no place else to turn to to register that domain name......