Thread

So it was last Friday and I was eating a locally made product and noticed they had a link on the back to their .ca website, I was intrigued… Open Firefox… type domain… No website! Thats bad I thought, I wonder who owns it… No one!

Oh this is bad, big product, wildly popular, on provincial and national news…. WTF!

So being that I absolutely hate squatters and I know how tough in Canada it is to try(as you probably wont succeed ) to get you domain back, I registered it, with my real name. I then called them, Friday before long weekend… closed. Bah, whatever I will contact them after the long weekend…

Tuesday morning… closed, their voicemail inbox - Full. Try again Wednesday.

So I wake up this morning to a blackberry full of voicemails… with an escalating tone.
They start off with we want our domain back and progress to just shy of I am going to come and break your legs.

Like I said I included my real info in the whois as I figured they didn’t understand how domains work or had a fall out with a firm etc. And I had no intention of being malicious.

So I go down there and explain that there are people who know the game and will hold your website for a ridiculous amount until your CIRA arbitration, which due to the backlog will take quite a long time, during which they keep your domain that is printed on all your product. I am not this person, in fact I did not want any compensation for the domain, I did not want the fee I was charged to register it… nothing! In fact I actually saved them a years worth of registration.

The guy who was the one calling me was still pissed off and I think he felt that because he owned the business name that no one could register the domain. The woman on the other hand had seen a segment on the news about domain squatting and was quite grateful.

As a small business owner I understand how tough things are already and I honestly did not want to see a local company get shafted by some squatter.

So here I am, a few dollars poorer and feeling pretty sad. People really need to protect their brand on all fronts at all times.

No good deed goes unpunished

- Clare Boothe Luce (1903-1987)

/rant

Sorry to hear about your experience, Lee. I think you deserve some free product for how you were treated. 😊

Very interesting.  You deserve a medal of honor!  Those ba$tard$!

YOU know that you did the right thing. That’s all that matters. What they think is immaterial.

You should have stacked it with AdSense ads. 😄

some years ago I registered a german (.de) domain with the name of my favorite guitar player.
2 years later I get a letter from a lawyer, I shall give them back the domain to the german music agency of the musician - and pay 800 euros for the expenses of the lawyer.

I had my email adress in the whois, hey they don´t write you first an friendly email…
I called a lawyer and he told me, I shall unregister the domain and don´t pay the money - I live in Austria, not in Germany - normally the music mafia don´t go to court for such peanats when you are living in another country…

Dude, that sucks. Here in the US - unless he has trademarked his name, it’s yours. Hell, even if he did trademark his name - as long as you are not attempting to profit from his trademark - you are allowed to own the domain.

Yeah, its a .ca so I don’t know if they would have had any recourse anyways. But I can tell you that if they sue over a free years worth of registration the judge would hopefully throw it out.

For what its worth they (or the company that is building their site ) still haven’t sent a domain transfer request; for all that huffing and puffing they sure aren’t on the ball!

For what its worth they (or the company that is building their site ) still haven’t sent a domain transfer request; for all that huffing and puffing they sure aren’t on the ball!

Well, let’s see if I have this straight.  You attempted several times to contact them to tell them their domain name had expired.  You were afraid a cybersquatter might get it, so you bought it for them, and tried to leave voice messages to that effect.  They accused you of being a thief.  When you went down to their business and tried to explain to them that you were trying to protect their interests, and didn’t even want the money you had paid for the domain, they still called you a thief.

They were not willing to admit they had screwed up and did not make any kind of gesture of gratitude that you were not trying to stick them for several thousand dollars.  On top of all that, they may have lost a customer for their product.

Not on the ball?  Isn’t there a better way to say STUPID in Canadian?
😉

That was a really nice thing you did, but if I was in your situation I think I would have handled the situation slightly differently. Perhaphs it is fair enough that they were annoyed you registered the domain at first but they should have been more greatful after you going down there and telling them you were just going to give it them. But no, they still called you a thief - it is at this point you should have started asking for some money.

That’d teach them.

Yeah the thought has crossed my mind, however I cannot for some reason do that. I am however struggling with the “Web Developer” who they are using to build the site.

On Wednesday the web developer bought the .com (which is not on their print material) and is the registrant on the whois. I had not seen a domain transfer request so I sent him an email wondering if he is going to send it soon as I was going to be away next week. Here is the reply.

Lee: thanks for your inquiry…should it be the web host who contacts you on
this?
My involvement is the design of the website, I’m not an ISP

Regards, NAME HIDDEN

omg.

My reply,

Hi NAME HIDDEN,

I have seen that you are the registrant for domain.com and figured you would want to be the registrant for domain.ca so you can control it. If that is the case you have to initiate the transfer request, which can be done simply at https://secure.registry.ca/transfer.html

I cannot send the domain to someone they have to request the transfer of it. This will also add an additional year of registration to that domain.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

-Lee

Bah!, the hand holding begins! Does anyone have some crayons?

So you still “own” the domain.

Why not set up a web site, and copy this thread into the site.

I’ll provide web space if you don’t have.

I really dont want to open myself up to a lawsuit, and as I live in a small city ~20,000 I dont think it would take long to get a bad rep.

Its very freaking tempting, I leave that option on the table; and lets call it “Operation Milton”

-Lee

If they treated you like that, did they really deserve to get the site back that quickly? Who are you, Mother Teresa? It’s no wonder you feel bad.

😊