As many of you know there has been an increase in domain name highjacks over the past 12 – 36 months, people attempting or succeeding in domain name theft in order to take and flip generic and very valuable domains for substantial sums of money. In fact, I was recently involved in a domain highjacking recently where I assisted a friend George K to take back some other very valuable domains. So what do we do? Look to ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to come up with a solution, right?
ICANN just released an “Expedited Transfer Request Policy” in which for 6 months (yes 6 months) the previous registrant of whatever domain just passed hands retains the power to request that domain immediately be returned! That’s right, if you transferred the domain to another registrar durring a sale then for six months that person you just purchased from has the right to tell his or her old registrar, “Give me back my domain, that was a theft.”. After that, you need to cough up proof of purchase and/or potentially a lawyer to take the domain back. Someone can sell YOU a domain name and change his or her mind for 6 months, take back the domain and you’re stuck proving the purchase! What’s more, the old owner could be in another country where you have no jurisdiction!
There are MUCH better ways of handling domain theft and ICANN needs to get a little less creative in this case. This has been addressed more thoroughly by George in a Forum posting here:
http://www.domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=105796
Please make your voice heard and respond to this thread and/or email your registrar letting them know. Tell them “I spent my money, now I want to feel secure that I can keep my domain!”.