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ICANN terminates RegisterFly.com accreditation
Malaysia Sun
Saturday 17th March, 2007
Beleagured domain registrar RegisterFly.com lost its accreditation with ICANN Friday.
The move came after two years of complaints by registrants of failures, and possibly fraud, on a range of fronts.
ICANN issued a Notice of Breach to RegisterFly on February 21 giving it fifteen working days (3 weeks) to 'cure each identified breach.'
ICANN says RegisterFly has remained in breach, pointing in particular to its failure to unlock domains and provide registrants with authorisation codes.
Co-incidently with the Notice of Breach, ICANN also sent a Notice of Audit that required RegisterFly to allow ICANN to inspect and copy records as well as a notice to submit registrants' data to ICANN or an escrow agent.
Six days after issuing the notices ICANN sent two employees to RegisterFly's offices in New Jersey to audit them and obtain the registrant information. However RegisterFly failed to co-operate.
On March 1st RegisterFly's lawyers forwarded a letter to ICANN advising that refusal to comply with ICANN's request "should not be construed as my client's unwillingness to cooperate with ICANN but as evidence of their continuing efforts to service their customers."
ICANN responded the following day with a letter setting out additional breaches of the Registrar Agreement. In the letter ICANN described RegisterFly's statement that refusal to comply was evidence of customer service, as "preposterous."
ICANN also threatened to apply for a temporary restraining order requiring RegisterFly to turn over the data requested and to compel an emergency audit of its books and records.
RegisterFly ironically only became an ICANN-accredited registrar barely a year ago. Prior to that it was a reseller for eNom.com.
ICANN, in a letter sent by its general counsel Friday, has told RegisterFly it must cease operating as an accredited registrar by the end of the month.
It would appear ICANN would have liked the termination to be immediate, but it is bound by a 15-day notice clause in its agreement with registrars. ICANN has however ordered an immediate halt by RegisterFly of its use of ICANN trademarks and logo on its Web site.
The embattled registrar is also required to unlock and make available all necessary authorisation codes to allow domain name transfers to take place. ICANN says that 'any and all registrants wishing to transfer away from RegisterFly should be allowed to do so efficiently and expeditiously,' between now and the end of the month.
'Terminating accreditation is the strongest measure ICANN is able to take against RegisterFly under its powers,' Dr. Paul Twomey, President and CEO of ICANN said late Friday.
'ICANN has been frustrated and distressed by recent management confusion inside RegisterFly,' Dr. Twomey, said. 'I completely understand the greater frustration and enormous difficulty that this has created for registrants.'
When the Agreement is terminated, ICANN can approve a bulk transfer of all current RegisterFly domain names to another ICANN accredited Registrar.
'Of course, RegisterFly does not have to wait till then. They can request ICANN to approve a bulk transfer immediately. I call on RegisterFly to act in the interests of registrants and seek such a transfer from us straight away,' Dr. Twomey said.
The de-accreditation is a blow to RegisterFly founder, Kevin Medina, who won a bitter legal dispute to resume ownership of the registrar, just a week ago on March 8.
At the time of writing Registerfly.com is continuing to display ICANN trademarks and logos and conveying that it is an ICANN Accredited registrar.
ICANN intends to hold a forum to discuss the reform of the Accreditation policy and process at its Lisbon meeting in a week's time.
A set of questions and points to inform the discussion will be made public prior to the Lisbon meeting.
The Lisbon meeting is one of three meetings held a year by ICANN to meet with global stakeholders. It will take place from 26th to 30th March.
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Comments on this story
| By disgruntled registerfly registrant, 03-17-07, 11:52 AM |
ICANN terminates RegisterFly.com accreditationWell I guess this is the beginning of the end, and should come as no surprise to anyone, even Registerfly. Lets hope Kevin Medina and his crew at least do the honorable thing and unlock their customers domains and give them the codes. |
| By Anonymous, 03-17-07, 12:51 PM |
Thanks for the newsIt is nice to be kept abreast of what is happening, thank you! You guys are really on the ball. |
| By registerfly customer, 03-17-07, 03:34 PM |
still no authorization codesRegisterfly.com has not given me any codes, and it is still impossible to get the codes at the Web site. I have several thousand dollars wrapped up in these names. ICANN must be held responsible for the businesses that are being destroyed by their accredited registrar. |
| By Chester2, 03-23-07, 05:51 PM |
Glad to see them gone!In addition to the latest complaints Registerfly.com has been a spammers haven. I have been the victim of Joe Job spams by sites hosted at Registerfly.com sometimes receiving 10,000 bounced emails a day. Registerfly was totally unresponsive to abuse complaints and the offending sites remained active even after months of continuous spam campains. This spammers haven needs to go. |
| By Anonymous, 03-28-07, 04:33 AM |
Class Action Law Suit against RegisterFly and ICANN27 March 2007
Winston-Salem, NC - Today, an Order by U.S. District Court Judge William Osteen was released, unsealing a class action lawsuit (Anne Martinez v RegisterFly, ICANN et. al.) filed by Attorney E. Clarke Dummit against Internet domain Registrar, RegisterFly, and the corporation charged with accreditation and oversight of Registrars, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”). The lawsuit alleges that RegisterFly systematically defrauded its customers who attempted to register or renew Internet domain names. Anne Martinez has brought the suit as a class action on her own behalf and for the thousands who are still being harmed by RegisterFly and ICANN. To get up to date information about the Class Action visit www.registerfly-lawsuit.com
When it was filed March 13th, 2007 the lawsuit was placed under seal because it alleged that RegisterFly owner Kevin Medina had acted vindictively toward domain name owners, or registrants, in the past when registrants complained about RegisterFly’s service. While the case was under seal, the Court heard arguments from ICANN as to whether ICANN could protect registrants from RegisterFly.
Although ICANN alleged that Medina, the sole owner of RegisterFly, acted vindictively towards registrants in the past, and ICANN has publicly stated that it could not protect the victims, the Court unsealed the lawsuit and granted Medina and RegisterFly the opportunity to be heard on the Plaintiffs' motion for an Injunction Ordering RegisterFly to provide the Plaintiffs with the information necessary to transfer their domain names, and ordering that RegisterFly immediately provide the data to ICANN to protect existing domain registrations from permanent loss.
RegisterFly.com, Inc. is an ICANN accredited domain Registrar that is able to directly register domain names worldwide. According to RegisterFly’s website, it is one of the ten largest internet domain name Registrars, boasting a client list that includes the Government of Thailand, Michael Jackson, and the Easter Seals Charity. ICANN is a non-profit corporation that is charged by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the international community with accrediting Registrars and governing the registration of domain names and use of Internet Protocol Addresses (IP Addresses).
As per the lawsuit, many of RegisterFly’s nearly one million customers are in immediate danger of losing their domain names and more than 75,000 individuals have already lost domain names registered through RegisterFly. In the complaint and subsequent filings, attorney Dummit has alleged that ICANN had full knowledge of RegisterFly’s fraudulent activities for over a year and took no substantive action until the lawsuit was filed. The lawsuit maintains that ICANN profited from RegisterFly’s use of its accreditation and posting of ICANN’s logo on the site, but ICANN failed to enforce the terms of the contract RegisterFly customers relied on when registering domains. The day after attorney Dummit served ICANN with this class action lawsuit, ICANN finally gave notice of termination of ICANN’s accreditation of RegisterFly.
Lead Plaintiff, Anne Martinez, has expressed her fear that Medina may shut down her website www.goCertify.com, which is the sole source of support for her and her children. Ms. Martinez explained her apprehension and irritation, stating “if Medina illegally shuts down my registration, I could end up losing my business and my home. Unfortunately, it does not appear as if ICANN cares or will do anything to help the thousands of people out there just like me. It seems that after ICANN found out about this lawsuit, it decided to protect its own image, but not to help the many registrants facing the loss of their domains and businesses."
Referring to a March 26, 2007 “fact sheet” published by ICANN that claims, among other things, that “ICANN has never approved RegisterFly as an accredited registrar," a frustrated Martinez said, “[e]ven today, while thousands of us are still trying desperately to get our domains protected, ICANN is spending time and energies on spin rather than enforcement."
Like many others, Martinez has made multiple attempts to transfer the domain names she registered through RegisterFly to other Registrars. However, RegisterFly and Medina have locked her and thousands of others' access to the name registration in an apparent attempt to keep customers hostage during an unrelated lawsuit, disputing ownership of RegisterFly.
In an unrelated lawsuit filed February 12, 2007 in New Jersey Federal District Court, former RegisterFly CEO, John Naruszewicz, indicated that he was Kevin Medina’s former lover and that they had a falling out over the mismanagement of RegisterFly. After firing Medina from his position as CEO, Naruszewicz filed suit against Medina - based on Naruszewicz’s asserted fifty percent ownership of RegisterFly - seeking legal control of RegisterFly. Naruszewicz alleged in his lawsuit that Medina misused company funds, precluding RegisterFly from paying registration fees to keep its customers' registrations valid. Additionally, Naruszewicz claimed that Medina deleted passwords and locked customer billing information to prevent the issuance of refunds. Among the alleged misuses of company money were: $27,000 for an escort service; $6,000 for a liposuction procedure; $10,000 a month for a penthouse apartment in Miami, Florida; and $6,000 for a Chihuahua dog.
New Jersey Court documents claimed that the misappropriation of company funds directly caused the loss of 75,000 customer domain names, in January alone, due to RegisterFly’s inability to pay registration fees. In his counterclaim, Medina claimed that his ex-lover Naruszewicz spent $60,000 of company money on Moroccan furniture and down payments on a Florida home. The New Jersey Court determined that Naruszewicz did not actually own fifty percent of RegisterFly because Medina successfully demonstrated that Naruszewicz had not paid for his stock. Therefore, on March 8th, the Judge in New Jersey put Medina back in full control of RegisterFly.
RegisterFly acted as a domain name reseller for eNom until it became an ICANN Registrar in February 2006. By February 2007, RegisterFly was Registrar for approximately 2,000,000 domain names held by about 900,000 customers. eNom formally severed ties with RegisterFly in February 2007 over continued consumer complaints.
According to a notice sent by ICANN to RegisterFly on February 21, 2007, ICANN began having problems with Medina and RegisterFly months after accrediting RegisterFly. The lawsuit alleges that regardless of its knowledge, ICANN proceeded to ignore RegisterFly’s flagrant violations of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (“RAA”) for months, permitting RegisterFly to get away with practices that should have ended the accreditation of any Registrar. ICANN’s lax enforcement is what created this nightmare for thousands of people around the world.
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| By cheap domain names, 06-02-07, 06:32 PM |
How to moved your registerfly domains including protected domains before they will lostRegisterFly will not be a domain reseller in march 2007, and all your domain there is in risk of losing, spicily whois protected domains !.
so how to save your domain:
1. Create A New Register Fly Account.
2. Login into the Old RegisterFly Account.
3. Click on Manage Domains
4. Click A Domain Name
5. Click On Change Ownership
6. Click On “Push your names to another user”
7. Click Continue
8. Enter The User ID of The New RegisterFly Account
9. Verify The User ID of The New RegisterFly Account is Correct
10. Click Continue
11. Select Each Domain Name to Push
12. Check the Check Box Marked “Change the Whois/Contact info on the names being pushed”
*** Check This Box Only if your Domains are Showing ProtectFly Information on a Whois Database, If it’s Showing your Real Information with Working Email Then Continue Without Checking the Check Box ***
13. Login into Your New RegisterFly Account, Your Recently Transferred Domains Should Be All Unlocked.
14. Click Change Whois Information And Get Authorization Code for Each Domain.
15. Wait about 2 Days until changes are updated to the world.
15. Begin Transfer to New Registrar.
also i recommended http://www.domain-host-ssl.com as domain register with very cheap domain names prices. |
| By cheap domain names, 06-02-07, 06:32 PM |
How to moved your registerfly domains including protected domains before they will lostRegisterFly will not be a domain reseller in march 2007, and all your domain there is in risk of losing, spicily whois protected domains !.
so how to save your domain:
1. Create A New Register Fly Account.
2. Login into the Old RegisterFly Account.
3. Click on Manage Domains
4. Click A Domain Name
5. Click On Change Ownership
6. Click On “Push your names to another user”
7. Click Continue
8. Enter The User ID of The New RegisterFly Account
9. Verify The User ID of The New RegisterFly Account is Correct
10. Click Continue
11. Select Each Domain Name to Push
12. Check the Check Box Marked “Change the Whois/Contact info on the names being pushed”
*** Check This Box Only if your Domains are Showing ProtectFly Information on a Whois Database, If it’s Showing your Real Information with Working Email Then Continue Without Checking the Check Box ***
13. Login into Your New RegisterFly Account, Your Recently Transferred Domains Should Be All Unlocked.
14. Click Change Whois Information And Get Authorization Code for Each Domain.
15. Wait about 2 Days until changes are updated to the world.
15. Begin Transfer to New Registrar. |
| By Anonymous, 03-17-07, 04:06 PM |
Don't blame ICANNI think ICANN has done what it can under the limitations it has. Maybe its name should be changed to ICAN’T. In fairness to them they have been very aggressive with registerfly. The blame clearly rests with the registrar. |
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