Domain was lost apparently due to registrar went out of business

xynames · Mar 11, 2017

Back in 2013, my friend who transferred to me recently a set of domains (he is since deceased, so I cannot ask him any questions about this), acquired five domains (among the many that he had - that I now have), that came up for sale with GoDaddy. To summarize: there were five domains for which the registration for whatever reason lapsed, GoDaddy acquired them, and GoDaddy sold them.

Apparently, these five domains belonged to individuals or entities that had registered them with a domain registrant that went out of business, and then GoDaddy acquired the assets (domains) and resold them on the open market. The details are actually unclear as to WHY the domains were lost in 2013, all that is known is that for whatever reason they ended up in 2013, with GoDaddy, which then sold them on the open market. To my friend. So that is how my friend acquired these particular five domains.

When he (my friend) acquired the domains in 2013, he, as a courtesy because the domains were not yet sold, left the existing nameservers up so as not to disrupt the prior owners' businesses, but when these prior owners contacted him with measly offers, if they contacted him at all (only 1 or 2 of the 5 bothered to even contact him) he just ignored them or told them their offers were too low.

Anyway, I recently sold one of these domains and the guy who lost his website came to me threatening to "report me to the FBI for stealing his domain" and acting like such a jerk that I just ended up telling him I would sue him for libel if he persisted with his nonsense. I eventually explained to him what had really happened and he shut up and disappeared. There's absolutely nothing he can do anyway, legally - there is no trademark at issue, and the concept of laches applies here - IF he had any rights at all, which I don't believe he did, he should have asserted them four years ago. Plus, if he has any beef at all, it is with GoDaddy, as my friend was a bona fide purchaser FROM GoDaddy. Prior to selling the domain, I had contacted this guy multiple times to alert him to the pending sale of the domain, but he ignored me. If he had contacted me before I sold the domain, instead of only after, and not been such a jerk, I might have worked something out with him.

Well, another individual in such a position, he has actually communicated with me but his offer to buy back his old domain is 30X lower than a new offer I just got.

I am not heartless - but life is not always fair, and business is business.

I mean, first of all, the person who acquired these domains, acquired them fair and square, and has maintained them for four years. Time to move on! Match the highest bidder or lose your website, is the way I look at it.

Am I wrong here?

MapleDots · Mar 12, 2017

I would give the guy an opportunity to match the price and rent to own.
If he did not agree then I would sell to the highest bidder.

If you are the real owner of the domain it is your prerogative to do with as you see fit.

xynames · Mar 12, 2017

Yes, well basically these guys not only lost their domains four years ago, but have been sitting on them rent free for four years.

Looks like I am going to sell this second domain too, because there has been no meaningful response from the user, other than to ask me to complete an agreement with him before selling. What does that mean? I told him to match the offer, or move on. I even offered him a a free domain to which to transfer his current site so that he may maintain his presence somewhere anyway, and maybe the buyer of my domain (who will promptly offer it for resale) will be willing to leave a link up on his For Sale page indicating that the website has move to a different URL.

xynames · Jun 19, 2017

Follow up, I had to follow this procedure for four domains so far - contacting the residents of the domains and notifying them that I owned the domains and that they had to deal with me if they wanted to remain on them. With two of them, the businesses that had been parked stepped up and bought the domains. They grumbled a bit about having to "buy back" their own domains, but after I explained that we had obtained the domains in 2013, and they had actually been parked on MY domain for four years, rent free, they stopped complaining. I analogized the situation to that of a house foreclosed - there are no good or bad guys here, just the reality of a new property owner.

For one of the domains, I ended up selling it to a third party - and not to the business that had been utilizing the domain. That guy lost his domain for good. In that situation it was his own fault that he lost the domain - he is the one I describe above who threatened to report me to the FBI for stealing his domain. Obviously nothing came of his threat, but his own stubbornness and bad attitude preventing him from coming to an arrangement to stay on the domain.

For one of the domains I have been in friendly contact with its occupant, and have not yet decided exactly what to do with it.

SirDrago · Jun 19, 2017

You are not wrong at all.
I get bids from starving college students, blind midgets, charity orgs to save the dolphins etc..
I tell them all the same thing.
F U... PAY ME.
Does that make me a dick? YES but I get my money and sleep just fine.

xynames · Jun 19, 2017

Right right, the "starving college student," who wants to open a casino or stock trading site on a premium name brand domain that he supposedly can pay only $100. for.

Mister Funsky · Jun 19, 2017

xynames said:
starving college student,

lol...I've had a few of these before. Thanks for sharing your story.

Of course the domains are yours to do with as you please...it is courteous of you to offer them to previous users and for giving them a chance to match other offers...best wishes.

atinc · Jun 20, 2017

xynames said:
Follow up, I had to follow this procedure for four domains so far - contacting the residents of the domains and notifying them that I owned the domains and that they had to deal with me if they wanted to remain on them. With two of them, the businesses that had been parked stepped up and bought the domains. They grumbled a bit about having to "buy back" their own domains, but after I explained that we had obtained the domains in 2013, and they had actually been parked on MY domain for four years, rent free, they stopped complaining. I analogized the situation to that of a house foreclosed - there are no good or bad guys here, just the reality of a new property owner.

For one of the domains, I ended up selling it to a third party - and not to the business that had been utilizing the domain. That guy lost his domain for good. In that situation it was his own fault that he lost the domain - he is the one I describe above who threatened to report me to the FBI for stealing his domain. Obviously nothing came of his threat, but his own stubbornness and bad attitude preventing him from coming to an arrangement to stay on the domain.

For one of the domains I have been in friendly contact with its occupant, and have not yet decided exactly what to do with it.

How exactly did you know the contacts for the previous owners?

You said GoDaddy sold them to your friend so whois info should be your friend`s, not the previous owners.

How come your friend register those 5 different domains which are taken away from 5 different owners?

I smell something bad here!

xynames · Jun 20, 2017

Your questions are not clear, but I think my post is self explanatory. Obviously the sites remained up since the nameservers remained set as before, so the business websites were still up. I think if you re-read the original post carefully you'll understand better than I could rehash everything again here. Thanks.

I have 1500 domains. Five of them are (or rather, were) in this situation. People lose / give up domains all the time. Who knows who owned my 1500 domains before I got them. Or before my friend got them, who in turn transferred them to me.

atinc · Jun 20, 2017

xynames said:
Your questions are not clear, but I think my post is self explanatory. Obviously the sites remained up with the nameservers set as before, so the business websites were still up. I think if you re-read the original post carefully you'll understand better than I could rehash everything again here. Thanks.

xynames said:
To summarize: there were five domains for which the registration for whatever reason lapsed, GoDaddy acquired them, and GoDaddy sold them.

When Godaddy owns a domain name then their nameservers change to their nameservers.

Still how on earth your friend managed to register these 5 domains which are taken away from their rightful owners?

xynames · Jun 20, 2017

Interesting questions, but not relevant. Worth a theoretical discussion though, why not.

When I sell a domain the nameservers stay the same until the new owner changes them. I have domains I sold a month or more ago that the nameservers haven't even been changed yet, still showing my parked PPC ads and For Sale signs, and yet the WHOIS was changed the moment the escrow closed, and the registrar was changed too.

The record at my DD account (transferred intact to me by my friend) is clear that the domains were transferred in from GoDaddy in 2013. That much we know for sure. These are good domain names (one was a four letter), so probably the takeover and sale took place quickly after GoDaddy's acquisition from the defunct registrar. It is also not a typical situation - an entire registration company going under and all its domain names being acquired by some other registrar. I am certain that as part of the arrangement or process no nameservers were changed, otherwise these website owners would have all been complaining four years ago that their websites went dark, and done something about this then.

Still, by now all these people all knew they had lost their domains in 2013. They hadn't paid the registration fees in four years. They had been contacted repeatedly by us over the years until finally, this year, I took action. To quote Donnie Brasco, "You know what you did pal."

atinc · Jun 20, 2017

xynames said:
When I sell a domain the nameservers stay the same until the new owner changes them. "

Okay that makes sense, but I believe if GoDaddy own these domains as you mention on your first post, then they would change their nameservers.

And the most critical question that makes me wonder is how your friend can register 5 different domains with GoDaddy which are taken away from various owners?

How can it be possible?

atinc · Jun 20, 2017

@xynames would you mind sharing the domain names?

xynames · Jun 20, 2017

I think you're asking how people grab domain names that were lost by others? I'm sure you know how.

But I don't even think that is what happened here. My friend just bought the domains in the open market the moment they became available. He was pretty good at this and I have many, many four letter dot coms, and he had more than a few three letter dot coms, just to give you an idea of what kind of domains he acquired over the years.

atinc · Jun 20, 2017

xynames said:
I think you're asking how people grab domain names that were lost by others? I'm sure you know how.

Below is your posts highlighted in black.

I had to follow this procedure for four domains so far - contacting the residents of the domains and notifying them that I owned the domains and that they had to deal with me if they wanted to remain on them. With two of them, the businesses that had been parked stepped up and bought the domains. They grumbled a bit about having to "buy back" their own domains, but after I explained that we had obtained the domains in 2013, and they had actually been parked on MY domain for four years, rent free, they stopped complaining

Obviously the sites remained up since the nameservers remained set as before, so the business websites were still up.

You need to change the dns ( name servers) in order to park domains!

How can a parked domain remain online with its full content?

I smell domain hi-jacking here.

This is one way which is illegal, and the other way is drop catching.

But the question is how can you own these 5 domains which are taken away from their rightful owner?

Do you say it is just a coincidence?

Would you share what are the domains are?

xynames · Jun 20, 2017

Like I said, the person who knows specifically what happened in 2013, is deceased. He had been domaining since at least 2003, and bought and sold what looks like many thousands of domains during the next fourteen years. Anyone who acquired more than a few three letter dot coms - such as he did - in recent years obviously knew what he was doing.

I don't think anyone would have been more interested in what happened, than the businesses parked on those domains, and they did their due diligence and then bought the domains from me. They knew the score.

I think the tone of your posts is somewhat disrespectful, and challenging, over something that you don't have any first hand knowledge of.

This thread was actually picked up and reposted in a legal law review article, where some legal professionals noted that the businesses had no legal rights to the domains.

Domain was lost apparently due to registrar went out of business

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