information Brent Oxley Loses Access to Create.com, Plus Millions of Dollars Worth of His Domains

Paul Nicks said:

After reading everything here and in the article, I wanted to address some of the questions swirling around about this.

There were many factors in deciding if we locked domains or kept domains locked in the India case between Mr. Oxley and Mr. Agarwal.

For instance, a U.S. federal court denied Mr. Oxley’s request for an order requiring GoDaddy to unlock the domains. If Mr. Oxley had been able to obtain a court order requiring us to unlock the domains, we would have gladly done it. The fact he was unable to do so suggests how much more complicated this issue is than is mentioned in the article. It’s not just monetary issues, but demands for the cancellation of the domain registrations at issue.

We understand how important your domain names are to you. We don’t make the decision to lock or unlock any domain name lightly. GoDaddy, along with other registrars, like NameCheap, Web.com, MarkMonitor and even VeriSign, reserve the right to lock domains in response to notification of a legal dispute.

In fact, it is the industry standard to ensure that registration rights for domain names are protected and maintained during the pendency of a legal dispute. Locking domains protects all parties until the legal dispute is resolved.

We also want to assure everyone that when a domain is locked, the goal is to keep the registration information at status quo. If the registrant would like to make changes to their DNS, they can contact our team to make them. They are able to renew the domain names. The domain and any associated web/mail services continue to function normally.

We understand Mr. Oxley’s frustration. No one wants to be in this situation, but the systems that we and the industry have in place are there for your protection.

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By the way, I've just remembered that I've had the idea to register first zillow.com and fiverr.com, but probably those guys were reading my mind and stole my idea and I will open a court case. Please lock them, for about 6 years, until I will get a court order.

Paul Nicks said:

but the systems that we and the industry have in place are there for your protection.

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no

Paul Nicks said:

After reading everything here and in the article, I wanted to address some of the questions swirling around about this.

There were many factors in deciding if we locked domains or kept domains locked in the India case between Mr. Oxley and Mr. Agarwal.

For instance, a U.S. federal court denied Mr. Oxley’s request for an order requiring GoDaddy to unlock the domains. If Mr. Oxley had been able to obtain a court order requiring us to unlock the domains, we would have gladly done it. The fact he was unable to do so suggests how much more complicated this issue is than is mentioned in the article. It’s not just monetary issues, but demands for the cancellation of the domain registrations at issue.

We understand how important your domain names are to you. We don’t make the decision to lock or unlock any domain name lightly. GoDaddy, along with other registrars, like NameCheap, Web.com, MarkMonitor and even VeriSign, reserve the right to lock domains in response to notification of a legal dispute.

In fact, it is the industry standard to ensure that registration rights for domain names are protected and maintained during the pendency of a legal dispute. Locking domains protects all parties until the legal dispute is resolved.

We also want to assure everyone that when a domain is locked, the goal is to keep the registration information at status quo. If the registrant would like to make changes to their DNS, they can contact our team to make them. They are able to renew the domain names. The domain and any associated web/mail services continue to function normally.

We understand Mr. Oxley’s frustration. No one wants to be in this situation, but the systems that we and the industry have in place are there for your protection.

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Hi Paul,


You said "For instance, a U.S. federal court denied Mr. Oxley’s request for an order requiring GoDaddy to unlock the domains."

Let me understand this.....

Part of why you locked my domains before January 9th, 2020 is because of what a judge said 10 months later on 11/24/2020? The Judge wanted to make sure Puneet was served and requested proof of service, which required us to get a Hague certificate. It's not easy to serve someone in India that doesn't want to be served. We just received the Hague certificate back a few days ago, and the case can now proceed in America to get you the court order that you demand. This has also been Covid times with lockdowns, court shutdowns, and all kinds of uncertainty delaying a court order.

I have some questions for you........


Godaddy initially claimed there was a court order to lock my domains.

1. Is Godaddy continuing to take the stance that there is a court order to lock my domains? yes or no, please.
2. Is this an official response from Godaddy? Yes or No, please.
3. Did you have to get permission from GoDaddy prior to this post?
4. Have you seen any signed contracts between Puneet or myself? Yes or no.
5. I requested this to be escalated to your CEO back in March of 2020. Is he aware of this situation? Yes or no answer, please.

" If the registrant would like to make changes to their DNS, they can contact our team to make them.

6. If this is true, why did you all ignore my request on December 8th, 2020 to change my DNS for detect.com? I still haven't had a response from you on this! This is one of the domain names I have sold pending your locks being lifted. Can you please make the emailed change request?


7. Why did you all take the courtesy to respond to Puneet when you locked my domains, and yet as a customer, you never notified me? You failed to inform me on both the original locks and the recent one of create.com a few weeks ago. Godaddy still hasn't responded to my email from February 19th on why create.com was locked. Can you please tell me why? Was there another imaginary court order you aren't able to produce?

"They are able to renew the domain names. "

I am not able to renew the locked domains, which is why I emailed you on april 21st, 2020, requesting you all to do so. You still have not renewed these names. You all ensured they would be auto-renewed at expiration; however, I do not feel comfortable considering how incompetent you all have been to date. Can you please renew these names for me as requested using the balance I have on file!!!

" but demands for the cancellation of the domain registrations at issue.

This is the first I've heard this! Why am I just now being told this on a public forum? The way I'm interrupting this, is now that all this has gone public, there's a chance that over $10mm worth of my domains may be deleted by godaddy????? PLEASE DO NOT DELETE MY DOMAINS!

I may not be able to respond for a day or two. It's my 38th birthday in a few hours, and I'm set to go off-grid camping with my five-year-old little girl any minutes now when she arrives from Houston. I plan on climbing a small mountain tomorrow that should have recpetion and hope to check in at such time if needed.

Crazy how someone who just posted in this thread can have stolen domains sheltered by Godaddy. But, Brent, a legitimate owner of these domains, has these names frozen... This is so crazy...

I need to move my domains away from godaddy ASAP... this is CRIMINAL!!

Godaddy, you really, really suck for doing this.

@Paul Nicks Why did GoDaddy lock domain names that are completely unrelated to the dispute, or rather not mentioned at all in the civil suit? For example I see no mention of Create.com, so why has it been locked?

Does this mean if someone sends me a legal dispute over one domain you'd go ahead and lock all my domains? That is somewhat concerning, and makes me want to move all my domains away.

Yikes!

Will be moving my best domains out of GoDaddy immediately!

I DONT TRUST GODADDY . Hope Brent gets his names back .This is an eye opener .

As somebody has already said, this is the most insane, disturbing and worrying thing I have seen here.
It's quite worrying, to say the least, that somebody filling a $12 unfounded claim in India can lock your domains at Godaddy.
It is quite worrying that Godaddy takes attention to somebody filling a weird $12 claim in India, and is capable of locking the assets of its client for more than a year causing him millions of loses in sales, for such a ridiculous claim filled in India.
It seems that our domains at Godaddy are in hands of somebody filling a $12 weird claim in India or wherever.
Now "I feel very safe" about my domains located at Godaddy.

Grilled said:

In case you are not already aware, @barybadrinath had started a thread in January 2020 titled @Sharjil that looks to contain comments related to this ongoing case.

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After re-reading the wild @Sharjil thread HERE created by @barybadrinath in January 2020, here are a few points:

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<---------------------------------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>

• Mr. Agarwal (@barybadrinath) claimed to have worked hard obtaining 11million USD and 21million USD offers, but when those offers came, the owner (assuming Mr. Oxley) told them (assuming potential buyer) that Mr. Agarwal has no relation with him.

barybadrinath said:

I was thinking to not write about it here. But these guys have not left any option for me. I worked hard for someone ,got him 11 million USD offer and one more 21million usd offer from a top company of usa. When offer came,the owner ( who is master of this <sic> saleem ) told them that i (h me ,Puneet) have no relation with him . He tried to eat all my commission of hard work and 2000 emails

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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<---------------------------------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>

• Mr. Agarwal claimed he recently bought a domain for him (assuming Mr. Oxley?) for $22,000 claiming a $2,000 commission. The domain that he allegedly purchased for him at $22,000 wasn't mentioned in the thread. Matching other $22,000 sales from around that time, if the sale was reported a guess could point to the sale possibly being Classify.com, though NameBio cites BQDN (@BoothDomains) as the venue, and July 2019 as the date. FWIW, Classify.com is registered at NameCheap, nor does it not appear to have the same domain locks as Create.com which is registered at GoDaddy. Additionally, Classify.com is not listed in the suit.

barybadrinath said:

Recently i bought a name for him for 22k , my commission was 2k . After the buyer got domain in his account ,i asked him to send my commission. First he kept on saying it's Halloween holiday for a week ,then Thanksgiving holiday for a week , in third week he said that he has a medical emergency,in fourth week he said that he has sent my money.when i told him that i have not got my money ,he says i m lying.
I asked him to send me bank receipt number so that i can confirm from bank but he stopped replying and asked me to file a court case so that investigation can happen n truth comes out.
I confirmed from usa bank ,they said that none of the money has been sent back and he is lying.
When i filed a case against him and domain got locked ,he starts using these kind of cheap tactics.

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• Mr. Agarwal claims his master (assuming he is referring to Mr. Oxley?) tried to mail and call his family members. Mr. Agarwal claims to have never said anything to him, but when @Sharjil came in the picture allegedly making threat to his family member, Mr. Agarwal felt the need to expose.

barybadrinath said:

First his master tried to mail and call my family members but i never said anything to him. But when third person saleem comes in picture suddenly and starts making threat to my family member yesterday night i needed to expose him

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• @Sharjil responded to Mr. Agarwal confirming the nature of their relationship.

Sharjil said:

I don't have any business or personal relationship with you, But I have with our client whom you scammed and blackmailing and you know it very well.

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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<---------------------------------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>

• Mr. Agarwal responds claiming that @Sharjil's client is also his client. And that he bought 18 domain fr him.

barybadrinath said:

Your that client was my client as well. I bought 18 domain names fr him. Got multi million offers for him as well. You are not lawyer .. you are a simple broker so from next time don't dare to contact or threaten any of my family broker. Understand

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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<---------------------------------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>

• Mr. Agarwal claims to have many written emails from the client (assuming Mr. Oxley?) that clearly demonstrates he was cheated.

barybadrinath said:

And your that client is not innocent as well. I hv many of his written mails which clearly demonstrates his cheating with me. I am not the guy who will keep quiet by your money or muscle power. Even if i loose everything i have no problem. But i won't bow down in front of injustice

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<<<<<<<<<<<<<<---------------------------------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>

• Mr. Agarwal claims this is not about money, or compensation, and that it's about justice. Further citing he was cheated in July.

barybadrinath said:

This is not abt money or any compensation ,it's abt justice. If it would hv been abt compensation i could have initiated the case against his master in July itself when he cheated me first time. But i initiated in Nov as he himself asked me to file a court case against him after Nov deal ,for which also he cheated me.

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• Mr. Agarwal claimed (in January 2020) more than 20+ domains are involved (though the suit filed in November 2019 only contained 19 domains). And that Escrow was used, but he mentioned zero as his commission. Citing previous instances where the buyer had sent him his commission after the deal was completed.

barybadrinath said:

More than 20+ domain names involved.
Escrow was used but i mentioned zero as my commission. As always the buyer used to sent me my commission after deal is completed.

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(imo) that could be a notable precedent.

@create.com, if you wouldn't mind answering, have you ever paid Mr. Agarwal any amount of commission for brokerage services?

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<---------------------------------------->>>>>>>>>>>>>

• Lastly, there is an alleged matter of <<Mr. Oxley? or his broker @Sharjil? or his broker @BoothDomains? >> leveraging Mr. Agarwals months of negotiations to help bring a domain seller down from $210,000 asking price to a $135,000 domain purchase (possibly snake.com? registered at NameCheap, and not listed in the suit).

barybadrinath said:

Hi. It's lot. May be 6 fig.
But the main issue is something else. I was after many buyers for domain name of master. I even went after a guy from usa embassy abd was after him for 2 months. When he agreed to meet me and he informed abt my proposal to his seniors in usa ,they were interested in that domain name.
When usa seniors contacted master and told him that Puneet told us about benefit of this domain and he is after us since long time so that we buy this domain from you. We r ready to buy now. Then master told them that Puneet is not my broker. Someone else is. . After listening this usa ppl cancelled the deal.. same happened with one more domains. Even i was authorised to buy domains for him ,to do negotiation as sellers were quoting high prices to master. So he asked me to do negotiation for him and bring price down. For ex asking price was 225k. When master contacted them they quoted him 210k and not lesser than it. Whereas after months of negotiation i got them down to 134k. After master came to know abt it ,he immediately contacted them and said you are offering this domain for 134k to someone else and for 210k to me. Master then contacted another broker of same company and after showing him my negotiation mails to seller ,got domain for 135k. Ate all my commission. I used to sent master all my negotiation emails with diff diff buyers and sellers. This was the mistake i did. I showed him everything.i thought he is so rich ,he will never cheat so i also never bothered abt it.
Still i did not say anything. Though i was getting all info. This happened for many domains. I have each and every email for each and every domain .

But in November for one of the domain when i asked him 2k as compensation ,he keeps on avoiding for many weeks and then said it has been sent. When i asked him for bank receipt he says i can do whatever i want and challenged me to file a case against him so that truth comes out.
Then in Nov i filed case. Suddenly he tried to compensate me for which i denied and then he started using ppl like sharjil to threaten n contact my family.

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Sutruk said:

As somebody has already said, this is the most insane, disturbing and worrying thing I have seen here.
It's quite worrying, to say the least, that somebody filling a $12 unfounded claim in India can lock your domains at Godaddy.
It is quite worrying that Godaddy takes attention to somebody filling a weird $12 claim in India, and is capable of locking the assets of its client for more than a year causing him millions of loses in sales, for such a ridiculous claim filled in India.
It seems that our domains at Godaddy are in hands of somebody filling a $12 weird claim in India or wherever.
Now "I feel very safe" about my domains located at Godaddy.

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There seems to exist a lack of clarity if a promise was made for a commission and it was not honored. But I do remain wary of Godaddy for actions like this.

koolishman said:

There seems to lack of clarity if a promise was made for a commission and it was not honored. But I do remain wary of Godaddy for actions like this.

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Yes you are right. As per @Grilled above post, this seems to be related also to another thread.

It's been discussed before that GD reserve the right to cancel domains, and we have seen high-profile cases of them giving people short notice to move a domain away from Godaddy or face cancellation. We have also seen scamming by Godaddy employees, many of whom seem to be outsourced. The internal decision making chain here may prove interesting.

Seems like Godaddy has become one of those companies that is "too big to care" - if they publicly ignore a serious, respected and well-resourced businessman like Brent, would they care about anyone at all?

If Godaddy cancel a domain, does it then end up in their auction of dropping domains?

If a domain is using Cloudflare or similar, presumably the owner can still control where it points without changing DNS at GD.

https://uk.godaddy.com/legal/agreements/domain-name-registration-agreement

You agree that, in addition to other events set forth in this Agreement:

1. Your ability to use any of the services provided by GoDaddy is subject to cancellation or suspension in the event there is an unresolved breach of this Agreement and/or suspension or cancellation is required by any policy now in effect or adopted later by ICANN;
2. Your registration of any domain names shall be subject to suspension, cancellation or transfer pursuant to any ICANN adopted specification or policy, or pursuant to any GoDaddy procedure not inconsistent with an ICANN adopted specification or policy (a) to correct mistakes by GoDaddy or the registry operator in registering any domain name; or (b) for the resolution of disputes concerning any domain name

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You agree to submit, without prejudice to other potentially applicable jurisdictions, to the jurisdiction of the courts (1) of your domicile, (2) where registrar is located or (3) where the registry operator is located (e.g., China for .CN, Columbia for .CO, UK for .EU, etc.).

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Old news 2007: https://domainnamewire.com/2007/01/30/digging-into-godaddys-terms-of-service/

Sutruk said:

Yes you are right. As per @Grilled above post, this seems to be related also to another thread.

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That thread is HERE

There's lot of other information in the actual suit itself HERE

3. That, Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> has made a contract through the use of e-mail on internet with the Complainant <Puneet Argawal> to sale and register domains (intellectual jurisdiction) and new domains (intellectual jurisdiction) registered by Complainant and other persons at Defendant No. 1 <GoDaddy India>. The contract was made by Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> on emails and as such there is no written contract on stamp between the Complainant <Puneet Argawal> and Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley>. In this regard, computer print-out of emails communication between the Complainant <Puneet Argawal> and Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> is attached with this suit.

6. That, Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> has bought the following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) and to buy these domains (intellectual jurisdiction), all the negotiations with the sellers were carried out by the Complainant <Puneet Argawal>. The Complainant <Puneet Argawal> has bought??? following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) from???did they mean for, not from? the Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley>:
1. Piano.com
2. Flute.com
3. Memo.com
4. Admirer.com
5. Darm.com
6. Devote.com
7. Demolish.com
8. Emir.com
9. Vtok.com
10. Vandalize.com
11. LoanTap.com

7. That, Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> has talked to sellers through the Complainant <Puneet Argawal> for the purchase of the following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) and the Complainant <Puneet Argawal> burnt midnight oil to negotiate with the sellers to purchase the following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) for the Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley>. But, in order to arrogate the commission of the Complainant, the Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> bought following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) directly and in the process arrogateded the commission of the Complainant:
1. Advise.com
2. Message.com
3. Distribute.com
4. Detect.com
5. Jewel.com
6. Dust.com
7. Bonjour.com
8. Viaje.com

Grilled said:

That thread is HERE

There's lot of other information in the actual suit itself HERE

3. That, Defendant No. 2 has made a contract through the use of e-mail on internet with the Complainant to sale and register domains (intellectual jurisdiction) and new domains (intellectual jurisdiction) registered by Complainant and other persons at Defendant No. 1 <GoDaddy India>. The contract was made by Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> on emails and as such there is no written contract on stamp between the Complainant and Defendant No. 2. In this regard, computer print-out of emails communication between the Complainant and Defendant No. 2 is attached with this suit.

6. That, Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> has bought the following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) and to buy these domains (intellectual jurisdiction), all the negotiations with the sellers were carried out by the Complainant <Puneet Argawal>. The Complainant <Puneet Argawal> has bought??? following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) from???did they mean for, not from? the Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley>:
1. Piano.com
2. Flute.com
3. Memo.com
4. Admirer.com
5. Darm.com
6. Devote.com
7. Demolish.com
8. Emir.com
9. Vtok.com
10. Vandalize.com
11. LoanTap.com

7. That, Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> has talked to sellers through the Complainant <Puneet Argawal> for the purchase of the following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) and the Complainant <Puneet Argawal> burnt midnight oil to negotiate with the sellers to purchase the following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) for the Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley>. But, in order to arrogate the commission of the Complainant, the Defendant No. 2 <Brent Oxley> bought following domains (intellectual jurisdiction) directly and in the process arrogateded the commission of the Complainant:
1. Advise.com
2. Message.com
3. Distribute.com
4. Detect.com
5. Jewel.com
6. Dust.com
7. Bonjour.com
8. Viaje.com

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Thanks for the info, you have done a good search here. I haven't read all the thread but I think that if all communications were made by email, then everything should be able to be proven by those emails.

This entire thing is very troubling on many fronts.

Brad

Sutruk said:

Thanks for the info, you have done a good search here. After all it seems that there's something behind this case. I haven't read all the thread but I think that if all communications were made by email, then everything should be able to be proven by those emails.

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There could be even a contract and the indian guy could be right of demanding stuff, but the fact is that there is no court order issue and no court had said that he is right, so godaddy just acts as a judge and a jury in the same time, without waiting for anything to be proved in a court. Even more, if there is a contract, this should be a civil case and he should look for compensations, but it does not have anything to do with the domains being locked or deleted. It's like I'm using a real estate agent to buy a house and because I didn't payed the commission to the real estate agent, they will take the house even before a court case to finish, just when the real estate agent will complain about it, it's absurd.

I am a long time GoDaddy customer with thousands of domains there, but from what I have seen so far their actions seem way over the top, and pretty hard to defend.

Brent summed it up well on the blog linked in the first post -

Puneet spent a little over $12 in India, and without proof, a contract, or even a court order, was able to abuse Godaddy’s policy and lock over $10mm worth of my domains!

These names have been locked for over a year now, and I’ve spent $10,000’s in legal bills trying to get a court order to get them unlocked as Godaddy requires. (covid hasn’t made it easy with the courts) The legal fees pale in comparison to the millions in deals I’ve had to turn down. The lock prevents you from changing a domain’s DNS or transferring it, which means you can’t sell it.

This scam is pretty genius if you think about it. Just about any scammer in the world can file in their country courts for a small fee; email GoDaddy that the domains are under “dispute,” and bam Godaddy will lock whatever domains the scammer asks them to in their email to [email protected]. (at least that’s what happened to me)

This is a major issue.

If this could happen to someone with the type of assets and resources that Brent has, it could happen to anyone.

I think GoDaddy really needs to take a hard look at their actions on this.

Brad

boker said:

There could be even a contract and the indian guy could be right of demanding stuff, but the fact is that there is no court order issue and no court had said that he is right, so godaddy just acts as a judge and a jury in the same time, without waiting for anything to be proved in a court. Even more, if there is a contract, this should be a civil case and he should look for compensations, but it does not have anything to do with the domains being locked or deleted. It's like I'm using a real estate agent to buy a house and because I didn't payed the commission to the real estate agent, they will take the house even before a court case to finish, just when the real estate agent will complain about it, it's absurd.

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Totally agree with you.

I dont have such an impressive portfolio like Brent but I can feel the pain and agony. Over the period of time I have acquired some great domains and kept them in Godaddy thinking they will be the protector of my assets (I paid them money for the names and paid a lot of it- Sometime all my savings for a great name)

I look into this issue from 3 angles..

1. As a Domain investor: As a domain investor this is clear sign that Godaddy is not the right registrar for your premium domains. Some crook from far country will get any document in their court and GoDaddy will just lock domains. Over period of time I have put all my savings and investments in digital real estate, and this case seems something similar to having money in American bank but my bank saying your money is frozen because someone in Nigeria says its their money because they sent me those ponzy emails that ‘I won a million dollar in inheritance’. and because they sent those email they have the rights on my bank account. Godaddy should realize that how much credibility they are losing and what value they will provide to their stakeholders by doing this. THEY NEED TO TAKE STAND. I have lost my trust and would be moving my portfolio from Godaddy to a trusted registrar.

2. As a NamePros community member: I have seen his past posts and he is no broker or a domainer.I have never seen him putting anything constructive for community and always ruffling feathers with others. We don’t need such toxic people in our community. They don’t do any good for anyone.

3. As an Indian: I am ashamed that my country has people like Puneet AKA Badri and I am not sure how many such names he has. We are good hard-working people who invest wisely and don’t cheat others. It’s not in our culture and values to swindle and extort money from others .When I see someone doing it I feel ashamed and I apologies to Brent and everyone that some scrupulous guy from India is doing it. Hope this gets resolved and I fully support you and request Godaddy to take consent on the matter.

Look at some of the comments on the original blog post from prominent members of the community.

This is going to be a disaster for GoDaddy if they don't resolve this soon.

It is really hard to overstate how important this is to domain investors, and just domain owners in general.

David J Castello
7 hours ago

Reply to Brent
This just put the nail in the coffin for us ever registering anything on GoDaddy.com


James Booth
1 day ago

This is an absolute joke! The fact someone can do something like this for $11 is beyond ridiculous. Brent is one of the most honest, straight shooting guys out there. Not once had any issues. He has benefited this industry massively and I find it disgusting he has to go through this with threats to him and his family while someone tries to extort him. This POS belongs in jail!


John Berryhill
14 hours ago

Reply to Matts
What if you don’t get your merchandise from Amazon.com? Does the domain name get locked? No. There are all sorts of commercial disputes which are brought and adjudicated without tangentially-involved domain names being locked.


Francois
1 day ago

Oxley discovered this lawsuit when I sold him encrypt.com for cash + domains one year ago with the help of Michael Gargiulo of VPN.com. Brent was unable to push me 2 domains… That’s when he called GoDaddy.com to learn about a claim from an unknown guy in India who apparently had filed a frivolous lawsuit on a large collection of his premium domains. It was incredible that GoDaddy locked all these domains overnight without even inform the owner. This is a scary story that I thought will be resolved quickly but apparently continues. It’s terrible!!!

I respect Paul Nicks for responding, but I don't think it really answered the many questions.

Is there even an actual court order to lock these domains, or is this just some arbitrary decision by GoDaddy?

Even if there is a court order, I am confused why an India court even has any standing in the first place. GoDaddy, Brent Oxley, and Verisign are all US based as far as I can tell.

Can someone go to court in any random country or court, and with or without a court order, produce the same outcome?

Was the domain Create.com even part of the dispute? If not, why is that locked?

This seems like a business dispute. It seems like GoDaddy has clearly crossed an acceptable line in locking these domains IMO, at least with the information I have seen.

This is like opening up Pandora's Box.

Brad

CatchDeleted said:

I dont have such an impressive portfolio like Brent but I can feel the pain and agony. Over the period of time I have acquired some great domains and kept them in Godaddy thinking they will be the protector of my assets (I paid them money for the names and paid a lot of it- Sometime all my savings for a great name)

I look into this issue from 3 angles..

1. As a Domain investor: As a domain investor this is clear sign that Godaddy is not the right registrar for your premium domains. Some crook from far country will get any document in their court and GoDaddy will just lock domains. Over period of time I have put all my savings and investments in digital real estate, and this case seems something similar to having money in American bank but my bank saying your money is frozen because someone in Nigeria says its their money because they sent me those ponzy emails that ‘I won a million dollar in inheritance’. and because they sent those email they have the rights on my bank account. Godaddy should realize that how much credibility they are losing and what value they will provide to their stakeholders by doing this. THEY NEED TO TAKE STAND. I have lost my trust and would be moving my portfolio from Godaddy to a trusted registrar.

2. As a NamePros community member: I have seen his past posts and he is no broker or a domainer.I have never seen him putting anything constructive for community and always ruffling feathers with others. We don’t need such toxic people in our community. They don’t do any good for anyone.

3. As an Indian: I am ashamed that my country has people like Puneet AKA Badri and I am not sure how many such names he has. We are good hard-working people who invest wisely and don’t cheat others. It’s not in our culture and values to swindle and extort money from others .When I see someone doing it I feel ashamed and I apologies to Brent and everyone that some scrupulous guy from India is doing it. Hope this gets resolved and I fully support you and request Godaddy to take consent on the matter.

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The main issue here is that even if the complainant will win after 6 years, there is no court in India to have the right to seize any assets that somebody owns in another country, no matter if we are talking about US or Madagascar. Then, through the local court you need to fill another case to ask the court from where the defendant have his assets to force him to pay and if he refuses to pay in a certain time frame, than the court from his country can freeze assets, but that takes years and years. Godaddy acts in the place of all this courts and other entities, with no rights and they should not be involved in this case.

boker said:

The main issue here is that even if the complainant will win after 6 years, there is no court in India to have the right to seize any assets that somebody owns in another country, no matter if we are talking about US or Madagascar. Then, through the local court you need to fill another case to ask the court from where the defendant have his assets to force him to pay and if he refuses to pay in a certain time frame, than the court from his country can freeze assets, but that takes years and years. Godaddy acts in the place of all this courts and other entities, with no rights and they should not be involved in this case.

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The registrar is based in the US.
The registry is based in the US.
The registrant is based in the US.

It is absurd that an Indian court has any standing in this case in my view.

Brad

boker said:

The main issue here is that even if the complainant will win after 6 years, there is no court in India to have the right to seize any assets that somebody owns in another country, no matter if we are talking about US or Madagascar. Then, through the local court you need to fill another case to ask the court from where the defendant have his assets to force him to pay and if he refuses to pay in a certain time frame, than the court from his country can freeze assets, but that takes years and years. Godaddy acts in the place of all this courts and other entities, with no rights and they should not be involved in this case.

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You are right. Legitimately He has to file a case to US court not sure How GoDaddy is even entertaining the case. Domain is not Registered by an Indian company, Registrar is not an Indian company, Registry is not an Indian entity. Still GoDaddy is locking these domains. Will GoDaddy lock Godaddy.com if someone in some third world country file a case in local court that they have the right on this domain name? I am sure it can happen anytime with my domains because they all were previously owned by someone although it was Godaddy who sold it to me on premium. This is a SUPER URGENT MATTER which every domainer need to look into, and a hopeless situation for everyone.