Termination of domain registrar MITSU INC by Nixi

[dnk]

Received the following message from Nixi

Dear Registrant / Customer,


This is to inform that the registrar account of your current registrar – Mitsu Inc. has been terminated by National Internet Exchange of India(NIXI) which manages the .IN Registry.


In view of the termination, your registrar will not be able to provide you any domain management services for .IN or .भारत (in all supported languages).


In order to protect your rights and commercial interests,.IN Registry hereby informs you to transfer your domain(s) to an alternate Accredited Registrar of .IN Registry of your choice. Please view the link below for the list of registrars - https://registry.in/Accredited_Registrars


You may contact your preferred new registrar on your own for transferring your domain(s) and follow the process as may be advised by the new registrar.


Meanwhile to maintain continuity, .IN Registry is taking over the control of your domain names and if you require any changes to your existing contact details or Nameserver associated with your domain name, you are requested to send an email from your registrant email id, as reflecting in whois records to [email protected].


While moving to a new registrar, you are requested to contact .IN Registry to obtain your domain authorization or “AUTH CODE” – which will be required by the new registrar to initiate transfer of your domain(s).


You are requested to complete the transfer process in the next 15 days from the date of this email. If not, .IN Registry will initiate its own process to transfer your domain to another registrar as may be determined by .IN Registry.

Sincerely yours,
National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)


Has anyone else received this email, and knows what is the real reason for termination of Mitsu, as it is causing a lot of inconvenience

 

[anantj]

Yes, point taken, but I will ask the question again, why are the renewals showing in the .IN REgistry if Mitsu isn't allowed to accept renewals? The registry is obviously updating its database and Whois facility to reflect renewals orchestrated by Mitsu.

Can you please share an example domain of this? In the context of my previous comment, I suspect the domain in question will not be in the nixi holding account and hence protected from any management

My concern is that can you afford not to renew the domains, given that once a domain lapses it is no longer in your possession.

If the domain is in the nixi holding account, you cannot and don't need to renew them as they are suspended from expiring until the matter is resolved (either in arbitration or in a court of law).

Given the lax rules and practices, what's to say that 6 months down the track they won't say, "Sorry, your domain has lapsed and is now back in the registry for resale?

Nothing will stop them. But then they'll also be liable for damages in a court of law if you choose to pursue it. However, so far, I've not come across a single case of a domain which has had its expiry in the past 3 months actually expiring. They are all protected from expiration by nixi. Please provide an example contrary to this belief if you have evidence of this happening. That would provide a very different perspective to the issue.

but given that it knows Mitsu is actively soliciting renewals why doesn't it take direct action against MITSU and its owners?

The notification was in response to this very solicitation by Mitsu. What action beyond this can they take at the moment? They have already terminated Mitsu's accreditation and are in arbitration with mitsu. They cannot (as per their own registrar agreement) approach a court of law.

You can't tell me that the domain regulatory authority in India can't get an order through the court to stop a company doing something it's not authorised to do

They cannot. They are bound by the same agreement they used to have the lawsuit against them dismissed and further proceedings moved to arbitration! Can't have their cake and eat it too

A very important disclaimer (Since I obviously missed giving one before): I have absolutely no connection to Nixi or Mitsu and have no financial, emotional or friendly relationship with either of the entities mentioned on this thread. The only connection I have to Nixi is as a registrant of .in domains.

 

[rodash]

Mitsu (In the sense of the umbrella name used) actually has 4-5 registrars. Let us, for discussions sake, name them as reg1, reg2, reg3, reg4, reg5. All these registrars are owned by Mitsu. They also allow you to manage domains either any (and all) of these 5 registrars through the same Mitsu account.

Now, the NIXI accreditation of reg1 and reg2 has been terminated. Reg3-reg5 are still accreditated. Depending on which of the registrars your domain is registered with, you may be able to renew some of the domains and not be able to renew others. The simplest and easiest way to determine this would be to look at live whois of the domain to figure out where the domain is currently located. If it says Nixi holding account, then they were registered with the now terminated registrars. If they say Mitsu (or a variant of that), then they are registered with reg3-5 and can be managed as usal.

Hopefully this longish post clarifies the matter. Spending too much time on explaining the same scenario/situation again and again. Please do your due diligence and do not construe the above as legal or business advice

Thanks. That's a good clarification. Much appreciated.

 

[crunchyg]

As already discussed, Mitsu's accreditation has not been terminated yet. NIXI has attempted to terminate it, but the court ordered the parties to work it out in arbitration.

NIXI is providing zero guidance to registrants and is acting in bad faith, seeing how they are not allowing Mitsu to renew expiring domains, which is only contributing to the chaos.

 

[anantj]

NIXI is providing zero guidance to registrants and is acting in bad faith, seeing how they are not allowing Mitsu to renew expiring domains, which is only contributing to the chaos.

Can you point to an actual domain that did expire from Nixi's holding account?

 

[crunchyg]

Can you point to an actual domain that did expire from Nixi's holding account?

You're going to take the "expiring" field from WHOIS as guaranteed evidence that NIXI or the Indian registry will not dick people over?

 

[anantj]

You're going to take the "expiring" field from WHOIS as guaranteed evidence that NIXI or the Indian registry will not dick people over?

No. But I'll also believe it when it actually happens. The issue is that a lot of folks say that domains will expire but so far, based on actual confirmation from registrants whose domains should have expired but haven't, it appears that Nixi is keeping them domains alive.

Also please note, I do not disagree that this is a huge inconvenience for registrants. There is no question about it. But it serves no one to spread incorrect information or conjecture (Also not saying you're doing the latter. Just a general statement) such as conspiracies by CBI, raw etc...

 

[crunchyg]

I'm not arguing with you either, just stating that we have no evidence that NIXI is keeping the domains "safe" for Mitsu's customers. An updated date in the "expired" field and the fact that nameservers haven't changed post-expiration are kind of meaningless in the domain world, as I'm sure you know.

In fact, if I had ulterior motives and intended to steal a bunch of domains from people, I would do exactly what NIXI is doing: instruct my registrar to keep the nameservers intact and update the expiration date to create an illusion of the domains being safe until the grace period runs out.

 

[dnk]

Some of my domains are expiring soon, most are with NIXI any updates?

 

[alex91]

1. I have many domain names with Mitsu which are now under NIXI Holding account. These domain names tarted expiring from December 2017. So, naturally some domain names are expired.

2. But, expired domain names are resolving well. Though, WHOIS account is showing expiry date in the past, still websites are opening fine.

3. I attempted to renew couple of domains, they didn't get renewed. Funds are locked. So, not renewing other expired domain names.

5. Google ranking dropped for few expired domains. Not sure if this is the cause. But maybe it is, as expiration date of domain name is one of the ranking factors.

6. From what I understand and with emails from MITSU and NIXI, domain will keep resolving (websites will show up), until the matter is resolved. After that there can be three possibilities (below are my thoughts):

Case A: Mitsu termination is cancelled: If you have renewed domains and funds are in the locked status, then domains will be renewed automatically by Mitsu. If you have not renewed, then I am not sure whether domain names will be safe or will be up for resale. (So, the best is to renew them, and later Mitsu may refund)

Case B: Mitsu account is terminated: If you have renewed domains, then it's up to Misu to refund your locked funds. I think, NIXI will transfer domain names to some other registrant and give some time to renew. In this case, I think domains will be safe.

Case C: If the court understands the technicality of domain registrations, the case may go on. But, the court allows either Mitsu or NIXI to renew domain names and update WHOIS records. In this case, domain names and funds, both are safe.

 

[dnk]

I also havee many expensive domains with Mitsu and I am looking for a solution so that I do not lose the domains.

 

[dnk]

Only some account holders have received emails from Mitsu, can anyone confirm whether they have got the email

 

[sujata2222]

.IN accredited registrars like Uniregistry and CentralNIC which owns www dot internetbs dot net are auctioning the dot IN domains or are selling competing domains at lower prices. Aren't these against the NIXI policy?
Check these links uniregistry dot com/?market=1
internetbs dot net/en/domain-name-registrations/Internet_Domain_Registration_Search dot html

 

[dnk]

Does anyone have any updates

 

[domaindia]

Just sent a message to registry and received an immediate response from them about the situation. Hoping they resolve this soon, so that we can all go about our normal course of business! Feeling good about it though....

 

[dnk]

Just sent a message to registry and received an immediate response from them about the situation. Hoping they resolve this soon, so that we can all go about our normal course of business! Feeling good about it though....

They reply quickly, however they do not provide any information

 

[Drv]

Looks like registry.in doesnt answer my email to recover/transfer my domain. Did anyone had luck with them responding?

 

[domaindia]

Looks like registry.in doesnt answer my email to recover/transfer my domain. Did anyone had luck with them responding?

My query to NIXI was regarding changing DNS and they responded almost immediately to me.

 

[domaindia]

In fact, if I had ulterior motives and intended to steal a bunch of domains from people, I would do exactly what NIXI is doing: instruct my registrar to keep the nameservers intact and update the expiration date to create an illusion of the domains being safe until the grace period runs out.

I highly doubt this scenario.

 

[Drv]

My query to NIXI was regarding changing DNS and they responded almost immediately to me.

Did you email them in english or hindi?

 

[domaindia]

Did you email them in english or hindi?

English

 

[dnk]

Does anyone have any updates?

 

[devo]

I have asked Nixi and Registry.in for an update multiple times with no response, their communication to registrants is appalling. There was meant to be an arbitration meeting in May, no news on it. It's almost 8 months since these restrictions were placed on mitsu registered domain names, there's no doubt that poor communication is making this situation even worse.

 

[dnk]

I have asked Nixi and Registry.in for an update multiple times with no response, their communication to registrants is appalling. There was meant to be an arbitration meeting in May, no news on it. It's almost 8 months since these restrictions were placed on mitsu registered domain names, there's no doubt that poor communication is making this situation even worse.

If anyone is from Delhi, they can visit NIXI

 

[domaindia]

Just sent a message to registry and received an immediate response from them about the situation. Hoping they resolve this soon, so that we can all go about our normal course of business! Feeling good about it though....

Its been three months since this last post. Any updates - its getting boring?

 

[devo]

3 offers for different in the past week, this is costing. Has anyone been able to sell a domain suspended by the action between Mitsu and Nixi? Anyone sought legal advice?