Very Bad News for .LA

[HcDomains]

If you check the Whois of any One Character .LA, you would find the current status is:

Status:RENEW PROHIBITED
Status:TRANSFER PROHIBITED

One of my friend who owns One Character .LA got a mail for his domain

Dear Mr. *****

LA Names have placed the above domain name on the "serverRenewProhibited" status code. Apparently, the registration of this domain was allowed in contravention of the rules laid down by the Lao Government.
The domain will continue to be registered and to resolve until the expiry date (14-Dec-2007), upon which it will be deleted and may not be renewed.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Please let me know if you require any further assistance or have any questions regarding this matter.

And there has murmur that they would do the same for LL/NN .LA soon. What a unserious decision Why the registrar just broken the agreement by himself? Why not manage as what happened for 2 character .COM/NET: Don't open for new registration if expired, but still renewable before expiring...

Lucky that I am not in the boat of .LA.

P.S: example here
http://whois.domaintools.com/a.la

 

[Peter]

Unfortunately such registries are a law unto their own.

If you read through the terms of service for a lot of them you will be amazed at what they are allowed to do.

 

[Spade]

Just rotten philosophy... Oops, we decided in hindsight not to release these domain names because they are valuable. Sorry - out bust. But no worries, we'll let you keep it until it expires this year. Have a nice day!

 

[cache]

so whoever owns the 1 letter domains should sell it cheap asap.

 

[Makis.TV]

i dont get it
u buy some premium One Character LA domains, invest on them and wait to get developed or resell.
Then the domain holder decides to take it back and thats it???
What about the money people invested? Or even the net amount of the money they paid???

i dont get it !

 

[maximum]

so whoever owns the 1 letter domains should sell it cheap asap.

Yeh, no worries. When whomever you sell it to finds out that all single-character .la registrants received such notice prior to the sale, and that you defrauded them knowing this fact, your lawyer will be more than happy to deal with thier lawyers. No worry, your lawer is just that good :tu: Sadly, he doesn't come that cheap

 

[sashas]

lawyers can't do anything about it. Ignorance of a law does not provide you any immunity against it.

I'm pretty sure the one character .la name holders will be able to sell them for x,xxx USD to ignorant buyers.
That would be the buyers fault and the seller's smartness.

 

[Sam]

Nay, just be upfront and tell them the name will expire in a few months..

This is very old news... but nevertheless its a ccTLD, you can't fight registry policy.

Btw, $XXXX ?!?! I would estatic if people payed me $XXXX for each 1 character named i owned :yell:

 

[shockie]

this is one of those reasons why you should really stay away from some ccTLDs - you just can't trust their governments.

 

[sashas]

true.

IMO, the only ccTLDs worth investing are .de, .co.uk, .ca, .in/.co.in, .tv and .us
even .cn and .com.cn are bad (unstable censored political regime).

 

[Peter]

lawyers can't do anything about it. Ignorance of a law does not provide you any immunity against it.

That is very true which makes what you said next a bit puzzling.

I'm pretty sure the one character .la name holders will be able to sell them for x,xxx USD to ignorant buyers.
That would be the buyers fault and the seller's smartness.

If you sell the name in the full knowledge that the name will be withdrawn on expiry then you are blatantly defrauding the buyer.

 

[sashas]

you are not.
Its the buyers initiative to research before buying a domain.
As a seller, i would include the information, but only in the fine print (credit card companies do it all the time).

 

[Peter]

true.

IMO, the only ccTLDs worth investing are .de, .co.uk, .ca, .in/.co.in, .tv and .us
even .cn and .com.cn are bad (unstable censored political regime).

Another problem with .la (which affects some other country extensions as well) is that at any time the registry can deem a domain a premium domain (a premium domain is 1 that is considered to be valued over $50). Premium domains can only be registered via eNom.

Now what happens for example 2 years after you register it and they suddenly decide it is a premium name?

Potential outcomes are as follow:-

1) You can continue to have the domain at your current registrar and use it as normal, And if it drops it can only be picked up as a premium domain and act as such from then on.
2) You can stay at your current registrar but pay the premium price for renewals.
3) You are forced to transfer your domain to eNom and forced to pay the premium price.
4) The domain is taken away from you.

The terms of service does not rule out any of these options. I did post about this problem some months ago but nobody seemed to think it was a problem and said as it has not been done yet it will never be done. Well time to wake up, when do you remember a registry allowing you to register 1 char domains and taken them off you when they decide a mistake was made.

A terms of service is in place for 3 reasons

1) To protect the customer and let them know what they can and cannot do.
2) Give the company a clear set of rules that they can hold their customers too.
3) To provide a clear and concise outcome in the event rules are broken.

The terms of service for most tld's do not do this and open more holes than they close.

 

[RJ]

you are not.
Its the buyers initiative to research before buying a domain.
As a seller, i would include the information, but only in the fine print (credit card companies do it all the time).

Remind me never to do business with you.

 

[Peter]

you are not.
Its the buyers initiative to research before buying a domain.
As a seller, i would include the information, but only in the fine print (credit card companies do it all the time).

That is not 100% true. If I sold you a car that I knew was defective and you bought the car and had an accident I would be liable (and so would the MOT center if it recently got an MOT).

Credit card companies do not sell you something knowing it will be taken away from you in the near future. The only time they do take anything from you is when you do not keep up payments for things you bought.

 

[sashas]

RJ

I was speaking from a buyer's perspective.
Personally, i never withhold any information about my domains. I believe in ethical domaining (thats why I don't have a single typo domain, and the one TMd domain I have (that I regged by mistake, not knowing of the TM) is sitting unparked).

But I do believe that if you buy a domain without doing your research, then its your own fault if you come up with peaches.

 

[Sam]

true.

IMO, the only ccTLDs worth investing are .de, .co.uk, .ca, .in/.co.in, .tv and .us
even .cn and .com.cn are bad (unstable censored political regime).

Wow you are leaving so many top ccTLDS out :td: . EG. .CH is more popular then .in/.co.in and .us combined.

 

[Peter]

RJ

I was speaking from a buyer's perspective.
Personally, i never withhold any information about my domains. I believe in ethical domaining (thats why I don't have a single typo domain, and the one TMd domain I have (that I regged by mistake, not knowing of the TM) is sitting unparked).

But I do believe that if you buy a domain without doing your research, then its your own fault if you come up with peaches.

By all means a buyer should check as much as possible before they buy anything. But lets change the subject slightly and give you a for example.

If say you owned a domain and were trying to sell it quickly because you received a c&d on the domain. How could a buyer research such a matter. The only people who know about the c&d are yourself and the company who sent it.

If you sold this you would find yourself in a lawsuit from the buyer of the domain as well as from the company who issued the c&d (some companies will pursue you even tho you no longer have the domain as a matter of point).

 

[sashas]

Peter
Perhaps you are right about that. Withholding info like that would be unethical as a seller. Not researching as a buyer would be stupidity.

Sam
I haven't really seen any big ticket .eg, .ch sales.
And I mention .in/.co.in, .de, .co.uk and .us as the best ccTLDs because of their potential. India has a population of 1 billion, the US is the world's largest economy, Britain is one of the richest/most influential countries and ditto for Germany.

 

[buckshotdots]

Lack of respect is what is wrong with this world sadly. I think selling a domain that can't be renewed (weather a person has done his/her homework or not) is just wrong. Fine print or not (even if other companies do it) is still wrong. Treat people the way you would like to be treated and the world will be a better place.

I needed to say that, now back to reality...

gary-