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

 

[AdoptableDomains]

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).

Good way to get a bad reputation. I sure wouldnt want to deal with anyone with those business ethics.

Also, if you know it cannot be renewed withhold that information, it could be considered fraud in most places.

RJ

I was speaking from a buyer's perspective.
Personally, i never withhold any information about my domains. I believe in ethical domaining...

The original post sure didn't sound that way. Why even suggest that someone do this?

That's about as shady as the ebay sellers that blatantly huges listings with 1 for L, or zero for "O"; or sneaky IDN letters and try to weasel out by putting it fine print. Some would call that bait and switch. May anyone who does that get a Katrina car listed as "thoroughly washed".

Any time you deal with a ccTLD, you risk that the management contract with the owning country may change, get canceled, get censored, or have unexpected price changes. If I wouldn't trust a sponsoring country enough to put a business there, then I'll avoid registering a domain there.

 

[ekal]

IMHO - every single domain has risks.

If you own an LLL.com theres a risk that you may get a multinational trying to reverse hijack your domain, saddling you with legal bills (YIT.com + many others)

If you own a big .com name, the US government can take it from you, ala bodog.com.

If you own a .mobi or .us, you risk the market never taking off.

If you own .in / .co.in as I do, you risk the Indian registry being corrupt and taking valuable names (business.in etc)

If you invest in countries with a reputation for having a shady bureaucracy, something like this may happen...

The only way to stop this would be a single impartial body imposing standards on all the world's registries. Pie in the sky...

 

[godolphin]

This issue reminds me of the reverse domain hijacking of Premium .IN domains
check

I wish the Indian Registry follows ICANN principles to curb such incidents in the future.

 

[amcdonald]

could someone that purchased a one letter .la say 2 years ago from a reseller argue that since the registration was in violation of their law, then so was the resale and then fight to recoup their costs?

i dont own any .la i'm just curious

 

[sashas]

Good way to get a bad reputation. I sure wouldnt want to deal with anyone with those business ethics.

Also, if you know it cannot be renewed withhold that information, it could be considered fraud in most places.



The original post sure didn't sound that way. Why even suggest that someone do this?

That's about as shady as the ebay sellers that blatantly huges listings with 1 for L, or zero for "O"; or sneaky IDN letters and try to weasel out by putting it fine print. Some would call that bait and switch. May anyone who does that get a Katrina car listed as "thoroughly washed".

Any time you deal with a ccTLD, you risk that the management contract with the owning country may change, get canceled, get censored, or have unexpected price changes. If I wouldn't trust a sponsoring country enough to put a business there, then I'll avoid registering a domain there.

AdoptableDomains

I've been here for more than 2 months, and I wouldn't like to believe that I've done any sort of shady deals here (or elsewhere). Perhaps I shot off my mouth in the previous post and didn't see the implications of withholding information like that.
Like I said, I believe in ethical domaining, and thats why I don't own/plan to own any TMed domains, or typos.

And about the risk in owning domains, I believe that it is practically impossible to make any kind of money without taking risks. IMO, the risks in domaining are much less vs. the rewards, as compared to something like stock markets (which can be much more volatile).

 

[Peter]

could someone that purchased a one letter .la say 2 years ago from a reseller argue that since the registration was in violation of their law, then so was the resale and then fight to recoup their costs?

i dont own any .la i'm just curious

It is not a case of whether it is against the law it is more of a case whether they have broken the contract. You have to remember you do not own the domain you are merely leasing it. They can if they wish withdraw the service. How much notice and under which circumstances they can do this should be stated in their terms of service.

 

[sirengirl]

Remind me never to do business with you.

I second that
:td:

 

[NameSugar]

LL.LA a serious risk?

And there has murmur that they would do the same for LL/NN .LA soon.

This is disturbing, I've been considering registering a premium LL.la name and this was one of my primary concerns (that and the price). Has anyone heard more than a "murmur" about this happening to 2 character .LAs?

I wrote them an email 2 days ago asking precisely this type of question, no response yet. Not very encouraging.

 

[FPForum]

hmm this isn't good. make's me happy i dont own any!

 

[SpongyBob]

Apart from an awful way to behave by the .LA registrars, it's also pretty shortsighted. I mean who's going to register a .la now? No one will trust them.

 

[goodkarmaco]

Can the registry wait say two years and then offer the same names they say are not allowed? Not liking this, as if .la needs any bad publicity.

 

[Peter]

If they so wished yes. They make the rules so anything is possible.

 

[baxter]

Don't own any .la's don't plan to either... Unfortunate information for those that do though

 

[fonzie_007]

Remind me never to do business with you.

Agreed. Part of forums like NP is to foster an environment to be upfront with people. There are enough scam artists in the world.

The particular industry of screwing others based on fine print and lack of disclosure is not the credit card companeis, it is the used car industry...