RegisterFly - the way forward

Updated:

On 29 May, GoDaddy reached agreement with RegisterFly to assume all its domains. ICANN welcomes the move. For more details click here. A workshop on registrants' rights was held in Puerto Rico on Monday 25 June 2007. ICANN still has a contempt order against RegisterFly for failing to follow the terms of the preliminary injunction.

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Information:
See below for some background information on the RegisterFly situation.
Resources:
There has already been significant review and discussion of the problems surrounding registrar RegisterFly. We would strongly advise that people review the resources below to familiarise themselves with what has already been discussed, to understand the complexities of the situation better, and to grasp the different perspectives that exist with regard to RegisterFly and the registrar system.

What's going on?
There are three legal challenges going on:

  1. ICANN is suing RegisterFly in California for breaching its contract.
  2. RegisterFly is insisting on arbitration to prevent its ICANN accreditation from being removed.
  3. A class action lawsuit claiming fraud and negligence, among others things, has been launched in North Carolina against RegisterFly, also naming ICANN and eNom

Taking each in turn (disclaimer: this section is written by a non-lawyer from the UK in order to help explain the situation to people. It may not be 100 percent legally accurate):

  1. ICANN is suing RegisterFly in Federal Court in the Central District of California.
    All relevant documents in this case can be found here.
    On 29 May, GoDaddy struck a deal with RegisterFly to assume its domains.
    On Wednesday 9 May 2007, ICANN was granted a civil contempt order against RegisterFly for failing to follow the terms outlined in a preliminary injunction - namely providing full and complete registrant data and posting a message on its website that ICANN had applied to terminate the company's accreditation.
    • ICANN terminated RegisterFly accreditation agreement but RegisterFly used a clause under the current RAA to ask for arbitration on that decision. While RegisterFly is still an accredited registrar, ICANN is not allowed to do a bulk transfer of all its registrants' data to a different registrar. This issue may become moot following the judge's decision to allow ICANN to end the accreditation. Although it may still be returned if the arbitrators decide RegisterFly should remain accredited. ICANN's firm position is that it should not. The arbitrators have yet to be decided.
    • The Martinez case is uncertain at the moment. ICANN has argued that North Carolina is not the right venue since the agreement was made in California. ICANN has also filed to have the case against it dismissed. There are a number of options for the judge here - and currently it is entirely unclear what will happen. There is not a set date for the next hearing yet. As for the merits of the case against RegisterFly - that's not for us to discuss.

    So that's the legal situation. Also going on from ICANN's perspective, particularly with regard to learning the lessons from RegisterFly:

    • ICANN is reviewing the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) to see what changes can be made to ensure that a similar situation doesn't arise again in future. In relation to that, a meeting has been held between ICANN and registrars where a number of ideas were discussed - you can see the questions in the official announcement here. A report from this meeting was sent to the ICANN policy development body that deals with these matters, the GNSO.
    • The GNSO will review this report, produce its report with suggestions for change and then open that report for public comment. We have no exact timeline for this yet but we will let you know as soon as we have.
    • It is expected that recommendations and suggested changes will be discussed and possibly approved at the upcoming ICANN meeting in Puerto Rico at the end of June 2007.
    • In the meantime, the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC), the ICANN organisation that represents Internet users, is discussing how it can gather useful information from those that have been affected in order to present an accurate picture of what happened and how people see the problem.
    • As well as this, there are several efforts underway to explain the domain name system to a much broader audience.

    How do you get involved?
    Several ways:

    • Review the material above, educate yourself about ICANN's processes and then prepare concise and well-argued responses for when the time comes for public input.
    • Post your comments, questions, concerns and so on on the specific reform forum we have just set up on this site.
    • Contact your local ALAC representative and ask them what you can do to help. You can find out all about the ALAC here.

    What is ICANN going to do?

    • Continue prosecuting the case against RegisterFly
    • End RegisterFly's accreditation
    • Continue providing as much information and help as it can to customers caught up - see the blog at http://blog.icann.org for the most up-to-date information.
    • Update this page with information on what is happening, when, and develop simple tools by which people can have their voices heard.

    If you have further questions, please post them below.

Comments

Releasing PendingDelete Domains

Submitted by st1p on Mon, 28 May 2007 - 18:21.

Hi, It seems my last two posts were lost during the transition of this site last week. So, I thought I'd try posting my last question again.

Domains that are in PendingDelete status as a resut of this RegisterFly mess are not being deleted from the registries, because that's what ICANN asked the registeries to do.

My question therefore is: if I wanted my domain to be deleted from the registry, who do I talk with to make that happen? I'm assuming I need to talk with someone within ICANN who in turn will make the request to the registry.

My thinking is this: irrespective of the deal that was announced a few days ago (which is still going to take an unknown amount of time to be fully worked through), it would be far quicker if my domain was allowed to be deleted from the registry. I could simply re-register it, and hve it up and live again within a max 48 hours.

Of course, there's a risk of losing my domain. But it's up to me to decide if the risk is acceptable.

So, what do you think? Can this be done? Is it a wise thing to do? And who can make it happen?

Risk

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Mon, 28 May 2007 - 22:51.

The risk of losing your name, especially if the domain is of any value, is extremely high, st1p.
I understand how frustrating it must be but allowing it to lapse is a bad idea. As to whether you can call up the registry and allow it to lapse, possibly. But it's just as likely that they will say they can't deal with individual domains (as we are talking about hundreds of thousands of domains caught up in this).
This is one of the strange bits of domain name economics. There are so many of them that automated systems are vital to make it manageable. What this RegisterFly situation has made clear is that there needs to be an automated system in place for when things go wrong.
So in summary, speaking as an individual, I would stick with it rather than risk the very large certainty that your domain would be picked up within seconds of it expiring.
Kieren

Updated Timescales

Submitted by st1p on Mon, 14 May 2007 - 07:30.

Could you provide an update on the planned timescales to get things done?

Your response to my post on the 4th May said you hoped we would begin regaining control of our domains as from week commencing 7th May i.e. last week. It's now 14th May, and I'd like to understand where we're at.

Could you give a breakdown of the major activities, and estimated dates i.e.:

Selection of receiving registrar,
Retrieval of data from RegisterFly offices,
Validation/cross match of data,
Contact identified domain owners,
Reconnect owners with domains.

Hopefully tomorrow

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Mon, 14 May 2007 - 13:29.

Hi St1p,

I have put in the calls and asked questions, but it is very late my time, so it will be tomorrow before I can get some information on what is going on.

Sorry I can't be of more help today.

Kieren McCarthy

Hi Kieren, Is there any

Submitted by st1p on Mon, 21 May 2007 - 12:09.

Hi Kieren,

Is there any updates on timescales?

You originally said we'd begin regaining control of our domains from week commencing 7th May i.e. two weeks ago. You failed to deliver.

Then in response to my request for a breakdown of activities and timescales on the 14th May, you said you'd provide detailed info the next day i.e. 15th May. You failed to do that too.

Subsequently, I see the latest post promising an announcement on the 16th May that would put an end to this situation. It is now 21st May and no announcement has been forthcoming.

I do appreciate that this is a difficult and complex issue to manage, but you should have a plan (at least an outline of a plan). And I'd like to understand what that plan is, and the timescales involved.

Please can you provide an update, and not a promise of an update.

The cult of personality

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Mon, 21 May 2007 - 13:40.

Much as I love becoming the face of ICANN to you st1p, the reality is that I am not in the position to make these decisions and as such I am reliant on those dealing with the situation to tell me what information there is and when it can be publicly released.

What I do is consistently ask people what is happening and ask if there are any reasons why that cannot be made public. As I'm sure you can imagine, with such a sensitive subject it is best to be cautious.

If you want any evidence as to why, you need only review the post that you refer to when I said an announcement was due later that day, which it was. However it was not as finalised as I believed it was, with the result that it has caused further anguish to those caught up in this situation - the direct opposite situation to what I had intended.

I understand it must be infuriating for you to read that the situation is due to be solved and then it isn't. It is infuriating for me also. I can only say that in this case I will henceforth be more cautious that would normally be needed because of the highly unusual situation.

If you want me to write each day "Nothing new to report", I am happy to do so.

Kieren

Thanks for whatever you can release

Submitted by DPNR on Tue, 22 May 2007 - 01:00.

I for one would like a daily report even if it is only
"Not yet folks". That would be an indication that someone on your end is still breathing.

Once this is finished i Suggest a long holiday on a beach for you.

Bob

Domain renewals still failing - "technical issues" blamed

Submitted by greg02 on Wed, 09 May 2007 - 07:28.

Update 09:25 PST

Someone finally responded to one of my tickets and refunded the failed renewal fee to my RF account and told me to retry the renewal. I proceeded to attempted to renew, 6 times actually, and each time it failed giving reason "Failed: Unable to renew Billing failure". After each failure it just refunds the money back to the RF account. So, obviously they have disabled their billing processor in order to be able to deny renewals.

Update 09:30 PST
Just got a response back on the ticket. It appears to be an automated response they are appending to all open tickets, because all of my tickets were updated with this:

Hello,

We are facing some technical issue with our renewal sytemOur admins are working on this issue.the system will be up within few days.Please try to register the domain after few days.

Thank you.

Authorization Code Support
Registerfly.com INC
ICANN Accredited Registrar

Domains expired, unable to get unlocked & authcode

Submitted by greg02 on Mon, 07 May 2007 - 10:44.

I had a dozen+ domains with RegisterFly and long story short, 2 of them expired during this whole mess. Of course RF does not answer support tickets, emails, phone calls (disconnected) and so the domains are sitting there locked (clientTransferProhibited clientUpdateProhibited) with the RF "ProtectFly" (privatization service) info. With no way to either renew the domains with RF and therefore gain access to change the status to unlocked these domains are in hostage status.

There must be hundreds if not thousands of people in the same situation - is there anything we can do at this point to remedy this situation other than sit on our hands and watch ICANN apply, up until now, entirely ineffective measures against what has become a rogue entity?

Frustration

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Mon, 07 May 2007 - 12:56.

Hi Greg,

I understand your frustration at this but we are on the final leg. ICANN's measures may not have been effective but unfortunately that was the process we had to go through. It's not perfect and it will be changed just as soon as this problem is dealt with.

We expect the problem to be dealt with one way or another this week. We'll keep people up-to-date with what happens as soon as it happens.

Kieren McCarthy
General manager of public participation, ICANN

Thank you for your reply, and an update

Submitted by greg02 on Mon, 07 May 2007 - 14:05.

Thank you for your prompt reply Kieren, I also hope that this tragedy reaches its end this week.

Update to expired domains renewal attempts:
As an update to my previous post and for anyone in the same situation, I attempted the renewal process again at RF today (have done this daily, up until now the interface errors out and payments have not been accepted). I was able to successfully renew 1 of my 2 expired domains. Of course I was charged for both renewals, but only one was actually processed, the domain I was charged for but that did not renew showed a "Billing error". So I am now able to access 1 of my 2 expired domains again, and I have opened a ticket on the failure of the 2nd renewal. I don't expect much with regards to the ticket, none have been answered yet.

So, in summary if you have expired domains you can roll the dice and see if you are able to renew and if RF processes it, my success rate as detailed above was 50%.

my domain expired and is now showing a different business

Submitted by maximumwoman on Sat, 05 May 2007 - 08:32.

I was unable to renew my domain - quotetocash.biz online at Registerfly. It expired on May 1, and now I can't reach anyone and the phone number for customer service has been disconnected. I checked the website, and it is now showing up as a different business. I imagine Registerfly sold the domain name to them. I am desperate to get this one up and running, and I have another domain - absolutewoman.net, which will expire in October of this year. What can I do to get this fixed?

Thanks very much

I can't believe this

Submitted by DPNR on Mon, 07 May 2007 - 10:34.

Or maybe I can. RE: DPNR.com. was in redemption period. Per Registerfly's instructions I deposited $60.00 into the account expecting them to fix it. When that did not happen I requested and received my $60.00 back. On the day the court ordered Registerfly to provide all info to ICANN, I was issued a transfer code.
I contacted GODADDY to transfer the domain. The very next day whois.org reported the domain Pending Delete.
Running the Registerfly whois, now lists someone else as the owner of the site. and the status is "locked"

Plus the phone number for the new owner is not connected.

It just keeps going and going.

5/7/2007
Got a hold of the listed owner, who forwarded godaddy's
transfer authorization email back to us. Then followed godaddy's instructions to transfer the site, only to be told that it is locked and in pending delete status. If it wern't for the locked status, I believe the transfer would have gone through.

We'll keep ya posted.

Timescales, and Special Arrangements

Submitted by st1p on Fri, 04 May 2007 - 06:32.

I've been in email contact with both yourselves (ICANN), Verisign, and of course RegisterFly. After several emails, Verisign finally confirmed that my domain that is in PendingDelete status will not be deleted from their registry (it's already past it's due drop date) at your (ICANN) request.

I'm fully aware that the go-ahead to finally terminate RegisterFly's accreditation has been granted, and that ICANN is seeking a registrar to bulk transfer RegisterFly domains to.

There's two things I'd like to know now...

1. How long is all this going to take? What are the timescales? (i.e. when are we going to regain control of our domains?)

2. If the answer to the above means we've still got a long wait, can special arrangements be made to allow domains in PendingDelete status to be deleted by individual request i.e. if I'd like my domain to be deleted from the registry, can we make that happen? (regaining control of my domain would be quicker in this instance).

The final leg

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Fri, 04 May 2007 - 07:19.

Hi st1p,

The short answer is: from next week.

RegisterFly remains in the position - as it has been for months - to end all this in one day. For reasons we cannot fathom it has not done so.

ICANN is asking for the company to be found in contempt. If that order is granted, we can walk into RegisterFly's offices and take the missing data.

At the same time, ICANN will next week choose a transferring registrar that will handle the difficult job of shifting hundreds of thousands of domains to new registrars as fast as possible.

The hope is that that transferer would be able to start making those transfers immediately.

Alternatively there is still the hope that RegisterFly will make all of its data available before it has to be shutdown.

So, most likely, and with luck, this will begin to be over next week.

Kieren

Comment

Submitted by acousticb1 on Sat, 28 April 2007 - 08:03.

My biggest concern is the ones that were not able to move nor renew domains still caught at registerfly.
Customers are scared as heck because they do not know what will happen.
Do you know what will happen because of this mess to the people who had domains stolen from them?

what about lost domains??

Submitted by rmahlert on Sat, 28 April 2007 - 04:37.

“Registrants are our first concern. ICANN is following a very determined approach to returning access to domain name registrants impacted by the collapse of RegisterFly,” said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN President and CEO.

What about people who have already lost domains due to this situation?? I understand we can file a complaint under the UDRP, NAF is over $1000 USD. That's not cheap. Some system should be setup to help people who lost domains due to registerfly's failure.

I have the credit card and registerfly transaction info that I renewed. But, yet I still lost my domain. I feel I'm being punished and have to pay an outrageous amount to get my domain back.

I see nothing that ICANN has address this issue in the registerfly failure.

Rmahlert

How will ICANN determine rightful registrant? Redemption?

Submitted by eugenie99 on Fri, 20 April 2007 - 08:28.

I have a very valuable domain that RegisterFly basically hijacked out of my account by changing the contact information to their own and changing the contact email addresses, and actually MOVING the domain out of my RegisterFly account. My concerns are:

1) I have no idea how ICANN is going to be able to figure out who the rightful current registrant is for THOUSANDS of the RegFly domains simply because RegFly changed ALL THE CONTACT INFORMATION TO THEIR OWN when moving the domains from ENOM to their ICANN Reseller account. ENOM allowed me to recover two of my missing domains, thank god, but it was too little too late, RegFly had already hijacked numerous other domains.

Unless ICANN has access to some sort of historical WHOIS database, it will be very difficult to verify who the rightful current registrant is. Some sort of claim system would have to be setup. Hopefully they have backups of the database they can access?

2) Domains are falling into redemption left and right that were at RegFly because RegFly changed our contact information to THEIR contact info, their renewal system constantly FAILED, their auth code generator did not work, and domains literally disappeared out of our accounts (with DNS information intact so there often was no indication of a problem until a WHOIS check)

My situation:

Basically, I have no idea how I am going to retrieve my domain mentioned above, which has now entered redemption, because when RegFly transferred the domain from their ENOM reseller account to their ICANN RegFly account in September 2006 they changed all the WHOIS information to THEIR OWN contact info. That change prevented me from transferring the domains since RegisterFly support was listed as the registrant, not me, and also might prevent me from being recognized as the rightful registrant of the domain when ICANN returns our domains to us. What is ICANN going to do about this situation? How will they sort that out? Is there a backup of the WHOIS database they can use?

See below

From: Eugene Franco
to: support@registerfly.com
date: Feb 28, 2007 1:23 AM
Subj: Domain with default regfly information - *****.com - What's going on here?

Dear Registerfly,

After moving my domains from your enom reseller account to your ICANN-based account you changed the contact information for all my domains to default to registerfly support and you also removed some of the domains from my registerfly account. Support has fixed the problem with most of my domains, but *****.com is
A) missing from my registerfly account
b) has the default information
c) is about to expire

The nameserver is luckily still correct and pointing to fabulous.com for advertising.

Please fix the other issues.

Thank you,
Gene Franco

Registrant:
N/A:30343933
404 Main Street
4th Floor
Boonton, NJ 07005
US

Domain name:
*****.com

Administrative Contact:
Default Profile, - support@registerfly.com

404 Main Street
4th Floor
Boonton, NJ 07005
US
9737362545 Fax: 9737361355

Technical Contact:
Default Profile, - support@registerfly.com

404 Main Street
4th Floor
Boonton, NJ 07005
US
9737362545 Fax: 9737361355

Registrar of Record: REGISTERFLY.COM, INC.
Record last updated on **-Sep-2006.

Record expires on **-Mar-2007.
Record created on **-Mar-2004.

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.FABULOUS.COM 64.15.205.211

NS2.FABULOUS.COM 64.15.205.212

Domain status: ok

The data in this whois database is provided to you for information

purposes only, that is, to assist you in obtaining information about
or related to a domain name registration record. We make this information
available "as is", and do not guarantee its accuracy. By submitting a

whois query, you agree that you will use this data only for
lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this data
to:(1) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that stress or
load this whois database system providing you this information;

or (2) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of
mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations via direct
mail, electronic mail, or by telephone. The compilation, repackaging,
dissemination or other use of this data is expressly prohibited without

prior written consent from us. The registrar of record is Registerfly.
We reserve the right to modify these terms at any time. By submitting
this query, you agree to abide by these terms.

Whois Server Version
2.0

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered
with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net
for detailed information.

Domain Name: *****.com
Registrar: REGISTERFLY.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.registerfly.com

Referral URL: http://www.registerfly.com
Name Server: NS1.FABULOUS.COM
Name Server: NS2.FABULOUS.COM

Status: ok
Updated Date: **-sep-2006
Creation Date: **-mar-2004
Expiration Date: **-mar-2007

the regualar blog

Submitted by acousticb1 on Tue, 17 April 2007 - 13:51.

Believe in fate...I can not post there unlike others i know. I have tried every email addy in the book and it wont let me post.

Banned?

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Tue, 17 April 2007 - 15:01.

I have banned three people from the blog acousticb1. Did you fire off several abusive comments in a row a few weeks ago?

If not, I'm not sure why you aren't able to post to the blog. I have also just been through the spam catchment and nothing is showing up that could be a comment from you for the past seven days.

When did you last try?

Kieren

No

Submitted by acousticb1 on Thu, 19 April 2007 - 13:37.

Believe in fate...It is not this blog it is the other blog. I have tried different emails even a different place and still nothing Im talking about blog.icann.org. You know registerfly prob got hit like several others did in a scandal last year sometime....the chargebacks from stormpay and their creative record keeping.

Tracking domains now in Redemption

Submitted by wes on Tue, 10 April 2007 - 17:44.

How do you recommend those of us with domains in Redemption Period keep track of the status of those domains?

I had 3 com domains w/RegFly that I attempted to renew in Feb 07, but the renewals repeatedly failed. I finally decided to consider the funds in my RegFly account a loss, let the domains expire, and *hopefully* pick them up with a new registrar. However, I cannot now do that, since the timing is such that these domains are now 'caught' in the FlyWeb, and will not be deleted (right?). That's fine, since I presume that I will be able to regain control either way. But I am not sure how best to keep track of these names. I am currently checking whois daily, to be sure they are still in Redemption. But is there something else that I should be doing?

And by the way -- I thank you, ICANN, for providing this outlet for RegFly customers. I'm sure it's been an extremely time consuming and difficult endeavor to maintain, but it's appreciated by those of us who are worried and looking for accurate information. I was able to successfully transfer other, active domains away from RegFly with the help of advice on your forum.

Update please

Submitted by joeblow on Tue, 10 April 2007 - 06:08.

Would it be too much to ask for an update?

While I was able to find the documents relating to the issue in ICANN's "litigation" section, it would have been nice to have that significant point in the two most popular RegisterFly news locations - either here, or the ICANN blog.

Further, I am amused by the circular reasoning whereby the Blog points to the RegisterFly status page, and vice versa. Nice logic loop, there.

I would also to object to ICANN's requirement that all comments require registration. For an organization with transparency issues, I would think that this would continue to chill freedom of expression. You already have the appropriate right to delete offensive posts, but prior registration makes it increasingly easy for you to punish those who object to your perspective.

Registration

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Tue, 10 April 2007 - 06:46.

Hi JoeBlow,

As soon as we there is something useful to relate, we will make sure it is readily available.

I'm not sure what the use would be in updating a page everyday with the same message.

As for registration: that is because both the blog and this site have been targeted by a small group of people who have attempted to swamp them with libellous, incorrect or abusive comments.

It was taking up valuable time to delete or remove those comments so we have a registration system instead. I'm not sure why you think ICANN would, or even could, "punish" anyone, or delete critical comments, or in fact restrict freedom of expression in any way.

We have been quite open about our comment policy, we have posted stats on what posts we have deleted, down to why they were removed; there are a large number of critical posts on both the blog and this site; and ICANN has in fact made no effort to restrict any freedom of expression.

It is also odd that you complain about freedom of expression being restricted when you have clearly registered under a pseudonym yet your post is on the site and I have just responded to it.

Anyway - yes, I will see if there is anything new I can provide about the situation with RegisterFly today but as far as I am aware at the moment, there is nothing.

Kieren McCarthy
General manager of public participation, ICANN

Update request

Submitted by joeblow on Mon, 16 April 2007 - 08:44.

Kieren

My specific complaint was that you have provided no update as to the pending litigation. While there is a pointer to the documents on ICANN's suite against RegisterFly, it would have been helpful to have an indication on this page that "ICANN filed suit, and RegisterFly has until April 18 to respond." Instead, all observers must interpret American court documents for themselves - which is a burden to both native Americans (unfamiliar with court filings) as well as non-American observers.

Second, there is no information on this page or any other, as far as I can tell, about the purported class action - Martinez v. RegisterFly et al. As I am sure you know, you are one of the "et alia." Since ICANN has filed a response with the court, I would expect the ICANN web site Litigation section to be updated to include that case.

Finally, with regard to openness. I believe that ICANN has been, in the past, been able to reasonably filter off topic or offensive posts without requiring registration. From the tone of your criticism of ICANN's missteps that you published as a journalist, it is my estimate that you would have criticized this step when you were not getting an ICANN paycheck. I expect you will disagree. In any case, I doubt anyone can argue that registration creates a chilling effect.

Legal update added

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Mon, 16 April 2007 - 12:24.

Okay, JoeBlow, I have called up the lawyers and done a fairly extensive update as to where we all are with the legal situation.

I hope this helps deal with your complaint.

Kieren

Lawsuits etc

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Mon, 16 April 2007 - 10:29.

You have a good point re: RegisterFly litigation. The simple answer is: because it is litigation I rely on the legal team to say when something has happened in the case. I'm sure you can understand that.

Why haven't I been through the docs and done a quick summary? Good question. The answer is time. For the sake of a small detail - the date of an expected legal response - it requires alot of additional work. Especially when as soon as something does happen, the lawyers will say so. But your point is noted, I will speak to the lawyers today and try to dig out the pertinent facts.

Same goes for the Martinez case.

Although I will say that you are expecting rather alot if you think an organisation will supply all ongoing details of a court case, especially when the release of information will have little or no impact on the case itself.

I could tell you who in the Los Angeles office is off sick today, thereby impacting on ICANN's ability to do it's job, but I don't really see the point when it uses up time that could be spent more practically elsewhere.

As for your suggestion that registration creates a "chilling effect" - I'm sorry but that's just paranoid nonsense. I am in charge of this site and anything that is useful and reasonable, even if it is critical, goes straight through.

The fact that your post is here - for a second time - and I am replying for a second time should be testament to that.

I'm not exactly sure what is the terrible scenario is that you seem to be outlining *even if* ICANN had the time or inclination to censor posts.

Frankly, not having registration means that I have to go through dozens of posts *not a single one of which has ever been useful*. Mostly it's spam, gibberish or abuse. If I actually thought that useful feedback was being lost because people are too scared/lazy/stupid to type in a username and email address, I'd open it up. But I'm not, so I'm going to save my and everyone's else time by keeping registration.

I'll note again that you have registered under a pseudonym and presumably also a Hotmail or Yahoo email address that can be set up in five minutes.

If I was writing about this for The Reg, I would have registered under a fake name and email address and seen if my critical comment got through. And it would have done, and so I wouldn't have written a story.

Kieren

updates

Submitted by acousticb1 on Thu, 12 April 2007 - 09:24.

Somehow i always get caught in the filter. Something has to be done.

What filter?

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Thu, 12 April 2007 - 09:26.

I'm not sure I understand you Acousticb1

Kieren

Kieren

Submitted by acousticb1 on Thu, 19 April 2007 - 13:43.

Believe in fate...I came over here because i could get my voice. Evertime i posted or attempt on the other blog icann has it would block me. (blog.icann.org) I think everyone needs to keep a level head. Loosing a temper at you is wrong. ICANN needs to have full control over Registerfly because that is the only way to sort things out...because you will never get a straight answer that is my opinion.

FAQ translation

Submitted by mohno on Sun, 08 April 2007 - 20:22.

Hello,

Can I translate the FAQ list (http://blog.icann.org/?p=85) to Japanese for Japanese customers?

Thank you,
Motohisa Ohno

Of course

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Mon, 09 April 2007 - 09:37.

Of course you can Motoshisa. We would just ask that you make it clear that it is your translation of the FAQ though and not ICANN's.

If you wish to post it on this site afterwards, please do.

Kieren

Thank you

Submitted by mohno on Wed, 11 April 2007 - 06:29.

I did;
http://blogs.itmedia.co.jp/mohno/2007/04/registerfly_faq_c5c0.html
http://domainfan.com/CS/forums/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1519

I see people here don't need the above Japanese info.

Thank you,
Regards, Motohisa

Japanese links

Submitted by kieren.mccarthy on Mon, 16 April 2007 - 06:21.

This is great Motohisa. I am going to link to it from the RegisterFly FAQ on the ICANN blog.

http://blog.icann.org/?p=85

Would you mind if we reposted your page on ICANN's pages with a link to your page?

Or - possibly better - can we encourage you to create a new page (Create Content > Page) on this site and post your translation there?

Kieren

Registerfly situation

Submitted by acousticb1 on Sun, 08 April 2007 - 11:56.

Registerfly is only dragging the feet. They want to keep running there has to be a way to stop them Florida is passing the buck to the other office on the BBB manner. There has to be a government agenency that can seize the day. This is impacting commerce The situation is compunded when we cant contact represenatives. There has to be email addresses to contact them.