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Loss of ownership / control over a .org domain - advice requested

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Ampa:
A friend of mine runs the charity Women4Resources, which had a website at women4resources.org

The domain was registered for her by her web-designer, in his name. He turned out to be a nasty piece of work, trying to extort money from the charity, so he was dumped by the charity, but they failed to get the domain signed over.

Renewal date arrived, but they were unable to renew since the domain was in his (the unscrupulous designer's name).

The registrar is Tierra.net who said that after 75 days in limbo the domain would be released back on to the open market, and the charity could purchase it again.

My friend made a note in her calendar, and after the allotted time tried to buy the domain, only to find that someone else (VWNames.com) had already bought it!

For now the charity has a mirror site located at http://women4resources.co.uk but the .org tld is listed on all their literature...

So, what should she do?

VWNames have no right to the name and no desire to own it - other than to make a fast buck selling it back to the rightful owners!

How did they get in there first?

Does a charity have any legal claim over a domain if it shares their registered name?

Thanks,

Ampa

KynloStephen66515:
Unfortunatly, this type of thing happens every minute of every day.  Due to the charity making requests to purchase it, VWNames.com will have picked up on this, and instead of taking a moment to realise this was a charities domain, they have simply picked up on the fact that it was an active domain, that had traffic, and could indeed make them money.

The company in question will have automatically purchased it (Possibly using backorder) the very second it became publicly available.

'Snatching' is very common, however, the host 'Tierra.net' should (But are not legally bound) to offer the domain back to the charity...this would have been the logical thing to do...however, they could also argue that the charity should have placed a backorder on the domain.

Perhaps making a request to VWNames.com to release the domain (At perhaps even a small profit to them (10% over purchase price)) will get them to release it.

mouser:
At some point i suspect you probably do have a good case for the domain name if it really is so specifically related to your charity.

I don't have any particular knowledge in this area, but one general piece of advice might be that being in the right counts for very little if you have to purse legal recourse -- who can afford the legal fees is going to be much more important.

So, perhaps the first step would be to contact the people who bought the name and explain to them just what you explained here and see if they would sell it back to you for $100 or so, in an effort to avoid having to deal with legal issues.  You never know what their response will be.

Such a long specific .org domain name likely has very little real value to this company other than selling it to you.  So they should be open to a cheap purchase i would think.  It's not like their are going to be any other bidders for it.

KynloStephen66515:
Side note:

It seems TierraNet still own the domain.  To me, this looks like they have simply parked the domain to make some cash from it.

Domain Name: women4resources.org
Updated: 1 second ago - Refresh

Registrar: TierraNet Inc. dba DomainDiscover (R86-LROR)
Status: CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED

Expiration Date: 2012-01-27 14:28:30
Creation Date: 2009-01-27 14:28:30
Last Update Date: 2011-04-08 12:01:28

Name Servers:
    forsale2.requestdomainquote.com
    forsale1.requestdomainquote.com
See women4resources.org DNS Records

Information Updated: Sun, 24 Apr 2011 23:09:30 UTC

40hz:
It's a very dicey situation where the rules will vary by country. If they're serious about getting the domain back they'll need to get competent legal advice before they do or say anything. Internic has a loose dispute process that may get their domain back, but they'll likely need an attorney to help them with that if a name troll has gotten ahold of it.

The real problem is that Internic will not arbitrate a name dispute. If the other party decides to dig their heels in on this, then the only option is a lawsuit to get the name back. That or pay the asking price.

Luck.  :(

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