RE: [registrars] Domain Registry of America

["John Berryhill" <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The U.S. FTC issued an order against them some
> time back.

Also, one registrar brought a suit against DROA, obtained a preliminary
injunction, and then the suit just seems to have... gone away.  Oddly, or
maybe not so oddly, the plaintiff registrar then appears to have entered
into other dealings for the DROA sponsoring registrar.

In related news, the ever-popular "Notification of Domain Registration" fax
and email notice appears to have had its life support recently restored.
For those who haven't seen this one, an official-looking "notice" is
received by a domain registrant, in which the registrant is informed amid a
collage of odd legalese that some unknown party is attempting to register
their second-level domain name in other TLD's, and that the domain
registrant has a fictional "deadline" by which to secure these other domain
registrations.  A sample of this email is:

------------
"International Domain Name Registry (IDNR) has received an application for
registration of the domain <xxxxxxxx.TLD1>. by a third party, that is almost
identical to your domain name <xxxxxxxx.TLD2> .

International Domain Name Registry was founded for registration, control and
monitoring of domain names and trade marks that include copyright control,
fair business regulations, legitimate usage and activity, dispute and claim
consideration of property breach of the domain for transfer to the court.

Registration of the domain name similar to your own can be done for the
reasons mentioned below:

1. The third party wants to use the domain name for any purposes, including
business, distinct from your business activity.
2. The third party wants to register the domain name for creation of a
business similar to yours.
3. The third party (that, probably, before registration of a domain name was
your competitor also) wants to disrupt the business of a competitor, or
intentionally attempt to lure the customers of another business by creating
a confusingly similar Web address.

Consequently, it is our opinion that this application may have been
submitted in bad faith.

You are required to submit to us your opposition to the third party domain
name registration contemplated herein and expressly advise us of your intent
to license this domain name (go to www.diregistry.com, choose "register a
domain" then "block the application of the third party") prior to the
expiration of this notice (which is one working day after it is sent) or
licensing rights to the domain name would be assigned to any applicant. In
this case IDNR WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR THE LOSS OF DOMAIN NAME IDENTICAL OR
CONFUSINGLY SIMILAR USE OF YOUR COMPANY"S NAME; OR INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS
ACTIVITY OR BUSINESS LOSSES.

Also IDNR further will not consider your complaint to infringement of your
rights for IDENTICAL OR CONFUSINGLY SIMILAR USE OF YOUR COMPANY"S NAME; OR
INTERRUPTION OF BUSINESS ACTIVITY OR BUSINESS LOSSES.

Thank you.
International Domain Name Registry
-------------

The address and telephone number of "International Domain Name Registry" at
their web page corresponds to that of the Ameritania Hotel on 54th Street in
New York.  Presumably, their domain names come with a continental breakfast.

Since the WHOIS database is not permitted to be used for commercial
solicitations, and we are assured by some WHOIS task force participants that
the incidence of such use is minimal, then diregistry.com must have a team
of psychics assigned to determining to whom to send their fraudulent
notices.

However, can someone more talented than I determine who is providing the
back end service for diregistry.com?

John Berryhill