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RegisterFly - the way forward

Last Updated:

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.

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.