123REG Taking Liberties with your .uk domain registration rights

[Nigel]

The manipulation of figures is now in play up until June 2019 I suspect.

agreed - I imagine Nominet were getting a little concerned about .co.uk numbers so encouraged this .uk freebie sleight of hand.

 

[martin-s]

If this approach encouraged actual uptake and usage of .uk, would that be a good thing?

.uk is never going to be reversed, so is the best case scenario that it is ignored and dies a quiet death, or that it gets gradually adopted?

Forget the cost implications for a sec (given the recent price increases, 123 Reg could easily continue to offer .uk for free as part of a pair if they wanted to), but what do you actually want to see happen to .uk as an extension - successful adoption or pretend it never happened failure?

For what it's worth, I'm still in the failure camp, but I appreciate I'm a laggard on this.

 

[grandwizard]

I have many complaints about 123-Reg But this is certainly not one. The darn domains are FREE and its to protect their customers looks like people jumping on the moaning bandwagon! whats the issue? perhaps your chances of catching some of these names drastically reduced ? Give me a Break! you can opt out if you want ridiculous turning this into the biggest conspiracy ! mob mentality BS. Nominet should step in? Yes they have nothing to do but chase registrars granting free domains . Ethics one might say? we are in an industry when we can catch domains for £35 and sell it for £xx,xxx yet we can point figures at companies granting free domains in the hope of making money on renewals we are all hypocrites every last one of us!

 

[Nigel]

I've got a few more questions to ask about this so I can understand the situation a little bit more. Perhaps a nominet spokesperson could answer.

a)When does this 2 year freebie .uk offer end? is it running right up to June 2019 or is the deadline much more immediate for registrars to act?

b)Are all registrars included in this offer?

c)Are registrars acting within Nominet terms and conditions to register .uk domains on behalf of customers (and without their knowledge and approval) and to include privacy as well

d)Why didn't Nominet just offer all registrants the chance of a 2 year freebie .uk?

e)What happens to overseas owners of a .co.uk? i.e. are they excluded from this offer?

f)What happens in 2 years (+suspension time) if a .uk (registered by the registrar under circumstances shown in question c above) is not renewed. i.e. Does the registrar have the right to take control?

g)Will registrars have the right to monetize, for their own benefit, parking pages (registered by the registrar under circumstances shown in question c above)

 

[ian]

I have many complaints about 123-Reg But this is certainly not one. The darn domains are FREE and its to protect their customers looks like people jumping on the moaning bandwagon! whats the issue? perhaps your chances of catching some of these names drastically reduced ? Give me a Break! you can opt out if you want ridiculous turning this into the biggest conspiracy ! mob mentality BS. Nominet should step in? Yes they have nothing to do but chase registrars granting free domains . Ethics one might say? we are in an industry when we can catch domains for £35 and sell it for £xx,xxx yet we can point figures at companies granting free domains in the hope of making money on renewals we are all hypocrites every last one of us!

Not the point here, the point is that despite the '2 years free registration' offered by Nominet, 123Reg are not asking permission of their customers to take these domains out of ROR; more so, they are adding privacy conditions too, which effectively puts the domains in another entities name, so when the time comes to renew, 123Reg are in a prime position to simply retain the domains themselves.

 

[Nigel]

Thanks invincible - and there was me thinking you were the fount of nominet knowledge

does anyone else know the answer to this one:

a)When does this 2 year freebie .uk offer end? is it running right up to June 2019 or is the deadline much more immediate for registrars to act?

 

[Edwin]

David, don’t hold your breath waiting for a response from me on any of your points. We both know you have a quasi-infinite capacity for sandbagging any Nominet discussion, so it’s a waste of energy to engage with you.

Whether others will continue to swallow the troll bait is up to them, but I see no benefit in a continual back-and-forth with a gold standard yes-man.

(Posting the above in case you think I haven’t seen your answers. I have, and am actively not responding to them.)

 

[Nigel]

Many posting in this thread know because they're registrars but they have no business posting about it here.

are you saying it is confidential information?

 

[Nigel]

mine was a simple question - didn't know it was a secret society

 

[anthony]

There is no reason to register these behind an invisible wall under the guise of identity protection.

David, you are a yes man like Edwin says. I pity your shitter!

 

[anthony]

I’ve always suggested that I doubted Nominet would permit a huge drop of names come the end of the RoR.

Now that is a very interesting and telling comment. Says it all really!

 

[ian]

If individual registrar T&C's that registrant customers have accepted permit this type of transaction, what legitimate business is it of anyone else? The singling out of one registrar when others are doing it too seems unequal. Nominet will delete domain names if registrants request deletion.

Can you perhaps point me in the direction of where it states that 123Reg are entitled at will to register .uk domains under ROR status should (or shouldn't) permission be granted by the registrant. I see no mention of it? Maybe we need some 123Reg customers (@DaveBeasley etc) to contribute here as to whether they've accepted such terms or not, and whether any of their .uk ROR's have been registered.

It certainly seems apparent to me now why Nominet introduced the '2 years free .uk' promotion to overlap with June 2019, and it wasn't to benefit the consumer!

 

[davedevelopment]

I don’t have the time to review T&C’s of companies I’m not a customer of. It’s for their customers to do this and act accordingly. Nominet will delete unwanted domain names, or registrants may transfer (sell) them but Nominet ...

Not entirely related to the thread, but do you genuinely hold the sentiments you present or in cases like these are you sometimes playing devil's advocate? You seem to come across as quite intelligent, but ridiculously biased...

 

[ian]

I don’t have the time to review T&C’s of companies I’m not a customer of. It’s for their customers to do this and act accordingly. Nominet will delete unwanted domain names, or registrants may transfer (sell) them but Nominet won’t presently reinstate any exercised RoR’s.

But you don’t say why you think Nominet did introduce the promotion. Why do you think it did?

Incidentally many registrants are not consumers.

Oh ok, I had assumed because you came to 123Reg's defence, that you were aware they had t&c's in place that allow them to excise ROR's with or without registrants permissions. It seems that you don't know!

I believe from what has been said Nominet introduced the promotion to bolster numbers and allow registrars to take advantage with methods such as we are discussing here. After all, is a registrant likely to complain providing the registration goes beyond that of the ROR? Maybe not, but they perhaps are not aware of what may happen beyond that which I and others are very suspicious of.

 

[anthony]

I’ve been saying it for many, many years Miss Marple. Seemed quite obvious from the outset.

Well i don't read most of your posts, so i'll have to take your word for that!

 

[anthony]

Can you perhaps point me in the direction of where it states that 123Reg are entitled at will to register .uk domains under ROR status should (or shouldn't) permission be granted by the registrant. I see no mention of it? Maybe we need some 123Reg customers (@DaveBeasley etc) to contribute here as to whether they've accepted such terms or not, and whether any of their .uk ROR's have been registered.

It certainly seems apparent to me now why Nominet introduced the '2 years free .uk' promotion to overlap with June 2019, and it wasn't to benefit the consumer!

Exactly. You couldn't blame them for doing it though, considering the obvious shit storm that is on the horizon. The cherry pickers are all loving it too, you can see it already!

 

[dee]

Surely this boils down to the fact that at the moment (even in two years time) they take a fee for a domain that the customer has not unequivocally requested to bought for them, then thats theft surely. Even if they send 400 emails telling the customer they are about to do so.

It's taking money from someone without their permission. They may as well be ordering from amazon and getting stuff delivered elsewhere as far as i can see.

 

[simondooner]

Having looked at this in a little more detail it would appear that my .UK domain right of registration has been exercised by a company called Identity Protect Limited. This is not me, I do not know this company, nor do I have any contractual relationship with them. Legally It would appear that I am no longer the registrant of these .uk domains.

My right of registration has been taken from me and exercised without my express permission, against my wishes, by a company I have no contractual relationship with.

This isn’t the Wild West. How is this allowed to happen?

 

[ian]

This isn’t the Wild West. How is this allowed to happen?

Well according to invincible 123Reg may have terms in place that you've signed to say they can exercise your right of registration and in turn, use their identity protect service. All stinks to be honest, doubt Nominet would do anything about it, even if a breach of terms, and glad I don't use 123Reg.

 

[simondooner]

Thanks.

123Reg are the current registrar for the few .co.uk names I have registered there, but I have no contractual relationship whatsoever with this company called Identity Protect Limited.

Does this mean that registrars are legally allowed to pass on rights of registration to anyone/ any company they want without my permission?