Majordomo won the domains from the insidious GoDaddy

In the middle of last month, the American domain registrar GoDaddy blocked 1399 client domains of the Russian hosting provider Majordomo without prior notice. The motivation of GoDaddy.com, explaining these radical measures, in Majordomo was regarded not only as inadequate, but as “false”.

According to GoDaddy.com, the reason for blocking 1399 Majordomo client domains located in .com, .net, .org zones was a complaint from Spamhouse.org about sending spam from the viptimeclub.ru domain. However, the company says this site is not maintained at Majordomo. The same story with another complaint Spamhouse.org - it concerns the domain of the client of Peterhost, that is, to Majordomo in general does not apply. It is important to mention that all attempts of Majordomo employees to clarify the situation at GoDaddy.com met an answer, the essence of which is to pay, and we will resume the work of your domains. It was offered to pay $ 199 for the restoration of each of the domains, and $ 50 for the transfer to another registrar.

As a result, after a 3-day conflict, the situation was resolved by a compromise, and the blocking of all domains was canceled. Majordomo insisted on paying only $ 199 for blocking, which satisfied the American side. “Such a move by Majordomo does not mean that GoDaddy.com’s actions are right, but by choosing between a lengthy litigation with a US resident company and the performance of our clients’ sites, Majordomo definitely chooses its clients, ”the company said . “At the moment we are looking for another registrar, from whom one cannot expect such unpleasant surprises.”
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In RuNet, this incident was met with indignation. Separate opinions appeared according to which Majordomo was partly to blame for what happened, because the “repressed” domains were registered to the provider, and not to the users. But on the whole, GoDaddy.com was, of course, criticized.

In particular, the specialists of the company Ru-Center called the situation "out of the ordinary . " “The fight against spam is not the responsibility of the registrar for an accreditation agreement with ICANN,” says Marina Kokoreva, who leads the registration of public domain names at Ru-Center . - Disabling or deleting a domain before the expiration of the registration term at the request of the registrar is possible only if the wrong contact information for the administrator is indicated when registering the domain. In this case, the registrar must notify the domain administrator within 15 days of the intended actions. In other cases, a court decision is necessary to disable or block a domain. ”

Alexey Lesnikov, director of Ru-Center , suggested that domain locking by the GoDaddy.com registrar and the subsequent offer to pay for their unblocking are part of the financial mechanisms of GoDaddy.com, which seeks to receive money not from the registration of domains, but from possible customer errors. According to him, for some companies, the registration price is extremely low, but at the same time, the registrar receives income from very different sources.

“For example, a registrar enters into a contract with a client such provisions where a non-renewed domain is not removed from the registry, but is placed at the registrar's disposal, and the registrar either sells it at auction or returns it to the former owner for a substantial amount,” explains Alexey Lesnikov.

Ru-Center summarizes: GoDaddy.com is a company that conducts business for a lower price, while having additional mechanisms for making a profit. Profit is derived not so much from the initial registration of domains, as from subsequent manipulations with them, about which the domain administrator is most likely not aware.

Marina Kokoreva advised the affected owners of domains to complain about GoDaddy to the ICANN organization, which is responsible for accrediting registrars in public domains.