Didn't Renew Customer's Domain. After Expiration Site Duplicated by Stranger.

How should I proceed to recover the domain?

[mistafeesh]

Right, I had a customer who kind of went AWOL for a short amount of time. He changed his phone number and email address and I couldn't contact him. As far as I knew his business had gone down. Actually he'd just had to take a step back from it to deal with his very ill son.

He now wants to restart his business but while he was out of contact his domain expired and I didn't renew it. It seems to be being squatted, as the site has a copy of the content of his site on it, with the contact details removed. I can see the name and address of the registrant on the whois, but before I contact him, can anyone advise me on how to proceed?

Many thanks,

Dan

[not2easy]

There is a time frame to reclaiming a domain, so without that calendar information, I could not address your question. Was this last week or 2 months ago?

[Webwork]

I'd start with screenshots of the "new" . . cough, cough . . site. The screenshots will support a violation of copyright claim, "trading off" claim, etc - which may be where you are headed if hardball is played.

You can appeal to reason or "heart" by offering the new registrant a bit of history (sick mom, unintentional non-renewal, etc.). I'd do that both in writing (regular and certified mail) FIRST and THEN follow with an email. HOWEVER, given the conduct of the new registrant copying the website I'd assume you are dealing with someone who sees things from an "it's okay if it's okay with me" perspective.

I think a formal written letter is much more indicative of a higher level of intention to recover the domain.

IF you want to up the level of messaging "intent to recover" you might consider having the client's lawyer or your lawyer draft and forward the letter. Better yet get a lawyer in the new registrant's home town or county to send the letter. There's something about the "vandals at the gates" that gains attention and spurs action whereas a more remote threat of action is less compelling. The countervailing argument to this idea is that "lawyering up" might suggest a greater willingness to pay to reacquire the domain. To counter that idea I would go with the "local to registrant lawyer" so the immediacy and likelihood of negative consequences (vandals/legal SOB at the gate) constrains such thinking.

IFF I REALLY wanted to go with the "shock and awe" approach to relinquishment I'd have the local lawyer just go ahead and sue the SOB for copyright infringement, trading off, etc - making "first notice" the bringing of an affirmative claim. Some folks only understand "getting sued", 'cause that means reaching into THEIR pocket to hire a lawyer (instead of profiting off your misfortune).

You can also, if things don't work out right away, issue a DMCA for the copyright issue AND ask anyone who backlinked to the site to pull down their links pending a return of the domain. Kill the traffic and you kill the profit.

CAVEAT: The above is NOT legal advice which can only given by counsel familiar with all the facts.

P.S. Are you CERTAIN the WhoIs record is accurate / true. Miscreants tend to fake such details . . which may be another basis to recover the domain by cancelling the registration.

Any other advice folks?

[mistafeesh]

Thanks for your replies. It was quite some time ago. Certainly not within the last 2 months. At first I thought he'd got someone else to redo the site and they'd done a terrible job! Good ideas with screenshots etc. Neither I nor my customer have much in the way of cash, so I think I'll start with a polite formal letter. I already tried an email to info@thedomain but didnt get a reply. There's an individual's name registered and a UK address, so I'll start with that and hope for the best. If he's asking money for it then I'll 'lawyer up'!

Thanks!

[not2easy]

I would request that they remove your client's content, but if they want money to return the domain, they are within their rights. Unfortunately the domain opportunist is not violating any laws to charge ransom to redeem a domain that was expired due to non-renewal after so long a time. That is the only reason they "invested" in owning it.

If they see you're not about to pony up they may let it expire at the end of their term or may hold it in case someone else is interested - that depends on the value inherent in the domain name. You may have additional rights if the domain name is the same as a registered business, but that can be a deep pockets case, depending on location.

This happened to a friend of mine who accidentally lost a domain that way, and on a whim I checked and found it had been dropped by the "investor" and got it back for him just in time for a Christmas gift.

[incrediBILL]

the site has a copy of the content of his site on it

That's easy to take down, DMCA all the way as I've nuked sites for much less.

Proof is in the Internet Archive, go check the Wayback machine to prove the theft and if you're lucky and it hasn't been too long, old search engine cache pages if they still exist.

If they're in a land with comparable copyright laws, I'd hire a lawyer and simply file a copyright suit against him. If you actually copyrighted your content, the major mistake everyone makes by failing to file a copyright, then you can get statutory damages in the US per the DCMA and clean him out, crush him, reduce him to living in a cardboard box.

However, amusing thoughts aside, I'd proceed as follows which has worked every time:

- File a DMCA to the new domain holder with proof and also to Google, Bing, etc.

- File a DMCA with his hosting company which, if in the US, is required to remove the site to comply with safe harbor provisions.

- Send a legal C&D (cease and desist) letter giving a timeline to comply or face further actions. As part of the C&D demand taking down the site and return of the domain with 15 days to comply.

- Meanwhile, since the site went south and the owner lost everything, you should consider a new domain name and starting over as you're losing money waiting on the return of the old domain, which could be NEVER. Just make sure the DMCA's go out to eliminate duplicate content, otherwise you need to start rewriting everything to boot.

Good luck!

[buckworks]

AND ask anyone who backlinked to the site to pull down their links pending a return of the domain. Kill the traffic and you kill the profit.

Don't jump the gun here, because if you get links taken down, it's unlikely that you'd get them all back later. I would say to wait until you know the domain is irreversibly lost before you start asking webmasters to remove links.

Much better than a link removal request would be a link update request if it becomes necessary to start over on a new domain. You'll get better cooperation from other webmasters if you're asking them to do one thing ... update an existing link ... rather than two things ... take the link down then replace it sometime later.

Try hard to conserve the business's existing link equity.