Questionable Practices from Network Solutions

Pledge
People (5)

5 Pledges

Start Date:
1-11-2008
Last Pledge:
8-4-2008

Issue:

Something interesting was discovered today... When you go to www.networksolutions.com and check to see if a domain is in use or not, then go to whomever your preferred domain registrar is, the domain is already taken. It is taken by... wait for it.... Network Solutions! So you search for it then they squat on it. When I was testing it, it took less than 30 seconds for them to register it to themselves. Of course my onery button had been hit by that point and I started wondering if it was a fluke. I tested domain name after domain name finding that anything that I found as available on networksolutions.com, was taken by them when I looked from another source. To me this seems like a practice that is more than likely legal, but is scuzzy... very slimey.

Belief:

I belive that just because you look up a domain name from a location, it does not give that registrar the right to squat on it, so that you can only get it from them.

Randy H.

Submitted on 3-14-2008

http://prnewswire.com/cgi -bin/stories.pl...

they ended up filing suit. no info on how to join the the action. I suspect that one would need to contact the law firm that has filed to see if you can join the class.

Wesley S.

Submitted on 3-4-2008

So essentially what Network Solutions is doing is to plagarize a name that a person invented themselves and when someone checks the name with Network Solutions and Network Solutions finds out that domain name is in fact a unique name, Network Solutions registers the domain name as if Network Solutions invented it themselves? That doesn't seem very ethical. I'm not sure if this is legal or if this would work, I don't know much about domain names. But maybe one thing you can try is to have a lawyer copyright the name before you check Network Solutions. If it turns out that someone else other than Network Solutions has already copyrighted it, then you know your copyright is invalid and try again. But if your lawyer copyrights the name, then the copyright document it has a legal date that is recognized by the courts, should it ever go to court. Afterwards if Network Solutions registers it, your lawyer or perhaps even yourself can send Network Solutions a letter telling them that you have already copyrighted the name and tell them to unregister it. There is a poorman's way to copyright something without going through a lawyer that is recognized as you being the valid owner of the copyright by the courts, should it ever go to courts, but I'm not sure how that works. Anyway, I agree that is scuzzy.

Alex L.

Submitted on 1-14-2008

I started a petition as well!

http://www.petition online.com/asdf1sa1/p...