> While it may seem that nobody would ever intentionally renew a domain name > they don't own, I can think of scenarios in which it might happen. Let's > say a domain name owner disappears from the face of the earth, and their > hosting accounts and domain name registrations go unpaid. Let's say the > hosting service knows the domain name gets a lot of traffic, so instead of > completely deactivating the domain, they point it to a site that makes money > for them (this is starting to sound like sitefinder).
How is this any diffferent than someone buying the domain after it has expired and pointing it at an pr0n site or similar? The only people in a position to redirect the traffic will be those that have either been entrusted with the domain's login, or those able to redirect the owner's email. But those people are always in a position to hijack the domain. > Let's say the money > they make from the domain name is considerable. They have a motive for not > wanting the domain name to expire, even though it isn't theirs. They may > decide to renew it to keep the cash flow coming in, rather than letting it > expire to be grabbed by someone else. If WLS ever happens, I can easily > imagine someone unable to get a WLS slot renewing a domain name just to keep > it away from the slot holder. So Acme Web Hosting renews customer Smith's domain name to keep it alive and prevent Smith's expensive web site from going down. That's probably happened 1000's of times, much to the relief of the Smiths of the world. If Smith has indeed disappeared from the face of the earth, then the hosting company has made a decision to continue, at their own expense, both Smith's ownership of the domain and his expensive hosting account. Which may turn out to be a very bad decision if nobody is willing to pay for either. > Look at it from the opposite angle, what is the value in allowing someone to > continue to own a domain name if they don't know the username and password? I fail to renew my domain for any number of reasons. (Most likely my email address has changed). The sixteen year old kid that does my web site development sees that the domain is about to expire and he takes $15 from his piggy bank to renew the domain. Probably only happened about a million times. > Isn't it just a crisis waiting to happen? Eventually they will need to > change name servers or contact information. Think of the annual renewal > process as an exercise that keeps their login skills honed! > > Also, if the admin contact email address is valid, getting the login > information is quick and painless. If it is invalid, then the domain name > registration is technically in default anyway. Should we allow domain names > with invalid contact information to be renewed? No. You should tell the customer he's screwed because his email address is wrong. Sheesh.
