Obviously I can't speak for Tucows but as I recall the ICANN agreement for Registrars requires that a domain registration contract exist between the Registrar and the Registrant. There seem to be many Registrars who either skirt or plain ignore this requirement but who's to know if ICANN decides to actually enforce their rules one of these days. In this case it seems that Tucows is safer than any other Registrar as it concerns adhering to ICANN requirements (ie; they're not in jeopardy of losing their accreditation).
With the above requirement (assuming it still exists) Tucows may view domain owners as our customers but they likely cannot allow a reseller to cause a domain to be blocked for transfer or various other Registrar/Registrant transactions. Exceptions being [at least] domains going on hold for non-payment and reseller-to-reseller transfers. I don't know what the policies are for the other services (certs, managed DNS, mail, Blogware, etc.) but for domains it seems Tucows has its hands tied to a certain degree. FWIW, -tom Doug Friend wrote: > What I would like to hear from Tucows is that the client is the > reseller's client, and they would not release a domain without clear > involvement of the reseller. The registrant _should_never_ in my view > be able to bypass the reseller if the reseller is in good standing. > > Thanks, > > Doug. > > -- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Register4Less.com > > > Quoting Ross Rader <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > >> dotregister wrote: >>> Hello! >>> >>> I wanted to discuss an issue regarding ICANN regulations on domain >>> transfers and how TUCOWS as compared to other registry’s deals with >>> this issue. >>> >>> We had an incident recently where a client who owed us for hosting >>> services managed to completely bypass us (the reseller) and go to >>> TUCOWS compliance and get the domain unlocked and transferred away. >>> We obviously will now never see the money owed to us. >>> >>> I mention this because I did contact TUCOWS about this and the >>> compliance dept. told me that TUCOWS does not allow the reseller to >>> stop any domain transfer just because the registrant owes the >>> reseller monies. They said this was compliant with ICANN policies >>> regarding this issue. >>> >>> In this past week we were trying to help a client gain >>> administrative control over a domain that was registered through a >>> reseller of ENOM.COM. The reseller refused to give the registrant >>> access to the domain until an outstanding invoice was paid. We went >>> to ENOM about this issue and they said it was "up to the reseller >>> to decide how ever they wanted to do it." The reseller then told >>> the registrant (our hosting client) that the cost to change the >>> domain admin email address would be $200 USD! We again went to >>> ENOM.COM about this and a totally different individual told us "The >>> reseller can charge pretty much what they want." >>> >>> Now...We were told that we could not hold or disallow >>> admin/transfer access to domains for unpaid invoices by TUCOWS >>> compliance. (I was told explicitly that this was the "legal" ICANN >>> regulation). >>> >>> If this is true, then how come ENOM doesn't follow that rule? Is it >>> just the TUCOWS interpretation of that regulation? >>> >>> I am very interested to know what the truth is in this issue. I >>> spoke to the reseller for ENOM and they told me they had run all >>> this past their legal team (holding domains for unpaid invoices) >>> and it was perfectly legal. >>> >>> >>> I am not looking to take advantage of any registrant, I am just >>> very curious as to why the policies are so different, and each >>> registry claims to be right. >> The rules are quite clear. Unfortunatley, ICANN and Verisign's >> compliance programs (as well as the other registries) basically give >> registrars a free hand to do whatever they wish. For some reason, we >> feel compelled to actually follow the rules. This means that you >> shouldn't expect to get fair treatment in the marketplace (i.e. decent >> registration rates in the landrush, fair dealing when your customers >> want to transfer in or out, and so on..) >> >> FWIW, the rule is: >> >> Instances when the requested change of Registrar may not be denied >> include, but are not limited to: >> >> ..snip... >> >> General payment defaults between Registrar and business partners / >> affiliates in cases where the Registered Name Holder for the domain in >> question has paid for the registration. >> >> ...which is worth about as much as the bits it took to write this. >> -- >> >> -rr >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> "Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. >> All life is an experiment. >> The more experiments you make the better." >> - Ralph Waldo Emerson >> >> >> Contact Info: >> Ross Rader >> Director, Research & Innovation >> Tucows Inc. >> c. 416.828.8783 >> >> Get Started? http://start.tucows.com >> My Blogware: http://www.byte.org >> _______________________________________________ >> domains-gen mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://discuss.tucows.com/mailman/listinfo/domains-gen >> > > > _______________________________________________ > domains-gen mailing list > [email protected] > http://discuss.tucows.com/mailman/listinfo/domains-gen _______________________________________________ domains-gen mailing list [email protected] http://discuss.tucows.com/mailman/listinfo/domains-gen
