Tim,
You'll have to ask a lawyer, but I'll bet that since there's not much law on
the subject, whether it's legal or not is debatable -- and NSI has more
lawyers than you!
It certainly is fiendish, though.
Antony
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pab@gtld-mou.org [mailto:owner-pab@gtld-mou.org]On Behalf Of
> Tim Evans
> Sent: Friday, February 05, 1999 4:25 AM
> To: POC Submit; PAB Closed; CORE
> Subject: PAB WorldNIC & InterNIC
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I have been off this list for a while, but I have recently found
> something you
> may all find interesting. It is regarding NSI's domain name registration
> services via their WorldNIC (worldnic.com).
>
> It appears that currently all users registering domain names via WorldNIC
> services, are Locked into payments to this register, WorldNIC.
> ALL subsequent
> invoices are sent to the user from WorldNIC, and at their higher
> "Value-added"
> price. This will be invoiced from WorldNIC, even if the user has
> changed all the
> contact info and has moved their entire domain to another provider.
>
> Actually changes to the NIC dB can also only be made in through
> WorldNIC web
> site. When we sent a Modify Template to NIC we got an automated
> reply referring
> us to worldnic.com.
>
> If this is the sign of things to come, it is not looking good.
>
> This line of questioning I first sent to the Domain-Policy list because I
> couldn't believe that this would be legal. Besides causing some
> stir there, I
> also received mail from Chuck Gomes, VP at NSI. Saying this was
> true, but "it is
> not currently possible to move from WorldNIC-JP to the InterNIC. This
> limitation should be removed sometime in the future but I do not
> have a target
> date at this time."
>
> This little fact is also not mentioned in their web-site, which
> appears to be
> aimed at new web users. The same type people who wouldn't know
> they are locked
> into a higher renewal fee when the 1st 2 years are over, even if
> they thought
> they changed providers.
>
> In the last 3 weeks we have had 3 inquires about moving their
> domain to our
> service. Which is why I first began looking into this. As part of our Net
> services in Japan we handle all aspects of the user's Admin,
> Tech, Zone and
> Billing Contacts. We also handle the registration and actual
> payments to NIC for
> them at no additional charge. All three say that they were not
> aware of this
> billing policy.
>
> Does anyone know if this is Legal? WorldNIC being the only
> InterNIC registration
> service which can Lock the billing and Modify into themselves.
> (Well, at least
> until they "plan" to remove this limitation.)
>
> I would appreciate any comments on this subject.
>
> Sincerely,
> Tim Evans
> Admiral Systems
> tim@admiral.ad.jp
>
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Jan 30 2000 - 03:22:38 PST