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Dedan.com graced the puppy stage of the World Wide Web in 1996 as an artistic expression and to showcase some local artists. In 2002, the domain name was 'stolen' through incompetence and greed by corporate registrars, et al. 

 

These are the facts (politely put):

  • In Spring 2002, Network Solutions changed some domains over to Verisign.

  • Some of those domains were missed in that changeover.

  • Some were recovered.

  • Dedan.com was not!

How did I find out?

  • In mid-May  2002 I went to retrieve some files through ftp from another computer, there was a "cannot find" error message on the domain.

  • I though it was strange and looked for it on the internet, too...GONE!

  • I queried my server and was assured that they renewed it. They had the contact name and would look into it.

  • D.C. at Network Solutions (NCI)/Verisign was the person who had renewed those domains. 

  • As it happened, he did not renew it and was nowhere to be found.

  • A second renewal request was put in immediately.

  • May 30th M. was processing it.

  • Over the next few weeks I kept looking for my domain...STILL NOT THERE!

So where was it?

  • I decided to phone NCI myself.

  • C. informed me that "during the payment process" Newcastle For Sale in Miami, FL bought it Jun 3rd and now Domain Collections.com was selling it...GAK!

  • I got on the phone to my server and asked them to look into it fast.

  • Yes, it was true...Domain Collections had it...and they wanted money for it...2400US!

  • It was time to cry!

  • And time to think of a new domain name for my art and artists...dedanart.com

  • Jul 16th I emailed Verisign customer service and asked how this happened. Their response was that they had no idea what the problem was and to "Please contact IHOLDINGS.COM, INC. D/B/A DOTREGISTRAR.COM as they are the current Registrar of this domain". 

  • Aug 4th I requested a quote for dedan.com from domaincollection.com and the current asking price was $2900US. Whoah!

How did I feel?

  • In shock, violated, and then many tears of anger and frustration because:

    • Dedan has been my nickname since a teenager. Also, a few years ago I was studying one side of my celtic ancestry and my nickname is part of the name given to an ancient people in Ireland, the Tuatha DeDanan.

    • Also, I had already been approached twice in the past to sell it,  so if anyone was going to make money on it, it would be me!

  • I even tried contacting some of those organizations that are supposed to help...nada.

What to do now?

  • I asked my server to let me know if anyone buys it...they would hear about it, too.

  • The next year it was coming up for renewal and I could pre-register it in case Domain Collections didn't renew it since they hadn't sold it.

  • They did renew it.

  • We asked them how much they would sell it back to me for. Now, they would sell it back to me for $200US.

  • I said, "NO,  why should I buy something back that was stolen from me?"

  • I had decided that if they wanted to play that game, I would play a different one. After all it was worth something to me because of the 6 years that I had put into it, it was my pride and joy, and my presence on the internet. I wanted to hex them.

How did it happen?

  • After much research, it was deduced that during the changeover by Network Solutions to Verisign, there was "selling" of domains through insider information.  

  • The reason that there was such a big price tag on dedan.com is because someone wanted it...namely me, the original owner.

  • The only way that anyone could have known that someone wanted it was through insider information.

  • Also, no one knows how it could have been bought by someone else during our payment process.

What happened next?

  • We kept checking the status and asked again what they would sell it for.

  • This time it was $100US.

  • There was a "NO" to that, too.

  • Jan/04 I asked my server to put in an offer that they thought was reasonable.

  • They suggested an offer of $25CA.

  • I laughed and asked them if that would not be insulting to those people :}

  • The offer went in to Domain Collection.

  • They informed us that "The minimum price for this domain including 2 years registration is $99 US".

  • I agreed that this was reasonable, but I wanted to know who would it be registered with and could they be trusted?

  • It would seem that there wouldn't be a problem with that part of it and I could always transfer it out after 60 days.

Done!

 

 

 

What did I learn?

  1. Always confirm your domain renewals, especially if you don't update it for a few weeks at a time or longer.

  2. You can't be objective in subjective mode. You can only be one or the other. Get through the personal emotion, but don't ignore it,  then get to the objective.

  3. No one can intimidate you unless you let them.

  4. As of Nov 2004 my server can prevent unauthorized domain name transfers by locking them
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