Domain Ownership

[mike]

Hey gang.

 

I have a question and hope this is the right place.

 

A friend called me and they have a riding club. Lets call it " ride.com "

 

The lady they had do their website got the domain for them in her name and built them a small club site.

She then got mad and took the site down and won't sell them the domain name.

 

Is there any reason they can't just buy " ride.org" and build themselves a new website?

 

I thought that would be fine but would like some input.

 

thanks in advance.

[abinidi]

If they are willing to change their domain extension or domain name, they can do whatever they want. They just have to beat the first lady to the domain registrations--if she is mad enough, and if she gets wind that this is what they are going to do, she may go register the domain with all the different extensions. So if that is what you plan to do, I'd act fast.

 

But since she owns the domain, there isn't much you can do about the original name. Sorry! Good luck.

[cajunman4life]

Since it's a club, the ".org" domain may be more fitting anyways. Tell them to go ahead with the purchase of the .org (as long as they don't mind doing so).

[mike]

That's what I thought , too.

 

Thanks folks.

 

[thehemi]

I know she's the legal registrant, but I wonder if there's

any legal recourse in cases like this due to the way that

the web developer came into the domain? It's not like a

domain name at random that someone wants, it was her

job to register a domain and build a domain for the site.

She sounds negligent, but not sure if it holds up in court.

[Deverill]

Without prior contractual agreement then it falls under "Caveat emptor" or "let the buyer beware". It is underhanded if she won't give up the domain name in good faith, but there is nothing illegal about it. The onus is on the buyer to make sure that they are indeed buying everything needed/desired.

 

My workplace hired some programming out without consulting my, the IT, department and ended up with a $15,000 piece of software that barely works and when they came to us and we said "Ok, we can fix it, where's the source code?" we heard the crickets chirping. At that point we were like "Step away from the program" - we can't fix it without the sources. They blew the money and unfortunately, Mike's friend may have lost the domain name desired.

[jslagle]

One thing you can do is to go to TCH's domain page, then domain names, then backorder domains. Purchase the domain name backorder for that name. If the domain becomes free there is a good chance you will be able to get it assuming there aren't other folks who backordered it too

 

When it comes up for renewal next year there is good chance she won't spend the money to renew it.

 

I've recovered a couple of names this way. I also missed out on a couple because someone else had done the same as I.