[NTLUG:Discuss] Strange Godaddy Email

[Eric Schnoebelen]

Chuck writes:
- I have a website on my Linux box at home, and I got the domain
- name from Godaddy.com.  The following email just came.  It seems
- very odd, and I can't find any cooroberation.  Has anyone heard
- of this, or is this some kind of phishing thing?

	This is true.. ICANN has modified the transfer policies
to make it harder for less than ethical registrars to "hijack"
domains. (namely, do everything in their power to make sure the
transfer _doesn't_ go through.)

	There should be an announcement of this on the ICANN web
site.. It was approved by the ICANN board over two months ago,
and the registrars have been modifying their systems to support
this change in the policy.

	All this change is doing is codifying the original
change procedures, and making some registrars practices
explicity "illegal". 


- With this change in mind, we are recommending that all Go Daddy
- domain customers visit GoDaddy.com and "lock" their domain name(s).
- Locking your domain(s) is free and prevents unauthorized changes
- to contacts and name servers. Most importantly, it prevents the
- domain name from being transferred to another registrar without
- your knowledge. You may lock or unlock your domain at any time.

	Locking your domain is always a good thing to do.  But,
it also makes some tasks harder.  For example, TLD's operated by
at least one TLD operator cannot be renewed when in the locked
state (.ORG and .INFO fall into this category.)

	Other gotcha's include not being able to update name
servers when the domain is locked. (minor compared to the above,
but something to consider.)

- The ICANN site that it references has their policy on it, but it
- does not seem to say what this email says it says.  Does anyone
- know what this is about?

	Note my comments about some less than ethical registrars
above, and then consider the discrepancy between what your
registrar is saying, and what ICANN is saying.. Remember, ICANN
is the final authority..

	Full disclosure notice:  I am an TuCows/OpenSRS reseller.  I
maintain a presences (usually lurking) on their mailing lists,
and try to follow up and understand all of the changes brought
on by ICANN.. I also hear all the horror stories about trying to
transfer domains away from some unethical registrars.

--
Eric Schnoebelen		eric at cirr.com		http://www.cirr.com
    "Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not
	smart enough to know they were impossible." -- Doug Larson