Netsol being sued for front-running domain names

[Jason]

Another reason I've grown to dislike Network Solutions over the years (in addition to their pricing).  They're being sued for "front-running" now. 

Front-running means that when you do a query on their site to check for whether a domain is available, they would "allegedly" either provide that data to third parties or register those domains so that you had to pay their higher pricing to actually get the domain.  I say "allegedly" until they're proven guilty.

http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/022608_Network_Solutions_ICANN_Sued.Cfm

[Mark]

If you visit the NS website, on the front page you get a link that says "New Protection Measures" which leads to an article where they admit to doing this but for the customers benefit.

http://about-networksolutions.com/customer-protection-measure.php

Quite shady if you ask me!

[Jason]

Definitely a horrible business tactic if you have any kind of ethics. 

I came across this on multiple sites today in fact -- EasyDNS has an prominent link (top of their homepage now) on how they guarantee they *don't* do this:

http://www.easydns.com/guaranteed_no_frontrunning_policy.php

[texasflats]

It's like insider trading, and it should be a crime.


Found an interesting article and discussion regarding this:

http://www.circleid.com/posts/81082_network_solutions_front_running/

http://www.domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=&threadid=85864

[texasflats]

Again, I don't support it at all, it should be a crime.

BUT, I find it outrageously hilarious that the people most upset, and vocal about the whole thing are..... cyber squatters 

Some of the tactics they use are unethical at the very least, and it's killing them that someone has an advantage.

[Knu]

Well, I see it like this. You go to their site and look for available domain names with a view to them acting as your agent (they will purchase the domain on your behalf). If they then purchase the domain upon the information you supplied, but for their own business advantage, then it is a fraud. They cannot be both your agent and a competitor. An agent must always act on your behalf and in your best interests. I don't know if there is specific law to cover 'agents', but I imagine that it would breach some kind of law.

I read about this a few months ago - I'm glad to see that something is happening about it. I've long suspected that some domain agents operated like this.

Here's a tool that means you never have to trust the likes of Network Solutions: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897435.aspx

I believe there are other tools out there; maybe some for non-PCs.

As for the squatters; surely this is something that the search engines could something about. If they acted upon a complaint, they would be ridding their indexes of useless entries. They act upon complaints of copyright infringement, so they already make unautomated decisions about what to include in their index.