Moniker assures its clients that their domain names are safe.
In case there were any doubts (and I heard some), Moniker customers can rest assured that the company is fighting to keep your domains from ill-advised state governors.
Speaking specifically about the situation with the Kentucky governor, Moniker founder and president Monte Cahn released the following statement to Domain Name Wire today:
Moniker strives to protect the rights of domainers. While it has always been and continues to be Moniker’s policy to cooperate with law enforcement officials and investigations and to comply with orders of courts of competent jurisdiction, it must do so only after careful review of the relevant facts. In this instance, it does not appear that the Kentucky Court has jurisdiction over Moniker or the domain names for which it acts as registrar so as to require Moniker to comply with the terms of the Court’s Order. As such, Moniker has not handed over the domains and will protect the rights of the owners of the domains subject to the order of the Kentucky court by not handing over such names unless and until the matter has been resolved by the Kentucky court or there is an order of a court of competent jurisdiction ordering Moniker to do so.
Moniker has been known for bending over backwards to protect its customers’ domains, so its stance on the current issue doesn’t come as a surprise.
If you’re keeping score at home, your domains are safe with Moniker and Network Solutions. They aren’t safe with Enom.
jp says
Thank You Moniker (& Monte). I wouldn’t think of registering a name anywhere else.
Rob Sequin says
Never forgot this one either
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/04bar.html?bl
“Either way, there is no dispute that eNom shut down Mr. Marshall’s sites without notifying him and has refused to release the domain names to him. In effect, Mr. Marshall said, eNom has taken his property and interfered with his business.”
M. Menius says
@Andrew = “If you’re keeping score at home”
Indeed we are. There are more poor quality, dishonest registrars than there are good quality ones. The tally is continually kept of pluses and minuses.
Jeff Schneider says
We are all very thankful for your reassuring statement above. We all along thought that Monte and Moniker consider cyber-Jacking as the last thing to happen on their turf. In these uncertain times we all needed an assurance and now we have that.
The lawlessness in our governments Executive branch is unnerving. Hopefully our next president will not sign a statement that says the executive branch is immune to governmental law, as Bush has done on every law he has signed since he has been in office. We need honest people that abide by the laws instead of Weasels that ignore them.
Stephen Douglas says
I buy and transfer domains with Moniker. They fight for domainers, and that’s evident. Even better, it’s an easy stroll to place my Moniker domains on Snapnames Private Auctions, or the world famous Moniker Auctions.
However, the key is in what Jeff said in his post — executive powers over legislative powers, thanks to Bush and his fascist (really, not an overstatement) attempts at US govt control.) Think of it this way… If a governor has the power to stop the execution of a prisoner, and we’re talking a HUMAN LIFE, then the probably feel pretty comfortable in nabbing domains they don’t like.
Enom buckling under pressure shows me that they’re not concerned with domainers interests. Hell, just knowing they never implemented my design of Bulkregister’s ability to do a global nameserver change shows me they’re not concerned. (It must be fascinating to Enom’s marketing crew, if they’re paying attention, on how I’ve transferred over 2000 domains away from them in the last year or so to Moniker and Fabulous. Gee! I wonder why?)
Because Enom loves resellers, not domainers, although many domainers may be resellers, the root concern is domainer rights.