[LA.pm] Need some advice

[Peter Benjamin]

I got to thinking, I've gotten one ISP who sells you domain names,
and registers them in his firm's name, to change the DNS to point to my
web hosting DNS server IPs, then changed the contact info so renewal
notices go to the web site owner, and then worked him to change the
name of the registrar to the rightful owner.  It was a six month
event, long and drawn out.  The owner even knew the CEO's brother.

Point is, as the person is a name banker, they know they will lose
the name if it goes to court, and they are used to saber rattling.
Yet, one might try several avenues first.

Talking with him.  Until they give in.  Ask for something they say no,
and then ask for what you really wanted, a small change, like contact
info, and go down the slippery slope from there.  It's slow.

What I've seen get settled on his normal web hosting monthly fee,
with set up waived, unlimited bandwidth (or 300 gig/month), unlimited
disk storage, 50 email accounts (though I would not trust him and would
have the MX records point elsewhere - Google?).  

He wants money, either some upfront, or monthly fee.  What he does not 
know is, once for several years you have established content, authored
by you, not him, that you can then yank the domain name away from him.
I've seen this court many times.  It hardly ever gets in front of a
judge, being settled out of court, after the guy realizes he's going
to be paying lawyers fees way in excess of any purchase price.

That reminds me of another way... what state is his business in?
What state does he live in?  And what states are you able to file
court case in?  Make him travel to get to court.  He cave before
the first trial date.  Likely the day before.  Just because he
does not want to pay the air fare, or book a lawyer to appear
for him, away from his home.  This works.

The guy is likely breaking the TOS and AUP of his upstream
supplier.  Writing up a legal complaint and sending it to the
upstream that violations of TOS/AUP are occurring, quoting the
sentences involved, including choice quotes from emails the
guy has sent, and copies of paychecks to him, for services
rendered, showing ownership of the domain name is YOURS,
not his, thus the terms of the TOS/AUP are clearly violated,
will result in the upstream ISP launching an investigation,
meaning the VP phones the guy, confirms details, tells him what
must now happen, in what time frame, otherwise, the guy will
suffer penalties spelled out in the TOS/AUP, like all balance
of funds paid are lost with all services truncated, and the
credit card number and his name and his firm's blacklisted.

Resulting in loss of revenue while the guy transfers everything
to a new upstream, to a new registrar, several days down time,
worth hundreds of dollars in lost revenue, plus a huge effort
over a week's time, and the lost of that time in money...

equals the size of the payment you might buy the name from
him for

means a bean counter will turn over the name rather than
suffer the upstream penalties for violations of the TOS/AUP.

Does this work?  Yes, I've done it.  Do not email me child porn.
I seem to get quite upset and research all one's domain names
and have them all canceled, along with email accounts and
web host assets, etc.  Do not violation copyright and host
material from people I know.

Oh, that last one, if at the domain name is copyright infringement 
material, or violations of the GLP, or whatever, that is, he is
making money, then the upstream ISP investigation will reveal
and confirm this, and the site comes down, and he loses the
domain name - if you can get the registrar involved, to give
it to you, with a court order.  I've seen that happen.

Let me know what route you take, as I collect methods.

-P