About 3 years ago I registered a couple of .net domain names with a company. I believe they cost me about $75 each and I did nothing with them, thinking that if anyone wanted them in the future they’d contact me and I could sell them. Then I just forgot about them.
I was with another company at the time and no longer have the computer or email address I gave the register, I don’t even remember the registering company’s name.
I just checked the two sites since I received some spam saying they could add my website to their free search engine listings. Both my old sites are now up and running as somebody else’s fully operational sites.
In other words, it looks like someone has taken them over.
WTF? Any suggestions on how to find out who I’d registered them with or if I have any legal recourse.
I’m a little embarassed I didn’t keep better track of the particulars but the whole thing was just on a whim. Still, I’d like to know if there’s anything I can do.
Domains expire, and you have to renew them. Generally people pay for them for a year, which I’m assuming you did. If so, they expired around two years ago, at which point they became available for anyone else to buy. You probably have no legal recourse, unless you originally reserved the names for longer than three years, which seems unlikely in light of the amount you paid.
MsWhatsit is right on. Three years ago, Network Solutions (NSI) was the sole registar for the NET TLD. The going rate was $35/year with a two-year payment on initial registration. That means you’d have paid $70 for two years. When the two years is up, NSI puts domains on hold for a grace period (meaning they yank them from the root servers to get your attention, but they don’t release them for re-reg). After a bit, they’re available to be registered by anyone.