I Just Got Done Talking To Chris From Moniker: I Am Moving All Of My Domains To Them
 

I just got off of the phone with Chris from Moniker. I have decided to move all of my domains, from various registrars, over to them.

Full Disclosure: I know no one from Moniker, from DirectNic, or from any other registrar for that matter. Up until today I've never registered a domain at Moniker. This is a business decision on my part based on the actions and policies of the registrars as I understand them to be.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd see the day where a REGISTRAR would take unilateral action against a site in this way, and honestly haven't paid much attention to where my domains were registered up until now.

Chris has assured me that under NO circumstances would Moniker, or has Moniker, ever shut a site down due to the content it contains. He said their job is simply to maintain the registration of domains, and that they have no legal liability for the content appearing on them, and will assume no liability for it either.

DirectNic has a policy in place as I understand it, to shut down domains that contain, what they deem, to be "illegal content", and has demonstrated these past couple of days, that they act upon that policy.

Moniker's policy as stated to me is that if a complaint comes in, they forward it to the domain owner, and that's the end of their responsibility, and that's the only action that they take, unless they are served a court order compelling them to do otherwise.

I'm not saying that the folks at DirectNic are bad people, and by many of the comments I've read on here, they actually seem to be really good people. But their company has a policy in place that I don't agree with, and that I personally feel is against the best interests of not only the adult industry, but of the entire foundation of the internet as a whole.

As such, I'll have nothing to do with them.

I do not, under any stretch of the imagination, condone CP, or running a site that contains any illegal content. What I do condone, however, is due process.

and the boycott begins

Gotta do what ya gotta do.

Anyone else besides Moniker stepping up to the plate on those terms?

Cool. Now all the CP folks know where to register their domains. :Oh crap

Does Moniker allow domains to be spammed?

Serious question here.

Chris and Moniker ROCK, i have all my domains with them.

We can all sleep so much better now that you have annouced that. I nominate you as the poster who contributes the most to this board and to the industry. You are so active in all on the drama that goes on here. Cheers.

Now I know where to register all my fake Ebay phishing domains and my spam domains... I never knew it would be so easy! Thanks Chris!

that's a stupid remark.

That's IF someone reports it to the FBI and not to Moniker. If someone reports CP that's on a Moniker domain to Moniker, they have stated "...they have no legal liability for the content appearing on them, and will assume no liability for it either." which seems to me, includes reporting said domains to the appropriate authorities.

haha, good one :)

Boyalley seems ok but does do the drama....

and why would someone complain to the domain registrar and not the hosting company or proper law enforcement authorities?

you don't think anyone sophisticated enough to know what a registrar is and how to associate one with a given domain is also sophisticated enough to know you call the cops and not the registrar?

that's an old line

No, it's okay, I think you teh market for ridicilous talking points all covered.

WTF?


Idiotic statement, and I'm suprised at you.

Nice, the smart investors will short DirectNIC's stock on this news.

Dig, I have honestly stopped trying to estimate what idiots will and will not do. Take a look at Slick. His FIRST response after his sites being cut off was to post on GFY. Personally, I would have been on the phone non-stop until I found an attorney and got them talking to DirectNic's attorney. Period.

So do I think someone's dumb enough to report a CP domain to a registrar and no one else? You betcha.

I laugh at the part "mike's cheerleaders" - if you had been around our industry for many years online you would know that alot of the ppl saying directnic is ok, mike is cool, let's wait for the outcome / the whole story are some of the same ppl who have pissed and battled with Mike over many years in a wide range of topics.....

Hey! I resemble that remark!

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

That's the gist of what directNIC CEO Sigmund Solares had to tell me after his company was singled out by F-Secure chief research officer Mikko Hypponen as a prime example of domain name registrars not doing enough to deny registrations to blatant phishers.

:1orglaugh

http://www.networkworld.com/community/?q=node/9573

RawAlex, how much are you paid for your coverage .... ????

Do those supporting DirectNic have any relationship to the owner? As in met them, talk to them, work for them, or had them buy them a beer at a show? I just couldn't fathom how anyone would be happy about registrars playing police. I highly doubt these people defending DirectNic would be doing so if the company was GoDaddy.

Just because Moniker has such an active presence here and an enormous herd of "followers", you're all choosing for them. Why not look a bit further? I've never seen anything that offers the customer care and service the friendly Australian staff over at Fabulous.com do... Their prices are lowest too with $6.75/domain, but if I had only one domain I'd be willing to pay as much as $50/year just because they are so great.

Professional support answers within 10 minutes around the clock? I've got my share of domains at Moniker.com too, and they're fine but it all just doesn't compare.

Abso-fucking-lutely nothing. I haven't spoken to Mike or anyone at Directnic in probably 2 years. I do no business with them, I don't have any domains there, and I don't use their services.

I just think it is really funny that at the end of the day, how many people will stand up at the side of a guy who appears to be profiting from some very, very questionable sites.

How much is he paying you to support him?

BA -
I did the same with enom, with whom I hold many domains and they said the same thing: If I use their DN and DNS services, they have never and will not investigate my domains.
There is something that holds close to my interests, and that's internet gambling - to which they replied "if a law enforcement agency were to contact us about your domain for possible US law infringement, we are obliged to contact you about the investigation before locking your domain 14 days following, unless ordered otherwise to do so by law.".

This sounds awfully to me that unless I'm up to no shit, I have plenty of time to make priot arrangements. As I have most od my domains with eNom, then I decided I might as well put all my eggs in one basket.


Bye directNIC and thanks for all the fish.

Actually, I didn't read your post. I assumed that you acted like someone who is important and made a statement as to stir up more worthless opinions on an issue that only affects one person, and will, for the most part, never affect the vast majority. I could be wrong though. Maybe your post was about something totally unrelated.

Funny how YOU brought the phishing issue ... cat ate your tongue ? :1orglaugh

I don't support him ( Slick), I just don't think it is a registrar role to be prosecutor AND judge.... I know you wont understand ... so don't worry....

Maybe his site are very distastefull, borderline, and so on ... But let me tell you that the whole industry is borderline... and to most " not in the business " also distastefull ... but still legal.

There are a lot of good registrars out there. I think Moniker is popular because they really go out of their way to support webmasters. I don't think I've read about a single problem with Moniker by anyone, and I know tons of people who have thousands of domains through them.

I know GoDaddy gets some gruff for crap from time to time, but I actually was surprised at how good their support was last time I called.

Mine are leaving the US ... simple!

RA - then in that case, you are a very pathetic sheep.
You defend a company that is trying to abet the very establishment that wishes to drive this industry from its roots and yet you have the nerve to state that anyone against it is pro-CP?

Get a fucking reality grip will you - it's all about defending a principle. A god damn singular principle. Hello, wake up.

What about phishing? Well known fact that Directnic got slapped on the hands about it... it was linked from this here board even today. What the fuck is your point? spam. phishing, and CP are the three great uses for throw away and well protected domains. Someone else hit CP, I hit the other two. What you are implying, that Directnic is somehow controlling me or telling me what to say couldn't be further from the truth, and you can pretty much cram that idea up your ass. You are full of shit and totally without basis on it.

Oh wait... BoyAlley got your ass?

The registrar isn't judge and jury - but any business that enters into a contractual agreement should enforce the terms of their contract. You are suggesting that Directnic should tolerate material that has been brought to their attention because a judge and jury hasn't had the final go at it?

Only a court order could force a company to continue to do business under such circumstances. We still don't know anything about the complaint or contacts with officials from law enforcement, so all of this is a pretty major jump of the gun.

Yup, simple principal: Less CP is good. Less links to CP is good.

Simple, no?

I mean, come one.

I don't have any name here and I don't give a shit, but please answer me this: are you really a sheep that you can't see the ramifications that this can draw elsewhere?

Do you know, or have you ever heard, of the Litmus test?

I read the same post you quoted with this response and it's not what i get at all. Having and assuming no legal liability doesn't mean they will not pass on a complaint to the relevant authorities. To assume so and to basically declare Moniker a safe haven for CP is stupid and irresponsible.

Yup, simple litmus test: who is willing to tolerate CP "on principal"?

What ramifications are you implying? That this industry might actually do something to control itself before the feds come in and really put a stick in our wheels? That we might each take a little personal responsibility, and understand that not everything is about bizarre absolutes of "not proven illegal in a court of law...yet".

Everyone seems to be making out like Directnic woke up one morning and decides "let's go close down some domains for fun!". That doesn't appear to be the case, but I know it makes for some good drama for the llamas around here.

Simple?

No. This isn't about cut-and-dry CP. This is about what is legal and what isn't and noone, no matter where they are in the world cannot decide what is legal if they are not a legal entity.

Christ, I have a fucking gallery dedicated to my son and one for my daughter so that my family and friends can see my wonderful children. It's password protected, but my kids are naked in those galleries and shit like that - because you know they are kids taking baths and stuff.

Am I to lose all my domains because I peddle CP?

--edit
and if I didn't password protect those galleris - if my naked kids were for all to see - am I then a CP pusher????

Very simple - and that has nothing to do with domain registrars, Intel, Cisco or any member of the public. The relevant authority is law enforcement - no other party.

It is also getting clearer how clueless adult webmasters are as regards child abuse (that reason alone, is more than good enough for them to mind their own business along with domain registrars.)

Actually, yes, a lot of people would consider that CP. Before digital cameras were around, a lot of people got reported to the police by film developers for naked pictures of their children. There are a lot of people who get off on seeing your kids. Sad, but true.

My brother refuses to put any pictures of his children on the internet.

:sleep :sleep :sleep

Show were I suggest that ... go ahead ... please do ...

DirectNic, and any non-monopolistic business, can decide whith whom and how they want to do business...
As an example, I would never do business with you .... but others would welcome you with open arms...
This situation is not that DirectNic says to Slick : can you leave with your business, we don't like you ...

But : we don't like you and what you do, so we are taking you hostage....

... unless DirectNic got served legal papers from the proper authorities...

Anyway, I am in no mood of arguing with kids, so knock yourself out...I'm out in town to party .

Good, so we can all sit on our asses and link to CP sites and share in the traffic and the profits until the relevant authority DECIDES to do something about it (which can take freaking years... please check out the last few CP raids... average of X years from detection to action).

You cannot oblige any business to respect a contract

that has been, by it's terms, violated. Slick is free to go to another registrar and register domains and do it all again. Nothing, not a single thing, is stopping him from doing this.

Directnic ain't the police... but you cannot find any justifiable reason why they should offer service to these sites, given what they know and the complant(s) they apparently have in hand.


Borked: [serious mode] I would highly recommend you don't put images of naked children on the same domain as porn. You may want to contact a lawyer about that. I wouldn't even keep the images on the same PC you work on at home... really. Not joking, serious stuff. [/end serious mode]

That is the stupidest remark i have seen today

Yeah, that's why when these people were reported to the police, several spent at least a night in jail before they could explain themselves. I'll try to get some news links for you.

I didn't say *I* thought it was CP - I have pictures of my son taking a bath that I cherish. Honestly, I would NEVER put them on a public site on the internet though. There ARE people who would get off on them.

Here's a page with a few examples:

http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/2001/2...beandmail.html

Over 95% of the spam I get comes from Moniker registered, hosted, &/or owned domains.