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Network Solutions Again Pushing Legal Limits

A couple days ago the news came out that Network Solutions (evil bastard domain registrar you should avoid like the plague) is swiping domains when you search. If you go to their site and search for a domain, they will automatically register it and then offer to sell it to you. They get away with this because of a rule that allows domains to be registered for 5 days without payment. They can take advantage of unsuspecting consumers and if no purchase results, free up the domain 5 days later. Register.com has been accused of the same thing in the past.

As proof, I did searches on a few and then checked them and sure enough, they were taken. Here are screenshots as proof. First, I searched a bunch of domain names. See how the Network Solutions site shows them as free (except one someone beat me to):

Then I went to GoDaddy and used their domain search and these same domains are all shown as taken, registered to Network Solutions:


If you want to cause them some pain, search for copyrighted or trademarked names and then notify the rights holders.

Labels: network solutions, sleazy, swiping

Posted by Mark Saturday, January 12, 2008 1:05:00 PM | permalink |