Realty Times has tried to find ways to help Realtors who bought Websites with Informedia Group, Inc. and found the company registered their domain names to the company instead of to the agents. When the company went out of business, and founder Alan Isabelle went into hiding, numerous agents found their Websites go dark and had no way to get the domain names transferred to new hosts.

But there's hope yet, as some agents are reporting success in getting their domain names back.

Broker Bob Reess, went directly to one of the registrars that registered the domain names for Informedia Group, Inc. and pled his case with success.

Usually a registrar cannot move a domain name from one party to another, but in the case of Informedia Group, Inc, Melbourne.IT.com is proving to be sympathetic to some agents because of the sheer number of complaints, confirmed by Informedia's lack of response to emails, and the fact that Informedia Group, Inc. owes the registrar a lot of money, says a source.

Reess wrote to help@melbourneit.com.au.

"The way that I did it was to talk (email) to MelbourneIT, the company where Informedia registered my domain in their name," explains Reess. "A support person sent me an email with a form that I had to fill out stating who I was, etc. on my letterhead and then he sent me the registry code for the site, and now it shows up in "Whois" with me as the owner because I went in and changed all of the information."

Each domain name has a "key" to get in, and what the support person had Reess do was fill out a "registry key recovery" form. Reess was also asked to attach his letterhead with the following warranty (disclaimer):

"Notwithstanding the warranty contained in the attached form, I hereby request and authorise(sic) Melbourne IT, also trading as Internet Names WorldWide (INWW) to re-issue the Registry Key for the domain name . I warrant that I am authorised to request the Registry Key as the domain name was registered on my behalf by Informedia Group Inc (which is no longer trading or in operation). The registration was paid by me and at all times. I understood, and paid for the registration of the domain name on the basis that, the licence would be registered in my name. I agree that Melbourne IT Ltd is not responsible for any demand which may be made against me or Melbourne IT Ltd by any party (including Informedia Group Inc) as a result of the issue of this Registry Key and I agree to hold harmless and release Melbourne IT from and against any claims." If you do not provide the above text on letterhead then we can not issue the registry key."

Reess then faxed the letterhead with the disclaimer to MelbourneIT.com.

Once he had the registry key, he was told to proceed to maintenance to take control over his domain name.

While this worked for Reess, it may not work for all Informedia Group, Inc. victims.

Most of the domain names were registered through MelbourneIT.com, but once Informedia Group, Inc. and Alan Isabelle owed the company a lot of money, says a source, it refused any more registrations. Isabelle may have gone to any number of other registrars to register new customers' domain names, including Verio, AAAQ.com, and others.

So, agents need to find out who the registrar is by going to Betterwhois.com. "It will tell them who their website is registered to," says the source.

A dead end that agents should not try is to go to any registrar to attempt a transfer. Only the registrar that has the registration may affect a change, but there is still one more thing agents can do to get help.

"InterNIC might be a better place to complain about a registrant and get real help," suggests Barry Kushner, national sales manager for Best Image Marketing, Inc. "In fact, here's the link to report registrar problems."

Published: April 28, 2004

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