Domain names as part of a legal settlement

February 24, 2005 4:24 PM

A company has a disgruntled customer who started a gripe website. As part of a settlement, the company wants him to turn over the domain names to them, so they can try to prevent a re-occurence. What's the correct way to do this?

Also, if he has posted his gripe to general consumer sites outside of his control - any recourse there?

posted by tizzie to Technology (8 answers total)

Best answer: Well, have him update the Registrant information to show the company as the registrant and legal owner of the domain, have him update the Admininstrator contact information to the company (email too.) This isn't a necessary step, but you could have him update the nameservers to point to your webhost so the site will go down immediately. Wait a few days, then from your side, tell your registrar you want to initiate a domain name transfer, they'll email the admin contact on record (the company...) to verify the transfer of the domain. The company follows the instructions in the email, and a few days later the company is in control of the domain at their registrar.
posted by pwb503 at 5:15 PM on February 24, 2005

{your} company.
Depends on the gripe. Libelous? That means real misrepresentation. Anger? That means pissed off.
posted by nj_subgenius at 5:45 PM on February 24, 2005

Do you mean the correct way to do it in terms of how to demand it, or how to actually take over the domain if the customer agrees to the settlement?
posted by bingo at 5:51 PM on February 24, 2005

Response by poster: Sorry, bingo - I mean the latter. The customer has agreed to the settlement. We need to make sure that he transfers the domain to us. It sounds like pwb503 might have covered it.

I still wonder if we can track down the other things he's posted and maybe somehow get rid of them, too.

nj_subgenius, I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but I suppose the best way to describe what is happening here as fixing, rather than solving, the problem. The person is unhappy and is going to keep spreading discontent whether that discontent is warranted or not, and rather than let the situation get worse, we're just caving in.
posted by tizzie at 6:13 PM on February 24, 2005

Why do you want to get rid of them? Isn't addressing his gripes more important than shutting him down? What if his gripes are being echoed by other people too?
posted by timyang at 6:35 PM on February 24, 2005

Response by poster: No, his gripes can't be addressed.

Sometimes there are people who are never going to be happy, period. They are complaining that their soup is cold because their wife just left them, for example. You can heat up that soup until it melts the bowl, and it will not solve the problem. We're giving him his money back so he'll quit making the other people in the restaurant miserable.

That's a metaphor, of course, but that's the type of situation this is.

What we need to do in addition to getting him to leave, is shutting down "tizziessoupblowschunks.com" - which I think we can do - and also I'd like to get the mean things he said about my soup, (which all of my other customers love, by the way,) off of the chowhound message boards.

I hope that makes sense.
posted by tizzie at 6:48 PM on February 24, 2005

You could see if your former customer would be willing to ask the people who run the forums he posted to to delete his postings. Of course, you can't control the forum owners' response.
posted by EatenByAGrue at 10:24 PM on February 24, 2005

Getting other webmasters to censor their own sites is a long shot. Is the settlement already finalized? If there's stilll room for negotiation, how about getting his signature on a public letter that disavows (or at least expressing regret over) comments posted elsewhere? By posting the retraction at tizziessoupblowschunks.com until the situation has clearly blown over, you can at least ensure that his retraction is as accessible as the unexpunged gripes.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 11:02 PM on February 24, 2005