How can I find the registration info for a lapsed domain name?

November 26, 2007 11:43 AM

How can I get registration information for a domain name that is expired?

I have a friend who is in a legal dispute with someone. If there is some way for him to conclusively prove that a particular domain name was taken out by this person, it would be helpful to him in the dispute. However, the domain is lapsed and there is no whois information. Is this information on file somewhere? The site was registered in late 2005 or early 2006 and expired a year subsequent to that.

posted by Hat Maui to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Try Domain History from Domain Tools / Name Intellingence.
posted by RichardP at 11:49 AM on November 26, 2007

Oh, I should mention, Domain History is not free.
posted by RichardP at 11:50 AM on November 26, 2007

thanks, richardp. signed up for free trial and got some info, but it was privately registered through godaddy and a company called domainsbyproxy. is there a way to get the actual registrant info without a court order?
posted by Hat Maui at 12:11 PM on November 26, 2007

Lapsed domain names seem strangely akin to mortgaged Monopoly properties belonging to other players.
posted by thebellafonte at 1:59 PM on November 26, 2007

For a legal dispute, I would imagine that a registrar would respond to a subpoena. A lawyer letter may not give you the same, but it might exceed what you can get from a third party website.
posted by dhartung at 12:38 AM on November 27, 2007

DomainsByProxy is just GoDaddy's name for their "private registration" service.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 9:58 AM on November 27, 2007