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How the new policy to prohibit private .US registrations came to life.
On February 2, 2005, the NTIA sent a letter to NeuStar, the
Registry for .US
domain names, requiring that NeuStar formally notify all .US accredited Registrars that they must stop selling privacy services on or
before February 16, 2005. The letter also demanded the Whois data for all current registrants who had taken advantage of
privacy services be
updated to reflect their private data by no later than January 26, 2006.
As required, NeuStar notifed Go Daddy, and other Registrars, of the impending change in policy on the very same day they received the
letter. Along with the formal notification, NeuStar also sent the .US Registrars an Amended Registrar Accreditation Agreement *. Registrars had no choice but to sign the amended agreement. In fact, if
Go Daddy had refused to sign the amendment,
Go Daddy would have been disaccredited and therefore no longer eligible to sell .US domain names at all.
Because of the suddenness of the notification (the NTIA gave less than two weeks to comply with the new policy), and because of Go Daddy's
strong desire to protect the privacy rights of its customers, Go Daddy refused to implement the demanded change by February 16,
2005. On
February 17, 2005, NeuStar sent Go Daddy a letter demanding that Go Daddy
comply by March 4,
2005 or NeuStar would begin
the process of disaccrediting Go Daddy. Obviously, Go Daddy strongly disputes the fact that it ever breached its contract with NeuStar and
will continue to take that position if the issue comes up again.
In the meantime, on February 18, 2005, Go Daddy representatives flew to Washington, DC to meet with the NITA to discuss
the new policy and
to see if there was any way to work out a compromise. During that meeting, the NTIA representatives told Go Daddy that their minds were
made up and there was nothing Go Daddy could do or say to change the new policy. They further reiterated that if Go Daddy failed to comply
with the demands in NeuStar's February 17, 2005 letter (which clearly came at the prompting of the NTIA), the NITA would
force Go Daddy's
disaccreditation.
Thus, on March 5, 2005, Go Daddy reluctantly complied with the new policy and stopped providing private registration
services for its .US
registrants. The effort to reverse the policy is not over, however. Go Daddy will continue to press to have the new policy reversed and
private registrations put back in place on .US domain names.
As you can see, the entire process of implementing this new policy was designed by the NTIA to take exactly fifteen days. At Go Daddy, we
believe you deserve more than fifteen days to challenge a threat to your right to privacy. If you agree, please join us in the fight
by signing the petition and communicating with your U.S. Representative and
the two U.S. Senators from your state.
*The new provision which prohibits proxy registrations has been highlighted in the Amended Agreement for ease of viewing.
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