Hoopla and Verisign · 12 April 2002
WHAT IS THIS? In early April, hoopla.com, a web domain belonging to the talented writer and designer Leslie Harpold, was transferred to another party on the authority of a faked document. Despite boasts of due diligence from the original registrar, NetSol (now Verisign) and the registrar who brokered the hijacking, AITDomains, this situation has yet to be resolved.
For further context see here (a previous posting on the matter), here (an eloquent summary by Cory Doctorow) and here (a brief word from Leslie).
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Leslie writes:
So I finally got a call from NetSol this morning and they said, and this is priceless: that it now will be up to the new person with the domain to decide whether or not they feel like giving it up. It seems NetSol is saying “Well, it probably is our fault” but because of the way the records have been kept, the person has it as a new registration, which violates (according to NetSol) the whole covenant of the contract I had with them for ownership, but since it was entered as a new registration and not a transfer, they have no option. NetSol admits the screw up is their fault, but that doesn’t mean they’re willing to wrest it out of the new registrant’s grimy hands, because they can’t find the domain’s record of release even though NetSol admits it wasn’t due for renewal until June. I might not ever get it back.
Un fucking believable.
UPDATE TO THE UPDATE The upswell of support for Leslie after the hoopla.com hijacking is heartening, of course. People are, rightly, pissed; and they want to act. One hopes it gets resolved smoothly and quickly; given the number of media and legal parties getting involved, perhaps it will. And after that, I agree: put Verisign to death.
A couple interesting things. Tim Altman writes:
As a frequent reader of Leslie’s site, I’m shocked to hear of hoopla.com’s reregistration and subsequent disappearance. However, I can’t help but see the irony in the event. Shortly after September 11th, Leslie decided to refer to the events of that day as “Hubert”. And now, her domain has been stolen by one Hubert Sarah...
Alexander Svensson writes:
[T]he new whois entry is complete garbage – there is no “kreshenc 8402 street beunce” in Berlin, and 41645 is not the correct ZIP code for Berlin either.
Turns out the phone number is bogus too. I suppose none of that is surprising but, really, who gives a fuck about the perp; what’s alarming is that it could happen at all.
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