Domain name management group ING's mass mail-out swooped into New Zealand letter boxes last week, advertising its pre-registration service to secure the .info and/or .biz versions of .co.nz domain names. The pre-registration cost of $250 couldn't guarantee the name would be safeguarded.
Domainz, which claims to have received a large number of complaints from recipients of the mail-out, said the act was a -clear breach of their agreement as a .nz service provider".
"Sending out large numbers of letters to name-holders is clearly contrary to The Internet Name Group's obligations under their .nz provider agreement with Domainz," Domainz CEO Derek Locke said in a statement. "All providers agree not to act in a way that will be detrimental to the integrity or the performance of the register or the Internet generally, and to act in good faith towards name-holders and others."
After ING failed to contact Domainz by an August 4 deadline, the group was suspended as a .nz service provider and given 21 days to communicate what they intended to do to remedy the breach of their agreement, otherwise they would be struck off as an accredited provider, according to Domainz.
ING's Mark Spektor said he found the issue -very, very surprising", adding that as far as he was concerned ING hadn't breached its agreement with Domainz because the mail-out didn't have anything to do with .nz domain names.
"We're happy to work with them, but what do they want us to do?" Spektor told ZDNet Australia. "We're not the only ones doing mail-outs for domain names in New Zealand...we're entitled to market any product."
-If we've breached something tell us what we've breached and how we're to fix it...and we'll entertain the idea of doing it."
ING said it is seeking legal counsel.
I do not use the internet for illegaal or immoral activities but I still object to being spied upon. Whatever happened to personal privacy.