ICANN sends notice of breach to Namevault.com

Please be advised that as of 9 April 2014, Homestead Limited dba Namevault.com (“Namevault”) is in
breach of its Registrar Accreditation Agreement (“RAA”) with the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (“ICANN”) dated 8 August 2013 (“RAA”).

Namevault.com was also sent a notice of breach last year.

These breaches result from:

1.   Failure to complete and deliver to ICANN a Compliance Certificate within twenty (20)
days following the end of the 2013 calendar year certifying compliance with the terms
and conditions of the RAA, as required by Section 3.15 of the RAA.

Please refer to the attachment for details regarding this breach.

In addition, Namevault has been deemed noncompliant in the following areas:

1. Failure to publish on Namevault’s website the information required by the Registrar
Information Specification, pursuant to Section 3.17 of the RAA;

2. Failure to provide an email address on Namevault’s website to receive reports of abuse,
as required by Section 3.18.1 of the RAA;

3. Failure to publish procedures for handling reports of abuse on Namevault’s website, as
required by Section 3.18.3 of the RAA;

4. Failure to provide an email address and telephone number to receive reports of abuse, as
required by Section 1.4.2 of the Registration Data Directory Service (Whois) Specification
of the RAA; and

5. Failure to timely pay past due accreditation fees in the amount of $4,883.05, as required
by Section 3.9 of the RAA.

ICANN requests that Namevault cure these breaches by 30 April 2014, 21 days from the date of this
letter, by taking the following actions:

1. Provide a certificate executed by the president, chief executive officer, chief financial officer
or chief operating officer (or their equivalents) of Namevault, certifying compliance with the
terms and conditions of the RAA;

2. Publish on Namevault’s website the information required by the Registrar Information
Specification;

3. Provide an email address on Namevault’s website to receive reports of abuse;

4. Publish on Namevault’s website a description of its procedures for the receipt, handling, and
tracking of abuse reports;

5. Include an email address and telephone number to receive reports of abuse in Registration
Data Directory Service (Whois) output; and

6. Pay past due accreditation fees in the amount of $4,883.05.

If Namevault fails to timely cure the breaches and provide the information requested by 30 April
2014, ICANN may commence the RAA termination process.

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About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

3 comments

  1. Shame on Mike Berkens, that is his registrar.

    • Check this comment by Michael Berkens:

      Guys
      Just to clarify, Namevault.com is owned and operated by Homestead Limited a corporation, organized and operating, in and under the jurisdiction of the Bahamas.
      I am an investor in Homestead Limited but I do not run the registry.
      Homestead Limited has no office, employees or other ties to the US.
      Namevault.com servers are located in Nassau, Bahamas.
      Logic boxes only involvement is the interface between the central registry and Logic Boxes.
      Homestead Limited is not bound by any order of a US court.
      Someone would have to go to the Bahamas, file a case and get a judgment in the Bahamas for it to be effective in the Bahamas.
      Anyone who has dealt with Bahamian courts will tell you its a LONG process for that to occur. It is not uncommon in the Bahamas for the court system to take 5 years before some accused of murder goes to trial.
      There are very few lawyers in the Bahamas.
      As a percentage of population compared to the US or Canada, Australia or any other “Industrialized Nation”, the number of attorneys is extremely small.
      Homestead Limited is represented in the Bahamas by one of the biggest and oldest law firms.
      Also to be clear, all registrars, regardless or where they are located are subject to ICANN’s rules and Regs, so things like a WIPO action have to be honored no matter what jurisdiction the registrar is in.
      Therefore an offshore registrar has to operate in the same manner as a US based on. If any registrar screws with someone registrations, they risk there ICANN accreditation pulled, so risk to a domain holder using a non-US based registrar are the same as a US based one.
      To my way of thinking there is no benefit to having your domains in a US registrar, nothing good can happen and a lot of bad can.
      Homestead Limited also has dedicated offshore servers if you are interested in hosting.
      All inquiries should be directed to CustomerService@NameVault.com

  2. Most of my domains are on verge of Expiring and I have renewed before duration through paypal but its not showing in the list that upto when it is valid.I am too worried client.Please kindly find some solution for the same.How come the payment get deducted when you make the payment.
    Thanking You
    Siraj

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