Today is something I’ve been yearning to write about in a long time: how one “owns” a domain name, especially a .com. Knowing the hows and whys can help you understand what you can and can’t do.

If you’re wondering why I put “owns” in quotation marks, well, it’s because we really don’t own domain names. We “rent” them from domain registrars, so to speak.

I once wrote about why we don’t own domain names. In a nutshell, we don’t own domain names because of our registrar’s contract saying…well…we don’t.

Essentially, the registrar’s contract (or registration agreement, as many of them tend to be labeled as) defines our respective relationships. If you’ll “bother” to read yours, you’ll never see anything there specifically saying you own the domain name.

Rather, they agree to lease to you the right to use it. You have “limited” rights to use it, subject to the registrar’s terms and conditions.

One important point to mention in that registrar’s contract is the term “registered name holder”, or registrant for short. Rather than go through a long, boring and lengthly explanation, I’ll show something to you:

Domain Name: DAVEZAN.COM

Registrant [487520]:
Dave Zan

To the domain registrar, whoever is listed as the registrant is considered the legal name holder or “owner”. No ifs, ands or buts.

In the case of my blog domain name DaveZan.com, my name’s listed as the registrant. That makes me DaveZan.com’s legal “owner” or registrant.

That fact alone can have numerous implications. For one thing, you might not actually “own” the domain name, much more any rights to it, if you’re not listed as its registrant.

Two common scenarios I’ve seen this happen is when you let someone else handle it for you or when you get your .com domain name through a reseller for an actual registrar. There are numerous reasons either scenario occurs, be it good or “unethical.”

It can’t be helped that many people just don’t know this intricate yet crucial detail when they especially let others register their desired domain name for them. If problems occur, it might be difficult, if not impossible, to resolve that problem.

Let’s say you’re a chef and you want to “build a website” for your restaurant. Eventually you find a webmaster who registers the domain name and builds the website for you, and you pay him your fees.

At some point you get into a dispute with him. You decide to no longer pay his fees, he starts making unreasonable demands, those sorts of things.

You call the registrar to ask how to gain access to your domain name account. Then the agent who took your call informs you he can’t give any information since the domain name is registered under your ex-webmaster’s name.

Under “normal” circumstances the customer might get angry and possibly make unreasonable demands. But in the registrar’s side, they’re doing the right thing not giving client information and even going as far as telling him or her to seek legal advice.

Or let’s say you know how to register the domain name yourself. But you decide to register it together with your hosting because your provider is offering it for free.

Unless you’re dealing with an actual domain registrar, more often than not the hosting provider will list themselves as the registrant. There are a few exceptions, but usually it’s tough to know who they are. (Namecheap is one exception, although it’s more known as a domain provider rather than as a host…)

Then if you “prematurely” cancel your hosting services with the provider, they might lock you out of the domain name or something similar. By then, you might be asked to pay a fee (which is reasonable under certain circumstances), or they might delete it and it might get taken by someone else.

What I described above is one major reason why I mostly recommend going with an actual domain registrar instead of a reseller, no matter how attractive the offering is. Not all hosts do that, but why risk it unless you’ve known them for a long, long time?

And let me tell you: attempting to prove ownership towards the domain name is not always as easy as one tends to believe. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve told customers to seek legal advice whenever I got either one of the scenarios above, and I never relished doing such each time.

Choosing a good domain provider is all the more crucial nowadays, more so trusting someone else to handle your domain name affairs for you. If it can be helped, please, do it yourself.

More importantly, keep your domain name separate from your website hosting. If your website gets affected, at least your domain name might not be, which is the more important element of your online presence.

By the way, the registrar wants the registrant to be a “legally existing entity”, be it a living, breathing person or an organization that’s in operation. The domain name is yours if your personal name’s listed as the registrant, and it’s your organization’s if it’s listed to it as well.

While the registrar can’t realistically check each and every registrant of every domain name registration they manage, there are few circumstances where they will take action upon seeing any potential problems they want to avoid. I can’t go into detail for now since it’s possibly too lengthly, but suffice it to say I’ve read of a lot of people getting into problems too deep for them to resolve on their own.

If you find yourself in either of the 2 situations I discussed above, I suggest you try to resolve it right away if problems haven’t occurred yet. Don’t wait for it to happen, especially if one of the relevant parties involved might pull a disappearing act one day.

While you’re tackling it, don’t try to “antagonize” the other party involved. I know it might make you feel better especially if you’re frustrated, but it’s not always going to solve problems if the other party practically “has a hold” on you.

Whatever happens, be calm, be polite, and be ready. Get competent counsel if need be.

Kindly spread word about the registrant field and its importance. The more people become aware of this, the more they can take better responsibility for the domain names they manage.

Check Out These Other Posts:

• Domain Names Taken Back Due To Mistake
• Domain WHOIS And Privacy: A Few Things You Ought To Know
• When An Domain Name Account Is Locked After Registration
• The Importance Of Keeping Domain Name Records
• Why We Don’t Own Domain Names