Website Domain-Name Ownership
A shop owner's website designer went out of business, and now it seems that he doesn't own his site's domain name. What does he do now?November 11, 2005
Question
The company who hosts and maintains my woodworking website has sold out to another company who is ignoring my requests for updates of both photos and text. I contacted another website hosting company to take care of my needs, but they informed me that there was nothing that they could do because I do not own my domain name - the original web designer who is no longer in business does. Is this true?
Forum Responses
(Business Forum)
From contributor A:
It could very well be. It is usually in the fine print. You could also check out the FAQ for the hosting company.
From contributor B:
Go to Whois.com and type in your domain name. The results will show you who owns the domain name.
From contributor C:
It is quite true that a lot of web hosting companies will retain the rights of the domain name that you request. This information is usually found in the fine print of the agreement. However, there are other hosting services that do not retain ownership of the domain name, allowing you to move to another service and keep your domain name. Find a hosting company that doesn't retain the rights to the domain name and choose a domain name that will be as close to the one that you have currently(i.e. change the .com to .net or .biz). Also, ownership of the domain name may expire at the end of a year, allowing you to purchase it then.
