Press Release Follow-Up: Major Problems in Acquisition July 19, 2012
Press Release Follow-Up: Major Problems in Acquisition
Unfortunately, we are currently in dispute with the acquisition of “windowsforums.com” from Sean at Strategic Investment, Ltd. While Sean agreed to transfer the domain for a certain amount through Afternic and BuyDomains, he reneged, without notice, literally hours before the transaction would have been finalized (It takes 5-10 business days for a domain to transfer registrars).
The legal experts I have consulted with consider this a violation of contract law, and numerous attempts have been made, without malice or threat, to try to get Sean to change his course of action. While the domain was put on auction at Afternic (an aftermarket domain reseller), we attempted to acquire it, and paid for it at the Buy It Now price on July 10, 2012. The authorization codes were sent by Sean to Afternic, and we were in process at our domain registrar for a complete transfer of ownership. Ownership of the domain name would therefore have been moved from India back to the United States and used to expand our forum network over a long period of time.
Shortly after our press release was made, the domain name transfer was abruptly cancelled by the initialization of a domain name lock and domain-by-proxy privacy option. These changes were openly made by Sean without prior notice to Namemedia (Afternic, BuyDomains). With the seller leaving us with no choice, and having been bound by a legal contract to sell the domain name if it was bought via Buy It Now, I am working to pursue arbitration through ICANN URDP rules and potential action in U.S. civil court and for damage as a result of that breach.
Oddly, the seller extolled his fondness for Windows7Forums.com, leading at least some of us here to believe that his actions may have been motivated by the valuation listed in the above appraisal on the press release. What was not made clear is that this appraisal was the result of the use of an online appraisal tool, which calculates inbound traffic totals, analytics data, and Google Page Rank over a long period of time. The calculator has little to do with the true value of a domain name alone, but of the size of online community and the number of viewers it receives.
We have worked for six years to make this site open, participatory, and interesting to viewers from around the world. Being unable to secure windowsforums.com is a setback, but an ownership decision has been made to press onwards. A strong believer in fairness in transactions, it is our goal to make sure the seller is held accountable for his use of his “windowsforums.com” domain name in online marketplaces. We do not know if the seller hoped to be paid, and then privatize the domain, thus preventing its sale.
Windows7Forums.com will work with the necessary authorities and groups to enforce the contract that was signed by the owner of WindowsForums.com and hold him accountable. Every social, business, and human interaction is based on trust. When one cannot depend on another to do right by oneself, those bonds of trust are broken. I personally do not believe this is right, and am well aware that under the universal commercial code it is also fraud.
Because of the sensitivity of this issue, I may not be able to post on it again often, until concrete milestones are made. I will be moving forward to make sure that our users and team will not be made the victim of domain name theft and fraud. We advise our members not to attempt to access windowsforums.com at this time, as our prior announcement may have been distorted by the domain name owner for nefarious purposes or monetary gain. This type of behavior is extraordinarily unacceptable over the Internet in 2012 and we will be pursuing all options on behalf of our past, present, and current viewers and members.
This website spent a significant amount of credit reserves to make this acquisition possible, enough that we still hope that Sean, as the owner of windowsforums.com, will reconsider his unethical and potentially illegal action.