>A much better tool against registrar failure or termination is the registrar data escrow program The data escrow programs allows submission of privacy whois. Thus the data escrow program protects registrants from HONEST registrars, of which they need no protection from. It does not, by itself, protect registrants from evil registrars. I was one of the people affected by RegisterFly. In fact I had a whois monitoring system in place at the time for my domains and called RegFly twice about their changing my whois to a University student address and email address. And if that was the data in their escrow submissions (not implemented at that time), which IS the escrow requirement, who would have received the domain after they were closed by ICANN??? Not me! After the second call I transferred my domains out and posted a warning to others in DomainState as to what I was observing and suggesting others to moved their domains out ASAP. Soon after that I became a registrar at it seemed the only way to be able to effectively manage thousands of domains and protect them from evil registrars. Fact is the average registrant is clueless and likely knows NOTHING about domain name whois and thus never even bothers to check its accuracy! With it gone they will not even be able to verify their registries believe of ownership. And it is belief as reseller accounts have been a historical way to steal domains as the registrant THINK they are dealing direct with the registrar without realizing their is an intermediary with full control of their domain name. Add to that Verisign implementation of the transfer lock as policy and not hard coded technology and the thief takes the domain on a "transfer trip" through a few registrars in foreign countries .... And with no provable ownership records the registrant will NEVER get the domain back. http://www.circleid.com/posts/20170326_a_case_to_further_dns_registrar_industry_self_regulation/ >leaving millions of Registrants in the dark" I am not aware of any either. However it does not take millions to be a problem. Loss of a domain name control could quickly destroy an online business. The the number really does not matter, we are all very dependent on consistency of behavior of our domains and dns. Any loses are a problem, especially to the one affected. Thus the goal must be in the direction of registrant empowerment not away from it. Clear instantiation of domain ownership via pubic whois, is foundational to consistent domain behavior. Here is were domainers are likely the leading experts on such issues. Domainers for almost 2 decades now have learned, just by looking at whois, what a domain's status likely is, and do this with great precision. And frankly, many lawyers use those domineers to help them establish that status. I hope, when the first few domain are successfully stolen since "proof of ownership" no longer exists (but was reasonably assumed to be in place), the politicians involved with GDPR are personally sued. Maybe then will win the case, but its the ride they go on that will be most important. Meanwhile, back in the real bricks and mortar world: https://e-justice.europa.eu/content_land_registers-107-en.do "Land registers are a very important source of information due to their legal nature." "Land registers help to facilitate land-related administrative tasks of citizens, legal professionals, state authorities, private companies and other interested parties. The official register information is open (in a majority of EU countries) to banks, creditors, business partners and consumers in order to enhance transparency and legal certainty in European Union markets." But lets not let hundreds+ of years of land registration experience across the planet work its way into internet management .... That would be silly, wouldn't it?

>I don't know about you, but several times a year I run into someone >I know of who's having a registrar hold their domain hostage Excellent point! So lets break it out for those without experience: Person or company has NO CLUE about domain management or building websites. But they know they need a web site. They then hire someone to do it for them. Typically the service paid for is domain registration, web authorship, and server hosting. All paid as one. The consultant may or may not bother to put their client in the whois record, and certainly will NOT provide the client access to the domain management account at the registrar. In this case the registration ownership does have an ambiguity the consultant takes advantage of. The consultant knows FULL WELL the domain name registration is the primary leverage point to getting paid. Use of this to hold clients hostage is well known and why most of us tell people NEVER EVER allow a web site consultant to manage or control your domain name. You control the domain, they control the website. This "opportunity" to hold a customer hostage has in fact moved to the registrar level. But when we have registrar terms of service that say: "we reserve the right to change our terms of service at any time, for any reason, without notice to you" What can we possible expect? And note well that quoted text HAS appeared in registrar terms of service as written. I've no doubt lawyers have become more creative in expressing it more opaquely these days.