Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know

Vivendi Universal paid around $372 million to buy music service MP3.com; but this week it almost lost a domain name used by the site because it appears that someone forgot to pay the $35 renewal fee. Fortunately, a user saved the day.

According to a report by Gnutella News, Musician Steve Cox uses one of MP3.com's artist's sites to promote his work as the 'Voice of Golden Eagle'. According to its report, when Cox tried to log in to the site on Tuesday, the web site did not appear to exist. He quickly determined that the domain name registration for MP3s.com had expired.

"As an artist being directly affected by this breakdown my next actions were clear. I picked up the phone and called Network Solutions customer support," Cox revealed in an internet posting. "Within minutes I used my own credit card to purchase a one year renewal for the MP3S.com domain".

A common reason for unintentionally losing a domain name is that the person named as the contact for communications with the domain name registrar has left an organisation and the e-mail account closed. The e-mails warning of the need for renewal are not received.

In the past, anti-virus software company Symantec has forgotten to renew its Norton.com domain name. Microsoft forgot to renew its Passport.com domain name. Individuals re-registered the names on both occasions, but generously registered them in the names of the companies.

We are processing your request. \n Thank you for your patience. An error occurred. This could be due to inactivity on the page - please try again.