I'm so sorry to hear this. Susan I'll help out in any way I can. I know a lil Law as it was my 2nd career choice, however the Internet was just getting started when I was in law school so not sure how much good I'll be. I'll try and do some research based on your post and see if I can come up with anything. You should have me on Skype if you need to talk. This does sound like extortion.

All my hopes!

Ally

I'll send what I can on Friday or Saturday.   I needed an excuse to finally actually quit smoking anyway.

The place to start is by dealing with the current registrar - GoDaddy in this case. Email abuse@godaddy.com and explain that you are the actual owner and forward bills that show you have been paying for the domain. It might also be an idea to send the previous WHOIS information too (below)

Inform them that you will be taking legal steps if necessary and that you would rather sort this out amicably. I have found most registrars very helpful in these circumstances.

If you do the above before getting a lawyer involved, it will make the lawyers job a lot easier.

--- Archive WHOIS ---

Registrant Contact Information:
    Name: Susan Larson
    Organization: Susan's Place Transgender Resources
    <filtered>
    Email: susan@susans.org

Administrative Contact Information:
<filtered>

Technical Contact Information:
<filtered>

Information Updated: Mon, 5 Jan 2015 18:17:18 UTC

You will always have my support and if there is anything I can do let me known. 

How does this constitute "domain hijacking"? It is my understanding that domain hijacking usually involves registering a new ip address for a given domain. That doesn't seem to have happened here. Since Susan clearly still has access to the server and its operation, I'm having a hard time understanding what has changed other than the registrant details which were presumably changed by the incumbent owner of the domain.

The person now in control of the domain can redirect it at any point shutting down the site if I do not agree to their demands.

QuoteThe person now in control of the domain can redirect it at any point shutting down the site if I do not agree to their demands.

But isn't this the same person who always had control of the domain?

Seems like the domain was not "hijacked", but rather the owner continued to charge you for use of the domain.

How is this arrangement any different from what you have been doing thus far? Isn't that where the donation and subscription money went for the past year?

Cathy the situation has changed and is quite fluid. There is a distinct possibility that the site may close for some time if the person controlling the domain decides to redirect it.
It's not in our interest to go into detail here at the moment.

Oh God.Hopefully the site doesn't go down,that's the only support many including I,receive.

That could be evidence against this site,Jo.

True
Sorry I'm just seeing red at the moment. Please forgive my earlier outburst.

No problem

Couldn't you just register something like susansplace.org and direct that to your server,  so if susans.org. Goes down, it will still be active on a new url, if you have the actual server? it would also show them that there is no chance of extorting money and make them more likely to leave you alone.  I have actually been caught in the middle of something similar and it was resolved without legal,  through the 3rd party service provider after a bit of backward and forwarding.

Wouldn't she lose all profiles and such

No,  all content is on the server,  whoever controls *that* really controls the site.  The domain name is just where you find it.

The site would remain unchanged, just the url would be different.  The problem though is that it would take some time for Google to catch up.

I had a friend who had to change URL's for his business.  It's a pain and should be avoided if possible, but it is an option.

It also sends a clear message: if you push this you are still not going to get anything as we will just change name.  If it were me I would register the second domain now and make a post that says "if susans.org goes down we will see you all at.... Org"  and sticky it. Then work on making sure the second domain works OK.

Quote from: kira21 ♡♡♡ on January 06, 2015, 06:07:14 PM
It also sends a clear message: if you push this you are still not going to get anything as we will just change name.  If it were me I would register the second domain now and make a post that says "if susans.org goes down we will see you all at.... Org"  and sticky it. Then work on making sure the second domain works OK.

That's what I would do too. Rather than deal with some stupid douche nozzle.

Lets all calm down, Susan is very aware of the problem and is working to overcome it.

I don't think we are helping anyone in anyway with speculation. For practical reasons it is not something we want to go into public detail at the moment.

But if you can subscribe or donate it sure would help.

I agree,Cindy.