Did Someone Let Cm.com Drop and Who Owns it?

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The rare two letter domain name Cm.com appears to have dropped back 2013.

The last record for the domain according to DomainTools.com is from May 2013:

Record Date: 2013-05-01
Registrar: DOMAIN.COM, LLC
Server: whois.domain.com
Created: 1997-05-20
Updated: 2013-04-28
Expires: 2020-05-21

Can’t get information on local domain CM.COM””

According to Screenshots.com the domain was in use as a parking page most recently back in December 2010.

Unlike other two letter domain names that recently dropped like hd.tv, the registry is not showing as having the domain name reserved.

Here is how the whois record of Hd.tv looks:

Domain Name: HD.TV
Domain ID: 108845160
Updated Date: 2014-02-02T04:12:39Z
Creation Date: 2014-02-02T04:12:39Z
Expiration Date: 2024-02-02T04:12:39Z
Sponsoring Registrar: .TV RESERVED DOMAINS
Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 9998
Domain Status: SERVER-UPDATE-PROHIBITED
Name Server: No nameserver
DNSSEC: Unsigned delegation

The whois records on Cm.com shows the domain is being available for registration.

 

Screen Shot 2014-02-07 at 10.16.56 AM

However the domain name cannot be registered:

 

Screen Shot 2014-02-07 at 10.26.40 AM

The registrant of this domain appears to be a  Satoshi Shimoshita of ,Koto-ku Tokyo who may have owned the domain since 1997 before allowing the domain to drop.

Not sure what the deal is.

Have no idea how someone can let a two letter domain name drop.

I also have no idea of how come the domain is not showing this as a reserved domain name.

 

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

Comments

  3. AronM says

    Yep, as George said:

    Once a two letter .com expires, it’s gone forever. Sad.
    Keep an eye on those renewal dates!

    Aron

  7. jose says

    someone enter on his account and deleted the domain. seems simple 🙂

    registries are snagging 2 character domains across extensions. once they drop, they keep them.

  11. Steven Sikes says

    Toho owns over 1000 premium domains. His office is in Tokyo, but he spends a lot of time in the Mekong Delta area and Saigon. I hope he is OK. Very nice person.

  14. Andrea Paladini says

    Mike,
    I also noticed that, before the article on DNW was published.
    In Oct 2013 I sent ICANN a formal info request and I got the same answer as Andrew.
    As far as I know CM.com was probably hacked and then arbitrary deleted by the registrar.
    Personally I’d have sued both the registrar and ICANN for much less.
    Please see below all the email exchange between me and ICANN:

    MY REQUEST:
    “The problem summary

    Reporter Name: Andrea Paladini
    Reporter Email: ***********************
    Reporter Organization:
    Reporter Telephone Number: ******************
    Domain being reported: cm.com

    Time of submission/processing: Wed Oct 16 00:56:48 2013

    Complaint type: Whois access/service unavailable (Port43 access)

    Description: Dear Sirs,
    I’m contacting you to submit the case of a domain whose WHOIS states “deleted and available again” (checked on DomainTools) since several months already, but weirdly unavailable for registration.
    When I try to register it, it says that the domain is already taken.
    I’ve double checked with Internic.net and Verisign and it says “No match for domain “CM.COM”. >>> Last update of whois database: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 00:39:09 UTC <<<".
    The domain in question is CM.com, which is a type of domain which has never been reserved by ICANN.
    I'm interested in registering it if it's available, so I'd be glad if you could kindly let me know why the WHOIS is unavailable, if the domains is available to register and, if not, who is the owner and what are his WHOIS contacts.
    Since, as you say, "if the search results show the domain name was 'not found', this is an indicator the domain name is no longer registered", I'd like to know why I'm not able to register it.
    If needed, I will ask my IP lawyers to officially support my request and to verify if any violation has been occurred in this case.
    Thanks in advance.
    Best regards.

    Andrea Paladini

    ICANN REPLY:
    "Da: ICANN Compliance [mailto:compliance-tickets@icann.org]
    Inviato: Thursday, October 17, 2013 10:02 PM
    A: apaladini@mail.com
    Oggetto: [~PVV-645-57256]: WHOIS UNAVAILABLE Data Problem Report on: cm.com

    Dear Andrea Paladini,

    Thank you for submitting a Whois unavailable complaint.

    ICANN reviewed and closed your complaint because it does not meet the criteria for a valid Whois unavailable complaint. Specifically, your complaint was closed because the domain name mentioned in your complaint (cm.com) is a two-character second level domain. According to Appendix 6, Section B, of the Registry Agreement for .com (available at http://www.icann.org/en/about/agreements/registries/com/appendix-06-01dec12-en.htm) all two-character labels shall be initially reserved. Reserved domain names are not for sale, registration or transfer. The reservation of a two-character label string shall be released to the extent that the Registry Operator reaches agreement with the government and country-code manager, or the ISO 3166 maintenance agency, whichever appropriate. The Registry Operator may also propose release of these reservations based on its implementation of measures to avoid confusion with the corresponding country codes.

    If you have reason to believe that your complaint should not be closed, please forward your copy of this e-mail, along with any other relevant information, to ICANN Contractual Compliance at compliance@icann.org. ICANN will review your submission and, if appropriate, forward it to the registrar to ensure compliance.

    Sincerely,

    ICANN Contractual Compliance

    MY ADDITIONAL REQUEST/COMPLAINT:

    "Dear Sirs,
    I guess you were referring to this: http://www.icann.org/en/about/agreements/registries/verisign/appendix-06-01mar06-en.htm
    The link you provided didn’t work.
    Appendix 6 says that “All two-character labels shall be initially reserved. The reservation of a two-character label string shall be released to the extent that the Registry Operator reaches agreement with the government and country-code manager, or the ISO 3166 maintenance agency, whichever appropriate. The Registry Operator may also propose release of these reservations based on its implementation of measures to avoid confusion with the corresponding country codes.”
    It says that “All two-character labels shall be initially reserved”, but the majority of them are now owned by companies or private entities, which means they were released to the general public, as suggested by the above-mentioned ICANN rule and as shown, e.g., also on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-letter_second-level_domain (I know, sometimes Wikipedia is not reliable, but this is not the case).
    The fact is that the domain in question, cm.com, was owned by one or more private entity or companies, as suggested, among other evidences, by the following old WHOIS:
    Registrant:
    Satoshi Shimoshita
    1-12-3-304,Furuishiba,Koto-ku
    Tokyo, Tokyo 1350045
    JP
    Registrar: 000DOM
    Domain Name: CM.COM
    Created on: 20-MAY-97
    Expires on: 21-MAY-20
    Last Updated on: 21-FEB-12
    Administrative, Technical Contact:
    Shimoshita, Satoshi toho@hcm.vnn.vn
    Satoshi Shimoshita
    1-12-3-304,Furuishiba,Koto-ku
    Tokyo, Tokyo 1350045
    JP
    +81.336301881
    Domain servers in listed order:
    FWNS1.000DOMAINS.COM
    FWNS2.000DOMAINS.COM
    End of Whois Information

    Or this one:

    Domain Services Provided By:
    000domains, support@000domains.com
    http://www.000domains.com

    Registrant:
    Satoshi Shimoshita
    1-12-3-304,Furuishiba,Koto-ku
    Tokyo, Tokyo 1350045
    JP

    Registrar: 000DOM
    Domain Name: CM.COM
    Created on: 20-MAY-97
    Expires on: 21-MAY-12
    Last Updated on: 05-AUG-06

    Administrative, Technical Contact:
    Shimoshita, Satoshi toho@hcm.vnn.vn
    Satoshi Shimoshita
    1-12-3-304,Furuishiba,Koto-ku
    Tokyo, Tokyo 1350045
    JP
    +81.336301881

    Domain servers in listed order:
    FWNS1.000DOMAINS.COM
    FWNS2.000DOMAINS.COM

    End of Whois Information

    Another “curious” thing is that Mr Shimoshita was involved in some cases of “domain hacking”, when some of his domains were allegedly stolen from his account, as you can check for example here: http://www.domainstate.com/warning-forum-23/knit-com-i-had-this-domain-stolen-66365.html
    That means that cm.com was not initially reserved, since it was originally registered in 1997 and that probably it was withdrawn from the market later on and/or seized to its previous owner.
    I think it’s unlikely that the old owner/s let the domain drop, since this is a super premium domain and one of the previous owners, or maybe the only previous owner of cm.com, Mr Shimoshita, as far as I see, is a veteran domainer who owns other high-quality names like um.com, trc.com, etc.
    I’m not accusing anyone at the moment, but it seems that probably someone here has been “stripped” of this domain and/or that someone is trying not to release this domain again to the general public, for some reasons.
    If ICANN is keeping the name for itself and the reason for not releasing it to the general public is that of “avoid confusion with the corresponding country codes”, which in this case could be .cm (Cameroon country code), I think you should consider that .cm is probably the country code with the worst reputation worldwide, as confirmed, among others, by McAfee's third annual "Mapping the Mal Web" report and by some US top IP attorneys (http://www.circleid.com/posts/nation_of_cameroon_typosquats_com_space/).
    All these factors seem showing that the withdrawal from the market of cm.com, if occurred, is at least unjustified, if not motivated by some at the moment “unclear” reasons or interests.
    I look forward to hearing from you.
    Thanks in advance.
    Best regards.

    Andrea Paladini

    ICANN SECOND REPLY:

    "Dear Andrea Paladini,

    Thank you for your patience while ICANN processed your registry complaint.

    Please note that the domain name you are referring to is a two-letter code at the second level that falls within the definition of domain names that must be initially reserved per Appendix 6, Reserved Names, of dot com's registry agreement. In addition, as of to date, the Whois search reveals that there is "no match for 'CM.COM'." Therefore, as stated on 17 October 2013, ICANN considers this matter closed.

    Sincerely,

    ICANN Contractual Compliance

  15. Andrea Paladini says

    UPDATE:
    Today I’ve got a second (different) answer (to the same complaint!) from ICANN about this matter:
    Please find it below:

    “Dear Andrea Paladini,
    Thank you for submitting a Registry Other complaint concerning the top-level domain name .com. ICANN has reviewed and closed your complaint because:
    – This complaint is outside of the scope of the registry’s Registry Agreement.
    ICANN considers this matter now closed. If you require future assistance, please submit a new complaint to ICANN at http://www.icann.org/resources/compliance/complaints .
    Please do not reply to this email (replies to closed complaints are not monitored by ICANN staff).
    ICANN is requesting your feedback on this closed complaint. Please complete this optional survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8F2Z6DP .
    Sincerely,
    ICANN Contractual Compliance”

  16. Andrea Paladini says

    UPDATE on the CM.com case.
    Suddenly, today, the domain looked registered to CSC CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC. , which probably is representing someone else …
    What happened here? why the domain was suddenly released to the market? to whom?
    Mike, do you have any clue about what could have happened here?
    Below you can see the current WHOIS:

    Domain Name: cm.com
    Registry Domain ID: 1896346390_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
    Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.corporatedomains.com
    Registrar URL: http://www.cscprotectsbrands.com
    Updated Date: 2015-01-16T20:32:42Z
    Creation Date: 2015-01-16T19:52:55Z
    Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2016-01-16T19:52:55Z
    Registrar: CSC CORPORATE DOMAINS, INC.
    Sponsoring Registrar IANA ID: 299
    Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
    Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.8887802723
    Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited http://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
    Registry Registrant ID:
    Registrant Name: Domain Registrar
    Registrant Organization: Corporation Service Company
    Registrant Street: 2711 Centerville Road
    Registrant City: Wilmington
    Registrant State/Province: DE
    Registrant Postal Code: 19808
    Registrant Country: US
    Registrant Phone: +1.3026365400
    Registrant Phone Ext:
    Registrant Fax: +1.3026365454
    Registrant Fax Ext:
    Registrant Email:
    Registry Admin ID:
    Admin Name: Domain Registrar
    Admin Organization: Corporation Service Company
    Admin Street: 2711 Centerville Road
    Admin City: Wilmington
    Admin State/Province: DE
    Admin Postal Code: 19808
    Admin Country: US
    Admin Phone: +1.3026365400
    Admin Phone Ext:
    Admin Fax: +1.3026365454
    Admin Fax Ext:
    Admin Email:
    Registry Tech ID:
    Tech Name: Domain Registrar
    Tech Organization: Corporation Service Company
    Tech Street: 2711 Centerville Road
    Tech City: Wilmington
    Tech State/Province: DE
    Tech Postal Code: 19808
    Tech Country: US
    Tech Phone: +1.3026365400
    Tech Phone Ext:
    Tech Fax: +1.3026365454
    Tech Fax Ext:
    Tech Email:
    Name Server: ns1.dnslink.com
    Name Server: ns2.dnslink.com
    DNSSEC:
    URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/

  17. jose says

    i love icann replies and their lack of knowledge of their own rules. and when confronted with inconsistencies and their policy rules they go silent.

    aren’t they accountable to anyone? if I were in the US i would be suing this guys all over the place.

  18. cmac says

    it looks like ‘reserved’ two letter .com’s are for sale to those with huge pockets. icann, you so damn shady.