LunarPages poaching customer traffic.

[RiverRat]

Yesterday, Lunarpages.com shared webhosting customers found that the default apache 404 error pages had been replaced with pages that that showed a phony search this site form and a list of favorite links, that both led to a link farms sponsored advertising. The page used the domain name repeatedly in the content to indicate that the domain owner was endorsing these links. Complaints about the issue were answered with "create your own custom pages if you do not like ours". How can a hosting company get away with the unauthorized use of a registered domain name in this way?

[freezoka]

It may not be unauthorized - Lunarpages users should check the TOS to see what it says on this subject.

I will let you know that GoDaddy and several other registrars/hosts do this, so it is not uncommon practice.

[kate1]

Have seen other hosts do that and lots of registrars do that. It is not unusual. Pretty darn easy to create custom error pages in most control panels or manually even.

[RiverRat]

Its not so much the page itself that infuriates me, it is the use of the domain name for advertising. Yes, error pages are easy to implement but many users were perfectly happy with the apache default pages, so did not implement custom error pages. As there was no notification to customers, the majority of users have not even become aware of the issue.

[nobu]

Other hosts & lots of registrars have that in their TOS. I chose HostGator knowing full well this is the case:

http://support.hostgator.com/index.p...&kbarticleid=2

As far as I can see, I just reviewed Lunar, nothing is in documented. I think the bigger issue here (been reading forum posts this morning, this is intriguing!) is what rights a host may or may not have with the domains.

Domains are (seemingly) private property, I'm no legal expert, but unless the domain owner violates acceptable use policy, or it's in the TOS, it's hands-off by the host. This could be very bad news for Lunarpages.

[kooshin.com]

oh that is a pretty bad thing specially for Lunar since they have a decent reputation.Have You tried contacting them? But since they say "if you don't like ours then make your own" is a clear answer of saying we have the right to put what we want in the default pages since we give the customer the right to make his own custom error pages.


That is how I can translate this.

[freezoka]

Its not so much the page itself that infuriates me, it is the use of the domain name for advertising. Yes, error pages are easy to implement but many users were perfectly happy with the apache default pages, so did not implement custom error pages. As there was no notification to customers, the majority of users have not even become aware of the issue.

Then, if they are not aware of the issue, do you think it really bothers them?

[RiverRat]

Oh yes, when users find out that Lunarpages is driving traffic to competing sites advising the viewer that the domain name owner considers these links as being their favorites, I expect they will be seriously upset. When they find out that a search this site form returns not results from their site but instead sponsored ads, that are often for competitive sites, they can be expected to scream bloody murder. As customers are finding out, they are coming to LP's forums and raising the roof. LP is deleting the posts from their forum just about as soon as they appear.

[freezoka]

<snip>LP is deleting the posts from their forum just about as soon as they appear.</snip>

Now, that's pretty unethical. I am sorry to see they are doing that - I thought they were a better host than that.

[nobu]

I found this on Lunarpages, I don't think it was there earlier today as I actually reviewed their TOS before posting:

". In an effort to help create the best possible user experience we have created a series of content sensitive error pages which are displayed in the event any user enters an erroneous URL for any activated domain name within the Lunarpages server structure. You may use our error page at no extra charge and you hereby grant to Lunarpages a limited, non-exclusive license to use any right you may have in any mark consisting of, derivative of or related to the domain name for the purpose of displaying such error pages under your domain name or any sub-page thereof in the event that for any reason your page fails to resolve or does not exist. Such error pages may at the option of lunarpages contain links to your domain, to Lunarpages or to any other site or service. At any time, you may choose to disable the Lunarpages error pages by selecting a different message to display for errors within your Domain under your control pannel."