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[mathornt]

I work with triangle beagle rescue of nc (TBR).  one of the founders quit just recently.  she tried to take the web site with her.  we were able to get the user account for the web site from her through the web hosting company, but they could not give us ownership of the URL (www.tribeagles.org) because it was registered with a different hosting company.  after talking to that company, we were told she registered it as a personal account and the only way we could have the ownership changed was if she transferred it herself.  TBR paid for the registration from its own bank account, but we were told that didnt matter.  also, directly under her name is the name of our organization in the registration paperwork.  we were told that doesnt matter either, because she registered it as a personal account and not a business account.

What does it mean to own a user account, but not own the URL itself?  

Do we have any recourse to get the URL?

The URL has been used since its beginning to work for the rescue itself and was not ever used as a personal account to my knowledge.

[M. Arthur Auslander]

Dear Mathornt,
E arly L egal A dvice I s N ot E xpensive™, The earlier you think things out, the easier it is to be ready to act when there is a problem. That is a Reality Check®.
It is probably easier to just start over again, CLEAN but aware as to what you want, what you want to acheive and how to go about it.
In many cases the answer may be to quit and find another path.

M. Arthur Auslander
Auslander & Thomas-Intellectual Property Law Since 1909
3008 Johnson Ave., New York, NY 10463
7185430266, aus@auslander.com
ELAINE's Workshop®
E arly L egal A dvice I s N ot E xpensive™
Reality Check®

[tabberone]

Have you tried contacting her?  Maybe offering a small amount of money for the name?

Sometimes problems can be resolved with conversation.  

[JimIvey]

To take a stab at answering your questions directly, I'm guessing that a "user account" refers to your hosting service and the domain name is a name that points to your hosted site.

In paying for a hosting service, you're paying someone to designate an IP address to a location in their server which contains documents you provide.

For example, my hosting service allows people to see my documents at this address: http://130.94.179.33/  I pay for some space and connectivity and put my documents there.

The domain name is a separate service.  You pay someone to maintain a record in a database that translates a name (like www.iveylaw.com) to an IP address (like http://130.94.179.33/).

Those two services can be maintained separately.  And, it appears they are maintained separately in your case.

How to get the domain name back....  tabberone is right, try talking to the disgruntled party.  If you want to go strictly legal (flexing your legal muscle) and you have a registered trademark, you might ask around about the anticybersquatting law and/or procedures for having domains specific to your registered trademark transferred to you without the coopperation of the current owner.  I don't do those, but somebody out there does.

Good luck!