OT: .ca registry, .ca registrars, and domain "backordering"

[marthter]

Hey all,

Anyone have experience getting domains away from domain squatters?

For the past two years plus this year, I've been watching a particular 
.ca domain, which expires around Nov 20 each year, and thus goes to "to 
be released" status around Dec 20 each year.

For the previous two years it has been renewed by the same registrar, 
some time in the 24 hours before - or the day of - the release on CIRA, 
or maybe even just after the release but before I could try and get it 
(which, other years, was a matter of hours).  After each renewal the 
whois has shown only the registrar, expert.ca (not the registrant) which 
from googling seems to be a common domain squatter and/or kiter (and 
their web presence is clearly not retail-oriented: "already existing 
customers only login").

And the web page on the domain itself has been pure link farm, and not 
even a good link farm - barely mentioning the keyword of the domain name 
itself.  (I've only visited it once each year after failing to get the 
domain, as I don't want his traffic numbers to be any better than 
whatever they are already to suggest it is a "good" domain.)

This year I decided to try pool.com (which is owned by the same parent 
as domainsatcost.ca it seems, momentous.ca) to backorder the domain 
(stated as a $60 charge only if they succeed, and if multiple people 
have backordered it, it goes to a 3 day auction).

Today I watched cira.ca like it was an ebay auction, in case I could 
even scoop it before pool.com got it, repeatedly using cira's whois page 
for the domain in question, plus command line equivalent.  Both methods 
only said "to be released" with today's date.

I also tried my usual registrar's (domainsatcost.ca)'s 
register-new-domain page repeatedly but it repeatedly said "sorry that 
domain isn't available".

First of all, nothing happened in CIRA's stated release time 2:00 - 3:00 
EST (Ottawa time).  Is that normal?

Around 3:20 the whois began showing whoistoolbar.com as the new 
registRAR.  This, based on its own whois, is also another alias for 
namescout.com, another affiliated company of momentous.ca so maybe this 
is just an in-progress registrar used for domains successfully snagged 
for backorderers (me) by pool.com.

However, within minutes after 3:20, it moved from pool.com's "your 
backorders" page, to pool.com's "your auctions" page, already with a $60 
bid by someone else.

So, is pool.com just a bigger, better organized domain kiter than 
expert.ca?  Or are even those two affiliated? (with expert.ca just being 
an anonymized front for anything outside the CIRA rules being done by 
momentous.ca, pool.com, etc)?

This is starting to seem like small claims court, where the real normal 
person just can't hope to win or even navigate the process without being 
a lawyer in the first place.

Can anyone shed light on this?

Was it a mistake to put it into pool.com?  have I now just verified for 
the squatter that it is a decent domain and now they will never let it 
expire?

Should I bid $61?  (I _DO_ rather want the domain, to at least that 
degree) or is it just a sham and bidding anything (just like clicking on 
spamvertisements) only encourages the practice further?

Grrr.

Martin

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