Was there some sort of assurance that nothing was going to happen when the contract expired, and this expectation was changed? Freenom hasn’t been registering domains since Jan 1.
It’s seeming a little odd to me that this is catching people with their pants down.
A contract expiring and not being renewed is nothing unusual. But it doesn’t automatically mean revocation of all domain names. If A gives B a contract to manage resources and you as C sign a contract with B who is acting in the name A, it doesn’t automatically dissappear if A and B break their arrangement.
Any lawyers to pitch in to confirm if works like that?
It’s common courtesy and maybe a legal obligation to announce such intentions.
C didn’t sign a contract with B. B let C use A’s property for free while B was managing it. The only contract was between A and B for managing their property.
Using a free TLD for anything you wanted to stick around was a terrible idea in the first place.
I’m not a lawyer, but that depends on the contract between A and B.
You can’t prevent a country from revoking all ccTLD domains, if that is what they want to do. Mali probably doesn’t care about the contract, but even if they do, they can just make a new law, any country can claim domains that break their laws.