Domain registrar Network Solutions has come under fire this week for what some believe is "domain name frontrunning." The practice resulted in Network Solutions registering a previously-unregistered domain to itself immediately after someone searched for it, then holding the domain for four days before it could be purchased by someone else or at another registrar. But the company claims that it's merely trying to protect customers from others doing exactly that. Until there is more regulation over frontrunning from ICANN, this is the best it can come up with.

News circulated about Network Solutions' controversial practice over the weekend and built momentum throughout the week, as the company gained more and more bad press. Critics said that Network Solutions was holding domains hostage—the policy forced people to become Network Solutions customers instead of being able to go to another registrar after searching for domain availability.

Network Solutions, however, insists that this is not the case. In a statement sent to CircleID, Network Solutions VP of Policy Jonathon Nevett described the new policy as a "security measure" meant to protect customers. He acknowledged that the company does, indeed, put a hold on the domain name after a search is performed and reserves it for four days, but that if a customer searches for the same domain within that time at networksolutions.com, it will be available to register. After the four days is up, the domain is released.

"This protection measure provides our customers the opportunity to register domains they have previously searched without the fear that the name will be already taken through Front Running," Nevett wrote. "Some folks may not agree with our approach, but we are trying to prevent this malicious activity from impacting our customers."

Of course, this doesn't exactly explain away the hostage accusations (after all, people can only register that domain through Network Solutions during the four-day period after their search), nor does the company have any documentation on its site about the policy. But CEO Champ Mitchell told IDG yesterday that change was coming, and that it was "looking into" a feature that would allow users to choose whether they want the domain to be held or not. Mitchell added that if ICANN would do something to help cut down "real" frontrunning, registrars like Network Solutions wouldn't have to pull stunts like this. "We would be perfectly happy to end this process if ICANN or the registries would do something to protect small businesses or other small users," he said.

In October, ICANN announced that it had begun an investigation into accusations over insider frontrunning, asking for feedback from the community and submissions of more evidence of frontrunning. At the time, ICANN recognized the lack of regulation covering domain name frontrunning, and made it clear that a stronger set of standards needed to be established within the registrar community.