This event seems to have been triggered from abuse complaints - and involved the registrar not reaching out to the client in question.
Curiously enough, I had a very similar incident with Namecheap last week: an unsubstantiated email (without subpoena, judge's order, or even validation of who actually sent the email) - was sent to namecheap abuse /alleging/ (correct, no proof) trademark infringement.
Namecheap rolled over and provided all information to the third party - and didn't bother to inform me of the incident. The only way I found out was a menacing legal letter using the address that I have on file at namecheap.
If Namecheap doesn't respect due process (ie, requiring legal documents to turn over customer information) or customer privacy (Hi, we have just had to turn over information) - on a 10+ year customer, I'm not sure that you're in a better position than Terra.
Severely disappointed with you guys.
This company literally has 0 morals and doesn't care about making sure people are treated right. Also, good luck getting through their regular support. It's straight from a script with 0 deviations.
Can you shoot me an email? ted [at] namecheap.com
Is the problem systematic?
"Upon the receipt of a valid criminal subpoena, unless the circumstances or subpoena warrant otherwise, Namecheap may promptly notify the customer whose information is sought via email or U.S. mail"
Two things seem unclear:
1) The phrase "unless the circumstances or subpoena warrant otherwise"
2) The use of "may" in "may promptly notify the customer". Why is that not "shall" or "must"?
I run a forum site with MILLIONS of visitors and about 5,000 TB of traffic per month. Namecheap.com suddenly sent me a link warning that they will suspend my domain completely within 24 hours, if I did not delete two problem images (which were inappropriate/troublesome images but in the context of the forum posts, "a very poor attempt at humor"). I deleted the images and avoided being suspended, but the way they threatened to suspend my domain due to two images was ridiculous. If I missed the warning email or checked my email after 24 hours they would have completely suspended my domain. I'm talking about a site with MILLIONS of visitors per month and ten thousands of posts per day, not some small blog.
They may be suitable for some blog, but I can now say to NEVER use them for any enterprise site.
"Upon the receipt of a valid civil subpoena, Namecheap will promptly notify the customer whose information is sought via email or U.S. mail. If the circumstances do not amount to an emergency, Namecheap will not immediately produce the customer information sought by the subpoena and will provide the customer an opportunity to move to quash the subpoena in court. Namecheap reserves the right to charge an administration fee to the customer by charging the customer’s Namecheap account."