Silly? Domain Question

[10x]

Who "owns" a domain name and has ultimate control? Is it the person who paid the bill/domain registrar customer or one of the admin/tech contacts?

Is there a way, that you know of, to maintain control of a domain with someone else paying the bill? 

Weird question/situation.

[Kurt]

If I had to arbitrate this, the first question I'd ask is, "Whose domain is it?" If there's no clear decision based on more info, the receipt is the tie breaker to me. With the receipt as the buyer, the burder of proof shifts to the other person IMO.

I'm not sure how this would be automated, but this is a situation that needs a clearly defined and documented agreement.

[Jeffery]

It is the person who the domain is register to (Domain Registrant). I owned a hosting company and almost all hosts register domain names through enom.com. The terms and conditions are clear in that when a person registers a domain the domain name is registered to the domain registrant regardless who pays for it and the admin contact(s).

You can always go to enom.com for the details.