Not really. Just some stupid registrars start serving junk sites when the domain is not renewed. This should be outlawed. Imagine not paying your phone bill and the telco starts serving ads when people call you and puts your number on an auction if you don't pay within 40 days. This is obscene and all this is because possibly registries pay big bucks under the table to ICANN!
That's really terrible. I hope they can get their domain back soon.
It looks like he renewed the domain and all is good!