[council] 281,000 Domains to be Transferred from EstDomains to Directi

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

[To: council[at]gnso.icann.org; liaison6c[at]gnso.icann.org]
[To: ga[at]gnso.icann.org; announce[at]gnso.icann.org]
[To: regional-liaisons[at]icann.org]

http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-25nov08-en.htm
281,000 Domains to be Transferred from EstDomains to Directi

25 November 2008

An estimated 281,000 domain names held by EstDomains will be transferred to 
ICANN-accredited registrar Directi Internet Solutions following the termination 
of EstDomains' registrar accreditation yesterday.

Customers of EstDomains will be contacted directly by Directi and receive 
notice of the transfer plus instructions for continued management of their 
names. There will be no cost to the registrants for this transfer.

EstDomains was informed on 28 October 2008 that ICANN was terminating the 
company's accreditation due to its president's conviction for credit card 
fraud, money laundering and document forgery. ICANN stayed that termination 
following correspondence with EstDomains. However, after further investigation, 
ICANN decided to go ahead with the termination, effective yesterday, 24 
November 2008.

In accordance with the De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure, ICANN put 
out a request for statements of interest from registrars interested in 
receiving a bulk transfer of the names formerly managed by EstDomains.

As part of that procedure, EstDomains is permitted to designate a gaining 
registrar. It chose to use that option and identified ICANN-accredited 
registrar Directi. ICANN reviewed that request and approved it.

Registrants with names registered through EstDomains should contact Directi for 
customer service. Directi has set up a specific webpage to deal with the 
transfer, available at: http://directi.com/estbulktransfer. Also below are 
answers to some common questions regarding the bulk transfer.

Related links:

Contact information on the transfer from Directi: 
http://directi.com/estbulktransfer
ICANN decision to continue with termination of EstDomains (12 Nov): 
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-12nov08-en.htm
ICANN decision to stay termination following correspondence with EstDomains (29 
Oct): http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-29oct08-en.htm
ICANN notice of termination of EstDomains (28 Oct): 
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-28oct08-en.htm
De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure: 
http://www.icann.org/en/processes/registrars/de-accredited-registrar-transition-procedure-01oct08.pdf
Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy: 
http://www.icann.org/en/transfers/policy-12jul04.htm
Q&A

Q. Why did ICANN authorize the bulk transfer?
A. EstDomains' Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) was terminated by ICANN 
due to RAA compliance issues. As a result, EstDomains is no longer permitted to 
register or manage gTLD registrations. In order to protect the customers of 
EstDomains, ICANN initiated that De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure 
and determined that the bulk transfer would promote the community interest.

Q. Will Directi attempt to contact the affected registrants? What should 
current/former EstDomains customers do?
A. Former customers of EstDomains should receive a notice of the transfer and 
instructions for continued management of their names from Directi. Affected 
customers who do not receive notices from Directi should contact Directi 
directly, using the control panel provided at 
http://directi.com/estbulktransfer.

Q. Do registrants have to pay a fee for the bulk transfer?
A. No, there is no cost to registrants for the bulk transfer. Unlike a normal 
inter-registrar transfer, the registration terms will not be extended by a 
year. Accordingly, it is important to contact Directi if your registration will 
expire soon in order to maintain your registration.

Q. When will the transfer begin?
A. Today. ICANN has acted as soon as possible after the termination date and 
after all the transition procedures have been followed.

Q. When will the bulk transfer take place?
A. The affected registries have already begun taking steps to effectuate the 
bulk transfer. The process is expected to be complete by 1 December 2008.

Q. How will the domain registrant data be handled?
A. EstDomains will provide the full registrant details to Directi. In the event 
there are any issues with the data, ICANN has a full backup of the data through 
its data escrow system.

Q. What if former EstDomains customers want to use a different registrar?
A. Registrants will continue to be able to transfer their registrations to 
other registrars under the Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (see 
http://www.icann.org/en/transfers/). Note that Directi may deny transfers for 
the first 60 days following the bulk transfer, at Directi's discretion. This 
60-day period is permissible under the Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy, and is 
intended to help protect registrants. Names that will expire during the first 
60 days following the transfer to Directi should be renewed by the registrant 
by contacting Directi using the control panel provided at 
http://directi.com/estbulktransfer.

Q. How will EstDomains customers know if an email message purportedly from 
Directi is legitimate?
A. For general advice about avoiding phishing email messages, you may wish to 
refer to the materials prepared by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (see 
http://www.antiphishing.org/consumer_recs.html). If you believe a message 
purportedly from Directi is not legitimate, you should navigate to their web 
page directly, at http://directi.com/estbulktransfer.
This file last modified 25-Nov-2008

Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat
gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://gnso.icann.org