[ga] RE: ICANN Board Recommends Action on Domain Tasting

["Dominik Filipp" <dominik.filipp@xxxxxxxx>]

Dear Dr. Twomey,

I have just read the recommended action considered by the ICANN Board on Domain 
Tasting, which is applying the standard ICANN $0.20 fee on re-registration (or 
disproportionate deletes).

I have no idea how the Board has come to this decision, especially, when the 
Domain Tasting issue is still under debate and the policy development process 
has not finished yet. I recall that the issue was first opened by introducing 
the Request for Information on Domain Tasting 10 August 2007 initiated by the 
ALAC and adopted by the GNSO "to form an ad hoc group for further fact-finding 
on the effects of this practice". After gathering the initial information the 
GNSO opened another period for commenting the issue, named GNSO Initial Report 
on Domain Tasting. The commenting period officially finished on 28 Jan. 2008. I 
particularly accent the word "Initial" here as the document in its Conclusions 
and Next Steps on page 24 reads:

"The practice of domain tasting is of significant concern to many 
constituencies and community stakeholders. These concerns have been explored 
for the past several months, as reflected in the Issues Report prepared by 
ICANN staff, and by the extensive research and data gathering conducted by the 
Ad Hoc Group of the GNSO Council and reflected in the Outcomes Report. Based on 
these reports, the GNSO Council has voted to initiate a policy development 
process to explore the specific policy changes that should be made to curb 
domain tasting. This initial report is an early step in this process, and will 
be posted for public comment for 20 days as prescribed by the ICANN bylaws (see 
http://www.icann.org/general/bylaws.htm#AnnexA). Public comments will then be 
incorporated into a "Final Report" by ICANN staff and submitted to the GNSO 
Council Chair within ten calendar days following the end of the public comment 
period. The Final Report (along with the preceding Issues Report and Outcomes 
Report) become the underlying foundation for subsequent actions taken by the 
GNSO Council in formulating recommendations to the ICANN Board regarding policy 
changes that should be made to address domain tasting."

As regards the AGP concept, I again recall that the ICANN community has 
explicitly expressed a desire to eliminate the AGP as it is apparent in the 
straw poll (the online survey) held by 15 Sep. 2007. The result of the survey 
concerning the AGP is summarized on page 16 in Outcomes Report of The GNSO Ad 
Hoc Group On Domain Name Tasting issued on 4 Oct. 2007, and reads:

"110 out of 173 (64%) support suggestion A (eliminating AGP), while 25 (14%) 
prefer suggestion C (registry excess deletion fees charged to registrars for 
disproportionate deletes), 17 (10%) support B (ICANN 0.20 USD charge to apply 
to names deleted within AGP) and 20 (12%) vote for D (neither A, B or C)..."

In other words, the suggestion currently recommended by the Board to consider 
has gained the least support among all other suggestions. As the survey was 
accessible to anyone including representatives from Registries, Registrars, 
Registrants as well as standard Internet users, I consider the result of the 
survey legitimate.
Also the comment contributions in both related mailing lists held on the issue 
so far indicates prevailing interest in the elimination of the AGP.

I therefore cannot find a merit supporting your optimistic words in the 
sentence "This idea came from the ICANN community and we think it is a viable 
solution the Internet community has been seeking". But what I have understood 
of this hurry politely ignoring the legitimate voice is that something is 
baking behind the scenes. Something like ICANN is tending to give in to a sweet 
temptation to tacitly participate on the tasting business. To the detriment of 
the most important part, which are Registrants, and which is the main body 
making bread for ICANN and as such deserving the respective care and advocate.

I, among many others, do not see the re-registration fee an effective solution. 
I elaborated on this in one of my mails sent to the mailing list and pointed 
out some ways how successful tasters could 'recover' from the fee provision and 
keep the business running. Sure, the business will go down but it stays alive 
as a phenomenon using just more subtle methods to survive. Or profit, with all 
the malicious side-effects we know about. I think the best solution is to 
eliminate the problem, not to make it smaller. Moreover, as Karl Auerbach 
pointed out in a mail posted on the mailing list, the AGP concept was never 
properly addressed or discussed before approving the registry agreements. In my 
opinion this means that the credibility of such a concept is rather weak and 
keeping it alive at any price just reveals speculative incentives in mind.
I understand that eliminating the AGP could bring problems, such as typo 
corrections, credit card frauds, etc., but the fact is that the cons extremely 
overweigh the pros. After all, the ways how to overcome these problems can 
still be subject to further discussion during the upcoming policy development 
process.

I would therefore kindly ask you to encourage the GNSO council to fluently and 
peacefully proceed with the policy development process. Any prediction of how 
the solution should look like at the moment is premature and controversial. The 
issue has still to be carefully broken down and properly discussed. Maybe now, 
under the new leadership, we could find courage to take a deep breath and set 
out the right direction.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Dominik Filipp, a General Assembly List member
 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
GNSO.SECRETARIAT@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 8:13 AM
To: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ga] ICANN Board Recommends Action on Domain Tasting

[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/announcements/announcement-29jan08.htm
ICANN Board Recommends Action on Domain Tasting

Suggested fee change would effectively eliminate tasting

29 January 2008

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers 
is looking to effectively end domain tasting with a proposal to start charging 
the annual ICANN fee on registrar domain registrations.

Domain tasting is the use of the Add Grace Period to test the profitability of 
a domain name registration. The AGP is a five-day period following the initial 
registration of a domain name when the registration may be deleted and a credit 
can be issued to a registrar.

"Domain tasting has been an issue for the Internet community and ICANN is 
offering this proposal as a way to stop tasting," said Dr Paul Twomey, ICANN's 
President and CEO. "Charging the ICANN fee as soon as a domain name is 
registered would close the loophole used by tasters to test a domain name's 
profitability for free."

AGP was originally introduced by registries so registrars could avoid costs if 
a domain name was mistyped or misspelled during the registration process. It is 
part of the .com, .net, .org, .info, .name, .pro, and .biz registry contracts.

Tasting has been a serious challenge for the Internet community and has grown 
exponentially since 2004. In January 2007 the top 10 domain tasters accounted 
for 95% of all deleted .com and .net domain names - or
45,450,897 domain names out of 47,824,131 total deletes.

The proposal will be part of the ICANN budget process for the fiscal year 
starting 1 July 2008. The early draft version of that budget will be released 
for and discussed at ICANN's New Delhi meeting later this month. After public 
discussions of this proposal and other budget issues, the proposed budget will 
be released for addition discussions by
17 May 2008 and be voted on at the board meeting to be held during the ICANN 
meeting in Paris in June. ICANN accredited registrars representing two-thirds 
of fees collected will be asked to approve the proposal.

"This idea came from the ICANN community and we think it is a viable solution 
the Internet community has been seeking," Dr Twomey added.
--
Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat - ICANN
gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org
http://gnso.icann.org