[council] RE: Draft Agenda for Council meeting Thursday 13 January 2005

["Bruce Tonkin" <Bruce.Tonkin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I will add it as an item 6 on the agenda.
 
Regards,
Bruce
 


________________________________

        From: Philip Sheppard [mailto:philip.sheppard@xxxxxx] 
        Sent: Thursday, 6 January 2005 12:49 AM
        To: Bruce Tonkin
        Cc: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Subject: Draft Agenda for Council meeting Thursday 13 January
2005
        
        


        Bruce, would you be kind enough to table this resolution for the
13 January Council meeting on behalf of the BC? 

        Issue - Re-selling of valuable deleted domain names in a
secondary market 

        The typical model for selling deleted TLDs is first-come
first-served and this works well for ordinary names where the profit to
registries and registrars is small and similar.  But it does not work
for special names where the domain name equity is much higher, either
because the name has perceived value, or there is a desirable level of
associated traffic with the name. A secondary market has grown up to
remarket the names. Some names are bought for speculative resell; others
because they have traffic still active and are resold to redirect the
traffic to other, sometimes undesirable, sites. This market has created
a new business opportunity for registrars and a problem for the
registries. Certain registrars are "slaming" the registries with
automated requests for desirable names. Because the present system
provides equal access to all registrars, some registrars have created
new ICANN accredited daughter registrars whose sole purpose is to
request deleted names - thus increasing the chance for the parent
registrar to get desirable names.  This massive set of requests is
affecting the ability of the registrars to manage their existing bona
fide business efficiently. This impacts on stability. The implication of
these new types of ICANN accredited registrars needs to be assessed.

        Proposal 
        Council needs to investigate the issue fully and so should
consider the need for a PDP with a request for ICANN staff to write an
issues report.

        Draft resolution 
        Whereas the re-selling of certain deleted or expiring names has
lead to unforeseen strains on the ability of registries and registrars
to manage their business efficiently,

        Whereas this affects the service level provided to users and the
meaning of ICANN accredited as it applies to registrars,

        Council resolves, 
        to request the ICANN staff manager to write an issues report (as
specified in annex A to the ICANN by-laws) on the "Re-selling of
valuable deleted/expiring domain names in a secondary market", so that
Council can subsequently decide if a policy development process would be
appropriate.



        Many thanks 
        Philip 

        PS I am open to friendly amendments to improve the wording of
the resolution should this help clarity.