Re: [ga] Confused by registrar sale of deleting domains...

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My thanks to Danny Younger for his observations in reply to my message:
http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/ga/msg01908.html
concerning Pool and Namescout's practice of offering unrenewed domain names for auction and transfer, which appears to bypass the Redemption Grace principle and (since introduction of EDDP on Dec 21st) appears to be in breach of Namescout's contractual obligation to delete such names, in line with their acceptance of EDDP, as required by all ICANN-accredited registrars with effect from Dec 21st.

Specifically:

Expired Domain Deletion Policy implements the following amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, and requires:

3.7.5.2:  that the registrar must not renew the domain name without the registrant's consent "except in extenuating circumstances"

3.7.5.7: that the domain name must be deleted within 45 days of the termination of the original registration agreement

Furthermore, according to the amended RAA:

3.7.5.7: The registrant retains the right under the existing redemption grace period provisions to recover the name at any time during the Redemption Grace Period, and retains the right to renew the name before it is deleted.

I therefore call on Tim Cole to require that Namescout adhere to the RAA and the EDDP with immediate effect, both in the case of the three domain names I have cited and in the case of all other domains which they are currently offering or intend in future to offer for sale by auction through Pool.com or elsewhere.

I take the view, and I assume ICANN does too, that ICANN-accredited registrars are obliged to adhere to their Agreements with ICANN and the terms of the EDDP. Moreover, I take the view that when a domain name expires, it becomes available again to the general public *at Registry level* and cannot be retained by a registrar except under "extenuating circumstances".

I am mailing Tim Cole separately, in his capacity as ICANN-Registrar Liaison, but I hope he may see fit to respond on this mailing list as well.

At stake is the integrity of the EDDP, which is NOW in effect. Also at stake is the right of all other registrars to have "right of access" to expired domains when they are released and (rightly) become available for registration again via the appropriate Registry. In my opinion - and I shall put this to Bhavin Turakhia in his capacity as Chair of the Registrars constituency - the contravention of the EDDP and RAA in this way damages the rights and business of all other registrars.

Either we have an ordered system to which all parties comply, or we have chaos and "anything goes". Is EDDP already dead, just 2 days after it began?

Sincerely,

Richard Henderson