Re: [ga] keeping expired domains by a registrar

[Joop Teernstra <terastra@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 02:51 a.m. 9/04/2007, Prophet Partners Inc. wrote:

> Expired domains are essentially abandoned property.

Not always. There are a variety of real-life reasons that can cause 
inadvertent expiration.
Say, a registrar normally debits a credit card for auto-renewal, but the 
card expires at the wrong moment. Sickness, administrative snafu's, 
registration by a third party who disappears, unexpected long travel, I 
have heard it all.

> If you fail to pay the
> mortgage, your home gets foreclosed and is auctioned off to someone else.

Now the registration fee becomes a mortgage??

It used to be compared with a property tax, non payment of which , indeed 
can also bring foreclosure and auction, but not without a large number of 
safeguards.

Such safeguards as initially existed for Domain holders, have been eroded 
away by abusive drop script vulture practices. Too often I hear that 
hapless owners are charged extortionate fees to regain their domains.

>  In
> the real world, lotteries only exist for undeveloped public land, not for
> formerly private property. IMO, the current environment for expiring domains
> represents a healthy and competitive market.

Let us see what happens with the Registerfly fallout and the resulting 
"expired" names.  We cannot call trade in essentially stolen domains a 
healthy  market. Practices aiding and abetting extortion even less.



-joop-