Policing the .biz namespace

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

In Richard Tindal's 26 June 2006 letter to Paul Twomey
the statement is made:  "We look forward to discussing
the proposed .BIZ agreement with the community,
including Members of the ICANN Board, and responding
to any questions generated during the public comment
period."

As a community member I wish to pose the following
question:  Who has the responsibility for policing the
.biz namespace? 

Proposed contract language stipulates: "The RDRP sets
forth the terms under which any allegation that a
domain name is not used primarily for business or
commercial purposes shall be enforced on a
case-by-case, fact specific basis by an independent
ICANN-accredited dispute provider. None of the
violations of the Restrictions will be enforced
directly by or through Registry Operator. Registry
Operator will not review, monitor, or otherwise verify
that any particular domain name is being used
primarily for business or commercial purposes or that
a domain name is being used in compliance with the
UDRP processes."

This language seems to make it clear that the registry
operator will assume no direct responsibility for
policing the integrity of this namespace.

If a registrant is in violation of the clause, "The
registered domain name will be used
primarily for bona fide business or commercial
purposes and not (i) exclusively for personal use; or
(ii) solely for the purposes of (1) selling, trading
or leasing the domain name for compensation, or (2)
the unsolicited offering to sell, trade or lease the
domain name for compensation", then who will take
responsibility for ensuring that the public interest
is defended by bringing an action to an independent
ICANN-accredited dispute provider?  

Is this ICANN's responsibility?  Will their compliance
officers police this namespace?  Or will both parties
to this proposed agreement simply look the other way
and continue to ignore the violations which will only
increase in scale as time goes by?

Currently one can find thousands upon thousands of
.biz domain names offered for re-sale as "Premium
domain listings" in violation of the above cited
clause.  Are ICANN and Neustar expecting the public to
shoulder the costs of initiating RDRP actions?

Recently I have noted the commendable actions of Eurid
that suspended 74,000 .eu domain names and sued 400
registrars for breach of contract in a firm measure
designed to curb abuse.  Who will, in similar fashion,
protect the integrity of the differentiated .biz
namespace?

Can we count on Neustar to assume some modicum of
responsibility and do the right thing as did the .eu
registry?  Or should we be looking for another firm to
operate the .biz registry that cares a little bit more
about curbing abuse?






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