RE: [gnso-irtp-b-jun09] Charter Question (C): Change of Registrant

["Matt Serlin" <matt.serlin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All - apologies for missing the call yesterday, but I did listen to
the MP3 earlier and I believe Michele had asked folks to look at some of
the e-mail threads and provide some feedback...am starting with this
one, but know there are others as well...

Here are some of my thoughts on the subjects below as well as some items
from the call yesterday...

- I don't believe there's going to be any ICANN specific information
related to "change of registrant" as discussed. I do think it's very
critical to our conversations in this WG, but also believe it could spin
off into a completely new avenue for policy development.

- I would very strongly support some sort of standardized policy
regarding change of registrant in the gTLD market. As James points out,
a variety of ccTLDs have this type of function and I believe it works
very well. There are some tlds where you can update all of the
information on the domain with the exception of the actual registrant
name field (MarkMonitor, Inc. or Matt Serlin for example). I think this
type of mechanism would be most useful not only in guarding against
highjacking, but also just standardizing processes across the board.

- I believe any sort of change of registrant procedure would have to be
done at the registry level, but it strikes me that this would currently
be impossible in the largest tld as Verisign supports a thin whois
record and doesn't have any registrant data currently. I don't think
this should stop us from exploring the possibilities, but it is a
reality in which we need to be cognizant of. 

- To the point below about registrars supporting change of registrant
functions, I do believe this should be a requirement for registrars to
support this. By allowing registrant to opt of this I believe would lead
to user confusion and frustrations.

Hopefully this will lead to some further discussions on the list and
again apologies for missing the call yesterday.

Regards,
Matt Serlin

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gnso-irtp-b-jun09@xxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-gnso-irtp-b-jun09@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of James M. Bladel
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2010 10:44 AM
To: ITRP-B Mailing List Mailing List
Subject: [gnso-irtp-b-jun09] Charter Question (C): Change of Registrant


Team:


According to our charter, question (c) asks:

 "c) Whether special provisions are needed for a change of registrant
when it occurs near the time of a change of registrar. The policy does
not currently deal with change of registrant, which often figures in
hijacking cases;"

In advance of tomorrow's call, I wanted to reopen the definitional work
regarding "Change of Registrant."   Please recall that I took a stab at
creating working definitions for various concepts early in the life of
the WG:

http://forum.icann.org/lists/gnso-irtp-b-jun09/msg00035.html 

In which this concept was tentatively defined as:


"2. CHANGE OF REGISTRANT: The SHOPPER changes the registration WHOIS
data for "Registrant" record. May also include changing 
other contacts, (Admin, Tech, Billing) but the focus here is on the
Registrant. Changes to WHOIS records that only modify other records 
do not constitute a CHANGE OF REGISTRANT."  (Note that we didn't get too
far in defining "SHOPPER" or "CUSTOMER"...)


So, here are some questions that might start off our discussions
tomorrow:

*  What is a "Change of Registrant"?  How does it differ from a routine
update / modification of the record published in WHOIS?
*  What fields must be modified to indicate that a "Change of
Registrant" has occurred?  Can optional fields be included in this list?
*  Does ICANN need a defined "Change of Registrant" process or
definition in the IRTP (or elsewhere?)  Some ccTLDs define this function
as a "Trade"
*  Are gTLD registrars obligated to offer "Change of Registrant"
operations?  How does this impact their respective Registration
Agreement(s)?