RE: [gnso-vi-feb10] Orphans, existance and exploitation of

["Kathy Kleiman" <kKleiman@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Eric,
Tx for your question. You are, of course, talking about the gaming of
the exception, and not its intended purpose. But it's a fair question
nonetheless.

The purpose of the orphan exception is to reflect problems we have heard
-- that with so many new gTLDs, a small one may not be picked up by
registrars, and thus may not be distributed to its intended audience
(e.g., a small community, a developing country set of groups, etc.).

It is not intended to provide a way for a gTLD Registry of a new .BLOG
or .WEB, for example, to keep their domain names to themselves and away
from the Equal Access provisions for registrars.

So Eric, would the following restrictions protect against the problems
you raise?

1.  You can only get Orphan status if 3 or fewer registrars offer your
TLD --  at any point in time; 

2.  You have to apply in writing to ICANN for Orphan status and there is
a 30 day comment period before you can start operations with your own
registrar or directly (e.g., 30 days for ICANN-Accredited Registrars to
say "Yes, I want to offer this gTLD!"; and 

3.  If, after you start your own registrar operations,  additional
registrars start offering your names (such that then more than 3
unaffiliated registrars are offering your TLD) -- then your own
affiliated registrar is limited to managing X thousand names (e.g.,
30,000 or 50,000) -- at which time you must stop distributing your TLD
domain names entirely. 

Best,
Kathy
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx
[mailto:owner-gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Eric
Brunner-Williams
Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 7:51 AM
To: Kathy Kleiman
Cc: Gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gnso-vi-feb10] Orphans, existance and exploitation of


Kathy,

Am I correct in understanding the "orphan" status?

Suppose Registrar X has a standing offer to every new gTLD registry
applicant. For those applicants which garner no other offer, X is
guaranteed 50,000 transactions at a margin it sets.

X could set the price at 10x the registry price, prompting the
registry to pay greenmail to get "orphan" status, and sell its
inventory at the registry price, or fail.

If the first 50k names are going to be generics and trademarks and so
on, at sunrise and land rush pricing, will any applicant obtain
"orphan" status before that inventory is exhausted?

Thanks in advance,
Eric

------------------

Kathy Kleiman
Director of Policy
.ORG The Public Interest Registry
Direct: +1 703 889-5756  Mobile: +1 703 371-6846

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