What were NSI and GoDaddy doing to protect registrants in the IRT?

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi folks,

Here's a copy of an email I sent to both GoDaddy and NSI today (both registrars 
had reps on the IRT team). I think their clients and the broader community 
deserve a response.

----- start of email ------
I'm really disappointed that your registrar participated in the IRT, but did 
not look out for the protection of legitimate registrants like my own company. 
We submitted very practical and simple suggestions that would allow the IRT to 
target the worst offenders, but not have the collateral damage of affecting 
responsible domain owners.

For example:

1) Making the URS not apply to domains older than a certain age (e.g. 2 years).
2) Allowing registrants to white-list themselves through a security bond, 
through registrant verification, or other procedures. IP holders are given an 
IP clearinghouse and GPML to register themselves to give themselves special 
treatment, why not balance that to give the "good guy" domain owners some 
parity, after jumping through some hoops -- hoops that responsible domain 
owners can easily jump through, but which criminals won't. (just like EV SSL, 
etc.)
3) FAX NOTIFICATION to registrants, and/or having a legal contact in the WHOIS 
(to be served with any complaints). This would have ensured due process (faxes 
are a lot more reliable than email, much cheaper than registered mail, and 
trivial to implement by the URS provider through email-to-fax gateways. Don't 
fax a 100 page complaint, just a 1 page document notifying one of the 
complaint, to all contacts in the WHOIS *and* to the registered lawyer of the 
domain holder. 

These are just a few of the things that were unaddressed or were arrogantly 
dismissed (read my comments on the first draft carefully, and there were a lot 
more). I'm really shocked that your company attached its name to a report that 
was so extreme and unbalanced.

I'll be writing a layperson's guide to the implications of this report that I 
hope will be widely dispersed, and calling NSI and GoDaddy out on this (both 
companies had reps on the IRT). Your clients, and the broader community deserve 
an explanation.
----- end of email----------

If your registrars are not looking out for your interests, perhaps it might be 
best to take your business/hosting/domains elsewhere. If money talks, then this 
might be the only way to get their attention.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
President
Leap of Faith Financial Services Inc.
http://www.leap.com/