expired domains

["Brian Lowe" <brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

1 Whether adequate opportunity exists for registrants to redeem their
expired domain names;

2 Whether expiration-related provisions in typical registration agreements
are clear and conspicuous enough;

3 Whether adequate notice exists to alert registrants of upcoming
expirations;

4 Whether additional measures need to be implemented to indicate that once a
domain name enters the Auto-Renew Grace Period, it has expired (e.g., hold
status, a notice on the site with a link to information on how to renew, or
other options to be determined);

5 Whether to allow the transfer of a domain name during the Redemption Grace
Period (RGP).

5: The notion of a 'grace period' implies that the previous registrant
should have the facility to renew after expiry, up to the end of the grace
period, without penalty or hindrance, so allowing the transfer to a
different registrant is just wrong. If you allow  it, there is no point
having a grace period. If a third party tries to register the expired domain
within the grace period the original registrant should be offered the
opportunity to renew or release the domain. The original registrant should
respond within a time-limited period in order to keep the domain. This would
enable the third party to register the domain after a short time if no
response is received.

 

4: In order to implement the grace period the domain needs to be marked in
some way as an interim between 'registered' and 'available', so effectively
making it 'reserved' so that only the previous registrant is allowed to
renew or re-register it.

 

2 & 3: When a registrant takes the domain he enters into a time-limited
contract with the registrar. He pays for 1 year or 2 years or 10 years but
from the outset he knows how long it will be. Any other way would break
common commercial rules. As a courtesy, the registrar might give notice of
pending expiry (Nominet does so for .co.uk domains) but the registrant
should be responsible for renewing in a timely fashion.

 

1 Depends on the registrar. Nominet (for .co.uk) notifies tag holders
(registration agents) far in advance, and if the domain is not renewed also
notifies the registrant in good time to enable renewal. Every registration
includes contact details so the registrar has a way to contact the
registrant.

 

I think ICANN's responsibility is in ensuring that registration agents for
all of its TLDs provide clear information regarding the expiry of a domain
registration, both at the time of registering and then by an appropriate
warning/reminder service as the expiry approaches, and in implementing the
grace period by reserving expired domains for a minimum period.

 

 

Brian Lowe 

m: 07753 205716

f: 0700 600 3338 

e:  <mailto:brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxx