| I recently became aware of a report by ICANN's staff called "GNSO Issues Report on Domain Tasting" for the At-Large Advisory Committee for an Issues Report on Domain Tasting. [a] monetisation practice employed by registrants to use the AGP to register domain names in order to test their profitability. During this period, registrants conduct a cost-benefit analysis to see if the tested domain names return enough traffic to offset the registration fee paid to the registry over the course of the registration period (e.g., currently $6 US for a .NAME domain name). The "AGP" is the "Add Grace Period," a period of several days (typically five) following a registration during which the registrant may revoke the registration for a full refund of the registry and ICANN transaction fees. ICANN is considering other changes that could improve the state of the Internet, but will they? Click here to read more. It's typical of ICANN to refer to the registry fee for the .NAME TLD. Of course, nobody gives a damn about .NAME and, while the issue of domain tasting may affect it technically, as a practical matter they're irrelevant. Domain tasting is overwhelmingly an issue of and for the .COM namespace, as is the entire domain name boom. Even the ICANN report says that tasting is basically a problem of the .COM space, although it does appear in some of the others. Some other domains are experiencing healthy growth, such as the .UK and .DE country codes, but even the old standard .NET and .ORG domains are languishing relative to .COM, and the tasting issues parallel the less abusive growth. After all, it's all about finding domains people will navigate to, and it's an article of faith of those in the domain name business that .COM domains have a large and automatic advantage in popularity. See VeriSign's most recent report on domain name growth for some interesting charts on where the registrations and growth are. Last year PIR (Public Interest Registry), which runs the .ORG domain, became concerned enough about tasting to ask ICANN for permission to charge a 5 cent excess deletion fee for registrars performing deletions in the AGP in excess of 90 percent of registrations. Ninety percent! My instinct tells me this is excessively tolerant, and of course it is, but no practical tasting operation could be profitable deleting only 89 percent of their registrations. Anyway, the new PIR policy went into effect for June of this year, so it's too early to determine the actual impact, and PIR seems not to have released any numbers yet. Page 2: ICANN Takes a Lick at Domain Tasting Imagine if VeriSign were to impose such a policy for .COM and .NET, which it runs? In Section 3.7 of the ICANN domain tasting report they refer to a May 18, 2007, column I wrote in which I state: VeriSign has it in their power, under their .COM registry agreement with ICANN, to stop domain tasting by imposing a restocking fee for abusers, with the standard for abuse left to them. The authors of the ICANN report say I'm wrong. From the report (page 25): (Note, this is not currently permitted in the .COM registry agreement. To provide this service, VeriSign would have to submit a request to ICANN through the Registry Services Evaluation Policy.) Patrick Jones of ICANN (one of the authors of the report) and I followed up on this some in e-mail, and he brought it to the attention of the domain tasting working group. But despite one inquiry from a member into my claims, Jones insists that it's more complicated than I state: ICANN evaluates requests for new registry services under the Registry Services Evaluation Policy on a registry by registry basis. VeriSign has not submitted a request to implement a restocking fee in .COM or .NET. All requests for new registry services are posted on the ICANN website at http://www.icann.org/registries/rsep/, with opportunities for public comment. We have also improving ICANN's public comment periods with a new page at http://www.icann.org/public_comment/. I've skimmed the Registry Services Evaluation Policy, and perhaps, in the absence of any specific statements about restocking fees, it would be meaningful, but the fact is that the .COM Registry Agreement does have specific statements on the matter. From Appendix 7, Section 3.1.1 ("Add Grace Period"): Delete. If a domain is deleted within the Add Grace Period, the sponsoring Registrar at the time of the deletion is credited for the amount of the registration; provided, however, that Registry Operator shall have the right to charge Registrars a fee as may be set forth in its Registry-Registrar Agreement for disproportionate deletes during the Add Grace Period. The domain is deleted from the Registry database and is immediately available for registration by any Registrar. See Section 3.2 for a description of overlapping grace period exceptions. It seems to me this interpretation renders the restocking fee section of the .COM agreement meaningless. Jones disagrees. 责任编辑：米尊 |