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• 2007 Archive

Explanation: The GNSO Council is considering the issue of "domain tasting", a term used to describe the case when someone registers a domain name and then tests to see if the name has sufficient traffic to provide more income than the annual registration fee (usually through pay-per-click advertising). If the name is deemed sufficiently profitable, it is kept.

If not, the current "add grace period" (AGP) - where domains can be returned within five days without cost - is used to return the domain at no net cost to the registrant. Recently there has been a significant increase in the number of domains registered and returned within the AGP. ICANN staff prepared an Issues Report in June 2007 and subsequently a GNSO working group published an Outcomes Report in October 2007. The GNSO Council decided on 31 October 2007 to launch a policy development process (PDP) on domain tasting. An Initial Report was produced for public comment, outlining the policy development process, possible actions that might be taken, and the arguments put forward for and against such actions. Public comments were incorporated into a draft Final Report (posted 8 February) for GNSO Council review and action.

Members of the Council subsequently drafted this motion to curb domain tasting. It would prohibit any gTLD operator that has implemented an add grace period from offering a refund for any domain name deleted during the AGP that exceeds 10% of its net new registrations in that month, or fifty domain names, whichever is greater. An exemption may be sought for a particular month, upon the documented showing of extraordinary circumstances, as detailed in the motion.

The GNSO Council will consider public comments and constituency impact statements regarding the draft motion and incorporate them into a further draft for Council consideration at its scheduled 17 April meeting.

Announcement | Comments | Summary/analysis of comments

Explanation: On 5 February 2008, NeuStar and Afilias submitted separate but similar requests through the Registry Services Evaluation Process to modify the AGP in their respective TLDs in order “to address the excessive delete problem” (i.e. domain tasting) in .BIZ and .INFO.

Currently there are no limitations on the number of deletions that a registrar can process and receive a refund during the five-day AGP. The proposed service would limit the number of AGP deletions where a registrar could receive a full registration fee credit each month: either 50 per month or 10% of that registrar’s net new monthly domain name registrations, whichever is greater.

A registrar would be permitted to delete as many names as it wished during the five-day AGP, receiving credit throughout the month. However, at the end of the .BIZ or .INFO normal monthly billing cycle the Registrar’s account would be debited for the full value of the domain name registrations that exceeded the month’s set threshold.

Announcement | NeuStar Comments | Afilias Comments | Summary/analysis of comments

Explanation: The draft translation programme that will be used by ICANN to communicate and interact with non-English speakers has been put out for community comment today.

You can review it here in:

العربية | 中文 | Français | English | Español | Русский

The programme has two main aims: to inform people about ICANN as an organisation, including its history, processes, component parts and evolution; and to allow people to participate effectively in the organisation’s ongoing decision-making and policy work.

The mission of the programme is to provide those who are not fluent English speakers with an equal level of access to influence and participate in the work of the organisation.

Following community input, the programme will be redrafted as necessary and put into a Final Report. The intention at this stage is to send the programme to the Board for review and/or approval at the Paris meeting in June.

A full transcript of the public meeting held in New Delhi on Wed 13 Feb regarding this programme is also available.

Announcement | Comments | Summary/analysis of comments

Explanation: The ICANN community has recently completed a policy development process regarding the introduction of new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) which resulted in a set of GNSO recommendations to guide ICANN in introducing new gTLDs to the namespace.

The recommendations concluded that "ICANN must implement a process that allows the introduction of new top-level domains," and called for a procedure respecting the principles of fairness, transparency and non-discrimination. In preparing for the expected implementation of the gTLD policy recommendations, staff is conducting some review and analysis of the technical issues involved in this development. The addition of gTLDs to the namespace is an expansion of the DNS on a potentially large scale, to include many more names at the top level. One of the policy recommendations developed in relation to the introduction of new gTLDs included the requirement that "strings must not cause any technical instability."

ICANN is publishing this paper [pdf] to solicit informed input on the technical issues relevant to the addition of new gTLDs, and to provide transparency toward how it will interpret and implement this recommendation. The goal is a clear set of rules that will be available to potential new gTLD applicants, so that it is known from the outset what tests will be applied to each application.

ICANN is seeking feedback on the proposed approach to these areas as a step in its implementation planning for the introduction of new gTLDs.

Announcement | Comments | Summary/analysis of comments