ICANN Publishes AGP Limits Policy = Registrar Pricing Models Change

We all knew it was coming. ICANN has released their Add Grace Period Policy and as a direct result registrars are looking at changing their pricing models.

Here is an extract from the new ICANN Policy:

“During any given month, an Operator shall not offer any refund to an ICANN-accredited registrar (hereinafter referred to as “Registrar”) for any domain names deleted during the AGP that exceed (i) 10% of that Registrar’s net new registrations (calculated as the total number of net adds of one-year through ten-year registrations as defined in the monthly reporting requirement of Operator Agreements) in that month, or (ii) fifty (50) domain names, whichever is greater, unless an exemption has been granted by an Operator.”

In an email to me yesterday, Dynadot stated “Due to this change, we may have to raise grace deletion fees substantially or remove grace deletions altogether.” This really means “We don’t know what we are going to do yet”. It will be interesting to see what some of the larger registrars do, in particular Moniker. Lets wait and see.

WIPO Adds Aussie Lawyer to UDRP Panel

WIPO has added Nick Weston, a Melbourne based lawyer to the UDRP Panel. You can read all about Nicks bio here. There are now 29 panelists for Australia.

Here are some WIPO stats:

• The number of cases administered by WIPO under UDRP procedure – 14,000+
• Parties have been located in 144 countries
• Internet domain names – 25,000+

Perhaps the WIPO workload is increasing?

Desperate Times Lead To Increase In Domain Name Spam

It seems that the people sending the domain name postal mail spam have stopped for Christmas; time now to prepare for the electronic kind. Watch out kids, here it comes!

In order to educate consumers and protect the marketplace from this type of activity, I thought I’d post two examples that have recently popped into my inbox.

I’m just presenting the facts – judge for yourself.

Exhibit A – ZipDomains

I received the email below from i...@zipacquisitions.com. Their website (zipacquisitions.com) diverts to zipdomains.com and has i...@zipdomains.com as the contact.

Both domains are registered to:

Zip Domains i...@zipdomains.com. 233 Middleton Rd. Glenside Wellington 6037 NZ and have a US phone number +1 206-202-1813. Of course I had to call it – its just an automated answering service.

If you check out their website, there is a DNOA logo. However, neither email address can be found in DNOA profile lookup, yet they display the certified reseller logo on their site, without the link.

— Start Of Email —

Subject: edited-out-for-privacy.ORG

Our company specializes in acquiring expired domain names to help individuals and businesses protect their brand online.

The domain name edited-out-for-privacy.COM is expiring and will be available to the public very soon.

We noticed that you own edited-out-for-privacy.ORG and felt that you may be interested.

We can assist in trying to acquire the domain name, as there are likely many interested parties competing for it.

We do not charge upfront, and the fee if we are successful is only $199 USD.

If you are interested, please let us know by December 10 at the latest.
— ends —

I own the .org and the .com is currently in PendingDelete status. So if I say “yeah go ahead”, they just backorder it for me. Who knows…get a few ignorant customers and it might be a nice little earner.

Exhibit B – Register.com

I received an email from register.com with a subject line of “Keep edited-out-for-privacy.COM  Up and Running”.

You can see the graphic below showing “Renewal Notice” in big orange letters. The only thing is that my domain name wasnt due for renewal for another 7 months! But hey, I can pay you $35 for a .com! Now that’s a bargain if I’ve ever seen one!

The ethical issue here is…. a person reading this may think its a domain name renewal notice (therefore thinking their domain is going to expire) and they should pay register.com $$$$. In countries that have relatively mature consumer protection laws (such as Australia) such an email may be regarded as misleading and deceptive conduct. Its important to note that I’m not a lawyer, this is just my opinion – based on receiving this email.

Have you noticed an increase in spam? Post a comment and let us know!

Cry Baby Domainers Locate Godaddys Warehouse

To the left is a secret photo taken inside a leading domainers office. The photo was taken after a recent blog post which alleged that GoDaddy is warehousing domains.

If you look at clause 9 in the ICANN Registrar Agreement it states “Registrar shall abide by any ICANN-adopted policy prohibiting or restricting warehousing of or speculation in domain names by registrars.” As ICANN does not have any adopted policies in this regard, it can’t actually enforce anything.

So, welcome to the world of commercial reality where companies set up subsidiaries to hold their assets. In the case of Godaddy, its been alleged that Standard Tactics LLC performs this activity.

DomainerIncome has recently learned that a rogue group of blonde domainers is heading down to New Mexico to find the actual warehouse belonging to Standard Tactics LLC. Best of luck with the trip.

Registrar sues auDA for deleting domain name

Domain Directors, an associated company of Instra Corporation, an auDA (Australian Domain Name Administrator) and ICANN accredited registrar, yesterday commenced legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland against auDA, the Australian domain name policy and regulatory body.

Last week, auDA unilaterally cancelled Domain Director’s domain name registration for auregistry.com.au. Domain Directors have owned and used the domain name auregistry.com.au for the past eight years.

Tony Lentino, the CEO of Domain Directors, said this afternoon:

I am shocked at auDA’s actions.  auDA brought down one of my long standing websites.  auDA wrote the policy, made the complaint to itself, and acted as judge and jury, and then deleted my DNS entry without informing me.  With auDA governing the system, no Australian domain name is safe.

Originally, auDA informed Domain Directors that a third party had made a complaint about the auregistry.com.au domain name, but after the lawsuit was commences, the lawyers for  auDA’s informed Domain Directors that in fact, no complaint had been made.

John Swinson, partner of Mallesons Stephen Jaques which is representing Domain Directors, says that the dispute will be heard in the Supreme Court of Queensland on Friday, 21 November.

Domain Directors is an international registrar and provides an extensive range of over 200 country code Top Level Domain name extensions across Europe, America, and the Asia Pacific regions.

About Domain Directors

Domain Directors is a global supplier in the Domain Name and ENUM industry, with its head office in Melbourne, and offices in New Zealand and China.

For more information about Domain Directors, and its associated company, Instra Corporation, please visit http://www.instra.com

For Media Enquiries, please contact: med...@instra.com

— ends —

Note: I received the above Press Release a few hours ago; I’m not in a position to check the facts around this case right now, but I’ll be asking auDA for comment this afternoon.

Florida Indian Tribe vs Bodyguard With Domains

UPI is running a story about Steve Thiele, a former bodyguard who allegedly registered miccosukeetribeofindians.com, miccosukeetribeofindiansofflorida.com and billycypress.com (the name of the tribal chairman).

Thiele wants $500k. The Miccosukee (who live in the Everglades and operate a casino on the Tamiami Trail near Miami) have offered him $100,000. Apparently the tribal name is trademarked.

Good luck with that.

auDA Releases Industry Competition Draft

auDA’s Industry Competition Advisory Panel has released draft recommendations for public consultation. Here some interesting points:

1. “The Panel recommends that auDA should require all overseas accredited registrars to register with ASIC to trade in Australia.”

That’s going to irritate the overseas registrars who have largely operated remotely; some of which have multiple credentials.

2. “auDA should work with the registrar community to develop a policy to ensure fair and equitable access to the registry so that the ownership of a number of registrar accreditations does not create an unfair market advantage.”

Again – they are worried about registrars having multiple credentials and picking up dropped domains. Lets share the love and hold hands.

3. “The Panel believes that the current policy on the registration of domain names by registrars on their own behalf is satisfactory. The Panel believes that auDA should work to ensure fairness and transparency in the provision of registrar services and access to information that may provide a market advantage. The Panel makes no recommendation in this draft document but will consider the issue again after receipt of public comments.” I think this might be code for lets stick our heads in the sand and see if anyone notices.

Yes I’m a capitalist – if someone can put up the cash and run multiple registrars, then great. Why should a growing industry like domain name sales, be hampered by further regulation? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Directi Caught Up With 48 Phantom Registrars & Malware Allegations

An interesting story is unfolding thanks to the detective work of Dan Goodin at the Register and many security researchers.  Apparently Directi has “amended its relationship with Estdomains and stopped providing the Estonian registrar with the PrivacyProtect service”.

It’s been reported that Directi CEO Bhavin Turakhia objected to this article that alleged LogicBoxes was associated by Atrivo – an entity that apparently hosts malicious software. The article references work conducted by security researchers. For example:

• The 48 phantom registrars linked to Directi.
• Atrivo Cyber Crime USA – Whitepaper on Atrivo and their Associates

The whitepaper makes very interesting reading.

It appears that there is some debate as to ICANNs requirements. Some people claim that registrars have to identify their business name and address.

The Register interviewed Turakhia from Directi who allegedly said that the “the companies are incorporated in Delaware, although no employees actually work there” and that “listings for all 48 registrars contain a phone number and email address where a principal can be reached.”

Stacy Burnette, Director of Contractual Compliance at ICANN told The Register that:

“telephone numbers in the contact information need not correspond to the location of incorporation“

“ICANN doesn’t require registrars to publicly disclose their place of incorporation.“

What The? This has got me thinking about my domain portfolio…. the Registerfly issues last year…. perhaps it’s time to track down exactly where the registrars trade and who is behind them.

UK Police Lose National High-Tech Crime Unit Domain

Apparently the UK’s National High-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) was merged into the Serious Organised Crime Unit (SOCA) a few years ago. It now appears that they forgot to renew their domain name and its now in the hands of someone else. PC Pro reports that in a statement, SOCA said:

“SOCA is aware that registration of the domain www.nhtcu.org has lapsed and is taking the necessary steps to remind partners and stakeholders that the NHTCU became SOCA e-crime in April 2006, and that they should confirm that web links and other references are amended accordingly.”

Oh sure – the media is going to go back through all their news articles on computer crime and amend their website links.

Two Punjab Police Depts In Domain Dispute

Heres an interesting one from TOI. Two different countries, two police forces, one domain name. Priceless. The Pakistani Punjab police and the Indian Punjab Police are known as the “Punjab Police”. So what happens when you visit www.punjabpolice.org ?

What do you do when both parties want the same domain? You can’t exactly call the police. Luckily the Indians have made the decision to tack on the word india. Now everyone can use www.punjabpoliceindia.org.

But what about that SEO benefit? Domain age? Ohhhh the shame of it all.