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New Nominet Policy to Kill Drop Catching

Discussion in 'Nominet General Information' started by namestrands, Feb 6, 2012.

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  1. namestrands

    namestrands Active Member

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    According to the new Draft Recommendations and framework for expiry from the issue group on Domain Expiry policy, registrars like 123-REG and others will effectively be able to take control of expired domain names preventing them from dropping, change ownership and auction off or monetise expired names

    Registrars will now be able to TASTE domain names and cherry pick high traffic and brandable domains and drop the garbage names.

    I appreciate that this goes on in the TLD industry, but really disappointed that it is to happen to the UK ccTLD
     
  2. Domain Forum

    Acorn Domains Elite Member

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    IWA Meetup
     
  3. Rob_F United Kingdom

    Rob_F Well-Known Member

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  4. rob

    rob Founding Member

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    Out of interest who are the largest registrars?
     
  5. namestrands

    namestrands Active Member

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    123REG, 1and1, Heart, Monster
     
  6. Rob_F United Kingdom

    Rob_F Well-Known Member

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    I also thought Nominet were better than this.

    We need to collate a list of reasons why certain aspects of this shouldn't go ahead, and send it en masse to Nominet. I guess if enough members object, they have to listen.

    - Rob
     
  7. namestrands

    namestrands Active Member

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    I have already responded.. pointing out the anti-competitive nature of it all and how it effectively removes a nominet process and therefore control.
     
  8. rob

    rob Founding Member

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    It would be interesting to know who on the policy group had any financial (or otherwise) interest from any of those in the last 12 months.

    Does the policy group have declarations of interest as per the old PABs?
     
  9. nick-harper

    nick-harper Active Member

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    So does this mean they will all go into one big auction like they do with Godaddy?
     
  10. rob

    rob Founding Member

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    A couple of the people in the policy group are reading this thread - can they give any insight?
     
  11. monaghan United Kingdom

    monaghan Well-Known Member

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    You can find out all you need to know at http://www.nominet.org.uk/policy/issuegroups/current/domainexpirypolicy/

    Deadline for comment is 20th Feb, so get writing if you have a view!

    Domain tasting and auctioning of domains already happens though in the .uk market.
     
  12. JMOT

    JMOT Active Member

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    The large registrars have been profiting for years from their customers unused domains by showing parking ads and keeping all the loot for themselves. I'm shocked its taken this long for them to officially force rule change on snaffling the tastiest domains for themselves.

    Going to be interesting watching the consumer forums come alight when joe blogs business lets their domain expire and the registrar who they used has auctioned it off or wont release it unless they pay a premium.
     
  13. Blossom

    Blossom Well-Known Member

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    Nothing new, people are forever whining about domain names being renewed or dropped or stolen by their business partner/web designer/neighbour's cat.
     
  14. invincible

    invincible Well-Known Member

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    This really isn't an "I told you so moment" but my post from the other day might be worth reading.

    This proposal doesn't entirely kill drop catching. That will still occur for anything that isn't auctioned by a Registrar or doesn't get any bids and therefore drops. However within a couple of years (once all individual Registrar T&Cs are ammended and all customer domain names go through a renewal) I expect we'll see one or two aggregate auction services offering to auction expired domain names on behalf of any .uk Registrar in exchange for a percentage of the sale price. Sedo and Domainlore will be in a prime position to offer these services if they start working on it now, but there's probably still room for others if they lock up the bigger registrars in exclusive deals. I do not think it will make sense for most individual registrars to offer their own auctions individually because the overall market probably isn't big enough to warrant this. Once these services are operating and auctioning "expired but yet to be deleted domain names", it's likely that almost every domain name that's worth something and likely to drop will end up at auction or will be kept by the Registrar and "sold" to an offshoot company that will "market" it. Those domain names relate to what I referred to in my previous post as "first level dropcatching".

    Auctions should provide transparency and a consistent service level but I wonder how, given they aren't going to be run by an independent company or Nominet, how we'll know that the service (or the Registrar operating the service) isn't also bidding against the bidders. Unless that's transparent then the "wild west" badge might just switch from dropcatching to auctions.
     
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2012
  15. invincible

    invincible Well-Known Member

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    I'm aware that tasting had been going on but unless the company doing the auction has the participation of the original Registrant, how exactly has auctioning been occuring (I've kind of guessed how it might have been already but I'd like your view)? :)
     
  16. rob

    rob Founding Member

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    that would never happen... *cough* Halverez *cough*
     
  17. DarrenTSO United Kingdom

    DarrenTSO Active Member

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    What better way to establish fair value for something other than to auction it if no longer required?

    I think if this is the route that .uk goes down, the registrant should be entitled to a percentage of the proceedings should any auction be successful.
     
  18. invincible

    invincible Well-Known Member

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    Accepted but let's see what all those that have invested in DAC hosting/dropcatching solutions et al come back with!

    They won't be because they relinquished their interest in the domain name by not renewing. I'd prefer to see all auctions swept up by a Registry controlled auction house for transparency but it doesn't look like that is on the table at the moment.
     
  19. invincible

    invincible Well-Known Member

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    Not right now, perhaps, but it's funny how things are changing in the wider world at the moment. If one or two nasty smells come out of this in the future then we might see a revision.
     
  20. DarrenTSO United Kingdom

    DarrenTSO Active Member

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    Interestingly enough, I called this some time ago.
    http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/354703-post22.html

     
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