New Nominet Policy to Kill Drop Catching

[namestrands]

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

 

[Rob_F]

http://www.nominet.org.uk/digitalAs...licy_issue_group_draft_recommendations_v1.pdf

http://www.nominet.org.uk/digitalAssets/56272_Domain_expiry_policy_isssue_group_draft_framework.pdf

Feedback to [email protected] by 20 February 2012.

- Rob

 

[rob]

Out of interest who are the largest registrars?

 

[namestrands]

123REG, 1and1, Heart, Monster

 

[Rob_F]

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

 

[namestrands]

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

 

[rob]

123REG, 1and1, Heart, Monster

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?

 

[nick-harper]

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

 

[rob]

A couple of the people in the policy group are reading this thread - can they give any insight?

 

[monaghan]

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?

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.

 

[Aaron Clifford]

http://www.nominet.org.uk/registrars/ra/domaintasting/

We have taken industry-leading action to prevent 'domain tasting'

The big registrars flex their muscles and it's all change.

 

[JMOT]

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.

 

[Blossom]

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.

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

 

[rob]

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.

that would never happen... *cough* Halverez *cough*

 

[DarrenTSO]

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.

 

[DarrenTSO]

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

There is an issue group about this at the moment
http://www.nominet.org.uk/digitalAssets/54343_Draft_Executive_Summary_Meeting_110927.pdf

It was also mentioned at the group that many registrars find the economic model of the .uk
franchise challenging and the secondary activities undertaken are used to support their economic
model on selling .uk domains.

As a number of registrars already engage in this type of activity the group established there was a
need for greater clarity and transparency regarding what could be changed on a domain name if
the registrant does not renew

...

Whilst under the Chatham House rules, it can't be said exactly who said what within the meeting/issue group, it is obvious that some very large registrars would like the right to change nameservers etc on day 1 after expiry, as well as have further rights with regards to keeping domains and auctioning them off. (With respect to "finding the economic model for .uk challenging")

 

[grantw]

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)?

Some registrars have it in their terms already, Dynadot for example:

http://www.dynadot.com/marketplace/expired/?tld=co.uk_org.uk_me.uk

The winning bidder gets it pushed to their Dynadot account and the domain remains in the previous owners name!!

I believe Domain Monster may also have a similar clause.

Grant

 

[Alien]

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

Dom Collect do it all the time via Fasthosts.

I missed a renewal recently by about a week; the domain was changed to Dom Collect NS straightaway. Blasted cheek.

 

[namestrands]

What will end up happening is that the registrars will effectively start tasting once the domain expires and will then scrape the cream of the bunch and allow the rest to drop.

Knowing a registrar whom is involved in this sort of practice it would be unlikely that a drop catcher would go after the name.

Domain name catching for those not doing it commercially for others are speculators and will likely register domain names on their own metrics or a hunch, however by removing the speculative aspect less domain names will be picked up on the drop resulting in more drops and reduction of the registry numbers.

Many including myself have invested thousands, perhaps even 10s of thousands in drop catching servers and scripts in order to get a competitive advantage, even so there still remains a significant level of luck involved. However with the registrars stopping the drops then all that investment will be redundant with zero further investment from the registrars, Nominet will effectively wipe out the drop catching industry and hand over control to the big registrars.

By handing over such a large chunk of control Nominet themselves become another step closer to redundancy and closer to ICANN control of the UK namespace.

 

[namestrands]

I would suggest you all read the draft document and respond to [email protected] and do so before the 20th of this month. Do not leave it to others, this is a hugely important issue that needs more investigation and discussion going forward. Its going to hurt drop catchers when the domain renewable period changes to upto 10 years. This is your industry and its your voice that needs to be heard.