Looks like ICANN's general counsel agrees with all of us on the issue of registrar transfers, and sent the following to Verisign Registry's Manager of Contracts and Compliance this week. I've excerpted a portion below. From: http://www.icann.org/correspondence/touton-to-russo-27aug01.htm =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= >From the language of the policy, it seems apparent that: 1. The responsibility for ensuring that a Registered Name Holder authorizes the transfer lies with the gaining registrar, not the losing registrar. 2. This allocation of responsibility should not prevent the losing registrar, as an additional measure, from seeking to inform Registered Name Holders of impending transfers and affording them an opportunity to express their objection. 3. The allocation of responsibility does indicate, however, that the losing registrar may not deny a transfer request that the gaining registrar has verified merely because the losing registrar has not verified it. Thus, a losing registrar should not deny a transfer request simply because it has notified the Registered Name Holder of the request and has not received a response. 4. The losing registrar may, however, deny the transfer request where it has an adequate reason for believing that the Registered Name Holder has not authorized the transfer. In some instances, the failure of the Registered Name Holder to respond to a notification may form one element of the reason. Because the policy allocates the verification responsibilty to the gaining registrar, however, the lack of such a response is not by itself an adequate reason to deny the transfer. Additional elements of an adequate reason may include information relating to the Registered Name Holder (such as prior communications) or the authorization practices followed by the gaining registrar. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= -- Best regards, William X Walsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Userfriendly.com Domains The most advanced domain lookup tool on the net DNS Services from $1.65/mo
