If a registrar (or reseller) can make more money on an expiration/resale than on a renewal, suddenly there is a conflict of interest in which it would benefit the registrar to prevent the renewal. Even if the registrar would never stoop to intentionally interfering with a renewal, the perception will be there - especially in the eyes of former registrants who realize too late their domain names have been resold - that the registrar did not try hard enough to let them know about the expiration.
With the new year as a traditional time to reflect on the past, I am beginning to feel less than proud to be a part of the domain name business. It seems that in the past year so many instances of registrars, registries, and ICANN behaving badly have come to light that I have to wonder what the future will bring. I am no fan of government regulation or interference, and in the case of the Internet, what government would have jurisdiction, anyway? But this industry desperately needs to get a handle on the issue of ethical business practices, and in my opinion this means structuring policies that will avoid any appearance of impropriety. ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Iyoha" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, January 04, 2002 7:03 AM Subject: RE: Re[2]: Scott Allen is full of x- that is way out of line > Hello, > > > There have been many complaints on this list about V$ not releasing names. > which means what? The question I have is about policy. Is it Versign and > other registrars policy (or soon to be policy) to offer expired names to > their resellers and existing customer? That is the question I need answered. > > > Honest people are always put at a disadvantage because of crooks. > very generic statement which has no relevance to my questions. One > definition of crook would be a person who does something illegal. So far > there has not been any mention of it being illegal for a registrar to offer > an expired name to their resellers or existing customers. > > > It is not ignorant to play fair -- in fact, it is the right thing to do. > Another generic statement. It is all about context. Fair to who? Who defined > what fair means etc. And who said anything has to be fair in business? A > company's competitive advantage by definition is not fair ... But then again > we are back to what fair means in my example. > > My understanding is this > - There is nothing in any contracts or rules that prevent a registrar from > offering names to their resellers and existing customers > - Therefore if all other registrars do this they are staying within the > rules > - Some people believe that that goes against "the spirit" of the agreement. > Obviously this is purely their opinion. If it is wrong then the contracts > need to be fixed. > - If all major registrars start offering expired domains internally, OpenSRS > resellers/customers will be at a disadvantage > since they wouldn't have access to all expired names, and everyone would > have access to OpenSRS expired names > - Thus the logical thing to do is for OpenSRS to offer expired names to > their resellers/customers first > > later > > David > > -- > Systematic Software > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > (513) 241 3331 ext. 9 > Fax: (513) 241 0749 > http://www.systware.com > http://www.careerservicesonline.com >
