Hiya.
We have a number of domains that are still well off from their registry expiry dates which refer to our DNS servers at the registry and have email addresses within domains managed here. These are domains for which hosting contracts have expired and the customers have gone AWOL. The admin email addresses are obviously invalid, and in many cases the telephone numbers are not in service. We haven't gone to the extent of sending paper reminders to the addresses listed in the domains' WHOIS records, but I suspect many of them are no longer valid as well. We point the web pages for these domains to a numbered virtualhost that tells people to contact our billing department if they are the owner of the domain and would like to set up hosting with us. On occasion, we get queries from parties interested in purchasing these domains. Our traditional response has been to tell these parties that the domains are simply unavailable until they eventually expire. But if the "real" owner is nowhere to be found, by either email or phone, is there a point where we can consider the domain to be "abandonned", and facilitate its transfer to a new owner prior to its registry-listed expiry date? I'm thinking this is analagous to marine "right of salvage". What's a reasonable amount of time a domain should be left unattended and in violation of ICANN guidelines regarding WHOIS data validity before it can be considered up for grabs? If anyone has experience with this sort of situation, or pointers to relevant official documentation on the matter, I'd love to hear about it. p -- Paul Chvostek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Operations / Development / Abuse / Whatever vox: +1 416 598-0000 it.canada http://www.it.ca/
