2. At the core of this frustration and concern is an ill defined and poorly enforced deletions policy and practice between the ICANN accredited registrars, their agents and their registry.
[Gomes, Chuck] I don't have a clue what is ill defined with regard to deletions. It is very clearly defined from the registry point of view. Moreover, the current practice with regard to deletions is fairly and uniformly enforced for all registrars by VGRS. It would be accurate to say that registrars have built various business models for the purposes of grabbing deleted names. Those business models are essentially the cause of the whole deleted names issue coming up in the first place. Chuck Gomes points out that does not have a clue what ill defined enforcement of deletions policy and practice is. I have hence prepared a single example of this, although we can provide many many more if needed to illustrate the glaring issue: POINT ONE: Verisign Registrar domain hoarding: Registrant: Graphics Co-op (WEBSITEGROUP-DOM) 3498 N. San Marcos Pl., Suite 6 Chandler, AZ 85224 USA Domain Name: WEBSITEGROUP.COM Record expires on 02-Aug-1998. <<<<==================== Record created on 02-Aug-1996. Database last updated on 9-Jun-2002 21:06:11 EDT. This is a domain held by VERISIGN Registrar, like tens of thousands of other domains held by Verisign Registrar past expiration dates of 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. In this paricular domain's case - the consumer would have paid FIVE TIMES THE WLS SUBSCRIPTION FEE FOR 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002 while Registrar cybersquats on this domain. Unless there is a clearly defined UNIFORM DOMAIN NAME DELETION POLICY on Registar Level, Registry's best of policies for domain deletion are worthless since the domain will never get to the Registry delete pool in the first place. The only beneficiary of WLS would be the cash grab by Verisign Registry registry itself, drawing funds from a consumer who may never have a chance to secure this domain due to Registrar's domain hoarding. POINT TWO: Conflict of Interest WLS or any similar Registry sponsored effort is simply confilct of interest as long as Registry also owns a Registrar. Without a clearly defined UNIFORM DOMAIN NAME DELETION POLICY Verisign Registrar may intentionally withold expiring of a certain domain name if the Verisign Registrar knows that it's sister Company Verisign Registy stands to benefit more by collecting WLS type of a fee indefinitely. As there is no specific rule that would force Verisign Registrar to delete any domain within a specific time frame past the domain's paid/expiration date, the problems of domain hoarding to the detriment of consumer by one specific Registrar - e.g. the one owned by Verisign - will only grow. Sincerely, Genie Livingstone Magi Inc
