What country are you living in;)
I'm in the good ol' USA.
If you don't pay the tax on your house, you lose it. >>> after a defult notice and in about SIX month
But the don't KICK YOU OUT AND CHANGE THE LOCKS - Tucows puts the domain on hold at day 0.
If you don't pay the tax on your car, you lose it. >>> after a repossion notice and in about THREE months
See #1. Plus around here, if you park your car on the street and your inspection sticker or license plates are expired they tow it within ONE DAY.
If you don't renew your magazine subscriptions, you lose them. >>> which can always be extended.
I used this as an example because it's more in-line with the cost of a domain (you might not be able to afford the taxes above due to some hardship, but you can almost always afford the sub-$30 most resellers charge).
If you don't renew your domain names, you lose them. >>> Well this is terminal, so shouldn't we offer good consumer portections. Think of YOUR "Mom" here.
My mom and dad have a hardware store. She asked me to get them the name of the store dot com, so I did. And guess what - even though she can barely use the computer and thinks IE is the Internet, she had the sense to ask me how long the registration is good for and to put the domain on AUTO-RENEW!
Look, like many people, I've forgotten to renew domains (yes more than once) and lost them to the drop catchers (BD, Ult Search, et al). It isn't fun, but you take your lumps. Since the Tucows auction system wouldn't take away my ability to renew up to the last minute, I say bring it on!
Even if they "only" gave me 30-35 days after the name expired to rescue it, if there is someone else out there who is willing to pay extra to have use of the domain, then I say let them (even if that use is "only" pointing it at a for sale/paid parking page).
The practice of auctioning expired domains isn't unethical, and if it's contrary to what some contract says, then it's time to update the contract.
-Russ
