Recommendations would make existing best practices of major domain name registrars a requirement.
The Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery (PEDNR) Policy Development Process Working Group has made 14 recommendations for the handling of expired domain names.
The recommendations are part of the group’s proposed final report and may be used as part of the Policy Development Process.
Among the recommendations: requiring domain name registrars to change the DNS on an expired domain name for at least 8 days.
The working group believes that changing the DNS — which has the effect of taking down an active web site — is one of the best ways to attract the attention of a domain registrant. A placeholder page that replaces the original web site must notify visitors that the domain name is expired and refer to instructions for renewing the domain name.
Another recommendation would set a timeframe for two required expiration notices to be sent to registrants.
Also, the group proposes that all unsponsored gTLD registries be required to offer a Redemption Grace Period.
The working group included representatives of the three largest domain name registrars: Go Daddy, eNom, and Tucows.
The working group is seeking public comment on its final report until April 7.
“The working group included representatives
of the three largest domain name registrars:
Go Daddy, eNom, and Tucows.”
Isn’t that like the foxes making
the rules for the hen house?
@ Meyer – it probably wasn’t clear, but those were just some of the working group members. There were people from other constituencies, too. I just wanted to point out that the large registrars were represented.
Dont some big registrars already do this to a degree. I have run inro plenty that read something to the affect ” This domain will expire on…. if its your name renew here… ”
Maybe not all but some already do this.
@ Josh – yes, I’d say most of the big ones do that already.
Josh – some registrars might, but it’s not the mandated policy, so they aren’t all obliged to do it.
(Disclosure – I am in the working group)
The part that caught my attention was #5, where registrars essentially will now be “required” to allow registrants to redeem the domain name. No doubt some folks will comment to place a cap on how much a registrar can charge for redemption.
#14 . In other words, since your email will not work if the owner is using the domain in question for the primary contact or admin email, then they will send you a letter. When they disable the domain, they disable the email. Why is this necessary? Couldn’t they forward the domain and keep the email active? If they really had the domain owners best interest in mind, that is what they would do.
#14 Best Practice: If post-expiration notifications are normally sent to a point of contact using the domain in question, and delivery is known to have been interrupted by post-expiration actions, post-expiration notifications should be sent to some other contact point associated with the registrant if one exists.
@ Mike – that would be kind of difficult, right? If you’re changing the DNS and someone uses standard pop.domain.com…
@Andrew – After thinking about it, I guess it would not be as simple as I thought, but not impossible. It would get more complicated than it’s worth. People just need to pay attention and renew. I got a few renewal notices by seeing some of my domains on namejet’s pre-release list. That always works.
@Mike – I also kind of think that if you haven’t received the expiration notice after to times, you probably have an invalid email address anyway 🙂
GoDaddy won’t follow the rules now. Oh I guess the idea is for them to make the rules then they won’t have any problem following them.
I’m a member of this group, and glad to see DNW picking up this story.
There are some excellent comments here. I strongly encourage everyone to submit them to the ICANN Comment Forum (http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-21feb11-en.htm) so that they will be reviewed & addressed by the Working Group.