Austin domain registrar among three losing accreditation.
Barring a last minute reprieve, Austin venture capitalist Thomas Ball’s domain name registrar is one of three ICANN is giving the boot.
ICANN sent letters to three accredited registrars informing them that their agreements would not be renewed upon expiration for various infractions. Lately, ICANN has used this tact to cut domain registrars that are nearing the end of their contracts as opposed to de-accrediting them immediately.
One of the registrars — Tahoe Domains — is owned by Thomas Ball. Ball is a partner with Austin Ventures, although the registrar appears to be unaffiliated with the firm. With less than 200 domain names under management, it likely is his personal registrar.
In a letter to Ball, ICANN director of contractual compliance Stacy Burnette explains that it will not renew the registrar’s accreditation because the registrar has not met whois data escrow requirements and is delinquent on payments to ICANN.
The other registrars set to lose their accreditation include South American Domains and Simply Names.
With ICANN placing more administrative requirements on registrars, the smallest ones are likely to call it quits.
If any of these domain registrars manage customer domains, this will be a test of ICANN’s ability to find a registrar willing to take on the hassles of transferring the domain names. It’s relatively easy to find a white knight registrar when there’s potential for profit, but a couple hundred domains isn’t worth the time.
Kevin Ohashi says
Direct financial gain perhaps not, but could they use it as a PR stunt?
Andrew Allemann says
Kevin – sure. I assume they kind of twist some arms as well. “Show us you’re here to help, and we’ll take it into consideration next time there’s a big registrar failure”
Patricia Kaehler says
Who owns the other two Registrars that are being closed ??
~Patricia – DomainBELL
Andrew Allemann says
No one I recognize. But they all have under 300 domains according to registrarstats.