ICANN Actually Does Something About Domain Tasting - Enter Network Solutions (
Page 2 of 2 )
The recent scandal over Network Solutions' use of domain tasting and front-running seems to have lit a fire under ICANN in this matter. The board discussed NSI's controversial policies only as something to be eliminated. When it was suggested that a fee, such as the one agreed on, would put an end to the practice, nobody objected, and in fact one member said that he had spoken with NSI and was informed that they would "roll back" their policy if a fee were imposed.
I have to think that, but for NSI's practices, action against tasting would remain in committee for the foreseeable future.
There is some question out there about the impact of the fee. DomainNameNews argues that the fee is large enough to end domain kiting, but not domain tasting. (Domain kiting, which is serial re-registration and deletion of domains, also faces practical problems next month when Google ends monetization of domains being used in this way.)
But are 20 or 25 cents enough to end tasting? I don't see how it doesn't, at the very least, cut it down to a small fraction of its current level, and by that I mean at least 90 percent down. When tasting is free, a registrant has no incentive to scrutinize a domain before registering it. There are registrars that have registered millions of domains and deleted more than 90 percent of them. Twenty cents times a million is $200,000, not chump change.
DomainNameNews does have a point that tasting of expiring domains is probably still a reasonable proposition, as those domains have been vetted to a point and are more likely to draw visitors. About 20,000 domains expire every day.
But overall, I think their take is too dismissive. Last year PIR (Public Interest Registry, the registry for .ORG) imposed an "excess deletion fee" for registrars whose deletes in the AGP exceeded 90 percent of total registrations. This is a pretty high bar to cross, but PIR says it reduced deleted domains from 2.4 million in May to 152,700 in June.
The ICANN Board's vote, you'll notice, is "to encourage ICANN's budgetary process" to include such fees. This makes me think it could take a while, although John Levine argues that "it might be within a month." Let's hope that John's right and that this happens soon.
Security Center Editor Larry Seltzer has worked in and written about the computer industry since 1983.
For insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEK.com Security Center Editor Larry Seltzer's blog Cheap Hack
