ICANN votes to shut down domain tasting!

[RepCentral]

Looks like domain tasting might be shut down soon.
ICANN members voted unanimously to disable domain tasting.
You can read the report here:
http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-23jan08.htm

I guess the "money for nothing" business is over.

[BELLC1]

I don't see that. What I read is:
=======
Whereas, the Board believes that the withdrawal of ICANN's waiver of ICANN's
non-refundable transaction fee to the deletion of names within the AGP will
substantially end the practice of abusing the AGP;

THEREFORE, the Board resolves (2008.01.04) to encourage ICANN's budgetary process to
include fees for all domains added, including domains added during the AGP,
and encourages community discussion involved in developing the ICANN budget,
subject to both Board approval and registrar approval of this fee.
=======

[Acro]

It means they will implement a restocking fee. That'd stop the practice of tasting or kiting thousands of domains daily and NetSol's "bright" idea of locking down for 4 days the domains you look up at their web site.

[tinner666]

Won't hurt me any. When I pick one or more, it's for reg time anyway.

[draggar]

Won't hurt me any. When I pick one or more, it's for reg time anyway.

Same here, unless I really REALLY miss a typo and miss it in all the verifications, I keep my domains for a minimum of one year.

This, complied with Google's 5-day grace period will kill a lot of the unethical practices that have been going on (abusing the 5 day grace period etc..).

[CyrusL]

Cool, only took like 5 years or so right?

[BELLC1]

And what will the restocking fee be? 10 cents?

[accent]

ICANN fee is 20 cents - so says GoDaddy, anyway.

If you mistype a name or have buyer's remorse, 20 cents (25 cents at Moniker) is no problem at all.

If you are tying up hundreds of thousands of domains for four days at a time to monitize the traffic, pick the cream (.0000001%), and maybe sell a couple in the process then you are out of business.

But yeah - good move, but a few years late.

[Acro]

Cool, only took like 5 years or so right?

ICANNT comes to mind

[Gerry]

As discussed in the GNSO report and elsewhere, there are basically three options that could be used to attack domain tasting: (1) ICANN could revise its registrar-level transaction fee (the current rate is US$0.20, which is subject to raise as the contracted rate is US$0.25) to cover all new registrations and discontinue the exemption for "tasted" domains, (2) registries could impose a "restocking" fee for disproportionate domain deletions, or (3) ICANN could establish a new "policy" effectively deleting the add grace period policy in the registry agreements.


Susan (Crawford) proposed the Board adopt a resolution today as an emergency policy focused on the impact on security and stability and relating it to the recent service introduced by Network Solutions.

And NetSol still insists it did nothing wrong.

The emergency resolution was shot down

Paul Twomey suggested that the resolution should encourage further exploration of the issue rather than reach a conclusion because we need to give at least 21 days public notice on such a proposition, and the ICANN Board should not agree that the fee be imposed until after public comment. Dennis Jennings and Steve Goldstein suggested additional proposed changes to the language.

The imposing of fees or increase of fees can not happen until (continuing):

Bylaws Article III, Section 6, for example, requires that "With respect to any policies that are being considered by the Board for adoption that substantially affect the operation of the Internet or third parties, including the imposition of any fees or charges, ICANN shall […] provide public notice on the Website explaining what policies are being considered for adoption and why, at least twenty-one days (and if practical, earlier) prior to any action by the Board …"