For once I agree with Danny ;>) Just to add insult to injury, the AGP was initially created for the protection of the registrant, as its primary use would have been to allow a registrant not to lose their money in case of mistyped registration. IMHO, regardless the proposed solution, which would be anyway the object of a mediation among the different components, ALAC should focus on the drawback of the current situation on the bona-fide individual registrants and on the end users of the internet (including, but not limited to, users of the Web). Cheers, Roberto (talking as an individual)
-----Original Message----- From: alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:alac-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Danny Younger Sent: Monday, 03 December 2007 13:40 To: 'At-Large Worldwide' Subject: [At-Large] ALAC Statement on Domain Tasting
Alan,
If the Add Grace Period is not eliminated, then registrars will simply adjust their business models to compensate for any registrar level transaction fee that might be imposed, and domain tasting will continue.
You have argued that:
(1) fully eliminating the AGP will not be acceptable to registrars (2) Registrars say that they make valid uses of the AGP and could not easily eliminate it without significant pain or expense. (3) from the RC statement it is clear that wholesale elimination of the AGP will not fly. (4) wholesale elimination... would require a formal consensus policy.
From my point of view, I don't care if eliminating the AGP is not acceptable to registrars -- they don't hold any veto power within the GNSO, and I'm not daunted by the prospect of a Supermajority determination that doesn't include the registrars. Fashioning a Consensus Policy is possible even in the absence of registrar support.
Yes, registrars have listed a series of purportedly "legitimate" uses of the AGP, but I find none of their justifications listed in the ad hoc outcomes report to have sufficient merit:
AGP Use 1: Correction of typographical errors made by registrant -- with all the redundancies built into the registration process (including all the upsell pages) the AGP is no longer needed to dealt with this remote possibility.
AGP Use 2: Cart "hold" to provide access to domain names -- the concept of reserving a domain at the registry once it gets "looked up" by a user (that hasn't paid for the registration) is an abomination. As stated in the White Paper: "The failure to make a domain name applicant pay for its use of a domain name has encouraged cyberpirates and is a practice that should end as soon as possible."
AGP Use 3: Fraud remedies -- arrangements regarding the settlement of fraud claims can be built into the Credits section in the Service Level Agreement within the relevant registry-registrar agreements; it need not be part of the AGP.
AGP Use 4: Monitoring, testing and development of systems -- This argument seeks to make the "cost of doing business" a registry subsidy. The argument is weak and can readily be rejected.
AGP Use 5: Addressing Registrant 'Buyer's Remorse' -- a fine example of BS.
The best way of dealing with the current spate of domain tasting is to eliminate the Add Grace Period; this option is preferable to all others. The ALAC should advocate for that position.
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