Here's a brief AP piece on domain tasting that points to some of the others (IP interests and antispam, both bothered by the quick turnover of no-cost names) who'd be allies in shutting down add-grace. <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-02-19-web-address-sampling_x.htm> By Anick Jesdanun, The Associated Press NEW YORK ­ It's not often you can compare Internet addresses with clothing, but a growing practice comes close, contributing to a global shortage in good names. Entrepreneurs have been taking advantage of a five-day grace period to sample millions of domain names, keeping the relative few that might generate advertising revenues and dropping the rest before paying. It's akin to buying new clothes on a charge card only to return them for a full refund after wearing them to a big party. The grace period was originally designed to rectify legitimate mistakes, such as registrants mistyping the domain name they are about to buy. But with computer automation and a burgeoning online advertising market, entrepreneurs have turned the return policy into a loophole for generating big bucks. Experts believe spammers and scam artists are also starting to use the grace period as a source of free, disposable Web addresses. With up to 6 million names tied up at any given time through a practice known as domain name tasting, individuals and businesses are having even greater difficulty finding good names, particularly in the already-crowded ".com" space. ... --Wendy -- Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.org Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html http://www.chillingeffects.org/