Unfortunately, HTTP redirections are not an option in the case of the gTLD space, because Registries are contractually required to provide an RDDS response.
From an operational perspective, I think that HTTP redirections are also not an option in the case of the domain industry, because the prevalent business model has two parties (i.e. Registries and Registrars) keeping certain portions of the data elements. For example, the Registry is the authoritative source of information for the domain statuses.
The mechanism defined in section 2.3 of the gTLD RDAP profile allows the Registry to provide an RDAP response, and say something like "btw, this other party may have more information". Regards, Gustavo On 8/29/16, 19:17, "gtld-tech-bounces@icann.org on behalf of John Levine" <gtld-tech-bounces@icann.org on behalf of johnl@taugh.com> wrote:
From an automation and information publishing perspective, we think always having a link to registrar from the registries might be very convenient. Is there a way to publish this whenever it's available ?
If the registrar has the information, the registry can return an http redirect to the registrar and it'll all look automatic to the client.
In much the same way, if you do an RDAP query to one of the RIRs, and the address has been reassigned to another RIR, they do the redirect and for the client it just works.
R's, John