On 3/27/07, Wendy Seltzer <wendy@seltzer.com> wrote:

What's the best way to move this forward, at least to the question of
whether it's something ALAC wants to commission?

Forever, we've been saying ALAC should do research.  This seems like a
fairly simple question to ask and answer on the data side, though we'd
still have work to do interpreting and reaching policy conclusions from
it.

--Wendhy

Izumi AIZU wrote:
> I think it's good idea to organize this survey. If possible, could we
> also do some user survey on the same subject? Ideally, I like to
> make an online survey which costs minimum with some automatic
> tally feature.
>
> The challenge may be how to avoid spam or
> non-serious responses, etc.
>
> izumi
>
> 2007/3/8, Wendy Seltzer <wendy@seltzer.com >:
>> Thanks to Danny Younger for starting this conversation.
>>
>> Danny has proposed that the ALAC initiate research on a specific,
>> registrant-affecting question: What are the scope and magnitude of
>> transfer-away fees among the various registrars?  These fees, charged to
>> domain-name registrants when they seek to leave one registrar for
>> another, can lock registrants in to a registrar who no longer serves
>> their needs (as has happened in droves with former Registerfly
>> customers). High fees can also contravene the intent of the uniform
>> transfers policy.  We have seen little public information about these
>> fees.
>>
>> So, here is a focused research task:
>> For each registrar, ask
>> Is there a transfer-away fee for registrants to take their domain names
>> to another registrar?
>> If so, what is the fee?
>> Is the transfer-away fee disclosed to the registrant at the time of
>> registration?
>> Where and how is such disclosure made?
>> Is the fee subject to change?
>>
>> After we decide whether these are the relevant questions, we should ask
>> staff to contact all registrars for their responses, and/or review
>> public information on the registrars' websites.
>>
>> If you're interested in this research, please respond to this message
>> with your thoughts.
>>
>> --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/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>> www.alac.icann.org
>> www.icannalac.org
>>
>>
>
>

--
Wendy Seltzer -- wendy@seltzer.org
phone: 718.780.7961 // fax: 718.780.0394 // cell: 914.374.0613
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/

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