In the absence of an answer from Garth, let me take a stab at this. First, what are the regulations/rules covering resellers. First, for those not familiar with the term, a registrar who uses resellers is essentially a wholesaler, and the resellers are the "retail" entity that sells to the public. There are some registrars who do all of their business through resellers (although they may have a subsidiary or sister company that acts as a reseller), and other registrars do not use resellers at all and deal directly with the end-customers. Of course, domains are not actually "sold", but since we are discussing the entities referred to as resellers, let's continue to use the term sell for the transaction when a domain is registered. Prior to the recently approved RAA amendments, there were no explicit rules governing resellers. The RAA amendments only apply at contract renewal time (although there is a financial incentive for registrars to accept them prior to their renewal date, which could be as much as 5 years away), so for many registrars, the old rules still apply. Old Rules: If a registrar AAA has a reseller BBB, there are no words in any contract with ICANN regarding what BBB can or cannot do. However, when a domain is sold by BBB, it is a transaction that was being carried out on behalf of AAA and AAA is fully responsible for ensuring that all terms in their contract with ICANN (the Registrar Accreditation Agreement - RAA) are being satisfied. If you look at the WHOIS data for such a domain, AAA is the registrar of record. Since ICANN does not know whether a reseller is involved or who that reseller is, it is completely up to the AAA to ensure compliance with rules regarding interactions with the registrant. New Rules: Under the amended RAA, there are a number of EXPLICIT responsibilities that say what resellers can do in specific circumstances. In my mind (and I am NOT a lawyer), this does not really change the legal situation. ICANN still has a contract only with AAA and still has no knowledge of BBB's existence. But it does make it somewhat clearer that AAA's responsibilities are being passed on to BBB. On the question of why would a registrar use a reseller, that is simply a matter of the registrar's business model. Some registrars (eNom and Tucows are probably the largest examples) simply choose to only deal with resellers and not sell domains one-by-one. Others, such as Go-Daddy do a significant part of their business directly with registrants. Resellers themselves also may have a variety of business models. Some may just sell domains. Others may be primarily web hosting companies that want the ability to offer domains along with a hosting service. It is not really different from the range of ways that milk is sold - you can go to Wal-mart, or to a local convenience store. Different business models offering different levels of service, proximity, price, etc. Hope this helps, Alan At 12/08/2009 04:52 PM, Glenn McKnight wrote:
As a followup to our meeting of the GSNO PEDNR( Post Expiration Domain Name Recovery) on Tuesday
Garth brought a few issues regarding the issues of Resellers. Since we are midst of a survey to stakeholders I thought we need to broach this question.
Question: Garth, what regulations or rules currently cover the resellers and why would a Register use a seller?
Thanks Glenn