On the GA list Peter Dambier has pointed to a petition to ICANN posted at http://www.petitiononline.com/DNSquatt/petition.html The petition begins with: "We, the undersigned, believe that what is happening nowadays, regarding the handling of expired internet domain names, by most of the registrars, is nothing but a crude form of extortion." This is an issue with which I have a great deal of sympathy as I view registrar collusion with aftermarket profiteers as an antitrust violation that has the effect of artificially raising consumer prices. At issue is whether we continue to tolerate registrar Direct Transfer clauses that tread upon the intent of the Expired Domain Deletion Consensus Policy. This problem has been upon us for years -- see the 2004 ICANN Advisory at http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-21sep04-1.htm We should begin to deal with this issue, and I applaud those members of the public that have chosen to take a stand.