ICANN Set To Review Accreditation Policy

tinkertim writes "ICANN is re-evaluating the scope and purpose of its accreditations, apparently sparked by the recent collapse of garage domain name registrar Registerfly. In a press release dated March 21, 2007, President and CEO of ICANN, Dr Paul Twomey is quoted as saying : 'What has happened to registrants with RegisterFly.com has made it clear there must be comprehensive review of the registrar accreditation process and the content of the RAA.' Dr. Twomey is blaming (in part) 'weaknesses in the RAA' for severe and undue hardships that many registrants encountered when trying to transfer names away from the failing registrar, Registerfly. Many new points to be discussed include allowing registrants to view the performance of registrars in an 'independent comparative way', as well as new language to allow ICANN to forcibly intercede in the face of wide spread, persistent and consistent complaints. 10 good points for discussion are listed by Dr. Twomey in the release, who invites all ICANN stakeholders to participate in re-evaluating the RAA. Registerfly, the catalyst for this re-write does not officially lose their accredited status until March 31, 2007, and continues to display the ICANN seal on their web site."

Comments

Re:Proxy registrations

[mandelbr0t]

Except that hosting an Internet domain could be construed as having broadcast equipment. Personally, I can't see how you have any honest intentions in hiding the fact that you are domain owner. Where do abuse reports get sent when someone starts sending spam using your domain name? What about take-down notices when someone posts copyrighted material on a website with your domain name? An Internet domain isn't a passive entity: it can be the source of a broadcast as well as the end-point. If you want to have an anonymous webspace, then use one of the many options that are available to you. The Internet is already too anonymous without domain owners being willing to take responsibility for their own domain.

Important issues to consider

[davidwr]

• Will there be "provisional accreditation" for registrars who are either very new or who have failed to meet all the requirements for full accreditation but are improving? Will these registrars be required to identify themselves as less-than-fully-accredited?
  
• Will every registrar have an "involuntary end-of-life" plan, and is funding backed by a bond or insurance policy?
  
• Will every registrar have a disaster-recovery plan if its data center or a substantial number of employees become unavailable, say, due to war?
  
• Will "proxied" registrations be escrowed and will the escrow agent have similar end-of-life and disaster-recovery plans?
  
• Will there be provisions to put an expiring domain on "indefinite hold," unavailable to squatters, if it is expiring due to registrar negligence?
  
• Will there be provisions to alert search engines when a domain really expires, so they can either purge their data or segregate it from data put in by the new domain owner?
  
• Will there be provisions to make all expiring domains "dark" for a minimum length of time, say, 7 or 30 days after expiration, to prevent the illusion of continuity when none exists? I think there is something like that now.