Registrars Still Ignoring ICANN Rules

stry_cat writes "Over a year ago ICANN moved to clean up misbehaving registrars like GoDaddy. They released this scary sounding advisory. However, over a year later, problems remain. One company is now publicly complaining. Some of the biggest registrars are slammed for their actions. 'Register.com is one frustrating company. The ICANN policy clearly prohibits blocking a transfer of a domain name that has expired but not yet been deleted. Despite that, a customer trying to transfer a three-day-expired Register.com domain name told us last week that they refused to give him the necessary code to allow him to transfer — unless he pays them to renew it first. ... GoDaddy (and their reseller arm, Wild West Domains) have a different problem: They still block transfers for 60 days after a registrant's contact update, even after the ICANN update specifically prohibited doing so. They freely admit it, too. ... We see a similar problem with many transfers from Network Solutions.'"

Comments

Rules can be ignored

[nurb432]

Laws, less so.

Re:Rules can be ignored

[eln]

ICANN gets most (all?) of its money from the registrars it's supposed to be policing. There's an inherent conflict of interest there.

Who sets the rules?

[brasselv]

This is something between scary and funny.

It's like the IRS complaining because too many people don't pay due taxes.

I'm not sure about the legal framework, but either ICANN has no way to enforce the rules (then it should refer to a different authority), or if they has such power, then go ahead and ban the guilty ones from providing the service.

Try this: Don't get suckered in my the marketing

[teknopurge]

Those $0.99 domain registrations? Companies make their money up other places - like selling you addons, making it difficult to move, etc. Try using a smaller domain provider that has their system automated and doesn't pay people to come up with new ways to lock you in. Everything from requiring you to make other purchases after 12 months to only providing the domain registration with another pay service, that was free in the beginning. It's a shameless plug, but we do domain registration for our clients but it's more for convenience than anything.

Re:Try this: Don't get suckered in my the marketin

[jpmorgan]

It's a near perfect market, in the economic sense. The barrier to entry into the registration business is almost nil, it's all just some data processing. And as economics tells us, as a market approaches 'perfection', profit margins approach 0%. So it's not surprising that some registrars are resorting to shady business practices; the only people who can make money in the registration business are those who are willing to do a little lying and cheating.

Re:Internet Domains are under free market purview

[X0563511]

You are more than welcome to create your own root domain, and do what you want. Nobody makes you use the structure controlled by ICANN.

Re:Perhaps ICANN needs the force of law.

[vertinox]

but, if Godaddy and ICANN cannot sort out their differences, and with ICANN being the authority the Gov't put in charge, then, the Congress needs to take this matter up

Do you really want congress deciding who gets what web page?