Registrars hoarding domain names? (Summary)

[Bill McGonigle]

On Mar 28, 2006, at 13:18, Ben Scott wrote:

>   It appears you're not the first to encounter this.

Ah-ha!  I bow to your superior Google-Fu, benscott-san.

Summary:

	* Network Solutions and Register.com are known for doing this.
	* They've been doing it since at least 2002.
	* ICANN gets its $6 a year regardless so it doesn't care ( I assumed 
they weren't paid so they'd care, but they are).
	* The registrars are hedging bets against someone going to a different 
registrar, plus they'd like the auction/escrow fees > $250
	* Some people have had success calling Register.com on the telephone 
and asking them to release the domain into the deletion pool
	* This issue isn't specifically addressed in any of ICANN's website 
FAQ's
	* There is no definition of how and when domains are to be released 
back into the pool in ICANN's contract with registrars.  All the good 
registrars who are doing it the right way are just being ethical.

The last one seems to be the problem.  I might write the appropriate 
office at the FTC suggesting that be required.  The current policy 
breaks any chance for an efficient market.

-Bill

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