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ICANN to Crack Down on Domain Name Abuse
Board members of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) have recently agreed to revise their policy in order to make website domain name registration more expensive for “domain tasters”. Current ICANN policy permits domain name registrars to sample domain names for a period of 5 days, and to obtain a full refund of the registration fee if the name is returned within such period. As a result, a number of domain registrars have built businesses around claiming millions of domain names, only to return them prior to expiry of the grace period, keeping only those which have been successful in generating revenues through pay-per-click advertising traffic.
Under the new policy, there would be no refund of the $0.20 surcharge per domain payable to ICANN that is included in the registration fee. This would result in thousands of dollars in fees for domain tasting, which it is hoped will reduce the practice, and thus free up more domain names for the legitimate purchasers. The $0.20 fee, however, would not be a deterrent for people who simply make a spelling error or other mistake when registering, which is the original idea behind the 5-day grace period. The revised policy should also address the related issue of “domain kiting” in which registrars drop tasted domain names at the end of the 5-day grace period, and then immediately re-registered them.
ICANN has not confirmed when the policy will take effect, but industry experts think it could be in place by this summer. The new policy will impact not only registrars, but also companies such as Google who make money whenever someone clicks on one of its Adsense links that is referred by a site having a “domain taster” or “domain kiting” domain name.
For additional information, visit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/30/AR2008013002178.html