[At-Large] DomainIncite : Is this why WhatsApp hates some TLDs but not others?

[bzs at theworld.com]

ICANN is if nothing else a network of contracts with various provisions.

The general term of art used within the ICANN context for registries,
registrars etc is the "contracted parties".

ICANN has acted previously to curtail the mass use of throw-away
domains by putting restrictions on refunds.

In the past spammers et al were able to buy thousands of domains, use
them for spamming, phishing, etc for several days, and then request a
refund.

So in that past case the cost was zero other than the effort
involved. And certainly nothing to ICANN as the fees were refunded and
the miscreant could lather, rinse, repeat.

ICANN's mission statement includes the "stability and integrity" of
the net.

So for example they believe they can put requirements on identity of
the purchaser. Imperfectly implemented but no one questions ICANN's
ability to contractually require the registrar to attempt to gather
accurate information at registration.

And the notion of disallowing the use of their product (domains) for
likely illegal or fraudulent purposes is hardly unique to ICANN.

The automobile analogy falls flat with me since there are many
restrictions on sales of automobiles such as proper identification of
seller and buyer, etc. Try to buy a car without a VIN tag.

There was even a time in the 1990s when you could buy ready to use
cell phones in bubble packs for about $50 each, cash. They had some
number of minutes included which one could refill, or just toss in a
public trash can after harassing or threatening someone.

Anyhow the point is that registrars can be contractually bound to not
engage in behaviors known to be of advantage to micreants.

On September 16, 2023 at 12:25 karl at cavebear.com (Karl Auerbach) wrote:
 > On 9/15/23 9:53 PM, bzs at theworld.com wrote:
 > > How about selling tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands) of
 > > machine-generated domains to spammers/phishers for a steeply discounted
 > > price?
 > >
 > I would not jump to agree that dealing with this is withing ICANN's 
 > scope - which is the matter of keeping the top two layers of the primary 
 > DNS system reliably, promptly, and accurately turning domain name 
 > queries into domain name responses.  (A nod may be made in the direction 
 > of also including oversight of the addition and removal of TLDs.)
 > 
 > If generating domain names and selling them for what they actually cost 
 > (mere pennies rather than the ICANN system's dollars) is, in itself, 
 > something ill that ICANN should regulate against?
 > 
 > There are laws, passed by real legislatures, against fraud, 
 > misrepresentation, and conspiracies to do ill.  Those things are the 
 > acts to be complained of, not the registration of lots of names that 
 > someone conjectures might be used in ill ways.  It is no more ICANN's 
 > role to enforce laws about fraud than it is for ICANN to enforce laws 
 > about murder.
 > 
 > There is a vast distance between ICANN punishing a registrar or registry 
 > for, one one hand, merely selling lots of names for cheap and, on the 
 > other hand, a conspiracy, an agreement, between spammers and that 
 > registrar and registry.  ICANN ought to leave the determination of such 
 > conspiracies to the legal systems of the world.  Yes, there is a 
 > problem, not just ICANN's problem, of different jurisdictions arriving 
 > at contradictory results.  But that is a problem much broader than ICANN.
 > 
 > Automobiles are used in many crimes.  Would that justify the US Society 
 > of Automotive Engineers (a standards body) regulate Ford, GM, Honda, 
 > Toyota (etc) for producing and selling low cost cars?
 > 
 > Is ICANN to be the policeman - and perhaps the Puritan minister - of the 
 > Internet?
 > 
 > ICANN is a textbook case of mission creep (actually in ICANN's case it 
 > is mission gallop) and regulatory capture.  Do we want to encourage and 
 > applaud this?
 > 
 > To me, the most interesting aspect of the practice of which you complain 
 > is that it demonstrates the utter fallacy of the ICANN imposed business 
 > model, a model that multiples un-audited costs by tens of thousands of 
 > percent so that internet users pay prices for domain names that are 
 > thousands of times higher than the actual cost of providing that 
 > service.   ICANN is a money pump that sucks $$billions out of the 
 > pockets of internet users - and yet it gives those users no real voice 
 > or vote.  That is the real scandal of which we ought to be complaining.
 > 
 >           --karl--

-- 
        -Barry Shein

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