[At-Large] [NA-Discuss] Proposed research on registrar transfer-away fees

[RJGlass | America@Large]

It is my opinion that transfer-away fees border on monopolistic practices by
registrars.  I think any registrar who imposes such fees should be boycotted
by the community.  However, the question is, 'should we research' the
situation.

Of course.

aloha,
RJ Glass
A at L

On 3/27/07, Wendy Seltzer <wendy at seltzer.com> wrote:
>
> What's the best way to move this forward, at least to the question of
> whether it's something ALAC wants to commission?
>
> Forever, we've been saying ALAC should do research.  This seems like a
> fairly simple question to ask and answer on the data side, though we'd
> still have work to do interpreting and reaching policy conclusions from
> it.
>
> --Wendhy
>
> Izumi AIZU wrote:
> > I think it's good idea to organize this survey. If possible, could we
> > also do some user survey on the same subject? Ideally, I like to
> > make an online survey which costs minimum with some automatic
> > tally feature.
> >
> > The challenge may be how to avoid spam or
> > non-serious responses, etc.
> >
> > izumi
> >
> > 2007/3/8, Wendy Seltzer <wendy at seltzer.com>:
> >> Thanks to Danny Younger for starting this conversation.
> >>
> >> Danny has proposed that the ALAC initiate research on a specific,
> >> registrant-affecting question: What are the scope and magnitude of
> >> transfer-away fees among the various registrars?  These fees, charged
> to
> >> domain-name registrants when they seek to leave one registrar for
> >> another, can lock registrants in to a registrar who no longer serves
> >> their needs (as has happened in droves with former Registerfly
> >> customers). High fees can also contravene the intent of the uniform
> >> transfers policy.  We have seen little public information about these
> >> fees.
> >>
> >> So, here is a focused research task:
> >> For each registrar, ask
> >> Is there a transfer-away fee for registrants to take their domain names
> >> to another registrar?
> >> If so, what is the fee?
> >> Is the transfer-away fee disclosed to the registrant at the time of
> >> registration?
> >> Where and how is such disclosure made?
> >> Is the fee subject to change?
> >>
> >> After we decide whether these are the relevant questions, we should ask
> >> staff to contact all registrars for their responses, and/or review
> >> public information on the registrars' websites.
> >>
> >> If you're interested in this research, please respond to this message
> >> with your thoughts.
> >>
> >> --Wendy
> >>
> >> --
> >> Wendy Seltzer -- wendy at seltzer.org
> >> Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
> >> Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
> >> http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
> >> http://www.chillingeffects.org/
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >> www.alac.icann.org
> >> www.icannalac.org
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Wendy Seltzer -- wendy at seltzer.org
> phone: 718.780.7961 // fax: 718.780.0394 // cell: 914.374.0613
> Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
> Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society
> http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/seltzer.html
> http://www.chillingeffects.org/
>
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