[EURO-Discuss] ICANN Board Recommends Action on Domain Tasting

[Nick Ashton-Hart]

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-29jan08.htm

ICANN Board Recommends Action on Domain Tasting

Suggested fee change would effectively eliminate tasting

29 January 2008

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names  
and Numbers is looking to effectively end domain tasting with a  
proposal to start charging the annual ICANN fee on registrar domain  
registrations.

Domain tasting is the use of the Add Grace Period to test the  
profitability of a domain name registration. The AGP is a five-day  
period following the initial registration of a domain name when the  
registration may be deleted and a credit can be issued to a registrar.

"Domain tasting has been an issue for the Internet community and ICANN  
is offering this proposal as a way to stop tasting," said Dr Paul  
Twomey, ICANN's President and CEO. "Charging the ICANN fee as soon as  
a domain name is registered would close the loophole used by tasters  
to test a domain name's profitability for free."

AGP was originally introduced by registries so registrars could avoid  
costs if a domain name was mistyped or misspelled during the  
registration process. It is part of  
the .com, .net, .org, .info, .name, .pro, and .biz registry contracts.

Tasting has been a serious challenge for the Internet community and  
has grown exponentially since 2004. In January 2007 the top 10 domain  
tasters accounted for 95% of all deleted .com and .net domain names -  
or 45,450,897 domain names out of 47,824,131 total deletes.

The proposal will be part of the ICANN budget process for the fiscal  
year starting 1 July 2008. The early draft version of that budget will  
be released for and discussed at ICANN's New Delhi meeting later this  
month. After public discussions of this proposal and other budget  
issues, the proposed budget will be released for addition discussions  
by 17 May 2008 and be voted on at the board meeting to be held during  
the ICANN meeting in Paris in June. ICANN accredited registrars  
representing two-thirds of fees collected will be asked to approve the  
proposal.

"This idea came from the ICANN community and we think it is a viable  
solution the Internet community has been seeking," Dr Twomey added.

-- 
Regards,

Nick Ashton-Hart
Director, At-Large
ICANN
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