[lac-discuss-en] Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group Presents Its Proposed Final Report

[Dev Anand Teelucksingh]

The GNSO Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery (PEDNR) Working Group
(WG) in ICANN was tasked to address questions in relation to what
extent registrants should be able to renew their domain names after
they expire. At issue is whether the current policies of registrars on
the renewal, transfer and deletion of expired domain names are
adequate.

Registrants are the individuals or organisations who register or
license specific domain names for a specific period of time and for a
fee from registrars.

Registrars are organizations accredited by ICANN that processes the
registration for the domain name (once the domain name is available)
and transmits the name and registration details to the registry
operator which operates the registry (the master database) for the
generic Top Level Domain (gTLDs). Currently, there are 21 gTLDs
including .com, .net and .org

Some in the At-Large community are of the opinion that there is not
always adequate notice to registrants whose domain names are expiring.
The At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) request (that ultimately
resulted in the WG being formed) noted that issues may include a lack
of consistent notification standards, undelivered expiration
notification emails, or notification rights inadvertently signed away
during initial domain name registration.

The PEDNR WG now presents its Proposed Final Report, which contains
fourteen (14) recommendations to address the five questions:

1) Whether adequate opportunity exists for registrants to redeem their
expired domain names;
2) Whether expiration-related provisions in typical registration
agreements are clear and conspicuous enough;
3) Whether adequate notice exists to alert registrants of upcoming expirations;
4) Whether additional measures need to be implemented to indicate that
once a domain name enters the Auto-Renew Grace Period, it has expired
(e.g., hold status, a notice on the site with a link to information on
how to renew, or other options to be determined);
5) Whether to allow the transfer of a domain name during the
Redemption Grace Period (RGP).


PEDNR Proposed Final Report
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/pednr/pednr-proposed-final-report-21feb11-en.pdf

PEDNR Proposed Final Report - Executive Summary
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/pednr/pednr-proposed-final-report-executive-summary-21feb11-en.pdf

The deadline for comments on the proposed final report is April 7 2011.


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Kind Regards,

Dev Anand Teelucksingh
LACRALO Secretariat