A couple of you have asked me over the last few days where we are at on the
transfers issue...some of this is official, some of it isn't, all of it
should help you understand what the lay of the transfers land looks like...
At the end of November, ICANN's Transfer Task Force forwarded 29
recommendations[1] to the Names Council describing how ICANN's policies
surrounding transfers could be modified in a positive manner. The intention
of these recommendations was to increase the security, transparency and
stability of these types of transactions. As a participant in this task
force representing registrars, I fully believe that these recommendations
fulfill that goal.
Currently, ICANN's Names Council is analysing the feasibility of these
recommendations. Tucows analysis[2] has been submitted to the Transfers
Implementation Analsysis Committee as have the comments of other parties[3]
At the end of this month, this committee will be forwarding its final
analysis to the Names Council for their consideration. If the
recommendations are deemed feasible and implementable by the Council, they
will be forwarded to the ICANN Board who may vote to accept them as
consensus policy recommendations to be implemented in the operating
contracts.
This could all happen as early as March.
Tucows has mixed feelings concerning how realistic it is to expect positive
change as a result of these recommendations. There are factions that have
chosen to oppose the development of this policy since day one. They may
choose to continue their opposition through these final stages towards
adoption - which at the very least, could make things difficult.
In the meantime, we are working towards our own interim implementations and
some new processes that may make it easier to deal with registrars like
Verisign, TotalNIC and other registrars that have chosen to make it
difficult for their registrants to leave them for other registrars. This
won't make up for efficient and predictable practices that are universally
adopted throughout the industry, but it might make things easier for your
customers over the short-term.
I wish I had some more specific, more upbeat news - especially after working
on this issue for almost two years. The important thing is that we are
getting close. I will try and post another update in a couple of weeks to
let you know how the feasibility analysis went. Also, keep an eye out for
announcements from our operations groups (sales, etc) describing any new
transfers related processes that might fall out of our current internal
discussions/development...
Questions, comments, as always, welcomed.
-rwr
[1]
http://www.dnso.org/dnso/notes/20021212.NCTransferTF-gaining-and-losing-regi
strars.html
[2] http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/nc-imp/Arc00/msg00020.html
[3] http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/nc-imp/Arc00/
"...the current generation of users and system designers has grown up
hobbled by implicit assumptions that frustrate simplicity. The real essence
of the Internet is simplicity. We must be aware of the implicit assumptions
that are subverting this simplicity so we can start removing the perverse
interactions." - Bob Frankston
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