Re: [ga] Fw: Discussion Paper: Redemption Grace Periods for Deleted Names

[Elisabeth Porteneuve <Elisabeth.Porteneuve@cetp.ipsl.fr>]

Hello everybody,

Providing comment to an already 3 days old text ...

  Quote from:
  http://www.icann.org/registrars/redemption-proposal-14feb02.htm

     "Probably the most common type of unintentional deletion 
      is caused by registrant mistake. Registrants sometimes 
      inadvertently fail to renew registrations due to a clerical 
      mistake or failure to receive a renewal notice (usually as 
      a result of failing to keep registration contact information 
      up-to-date.) If a registrant moves or changes Internet 
      service providers, the registrant might not receive a notice 
      from its registrar informing it that a renewal payment is due. 
      Also, some registrants may accidentally overlook a renewal 
      notice or mistake it for a solicitation or spam. Section 
      3.7.5 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement requires 
      registrars to cancel the registration of any domain name 
      for which the registrant fails to pay a renewal fee at the 
      conclusion of a fixed registration period."

  Quote from:
  http://www.icann.org/registrars/ra-agreement-17may01.htm#3.7.5

      "3.7.5 Registrar shall register Registered Names to 
       Registered Name Holders only for fixed periods. At the 
       conclusion of the registration period, failure by or on 
       behalf of the Registered Name Holder to pay a renewal fee 
       within the time specified in a second notice or reminder 
       shall, in the absence of extenuating circumstances, result 
       in cancellation of the registration. In the event that 
       ICANN adopts a specification or policy concerning procedures 
       for handling expiration of registrations, Registrar shall 
       abide by that specification or policy."

We could probably learn from other that domain names services.

The public service subscriptions are much longer history that 
Internet domain names under ICANN rules. They certainly vary 
from country to country, but the spectra of solutions for them 
could bring us some ideas for Internet domain names.

In France we have a simple and clever payment feature for all 
kind of public services (water supply, electricity supply, 
telephone supply, Internet access supply, etc.), whether they 
are provided by public or private companies. When you subscribe 
to such services, you usually want them to be renewed without 
getting bothered periodically. The default situation is that 
you will renew unless stated otherwise (and not that you will 
not renew unless explicitly re-subscribed). And you back it up
by allowing the public service company to charge your bank account. 
The advantage of being granted the payment is big enough to 
make the public service companies taking care about their 
reputation. Which is tourn makes consumer confident.

   1. The subscriber sign a contract with a supplier, and allow 
      the supplier to charge its bank account periodically. 
      The supplier is sending few weeks in advance a printed 
      invoice indicating when the bank account is going to be 
      charged next time and the amount of money. 

   2. The subscriber may change his mind any time, with a short 
      notice, and cancel his subscription. But because the default 
      is well adapted to the most common situation, the subscriber 
      may also spent his summer vacation in Greece without 
      bothering about electricity bills, and will not get into 
      dark once at home.

I tend to believe that ICANN rules for the service on domain 
names should be oriented towards stable customers. 
As a practical action it can be that a "long term option" 
based on a kind of automatic periodical payment could be added 
to Registrant's choice and allow him to keep his companies 
names for business or communication for unlimited duration. 

Adding any number of days for grace period does not change a iota 
a logic in deletion problem IMHO.

I think that the current ICANN text "ra-agreement-17may01.htm",
is too strongly intended for competition between Registrars
and does forget the basic need of Registrant for long term 
stability and visibility on the Internet.
Simultaneously I wonder how the French example could help 
into gTLD global planet situation.
No doubt that a Registrar incorporated in France may already
provide an automatic bank payment to its Registrants, therefore 
grant de facto a "long term option" to its stable customers.
There is certainly some marketing efforts to be made.

Elisabeth Porteneuve

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