[registrars] Gaining vs losing registrar for transfers

[Bruce Tonkin <Bruce.Tonkin@melbourneit.com.au>]

Hello Tim,

You seem to be covering material that was discussed in detail about a year
ago within the registrars constituency.

Whether the gaining or the losing registrar decides whether the registrant
approves the transfer will lead to a dispute unless both the gaining and
losing registrar can agree on the same criteria for receiving registrant
approval.  For example, in the suggestion you are proposing a losing
registrar can claim that the registrant denies the transfer without the onus
to provide the gaining registrar with objective proof of this - effectively
a registrar losing market share will make it as difficult as possible for a
registrant to approve a transfer.  Likewise if the gaining registrar claims
that the registrant has given approval (ie a registrar trying to quickly
gain market share will make it as easy as possible to approve a transfer)
for example in response to a telemarketing phone call, the losing registrar
may not accept this assertion (this is the present situation).

Part of the design of the EPP protocol was to come up with a solution to
this problem.
The idea was that if a registrant gave the gaining registrar the
authorisation code, then the losing registrar would accept this as proof of
authorisation.  In Australia this has been taken one step further, after the
gaining registrar receives the auth-code, the gaining registrar must contact
the registrant using the admin contact in the WHOIS to confirm the transfer.
The gaining registrar must keep records of the original request and
confirmation.  A losing registrar can challenge the gaining registrar to
provide copies of such records.

My understanding of the work of the transfers task force has been to try to
come up with a solution that is accepted by both gaining and losing
registrar.  This is the challenge.

Regards,
Bruce Tonkin