[registrars] Quick Catch-up post...

["Ross Wm. Rader" <ross@ebarn.com>]

Now that my posting woes are cleared up (thanks Michael, Larry), I just
wanted to pass on a few of the issues that we've been concerned about lately
what with all of the developments.

In no certain order...

a) We are gravely concerned at the lack of a comprehensive plan for
transferring domain names between the new registrants. As it currently
stands, there might be a different transfer policy and procedure *for each
registrar*. This is obviously not a solution that works in the bests
interests of the Internet community, registrants, registrars and the
registry. Are there now, or will there be, any movement towards a unified
procedure that will allow registrants to easily change registrars?

b) Somewhat related. It does not appear that ICANN nor NSIr(egistry) have
provisioned for global registrant lookup services. If this is the case, then
TUCOWS would like to spearhead the development of a service that would allow
all registrars to communicate with a centralized "whois" service in a DMZ
for the purpose of facilitating a global registrant lookup service. As with
point a), it appears that we may end up with a different "whois" service for
each registrar - also clearly unworkable. Based on financial models that
take into account the cost of *not* having such a service in place, we are
prepared to make significant investments towards the development and
implementation of a facility of this nature.

c) NSOL is clearly very organized with their government lobby (latest :
http://com-notes.house.gov/cchear/hearings106.nsf/eeae8466ba03a2158525677f00
4b4d11/b1e8b7b79e268341852567980058e7f8?OpenDocument ) Do we as a group have
any plans afoot to challenge the widely held sentiment that ICANN is a cash-
grab, that NSI is being prevented from pursuing their capitalist goals by
socialist european groups and that the entire domain infrastructure as we
know it is about to fall apart due to the intervention by the DOC and ICANN.
If not, what venues should we be pursuing independantly to ensure that our
voice and displeasure is heard. (I realize that this is somewhat related to
the questions I raised during the conference call, however I believe that
this "version" of the question goes a little bit deeper than "How do we
ensure that the USG and NSI are aware of our issues with the NSI/Registrar
Agreement?" questions that I previously raised.)

There are a couple of other things that I tried to bring up last week, but I
think that these three will suffice for now. BTW, congratulations to all of
those that were elected to the Names Council. I could not think of a better
group to represent our interests.

Ross Wm. Rader
Director, eCommerce
TUCOWS/Domain Direct
t. (416) 239-9095 x 335
f. (416) 239-8409