[AfrICANN-discuss] ICANN Board Recommends Action on Domain Tasting

[Anne-Rachel Inné]

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-29jan08.htm
ICANN Board Recommends Action on Domain Tasting

Suggested fee change would effectively eliminate tasting

29 January 2008

MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers is looking to effectively end domain tasting with a
proposal to start charging the annual ICANN fee on registrar domain
registrations.

Domain tasting is the use of the Add Grace Period to test the
profitability of a domain name registration. The AGP is a five-day
period following the initial registration of a domain name when the
registration may be deleted and a credit can be issued to a registrar.

"Domain tasting has been an issue for the Internet community and ICANN
is offering this proposal as a way to stop tasting," said Dr Paul
Twomey, ICANN's President and CEO. "Charging the ICANN fee as soon as
a domain name is registered would close the loophole used by tasters
to test a domain name's profitability for free."

AGP was originally introduced by registries so registrars could avoid
costs if a domain name was mistyped or misspelled during the
registration process. It is part of the .com, .net, .org, .info,
.name, .pro, and .biz registry contracts.

Tasting has been a serious challenge for the Internet community and
has grown exponentially since 2004. In January 2007 the top 10 domain
tasters accounted for 95% of all deleted .com and .net domain names -
or 45,450,897 domain names out of 47,824,131 total deletes.

The proposal will be part of the ICANN budget process for the fiscal
year starting 1 July 2008. The early draft version of that budget will
be released for and discussed at ICANN's New Delhi meeting later this
month. After public discussions of this proposal and other budget
issues, the proposed budget will be released for addition discussions
by 17 May 2008 and be voted on at the board meeting to be held during
the ICANN meeting in Paris in June. ICANN accredited registrars
representing two-thirds of fees collected will be asked to approve the
proposal.

"This idea came from the ICANN community and we think it is a viable
solution the Internet community has been seeking," Dr Twomey added.