ICANN rules to change
October 20, 2004Kieth Barrit of the International Trademark Association, reminds us in the INTA Bulletin that new ICANN rules are only weeks away.
The first issue is that domains that are registered with false or incomplete registration data, will not be allowed to be renewed during the redemption grace period (the 30-day period following deletion of a domain name during which the owner may reclaim it). Not until complete and supposedly accurate registration information is provided.
However, the big problem is that there will be no verification of the data submitted. For a method supposedly for combating fraud, this seems like a remarkable of foresight. After all, what percentage of fraudulently registered domain names are going to be left to expire, only to be re-registered? And then what is to stop fraudulently registered domains being re-registered with different fraudulent information?
The second issue is that the Whois Marketing Restriction Policy will require bulk access agreements with registrars to prohobit marketing and redistribution activities. Again, we have to wonder how effective is this policy going to be. E-mail mining of whois information has been against WHOIS policy anyway, yet has not stopped various Unsolicited Commercial E-mail practitioners.
So will the new policies of ICANN actually tackle the issues they are supposed to address?
From November 12th, we’ll get to see. But don’t hold your breath.
Link: ICANN rules to change