[registrars] OUTCOMES REPORT OF THE GNSO AD HOC GROUP ON DOMAIN NAME TASTING

[Ross Rader]

 > Not if the customer is logged into their account and payment 
information is
 > on file, no.  While a "cart hold" is a fairly decent process as 
described, I
 > hear echoes of the old NSI "three month invoice float" that was the 
mainstay
 > of speculation circa 1997.

Disagree - that's too implicit to satisfy the terms of this clause.

 > Consider: "general commercial terms extended to creditworthy customers"
 >
 > I believe one would find that large-scale tasters do indeed have the 
funds
 > on hand to theoretically pay for the registrations.  Determining whether
 > these registrations have been made on "general commercial terms 
extended to
 > creditworthy customers" is going to require some information about the
 > creditworthiness of those customers.

I'd be happy to hear someone make that argument to ICANN. The issue is 
not whether someone theoretically can pay for the registrations they've 
tasted, but that they will if the registration is activated. The second 
a registration gets transmitted to and accepted by the registry as a 
valid transaction, a fee is payable to the registrar. The clause in 
question clearly states that the registrar must be satisfied that the 
RNH will pay for the registration and that such payment is final and 
non-revocable. In other words, a registrar is not permitted to issue a 
refund to a registrant for cancellations made during the AGP according 
to the terms of this contract.

Generally, this reads that ICANN is not concerned as much with whether 
the registrant *could* pay the bill, but whether they *will*. Under all 
tasting implementations imaginable, the answer is clearly "no, they will 
not be paying that bill".

 > Clearly PIR was able to end tasting in .org without engaging the rest 
of the
 > community in a PDP.  Verisign could do precisely the same thing, and end
 > tasting within the same short time scale.  It is a mystery why these
 > circumstances are the fault of eeeevil registrars.

Yeah, agree. Its the registries. Always the registries.

And ICANN.

I'm sure that DOC is implicated somehow as well :)

Whatever. Verisign can and should implement the restocking fee, ICANN 
should enforce their contracts and registrars need to learn when to walk 
away from short-term money.

The DOC - they'll never learn.

-- 
Regards,

Ross Rader
Director, Retail Services
Tucows Inc.

http://www.domaindirect.com
t. 416.538.5492