[registrars] 100 year domain registration

[Eric Brunner-Williams]

John,

It was just this issue that got me to wondering about the way that 
"stability of IDN labels" was being discussed in the IETF's latest "IDN" 
mailing list, the words like "forever" in the IDN mess are simply hard 
to related to the finite contract period for ICANN itself, and the 
fixed-term contracts for gTLD registries and registrars. In the worst 
case (that I can think of) some ICANN BoD could preclude itself and all 
future ICANN BoDs from fixing some not-yet-known-to-be-broken bit of 
character set detail, because some third-party (an IETF WG composed 
primarily of people employed by printer and email product OEMs) put 
"forever" (or terms wicked longer than our contracts) into some standard.

Stability of labels is better than instability, but it can be expressed 
in small multiples of contract periods, assuming the requirement for 
stability comes from a body defined by contracts.

Eric

John Berryhill, Ph.d., Esq. wrote:
>
> >> Does anyone know if this violates any policies, rules,
>>> regulations, etc.? 
>
> The ICANN-VRSN contract limits .com registrations to ten years.
>
> http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/registry-agmt-com-01mar06.htm 
>
>
> "(f)         Adjustments to Pricing for Domain Name Registrations. 
> Registry Operator shall provide no less than six months prior notice 
> in advance of any increase for new and renewal domain name 
> registrations and for transferring a domain name registration from one 
> ICANN-accredited registrar to another and shall continue to offer for 
> periods of up to ten years new and renewal domain name registrations 
> fixed at the price in effect at the time such offer is accepted."
>
> However, that does not prevent any third party from offering some sort 
> of pledge to renew domain names subject to the prevailing terms of 
> renewal that continue to be available.  Some years ago, I recall a 
> scheme whereby the service provider would set up some sort of annuity 
> fund to pay future registrations.
>
> If the service is advertised as a "100 year domain registration", then 
> one might consider whether the terms of the service are adequately 
> described in a manner which is not deceptive, but that would be an 
> issue of consumer law in the relevant jurisdiction, and not an ICANN 
> compliance issue.
>
>