IMPORTANT: Share Your Opinion On Domain Expiry

Domains do not “live” forever.

If you do not renew them they expire, which means that you can no longer use them and someone else may use them.

A working group within ICANN, which is the organisation that “looks after” domains, such as .com, .net and .mobi, is currently looking into whether the current way domain expiry is handled is “ok”.

NB: ICANN can only make policy regarding the extensions it controls ie. com/net/org/info/biz/mobi/tel/pro/travel/museum/coop/aero/name. ICANN has nothing to do with .eu, .co.uk or .ie.

Basically the group, of which I am but one of the members, has been tasked with getting answers to a few particular questions:

1. Whether adequate opportunity exists for registrants to redeem their expired domain names;
2. Whether expiration-related provisions in typical registration agreements are clear and conspicuous enough;
3. Whether adequate notice exists to alert registrants of upcoming expirations;
4. Whether additional measures need to be implemented to indicate that once a domain name enters the Auto-Renew Grace Period, it has expired (e.g., hold status, a notice on the site with a link to information on how to renew, or other options to be determined);
5. Whether to allow the transfer of a domain name during the Redemption Grace Period (RGP).

If you have an opinion please please please share it with the working group, as without the public’s participation we have no way of knowing what people actually think, nor do we have any way of knowing about their experiences.