The proposals for the implementation of a redemption grace
period were discussed on the last day of the body’s quarterly
meeting, and received broad support.
The new system will give domain name owners a 30-day grace
period to renew their registration contracts. It aims to create a
safety net for expired domain names, reducing the risk of
legitimate parties losing their names to cybersquatters.
Under the current system, organisations and individuals who fail
to renew their subscriptions automatically lose their domain names.
Cybersquatters can use the lost domain names to bring internet
users to their own sites.
Dann Halloran, ICCAN’s chief registrar, said:
“You would have a church site that got
deleted and suddenly it now pointed users to a porn site or the new
registrar wants $5,000 to get the name back.”
In the same vote, ICANN authorised its president and general
counsel to conduct negotiations toward appropriate revisions to
technical aspects of agreements between ICANN and registry
operators, in order to implement the new domain name system.
However, no decision was made regarding another proposal to
introduce a waiting list for newly available domain names. This
measure will be discussed later this summer.
ICANN approved structural changes that allow businesses,
government and community representatives to be members of its
board. It also agreed that, in the future, disputes could be
settled by international arbitration.
