Article in economic times
Milind Agarwal
NEW YORK : THE key oversight agency for internet addresses is
reviewing the way it oversees businesses that sell domain names in the
wake of financial and operational problems that left customers of one
company nameless. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) already has taken steps to decertify RegisterFly.com,
whose troubles, it said, resulted in many customers unable to renew
names before they expired or to transfer them to rival registration
companies, known as registrars, as required under ICANN rules.
ICANN said broader changes may be needed to prevent similar troubles
in the future. Paul Levins, the agency's vice-president for corporate
affairs, said on Monday that the existing rules were written when
there was little competition among registrars, while there are about
860 on Tuesday.
Paul Twomey, ICANN's chief executive, said the agency was not looking
to increase regulation at the expense of competition. But the agency,
he said, wants to explore whether registrar operators must prove a
basic level of skills, whether ICANN must approve any ownership
changes and whether ICANN could create enforcement tools short of
yanking a company's accreditation entirely.
Other questions include whether the agency should develop an escrow
system as a backup repository for data on domain name registrations
key should a registrar go out of business or be deemed incompetent. A
related issue involves whether anonymous registrations through proxy
services could hinder data recovery.
ICANN plans to start discussions as it meets in Lisbon, Portugal, this
week, although any decisions are likely months away. Other items on
the agenda include a decision on the proposed ".xxx" domain name for
pornography sites and a separate review of whether registration data
for domain names should remain fully public.
Justin Kulhawick, who runs the RegisterFlies.com site critical of
RegisterFly, praised ICANN for the broader review but said the agency
should have acted on complaints about the company long ago. He added
he was building a system through which customers could rate registrars
on service and price - one of the items ICANN is discussing.
According to ICANN, RegisterFly has been having trouble registering
and managing domain names on behalf of their customers, and an
ownership dispute that resulted in a federal lawsuit compounded those
problems. In that dispute, John Naruszewicz accused Kevin Medina of
draining RegisterFly coffers to pay for personal expenses like
liposuction, leaving the company unable to pay bills required to
properly register or renew names for their customers. In a response
court
filing, Medina disputed Naruszewicz's claims of co-ownership and
accused him of fraud.
A judge ruled on March 8 in Medina's favour, giving him full ownership
and control of the company. The following week, after months of
meetings and letter exchanges, ICANN told Medina it would terminate
RegisterFly's accreditation as of this coming Saturday. ICANN said the
company violated ICANN rules in failing to let customers transfer
names and failing to comply with audit requirements.
Phone numbers listed with RegisterFly's registration records were
either disconnected or produced continual busy signals on Monday. E-
mail inquiries were not immediately answered.
What will happen after Saturday is not clear. RegisterFly can still
seek arbitration or file a lawsuit, ICANN officials say.
ICANN said it may automatically transfer customers to a competing
registrar, but it said it does not have all the necessary data,
largely because of the use of anony mous proxy services. Levins said a
lawsuit against RegisterFly was possible.