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Network Solutions backs ICANN provision on mass domain deletions

Network Solutions suggested to ICANN the adoption of a per-transaction fee to try and rein in the practices of domain kiting and front running domain names in volume.

Domain buyers saw a big chunk of their revenue fade when Google declared an end to permitting its AdSense product to be placed on domains that had not been open for six days. A five-day add grace period (AGP) permitted domain buyers to hold the domain for five days, see if it could draw enough traffic to be profitable, and dump it for a full refund if it did not.

Other domainers "kite" their domains, dumping and re-registering the same ones over and over. Even without Google, plenty of ad opportunities exist to make the business profitable at volume.

Such volume may be the weak point that can be broken with a suitable application of force. In the case of Network Solutions, the big registrar hopes to persuade the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) board of directors to keep a provision in its fiscal year 2009 budget to thwart domain tasting.

"This budget includes a provision to make the non-refundable 20 cent per-transaction ICANN fee applicable to domain names deleted during the AGP once the level of deletions exceeds 10 percent of a registrar’s net new registrations in that month," Network Solutions said in a statement.

If adopted, not only should the measure curtail a lot of the kiting and tasting taking place, but it should hamper the front running efforts of registrars. Network Solutions took heat in January over its front running of domains, a practice they claim was in place to stop domain tasters.

Network Solutions said they would discontinue their front running practice, should ICANN adopt the budget provision in question. "We believe that the adoption of this provision, will make tasting and kiting uneconomical, and will evaporate the incentive to engage in domain name front running," they said.