Tucows Admits to Warehousing Domains
April 17th, 2008If you ever wondered if registrars keep some of the expiring domain names, there is no question anymore. Tucow’s General Manager Bill Sweetman admitted on DotWeekly.com that Tucows does in fact hold back some of their expiring domain names, for Tucow’s portfolio.
“Not all of the expired names end up in the Tucows auction. Some names are renewed by the original registrant before they reach the auction, and some of the names are retained by Tucows for our own portfolio (although we still allow the orginal registrant to reinstate the domain name if they want to). In other words, we go out of our way to protect the rights of the orginal registrant.” - General Manager of Tucow’s Auction; Bill Sweetman
This brings up another interesting question. How long will Tucow’s allow the original registrant to renew the domain name for? and at what cost? Clearly this registrar has a conflict of interest. At one point it registers domain names on behalf of its clients and then instead of releasing them to the general pool, or selling them at their own auction, they hold them for their own portfolio. Does being a registrar give you the right to keep domains that its customers fail to renew?
Quite honestly, I don’t feel comfortable using a registrar that openly practices this kind of policy. I think Tucows should decide if its a registrar or a portfolio holder, and act properly in that regards.
Justin
Tucow’s way is a typical way - many of the Domain Name registrars are doing this.
What does it mean to be promoted into a leadership position?
Frankly, it means now we have the authority to serve people in a special way - Anonymous
Comment by damir — April 18, 2008 @ 7:11 am
Hi Justin,
Thank you for the opportunity to answer some of the questions you have asked about how Tucows handles expired domains. Unlike some of our competitors, we believe in transparency and welcome the opportunity to discuss our policies.
You asked…
Q. How long will Tucows allow the original registrant to renew the domain name for? And at what cost?
A. Tucows has one of the longest Grace Periods in the industry: 40 days. What this means is that for up to 40 days after a domain expires (which is after several *months* of reminder notices being sent via email), the original registrant can reinstate their domain name for the standard renewal fee, which will vary in price depending on which of our resellers they used to register/renew the domain name but is usually in the $10-20 range. From 40 days to 70 days after a domain expires (another 30 days), the domain is in the Redemption Period, and the orginal registrant can reinstate the domain name for a flat $80 redemption fee plus standard renewal fee. And from day 70 to 100 (more than 3 months after the domain name expired), if the domain is still under Tucows management, the original registrant may still be able to reinstate the domain name for an additional fee (which varies from name to name but is discounted 50% for the original registrant).
I challenge you to find another registrar that goes this far to help original registrants reinstate their domain names.
You asked…
Q. Does being a registrar give you the right to keep domains that its customers fail to renew?
A. Yes. And keep in mind the original registrants have been notified for months leading up to their expiry that their name is expiring, and we have a team of people who help our resellers and their registrant customers reinstate their expired domain names if at all possible. Just yesterday, for instance, I received two different emails from original registrants thanking me and my team for helping them reinstate their domain names long after some of our registrar competitors would have told them, “tough luck, you’re screwed”.
Regards,
Bill Sweetman, General Manager, Tucows Domain Portfolio
Comment by Bill Sweetman — April 19, 2008 @ 10:26 am
register.com practices this too you can monitor their DNS servers and WHOIS for expired names using Domain Tools to prove it.
A huge conflict of interests indeed. Tucows GM cmon, who are you fooling do you think we were all born yesterday? Warehousing domains is a conflict of interests and should be investigated by state attorney generals for companies operating inside the US. ICANN obviously is impotent on this matter.
Comment by Joseph — April 19, 2008 @ 7:03 pm
ICANN cares not about the public and free market, as this is a problem that they clearly should have seen coming. License to steal (ideas) registrars know if their is interest in abcdef.com
and why not have it on the “retain for ourselves list onced expired”?
hmnn wonder the portfolios of tucows,netsol,namejet will look like in a few yrs? and just maybe those expiring reminder emails? how many will not be sent out because of some email server problems, or “crash in our system excuse”? :-/
Comment by giovanni — April 19, 2008 @ 8:40 pm
A true conflict of interest.
I think the blinding beacon of revelation should shine on this issue until it is properly addressed.
Comment by lola — April 26, 2008 @ 4:31 am
According to section 3.7.9 of the ICANN Registrar Agreement, “Registrar shall abide by any ICANN adopted specifications or policies prohibiting or restricting warehousing of or speculation in domain names by registrars.”
Whether or not such policies have been adopted is almost secondary to the obvious spirit of the provision. It’s hard to imagine that any policy allowing the auctioning off or adoption of a customer’s domain name wouldn’t require the registrar to first make an attempt to contact the owner through other means, such as a registered letter or at least a phone call.
The truth is, many people and companies lose their domain names over nothing more than a broken email address. Even when these broken addresses return an error message to the sending registrar, they make no attempt to contact the registrant by any other means. Personally, it’s difficult for me to characterize this type of half-hearted approach as helping original registrants.
Comment by ASN5 — May 5, 2008 @ 5:39 am
Now is our chance to do something about this UNFAIR Practice!
The ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement is up for review and comment right now until August 4th.
Every domainer should insist that ICANN add language to that agreement that reinforces section 3.7.9 and SPECIFICALLY PROHIBITS registrars from warehousing and speculating.
Tucows is unfairly skimming 6000 to 8000 domain names a month by their own admission.
Comment by Pat Quinn — July 1, 2008 @ 11:38 am