Re: [ga] WLS Suggestion

[Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>]

On 2002-08-23 07:31:55 -0700, todd glassey wrote:

>This is true because any registrar that already has the domain  
>name registered can perform the WLS process faster than any of its 
>competition since it and only it will be there when it expires the 
>name and releases it for re-registration. Therefore if it resells  
>the publication against that domain name no other Registrar will  
>be able to beat it to the re-registration efforts. Hence WLS give  
>the incumbent registrar an unfair advantage. Further how are you  
>going to stop multiple Registrars from booking against the same  
>name when clearly the incumbent will be the winner unless #2 is  
>also dealt with.

I'm not entirely sure I understand what you mean, so I'll try to  
describe WLS in very simple terms, and you tell me where the  
registrar competes unfairly, by benefitting from any information on  
timing, ok?

1. Alice registers a domain through, say, Rick, Alice's registrar.   
   Rick sends information about the domain name to the registry,  
   let's call that player Chuck.

2. Bob is also interested in the domain name.  8 months later, he 
   places a WLS subscription, say, through Ross.  Ross tells Chuck 
   about the reservation.

3. The domain name expires - four months later.  Rick sends a note 
   to Chuck: "Alice's domain has expired and isn't extended. Delete 
   it from your database."

4. Chuck receives that notice and looks up the reservation database. 
   He notes that there is a reservation for Bob, placed through Ross. 
   Instead of deleting the domain name, he changes it, so the domain  
   name is now registered for Bob, through Ross.  Chuck tells Ross  
   about this, Ross tries to tell Bob, but Bob turns out to be Jeff  
   Williams, and there is no house at the address given. Ross places  
   photos of the location on the web. (OK I made up the last part.  
   ;-)

The key point of the whole procedure is that Ross (who could be  
identical to Rick, that doesn't even matter for this scenario) does 
not need _any_ access to timing information at all.  (He should know 
that the domain name has a chance to expire within the next 12 
months, but that's not privileged timing information, but available 
 from the WHOIS.)


The competition problem I have been trying to describe all over the  
time is different.  In that case, steps 3+ look different:

3. Rick sends no note to Chuck, and Chuck extends the registration. 
   He doesn't care that Alice doesn't use the domain name any more.

4. 8 months later, Chuck strikes Bob's reservation from his  
   database.

5. At this point, two mutually exclusive things can happen.

5a. Kristy wants Alice's domain name, too, and places a reservation  
    through Rick.  Rick says "fine", collects the money, and then  
    tells Chuck to delete the comain name.  Chucks looks at the  
    database, changes the domain name, and it now belongs to Kristy.

5b. Karl is interested, and gets a reservation through Ross.  Rick  
    ignores this, and continues to sit on the domain name.  Ten 
    months later, Karl sues.


As a result of that scenario, Rick is the one with whom you want to  
place a reservatino on the name which used to belong to Alice.  Ross 
goes out of business.


According to General Counsel's report, 5a becomes no longer  
possible, since Chuck won't accept a reservation from Rick at that  
point of time.  Thus, Rick's failure to send the expiration notice  
to Chuck isn't rewarded, and becomes more unlikely.

-- 
Thomas Roessler                        http://log.does-not-exist.org/
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