GNSO: Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Drafting Team

NCUC Representatives: Divina Meigs, [NEED VOLUNTEER]
Mailing List: http://forum.icann.org/lists/gnso-pednr-dt/
GNSO wiki: https://st.icann.org/post-expiration-dn-recovery-wg/index.cgi

ICANN's Call for PDP Working Group Members: Post‐Expiration Domain Name Recovery

In Brief
The GNSO Council seeks volunteers to serve on a Working Group that will address issues related to how registrars handle expired domain names. After investigating and considering a number of specific issues (detailed below), the Working Group is expected to make recommendations for best practices and/or the creation of a new consensus policy or changes to the existing consensus policy for handling expired domain names. The GNSO Council also expects the group to provide an issues update to the Council, and deliver a workshop on Post‐Expiration Domain Name Recovery issues at the Seoul meeting, October, 2009.

Background
At its meeting on 24 June 2009, the Generic Name Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council passed a resolution chartering a Policy Development Process (PDP) Working Group (WG) to address the topic of Post‐Expiration Domain Name Recovery.

What This Group Will Do The initial tasks of the group will be to:
1. Pursue information from the ICANN compliance staff to understand how ICANN enforces current Registrar Agreement Amendment (RAA) provisions and consensus policies regarding the deletion, auto‐renewal, and recovery of domain names following expiration;
2. Review and understand the current domain name life cycle; and * Review current registrar practices regarding domain name expiration, renewal, and post‐expiration recovery.

The Council explicitly authorizes the Working Group to seek any additional information that is appropriate to doing well‐informed work.

Once the Working group has gathered sufficient data, it shall consider the following questions:
• Whether adequate opportunity exists for registrants to redeem their expired domain names
• Whether expiration‐related provisions in typical registration agrare clear and conspicuous enough
• Whether adequate notice exists to alert registrants of upcoming expirations
• Whether additional measures need implementing, to indicate that once a domain name enters the Auto‐Renew Grace Period, it has expired (e.g., hold status, a notice on the site with a link to information on how to renew, or other options to be determined);
• Whether to allow the transfer of a domain name during the Renewal Grace Period.

How This Group Will Work
ICANN Working Groups use transparent, open processes. The meetings of this WG will be recorded, and the recordings will be available to the public. The mailing list for the Post‐Expiration Domain Name Recovery (PEDNR) WG has been created, and is archived publicly.

Mailing List: http://forum.icann.org/lists/gnso-pednr-dt/

The group will collaborate using a public SocialText wiki: https://st.icann.org/post-expiration-dn-recovery-wg/index.cgi

How to Join
The Council invites each GNSO constituency, and the liaisons, to provide names of expected participants who can then be added to the WG mailing list. The GNSO ouncil may also invite stakeholders and experts to join. Community members who wish to be invited to join the group should contact the GNSO secretariat. The GNSO Council will then review all names to ensure fair representation of interested constituencies and stakeholders, and will then determine the final embership of the Working Group. This WG is already forming; please apply promptly.