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March 4, 2007

ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has recently been criticized again for its 'soft' attitude toward customer allegations of outright fraud by its accredited Internet registrar Registerfly, a scandal in which ICANN spent almost a whole year repeatedly referring customers back to Registerfly.

This, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of misconduct, has forced ICANN to acknowledge that it is responsible for holding its accredited registrars to certain ethical standards.

However, for site owners or domain name holders whose domains were lost through either neglect or malfeasance on the part of Registerfly, and whose domains are now occupied by cybersquatters, the loss of a business or personal Web site formerly hosted by Registerfly still frustrates a lot of people or for good reason.

Even if ICANN recently issued an ultimatum to Registerfly, threatening to pull its accreditation unless it resolved its many hundreds of customer service issues within a two week timeframe, the fact remains that cancelling the accreditation of a negligent or possibly even criminal registrar is merely a prophylactic measure.

Such action could prevent future harm, but does nothing to resolve the property rights of those whose Internet-based businesses have vanished since.

The fact remains Registerfly is not alone, and ICANN needs to develop some type of procedural safeguards to radically ensure that such disputed domains are not inadvertantly auctioned off to the first bidder before this happens again.

Of course, there is a lot at stake here.

Although ICANN rightly claims that some allegations of monetary damages due to fraud or negligence need to be addressed by local authorities, the overall integrity of the domain system itself needs to be protected by ICANN.

The Internet community needs to remember that this is why ICANN takes a percentage of every domain registration fee.

Whether or not local, state or federal authorities choose to prosecute Registerfly, and the rumors flying indicate that both the FBI and the Secret Service are involved now, Internet victims cannot expect the FBI just to hand over the control of a domain name that might now be owned by a bona fide purchaser on the other side of the world.

It's not like stolen silverware or jewelry; the only way for the authorities to return control of the domain would be to get a court order against ICANN itself. Of course, that is not very likely to happen anytime soon...

At the outset, ICANN needs to be a lot more proactive and develop a sound system for holding disputed domains in trust until the rightful owner can be determined by a court of law.

An even better solution would be a formal dispute resolution system with broad investigative powers to follow up on serious allegations.

Mr. Zupke, ICANN's liaison with the accredited registrars cannot police the Internet alone.

ICANN performs a necessary and very critical function in Internet space somewhat similar to the hall of records in a local community, organizing and documenting property rights.

If ICANN feels that enforcing certain ethical standards on its partners runs counter to its bureaucratic instincts, it could still subcontract out such enforcement to a third party security group, much as it subcontracts out domain registration to groups like Registerfly.

Overall, the Registerfly debacle has laid clear for all to see the important inadequacies of the current registrar accreditation system, and the need for a thourough reform.

Most importantly, this needs to be addressed and acted upon rapidly by all concerned parties, and for the ultimate benefit of the whole Internet community.

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Source: The Register