Nick CaristinosAfter a preliminary determination of Afilias’ request to introduce an Abusive Use Policy, ICANN has approved the request. This allows Afilias to implement the proposed policy as of July 3rd 2008.
Afilias (the .INFO registry) proposed to ICANN that they have complete control over the decisions regarding .INFO domain abuse. The new Abusive Use Policy is meant to help prevent phishing, spamming and other malicious uses of the .INFO domain names. Here is an excerpt:
“Pursuant to Section 3.6.5 of the RRA, Afilias reserves the right to deny, cancel or transfer any registration or transaction, or place any domain name(s) on registry lock, hold or similar status, that it deems necessary, in its discretion …”
Afilias has sought to implement the policy due in part to a recent study by McAfee that found the .INFO registry had one of the highest number of malicious sites using their GTLD. Google also removed sites using the .INFO domain names from some of their search listings due to the high number of malicious sites. Recent .INFO promotions the registry has run may have contributed in boosting registrations of .INFO domains which in turn may have attracted the wrong type of clientele in some cases.
Although the level of control granted to Afilias should benefit the owners of legitimate .INFO domain names and websites, it could also open the door to potential abuse by the registry in its decision making about what constitutes a malicious use of a .INFO domain name. In essence, Afilias would have the ability to delete a .INFO domain name at its own discretion. Some industry insiders worry that with Afilias being given this level of control, other registries will want to follow suit in pursuing the same.
Remember! – you can let ICANN know what you think. ICANN invites public commentary on all registry proposals. You can comment by sending an email to registryservice@icann.org. Comments can be seen on the public site at http://forum.icann.org/lists/registryservice/