[conspire] Domain expirations, domain speculators

[Rick Moen]

I've previously made a small study of the problem of accidental Internet
domain expiration (http://linuxgazette.net/142/moen.html), after getting
tired of friends' domains getting lost to domain speculators.  Here
(below) is a possible classic case of how it happens:  Raph Levien
founded and ran for many years the much-respected Advogato site, moved
on to other interests, and handed over the site _but not domain ownership_
to generous volunteer R. Steven Rainwater.

Domain renewal comes around, everyone relies on "autorenewal", maybe the 
credit card specified for Raph's account at Dotster isn't around
anymore, and things start to go sideways.  (Note below is my second
advisory this year to Steven and Raph:  When I wrote a week ago to them
to warn that Advogato.org was one day away from expiration, Steven wrote
back to say he was pretty sure Raph had it on autorenew.)

A related, possibly interesting question is whether the registrars are
in some cases seeking to lull owners into letting their domains expire,
e.g., those with business arrangements to pass expiring domains to
speculators.  On the one hand, that seems like paranoia:  Wouldn't
registrars logically be motivated to keep customer revenue streams
alive?  On the other, I keep seeing things like misleading status
indicators on expiring domains (such as "AUTORENEWPERIOD") and a
misleading extra year shown as tacked onto a domain's WHOIS record at
its expiration, as if the registrar wants to lull the owner into missing
his/her ~40-day window for redeeming the expired domain.

See "Domain Statuses" and "Domain Expiration" on
http://linuxmafia.com/kb/Network_Other for a rundown on how all this 
works.  Briefly:

At expiration, you get a ~40 day grace period.  Displayed expiration
date in WHOIS will get an _apparent_ one-year extension, but that isn't 
_your_ claim to the domain, but rather the registrar's, and it's vital
to understand that the domain _is_ actually expired.  During the ~40
days, you can still redeem the domain at the regular renewal rate.

Following the ~40 day grace period is a 30 day "redemption period".  You
can _probably_ still resurrect the domain, but it'll cost a lot more.

After that is 5 days during which the registrar is preparing to drop the
domain into the public up-for-grabs pool, _or_ to pass it to a
speculator.  You have no ability to renew, and will have to hope you're
faster than other people in re-registering it after the "drop".


----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:27:25 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: steve at ncc.com, raph.levien at gmail.com
Subject: Re: advogato.org domain registration
Organization: Dis-

Hi.  Perhaps this is nothing to worry about, but Dotster has had domain
advogato.org in status "AUTORENEWPERIOD" for the last few days.
Contrary to what you might assume from that phrase, that means the
domain _is actually expired_, and is in the 45-day grace period pending it
being scheduled for either a drop into the available pool or handoff to
"partner" firms like NameJet.com that speculate in domain ownership.
(The "whois" data shows as extended to 2010, but that's the registrar
doing that, in order to retain control of the domain.)

Within the 45-day period, the outgoing owner (Raph, in this case) is
permitted to renew at no extra cost.  After the 45 days, things start
getting more expensive, and then eventually not possible at all.

Among places I might quote on the matter:

http://www.fcicq.net/ideapool/?i=autorenewperiod

   autoRenewPeriod: This status code indicates that a domain has been
   automatically renewed by the registry upon its expiry date, and that the
   registry has not yet received payment for the renewal. The registrar
   will receive a credit note if a domain name on this status code is
   deleted. The presence of this status code does not prevent any updates
   to the domain by the registrar.

Dotster has not yet disabled advogato.org's authoritative nameservice or
turned it into a "parked" domain.  However, I would not be reassured by
their having not taken that step.


----- End forwarded message -----