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The Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy Part B Working Group has submitted its Final Report to the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) Council today. Following review of the public comments received [PDF, 161 KB] on the proposed Final Report, the WG updated its report accordingly. The Final Report contains nine recommendations that address the five charter questions that the WG was tasked with, including:

• Requiring registrars to provide a Transfer Emergency Action Contact (TEAC) for urgent communications relating to transfers. The goal of the TEAC is to quickly establish a real-time conversation between registrars in case of an emergency such as hijacking. Responses are required within 4 hours of the initial request, although final resolution of the incident may take longer.
• Promoting proactive measures to prevent hijacking such as outlined in the recent report of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee on 'A Registrant's Guide to Protecting Domain Name Registration Accounts (SAC 044).
• Requesting an Issue Report on the requirement of 'thick' WHOIS for all incumbent gTLDs
• Requesting an Issue Report to examine the 'change of control' function as well as a review of locking procedures as described in IRTP Reasons for Denial #8 and #9.
• Modifying section 3 of the IRTP to require that the Losing Registrar notifies the Registrant of the transfer out.
• Clarifying IRTP Reason for Denial #6 to make it clear that the registrant must give some sort of informed opt-in express consent of having registrar-specific locks applied, and the registrant must be able to have the lock removed upon reasonable notice and authentication.
• If a review of the UDRP is conducted in the near future, the issue of requiring the locking of a domain name subject to UDRP proceedings is taking into consideration.
• Standardizing and clarifying WHOIS status messages regarding Registrar Lock status.
• Deleting IRTP Reason for Denial #7 and instead replace it by adding a new provision in a different section of the IRTP on when and how domains may be locked or unlocked.

Further details and background on each of these recommendations can be found in the IRTP Part B Final Report [PDF, 972 KB]. The GNSO Council will now consider these recommendations for adoption.

Background

The IRTP Part B Policy Development Process (PDP) is the second in a series of five PDPs that address areas for improvements in the existing Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy. The Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (IRTP) aims to provide a straightforward procedure for domain name holders to transfer their names from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another should they wish to do so. The policy also provides standardized requirements for registrar handling of such transfer requests from domain name holders. The policy is an existing community consensus policy that was implemented in late 2004 and is now being reviewed by the GNSO.

Further Information

• IRTP Part B Final Report [PDF, 972 KB]
• العربية [PDF, 479 KB]
• Español [PDF, 1.02 MB]
• Français [PDF, 1.04 MB]
• Русский [PDF, 1.13 MB]
• 中文 [PDF, 1.34 MB]
• IRTP Part B PDP Proposed Final Report [PDF, 734 KB]
• IRTP Part B PDP Initial Report [PDF, 765 KB]
• Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (IRTP)
• IRTP Part B Working Group Workspace

Staff responsible: Marika Konings