Easily one of the people I respect the most in the forum. I certainly pay attention to people like Brad, very reasonable and thoughtful with his comments
Thanks for the comments.
I'm trying to think of something half interesting for you, but I'll throw this one. If you had a magic wand, what is the most meaningful thing that you'd like ICANN to change or do in the future, and could they be incentivized in some way to do it (if you've got more than one on your list, so be it)
The two things that come to mind are -
1.)
No-bid Contracts
Get rid of no-bid contracts, like with .COM.
Technology is largely driving the cost of running a registry down, yet the cost of .COM keeps going up.
This is the result of a sweetheart no-bid contract between ICANN and Verisign. Verisign does not own the registry, they are just simply allowed to operate it under contract.
There are any number of companies and organizations that could technically operate the .COM registry, and likely for much lower prices.
ICANN is supposed to be a multi-stakeholder model. Deals like this are simply not in the interest of the majority of stakeholders.
2.)
UDRP Reform -
To start with there needs to be certain standards, which leads to predictability.
It seems like in too many of these cases the panelist seems to comes to a decision, then cherry pick their way to justify it.
There are many precedents that show completely opposite things.
You have the vast majority of panelists following the rules and common sense, but some others have warped views.
Some of them have just decided that any renewal resets the registration date, or that it is not registered AND used in bad faith...but either. Some have decided to be appraisers, and use asking price alone as bad faith. Some conclude that lack of usage is bad faith.
The problem in my view is that fundamentally the entire system is tipped in favor of the complainant.
The complainant can spend a small amount of money and roll the dice when it comes to an asset worth potentially millions of dollars. Worst case they don't win.
There is no real penalty, even for RDNH. Best case, they just legally hijacked a valuable asset.
What is the upside for a respondent? They get to spend money and at best case keep their domain.
There is no penalty for bringing a meritless complaint, lying, intentionally mispresenting the panel, and any other number of nefarious actions.
There needs to be some type of appeals process without a doubt. It is not really feasible, outside the most valuable domains, to go to court to seek remedy for an egregious decision.
Also, for a respondent the timeline is too expedited.
A lot of people miss emails. Maybe they are on vacation, maybe it is caught in their spam folder, or any number of other reasons.
The vast majority of people who face a UDRP will have no idea where to even start. I imagine a lot of UDRP are not defended because of that alone. It can take some time to find a lawyer and present a reasonable defense.
Brad