Front running has long been rumoured to be in operation by
unscrupulous domain name registration companies. They are alleged
to monitor what addresses users search for but do not immediately
buy. They then buy that domain to sell to the enquirer at a profit,
according to reports.
But a committee of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers) has investigated 120 supposed examples of the
cheating and found no wrongdoing.
ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) asked
users to submit examples of front running and launched an
investigation into them. It has just reported the results and says
that it found no evidence that it takes place.
"SSAC has insufficient information to conclude that domain name
front running is practiced in any appreciable measure by parties
who provide query services," said its report. "We base this
assertion on the claims submitted to SSAC and from our own
statistical analysis. The claims we reviewed do not disprove the
possibility of domain name front running entirely."
The committee used approximately 120 submitted cases of supposed
front running and analysed how they came about. "Given the millions
of domain names registered during the same time period as the
public call for comment, this figure is not extraordinarily large…
but the perception appears broader and more troubling than the
reality and should not be treated lightly," said the report.
It found that all of the cases where domains were snapped up
were due to factors other than front running.
"Of the 11.21% of cases involving domain name renewal
difficulties, several parties either claimed they did not receive
notice in advance of registration expiry or the details of a case
illustrated that the party did not understand the terms of
registration in general and the Redemption Grace Period in
particular," it said.
"If the claims reviewed by SSAC are representative of all
claims, acts frequently interpreted as domain front running often
prove to be side effects of domain name tasting and other secondary
market activities," it said.
The committee said that its analysis of the sheer volume of
domain name activity would shock most internet users, and that this
itself is an explanation for some of the phenomena attributed to
front runners.
"Of the 1.4 billion attempts to register domains, only 3.3
million were satisfied, suggesting that, on average, 333 attempts
are made to register a domain name for every fulfilled domain
registration," said the report. "It is thus very reasonable to
conclude that any given label is not as unique as internet users
might imagine…a very large number of attempts are being made to
register not only a considerably smaller set of labels but an even
smaller subset of names that are "interesting"."
Major domain seller Network Solutions has run into controversy
in the measures it introduced to combat front running. It locks a
domain for five days after it has been searched for so that the
domain can only be bought from it.
It said that this was an anti-front running measure, but users
accused it of indulging in the very practice it was claiming to
fight, given that it locked customers into buying the domain name
from it in those five days rather than one of its competitors.
A spokeswoman told OUT-LAW.COM that it was working on a
technological fix that would mean that only the initial enquirer
could buy the domain name within those five days.
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