Hi,

Just a FYI.
 
I follow the Inter Registrar Transfer Protocol (IRTP-D) working groups.  I don't normally bother you all about them except for when they are looking for SG/C comments.  In this case I thought the issue might be of interest to the group.

The IRTP-D is currently talking about:

c) Whether dispute options for registrants should be developed and implemented as part of the policy (registrants currently depend on registrars to initiate a dispute on their behalf);

The discussion on C is just starting.

One of the sub-issues is who pays for the dispute.  Common ICANN process (which is horrible in so many ways) is that loser pays and that both parties need to put up the projected cost before the dispute resolution gets started.

This is always tough for smaller registrants, and especially non-commercial registrants.

And the Registrars probably won't accept a situation where they might be the ones paying, since there may be 'bad people' who hijacked the name and Registrars do not wish to accept intermediate responsibility for things they do not consider themselves able to handle.

This will become an issue of discussion going forward.  Today we only recognized the issue.  It will probably be discussed at length in our next meting.

Love to hear opinions, and anyone who wants to follow can check out the recordings.

cheers,

avri