Domain Name Front Running
(6 votes, average: 3.83 out of 5)
Loading ...Posted by Jay Daley on Nov 27th, 2007
Domain Name Front Running (DNFR) is a new buzzword acronym for the alleged practice of monitoring someone’s intentions to register domain names and then jumping in and registering them first.
Every now and again we get complaints about this sort of thing and we’ve investigated some of those in some depth in the past. Our conclusion is that DNFR does not happen but that there are important characteristics in the way domains names are sought that many people do not know about that lead them to believe in something like DNFR.
You can read our full position paper here.
This is an issue that has recently been passed to the ICANN SSAC for them to study but it may turn out to be a waste of their valuable time.
November 27th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Jay
Your paper is very well written and covers the subject very comprehensively. Unfortunately there will always be subset of the public who firmly believe that there are conspiracies at play, but hopefully more studies such as your own will help to downplay this. The SSAC, ICANN and other organisations have far more important matters to deal with!
Regards
Michele
November 29th, 2007 at 11:39 pm
I agree that the Nominet paper is well written and offers many valuable insights into perceived versus actual events in a very complex domain registration system.
For the record, SSAC asked for community input following multiple complaints. We carefully defined the bad act we call Domain Name Front Running to distinguish it from other registration-related activites, good, bad, or undecided.
If SSAC had dismissed the complaints without study, would he have served the community better?
Following the publication of the SSAC report, we received nearly 150 complaints. Many illustrate that the community doesn’t fully understand the complexities of domain registration; what is more troubling is that there is an undercurrent of mistrust and skepticism regarding the registration process.
Whether DNFR is real or perceived, many of the SSAC members are concerned that kiting, front running, hijacking, and tasting are not readily distinguishable to the average Internet user - and the conclusion many draw is that the system is not trustworthy.
If Nominet debunks DNFR and SSAC concurs, perhaps we haven’t wasted our time.
Dave Piscitello
December 6th, 2007 at 10:00 pm
I’m Jon Nevett, Vice President of Policy at Network Solutions. Regarding Nominet’s study of domain name front running, I don’t know about .co.uk, but the practice certainly exists in the gTLD space. Based on our experience and investigations, we disagree with the suggestion that front running cases are merely coincidental with other online activities, and that the problem is little more than a “public perception” issue. Our customers certainly have suffered from this troubling practice, and other registrars have stated the same thing. We are in a much better position than registries to know that it’s happening. Something should be done to protect consumers from such practices — it cannot wait for endless ICANN studies and policy development. Unfortunately, the failure to act is undermining consumer confidence in the domain registration process.
January 10th, 2008 at 2:25 am
[…] you listen to their PR people, it is to keep “front runners” from grabbing domains. “Front runners” are people or businesses who use […]
January 12th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Of course, we now know that NSI and Jon Nevett were already preparing to reserve all domains searched through its web site as a consumer protection device against front running. How ironic that it would be accused of DNFR with its ‘protection’ policy.
January 13th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
[…] http://blog.nominet.org.uk/insight/2007/11/domain-name-front-running/ Domain Name Front Running (DNFR) is a new buzzword acronym for the alleged practice of monitoring someone’s intentions to register domain names and then jumping in and registering them first. […]
January 27th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
[…] above has since been labeled “domain front running”. I previously blogged that it was coined by the .UK Registry […]
January 28th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
[…] may have seen already our post on Domain Name Front Running (DNFR) since when things have got much more […]
February 11th, 2008 at 5:49 am
[…] Domain Name Front Running (DNFR). The conclusion, after a pretty thorough analysis, concurs with our findings that there are no provable cases of DNFR. It also highlights the major issue that there is […]
February 13th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
I believe we came across our first case of “Front Running” a few days ago. Customer ordered several domains, co.uk, .net, .org at .com, however the “dot com” was unavailable for registration. It appeared to have been locked as the customer (or someone) had previously searched on a Network Solutions website. NetSol have defended their policy as a defence against DNFR!