3. 1(f) Traffic Data. Nothing in this Agreement shall preclude Registry Operator from making commercial use of, or collecting, traffic data regarding domain names or non-existent domain names for purposes such as, without limitation, (examples removed) . . . promoting the sale of domain names, provided however, that such use does not disclose domain name registrant or end-user information or other Personal Data as defined in Section 3.1(c)(ii) for any purpose not otherwise authorized by this agreement.
[icann.org...]
So, the central registry can collect domain traffic data - for commercial use - for the purpose of promoting the sale of domain names?
Perhaps the resale of your domain name if you cannot afford to renew it? I can just see a splash page, when someone types in your former domain name: "This domain has #### visitors a day. Buy it now for only $$$$."
Looks a lot like ICANN has decided that it's time to get into the domain traffic game. That would include, without limitation, your developed domains. So, we have the ultimate sweatheart deal: They are a monopoly. They can set any price. They can collect and use domain traffic data "without limitation", which unlimited use is likely to include a) setting your next renewal fee; or, b) auctioning off your domain name when you cannot afford to pay that renewal fee.
To the sound of a circus hawker: "Get your expired domain names here! BIG traffic! Get it from the only authorized source - your central registry!"
PEOPLE: BE SCARED. Be very scared. There was a time when most domains were in the hands of average people and a small percentage were held by domainers. Now, all domains will be held by pirates. Lawful pirates. Trustworthy, right? I mean, ICANN and company let you all know this was coming so you could express your dismay, right?
Traffic data for commercial use? What other use, besides pricing the sale of domains, might such data be used for? Ya, I know, the cite other examples [i]and cleverly list the "use the data for sales purposes" last in order.
So, what might traffic data about your popular website be used for? Might the traffic data find its way into the calculation of your renewal fees?
What's good for the goose will no doubt be good for the gander. If this data is going to be collected and used for .Org then .Com will not be far behind. It's only a matter of ICANN striking a deal and ICANN very much wishes to be its own boss - so don't count on the DOC coming to your rescue in the future.
Again, I don't mean to sound alarmist. I AM alarmed.
I would like to give ICANN the benefit of the doubt about all of this except I have a small problem. That problem is that ICANN has been busy working out the details of some rather dramatic changes to the domain registration system - some that I say will create dangerous precedents for ALL other gTLDs and even ccTLDs - and doing it in a manner reasonably calculated to attract the least public attention.
For example, ICANN chose to make the comment period a time when many people are on vacation in Europe and elsewhere.
For example, despite the dramatic changes in pricing policies no press release making those changes clear was ever circulated to the media. BIG CHANGE. Little notification.
You will notice that the public comments about these changes are just now starting to flow in. There's no reason to wonder why that is. The reason is obvious. This "new deal" - rewriting existing contracts that don't expire for years - is a sweatheart deal for ICANN that ICANN really didn't want the public to catch on to. Why? Because there would be a public outcry.
You know what?
They almost succeeded.
Write. Today.
[edited by: Webwork at 3:54 am (utc) on Aug. 27, 2006]
I think, and someone please correct me if I'm wrong, that it would not have a substantial impact on the registry.
Not all the registries even operate their own root nameservers. And, most DNS data is cached and only periodically updated. So, a web user visiting Google is not going to create traffic to the root nameservers everytime they do a search.
What relevancy does traffic data have for a registry, except if they plan to use it to calculate your domain name renewal fee?
If registries will use traffic data as part of their calculations to determine domain name renewal fees, the next big thing will be traffic fraud.
Consider that raw traffic data provides no indication of the quality of that traffic. As the owner of a web site, you know the percentage of traffic that converts to sales. The traffic data alone only allows you to make assumptions about the amount of money a site may be making.
In order to drive your traffic up (and hopefully drive you out of business or at least your domain name), your competitors could drive traffic to your site in order to hike your renewal fee. It doesn't have to be quality traffic either. They can resort to the old link exchange systems where you could buy so much traffic, or where some systems pay people to sit at the computer loading web pages for points for page views, etc.
Quantity, not quality, counts!
ICANN is overseen by the Department of Congress. The current contract (recently renewed) expires in 2011, but must be renewed annually.
So, for now, the U.S. does have some control over ICANN.
But, the longterm goal is for ICANN to be an independent, international body. Who will oversee it then? No one, presumably.
With deference to our international friends, this current situation demonstrates why ICANN should remain under U.S. control. Our international friends may not have as much control as they would like, but at least someone has control over ICANN. We can still contact the Department of Commerce, or more specifically, the National Telecommunications & Information Administration and our Congressmen.
If ICANN were fully independent at this point, we'd all be screwed.
Either way, this may be good news for companies that specialise exclusively in nameserver services.
Without wanting to dispell alarm: how would the registries actually obtain traffic data?
how would the registries actually obtain traffic data?
Domain bound traffic is routed by the distributed DNS or "zone file" system.
Correct me where I'm wrong, but aren't DNS look-ups in the distributed DNS (zone file) system based, in part, on the registration of DNS records in each domain name's WhoIs record, which is then updated and recorded to the zone files?
Who has access to the zone file records, which no doubt record when a routing event requires a domain look up? The registry. (See appendix to registry agreements.)
When there is a look-up for a DNS record in the zone files, for routing domain name bound traffic, then that is where and how the registry compiles traffic data.
Is there any other place in the path of routing domain traffic where traffic can be sniffed and recorded?
[edited by: Webwork at 1:44 pm (utc) on Aug. 27, 2006]
Say, you access WebmasterWorld after a reboot. In this case, the cache on your PC is sure to have been cleared. (Most likely, as well, the first time of the day even if you haven't rebooted, or after a few hours of non-access.)
OK, so the addresses isn't cached, your PC's resolver (that's what they call the DNS lookup system on your PC) goes out to your ISP's DNS server asking for the address of WebmasterWorld. If WebmasterWorld is popular enough, your ISP will already have the address cached. If it's less popular, it may have to get it from elsewhere - which may, or may not, ultimately involve accessing the root servers of the registry.
In any case, the rest of your accesses to WebmasterWorld in that session will have their DNS lookups satisfied from the cache on your PC.
If the TTL is expired, then the cached record is expired. This still doesn't mean that the root servers will be accessed. Perhaps your ISP has a cached record with an unexpired TTL, and it will satisfy the request.
I don't see any reliable way of using accesses to root servers to estimate traffic. You couldn't just multiply by some factor, as usage patterns will vary widely - i.e. between one-page parking sites and forums. The average number of accesses a user makes in a session to a one-page parking site might be 3, and a forum 20.
(Oh, cute: I see that WebmasterWorld now replaces instances of "WxMxW" (without the x's, but even with a space or punctuation!) with "WebmasterWorld". Looks like they are SEOing our posts! :) )
My traffic comes from my working my behind off in order to do good SEO work along with decent writing, all my own doing, all my own work, no copying or scraping of sites.
MY traffic is MY business, not the business of ICANN or any other organization that wants to steal my domain names from me by raising the renewal rate so high that I can no longer afford to renew MY domain names! Then they have the nerve to want to use statistics of MY traffic I either generated organically or PAID FOR!
This is the worst thing I can think of, if makes me feel as though we are going to have our domain names taken prisoner and held for ransom. If we can't pay the ransom fee, then our domain name dies or someone else takes it from us.
<edit reason: typos from typing while angry!>
[edited by: WolfLover at 7:12 pm (utc) on Aug. 28, 2006]
