ICANN approves Verisign's plan to delete 22,000 .name addresses paid for as far out as 2040

At launch in January 2002, .name sold only third-level names of the form first.last.name ^[5]. The second level was shared. So john.doe.name and jane.doe.name could belong to two unrelated people, each with an email address to match ^[6]. Second-level names like john.name came in 2004, and Verisign bought the original registry, Global Name Registry, in 2008 ^[7]. The deletion covers every third-level name ^[1].

When a name is deleted, its mail goes with it ^[21]. The dev.to account of the case puts the bigger risk after that. Once neil.fraser.name is gone, whoever registers fraser.name could rebuild it and receive its email, including password resets ^[8]. A reset flow sends its link to the address on file. Whoever controls mail for that name gets the link, and with it the account ^[8]. The account does not say when, or whether, shared second-level names like fraser.name will open for registration.

Verisign filed through ICANN's Registry Services Evaluation Process, the route registry operators use to change their services ^[9]. ICANN approved 22 days after the filing ^[3]. The request asks to "discontinue third level domain name registrations due to declining usage and limited registrar support" and says "existing third level domain names will be terminated" ^[10]. It lists one benefit: to "increase efficiency for the operation of the .name TLD" ^[11]. Asked what effect the change has on the life cycle of domain names, Verisign wrote "None." ^[12] Deletion is the last stage of a domain's life cycle, so the answer is hard to square with the word "terminated" earlier in the same form ^[10]. Technical concerns raised: "No." Quality assurance: "internally tested prior to discontinuation." ^[13]

The limit on the outcome is ICANN's scope. Its approval letter says the review "is limited to" security, stability and competition, and "does not extend to other potential impacts" ^[14]. Verisign consulted "the registrars that manage the majority of the user base," the letter says, and those registrars "did not identify any security, stability or competition issues" ^[15]. Registrants were not asked. A footnote explains that "registrars manage the registrar-registrant relationship(s)" ^[16]. Mail capture through a re-registered parent name is a security problem, and it lands on people the review did not hear from directly ^[8]. The claim that most of the names are not in use is Verisign's, relayed by ICANN ^[17]. Fraser's site has 24 years of posts ^[17].

Verisign reported $435 million in revenue last quarter ^[18]. The 22,000 names are about 0.012% of its 179 million .com and .net domains ^[18]. The division checks out: 22,000 over 179 million is 0.0123% ^[1]. The deletion date follows from the notice rule. Registrars get at least 90 days' notice plus a 30-day reminder, after which the names "will be deleted" ^[19]. Many registrants learned of the approval 119 days after ICANN granted it ^[2].

For Fraser, moving means more than changing an email address. His post says the website "vanishes in February" and his devices "become bricks" ^[21]. "I'm just one of 22,000 people who will lose their domains," he wrote ^[22]. He chose .name in 2002 because Verisign did not run it ^[23].