The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has put into place a new rule which says that if a request to transfer an Internet domain is made, and there is no response made denying the transfer within five days, the transfer will be approved and made.

That means that even if there is no response at all the transfer will be made.

This is being translated by some as meaning that if you own a domain, as Aunty owns “aunty-spam.com,” somebody else can request that the domain be transferred to them, and if you don’t respond, they will end up as the registered owner of your domain. So, for example, if Mr. Spammer put in a transfer request for aunty-spam.com, and Aunty did not respond at all within five days, Mr. Spammer would end up owning aunty-spam.com.

This, of course, would be insane.

Domain registrars are jumping right on this by telling their customers to be sure to “lock” their domains, which bars third-parties from making transfer requests for the domain. For example, GoDaddy now has this notice up on their Web site:

“From November 8-10, we are sending an e-mail to all domain customers informing you of a new domain transfer policy, enforced by ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). This policy dictates that we must honor any transfer requests, even if you do not personally confirm them. To prevent unauthorized transfers, lock your domains. This service is free and takes only a minute.”

However, Aunty has gone to the ICANN site, and read the text of the new rule, and as Aunty reads it, what it really means is that if you… [Continued]