Top domain news: Expired domains, big domain sales and France.com

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There's a lot to talk about in Vancouver.

The ICANN GDD Industry Summit is taking place outside of Vancouver, British Columbia May 14-17.

Registries and registrars have a lot to discuss with the GDPR implementation deadline approaching later this month. That's part of the reason I'm attending. I want to get a read on what registrars, registries and marketplaces are going to do.

For example, will domain transfers work after the GDPR deadline? Maybe. Tucows, the second largest domain name registrar, recently announced that it's going to change its domain transfer process so that it works even if it doesn't get access to Whois records.

I understand why, but if other registrars don't change their policies then we could see an increase in domain theft.

Please reply to this message if you are attending the event and would like to schedule a meeting with me.

Now let's review the top stories on DNW from last month:

1. GoDaddy is closing an expired domain "loophole" - Backorders placed after auctions close will no longer win the domain name.

2. Whois GDPR carnage continues: Afilias to ditch almost all data in Whois on millions of domains - Afilias announced its Whois plans but backtracked shortly thereafter.

3. Vacation.rentals domain name sells for record $500,300. Oh, and it's ranking on the first page of Google now for "Vacation Rentals". Listen to the DNW podcast with the buyer.

4. U.S. government asks ICANN to investigate GoDaddy's Whois policy - Don't mind the elephant in the room.

5. Original France.com owner sues to recover domain from the country - Yes, every publication in the world wrote about it...but it was on DNW first.

Podcasts

Catch up on last week's podcasts. Download them to your phone and listen on your commute.

#183 - Sandeep Ramchandani, CEO of Radix (listen)

#182 - Meet Erik Bergman, who paid $900k for Great.com (listen)

#181 - Why Mike Kugler spent $500k on Vacation.Rentals (listen)

#180 - Panama, Sherpas and the Domain Market with Andrew Rosener (listen)

#179 - Whois and GDPR with Tim Chen (listen)

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