Also, when I worked at Tucows, I (in)famously made the same decision that Paul made, and returned some expiry auctioned domains to the former registrants, although I only did that in exceptional circumstances, e.g., if a tech error was made (by us) or if the former registrant was in a coma or something. And yes, I got heat from domainers for doing that, but I still think it was the right thing to do and I would do it again.