Transferring an active domain name involves changing the domain name registrar that handles the domain registration service, so after the transfer, you will have to manage things like renewal fees or DNS entry updates through the new domain registrar. The transfer procedure is standard with most Top-Level Domain extensions. Certain country-code extensions are more specific and entail different steps, but in the general case transferring a domain entails several necessary procedures and one of them is unlocking the domain name. The lock is a security option, which is being embraced by more and more domain name registry organizations. It is a default feature supported by all generic top-level domain names. If a domain name is locked, it will be impossible to start a transfer procedure, so nobody can even attempt to steal your domain. The lock can be annulled only through the account where the domain name is registered in the first place and all new domain names that support this functionality are locked by default the moment they are registered.