Just a little update. I got a reply from Monte. He's traveling at a ICANN event but his reply was irrelevant to the complaint:

  Yes Peter because these are special ccTLD's with
  these rules.  I suggest you renew prior to this
  expiration date that the registry has in place for these
  domains.

I have a screenshot of the .io registry's own WHOIS saying the expiration date is December 31, 2010. I'll sort of let Monte off because he's traveling and time might be in short supply but it's still a silly response.