Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.
Skip to main content

Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting 14 March 2013

Last Updated:
Date

Agenda and Documents

The meeting started at 15:03 UTC.
http://tinyurl.com/czfwutj

List of attendees: NCA – Non Voting – Jennifer Wolfe

Contracted Parties House
Registrar Stakeholder Group: Mason Cole, Yoav Keren, Volker Greimann
gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group: Jeff Neuman, Jonathan Robinson, Ching Chiao
Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA): Thomas Rickert

Non-Contracted Parties House
Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG): Wolf-Ulrich Knoben, Zahid Jamil, John Berard, Osvaldo Novoa, Brian Winterfeldt, Petter Rindforth
Non Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG): Maria Farrell, Joy Liddicoat, Magaly Pazello, Wendy Seltzer, David Cake, Wolfgang Kleinwächter
Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA): Lanre Ajayi

GNSO Council Liaisons/Observers:
Alan Greenberg – ALAC Liaison, absent apologies
Han Chuan Lee– ccNSO Observer

ICANN Staff
Fadi Chehadé – President & CEO
Akram Atallah – Chief Operating Officer
Cyrus Namazi – Vice President, DNS Industry Engagement
Marika Konings – Senior Policy Director
Julie Hedlund – Policy Director
Barbara Roseman – Policy Director
Berry Cobb – Policy consultant
Brian Peck – Policy Director
Carlos Reyes – Policy Analyst
Lars Hoffmann – Policy Analyst
Glen de Saint Géry – GNSO Secretariat
Alexander Kulik – Systems Engineer

Margie Milam – Senior Policy Counselor – Apologies
David Olive – VP Policy Development – Apologies
Rob Hoggarth – Senior Policy Director – Apologies

MP3 Recording
Adobe Chat Transcript
Transcript

Item 1: Administrative matters

1.1 Roll Call

1.2 Jonathan Robinson noted the update to his statement of interest.

1.3 Review/amend agenda
Move AOB Item 7.1 to after Item 2:
7.1 Update and discussion on recent changes to Registry and Registrar agreements (Jeff Neuman & Volker Greimann)

1.4. Note the status of minutes for the Council meeting on 14 February 2013 approved per the GNSO Operating Procedures on 1 March 2013.

Item 2: Opening Remarks from Chair

Preparations for the meetings in Beijing were the substantive focus of the Council meeting and good progress was reported on outreach to the ccNSO, Board and GAC looking at a fresh approach for collaboration with the GNSO.
The main changes have been to remove some of the completed items from the Projects List and the Action List.

Action Items:

  • Consider discussion on how the Council should deal with giving shorter term Policy Advice when requested.
  • Review Amsterdam Action items to ensure that there is follow up.
  • Renew call for Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (IRTP) Part D Council liaison for Working Group.

7.1 Update and discussion on recent changes to Registry and Registrar agreements

Jeff Neuman, RySG, Volker Greimann RrSG and Wendy Seltzer, NCSG requested that the topic be placed on the agenda.

Highlights from the discussion:
Since the topic was raised for discussion with the GNSO Council and in other forums, additional information has been provided on the ICANN website.

Concern was expressed about:

  • A unilateral right to amend the Registrar Accreditation Agreement and the Registry agreements.
  • The presumption in both the Registrar Accreditation Agreement and the gTLD Registry agreement that the Expert Group Whois recommendations will be adopted after a public comment period as opposed to going through the Policy Development Process (PDP)
  • Some of the provisions in the RAA and the Registry Agreements have a significant impact on the multi-stakeholder model and the policy development function that the GNSO community performs.
  • Whilst significant progress has been made with the RAA negotiations, concern was expressed that some of the issues have been posted publicly before the Registrars discussed them.
  • The addition to the agreements of the 'unilateral right to amend the agreements' was not requested by any group within the GNSO, the Law Enforcement community or the Governments.

Staff emphasised that:
"We are still willing to listen and willing to move on the negotiation. But we need to put the real issues on the table and try to find solutions for them. It's important for everyone to know that we're not intending to change the multi-stakeholder model and the bottoms-up process. The amendment clause is actually intended to be last resort for when there is agreement that something needs to be done but there is a log jam within the processes that we have that won't allow it to move forward."

Jonathan Robinson concluded by saying that if forward movement was to be achieved, it was a necessary condition for everyone to understand the rationale and motivations behind the amendments.

Action Item:
Councillors are strongly encouraged to provide comments on the proposed RAA posted for comment at: https://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-2-07mar13-en.htm and Councillors are reminded that 'no comments' could be taken as agreement to the proposal.

Item 3: Consent agenda

Confirmation of James Bladel and Mikey O'Connor as the co-chairs of the IRTP Part D PDP Working Group.

Item 4: UPDATE & DISCUSSION – Policy vs. Implementation

ICANN Staff has published a discussion paper submitted for public comments.
The public comments will be summarized to produce a report that will feed into the work going forward. Further community deliberations will take place at a panel discussion led by Bruce Tonkin on Wednesday, 10 April 2013, 9:00-10:30 local time in Beijing to which representatives from the Supporting Organizations, Advisory Committees as well as representatives from each of the GNSO stakeholder groups have been invited to participate.
In the Council discussion, emphasis was placed on the important role that the GNSO Council and the community play in defining policy and implementation and the need for further work on this subject. Managing policy is the essential role of the GNSO Council and we need to ensure that we remain central to and influential on this topic.
Policy and implementation need to be interwoven, rather than sequential, throughout the Policy Development Process.
The Non Commercial Stakeholder Group proposed forming a cross Advisory Committee (AC) / Supporting Organization (SO) working group to comprehensively consider the topic.
Policy versus implementation will be one of the proposed topics for discussion at the joint ccNSO/GNSO Council meeting in Beijing and particularly with regard to how the GNSO and ccNSO deal with ad hoc requests for advice and input.

Action Items:

  • Staff to ensure that the Policy vs. Implementation panel discussion session in Beijing is free of session conflicts.
  • GNSO participation is strongly encouraged. Please contact Marika Konings for participation on the panel.
  • Continue discussions on the mailing list and consider potential next steps

Item 5: UPDATE & DISCUSSION – Whois Privacy and Proxy Relay and Reveal Study

At the ICANN Meeting in Toronto, Lyman Chapin presented the results of the survey that evaluated the feasibility of conducting a future in-depth study into communication Relay and identity Reveal requests sent for gTLD domain names registered using Proxy and Privacy services.
The Council discussed this at its 14 February 2013 meeting but did not reach a firm conclusion. Some expressed concern about going ahead with the study, when a lot of other Whois activities are going on, while others appeared to support moving forward as the study could result in data that would help inform ongoing Whois activities.

Staff clarified that the basic outcome of the proposed study would be a review of the current privacy and proxy offerings and their methods of handling relay and reveal requests.
The preparation of the Request for Proposal (RFP) that Council was being asked to approve, would be straightforward, the suggested survey is clearly defined and Interisle has undertaken the preliminary work in identifying who the participants should be.

Jonathan Robinson concluded that there is a strong common theme of support for fact-based policy work but there does not appear to be a compelling view to request an RFP in this case and until such time as a compelling need is presented to go ahead with further work, the topic should be taken off the agenda.

Action Item:

Start discussions on the provision of proxy/privacy services which could help frame a possible request for an Issue report (on proxy/privacy services) to launch a Policy Development Process.
Jeff Neuman volunteered to take the lead.

Item 6: UPDATE & DISCUSSION – Planning for Beijing

Mason Cole provided an overview of the draft agenda with particular attention to the GNSO Working Sessions over the weekend. The sessions that have not been confirmed are the discussion with the CEO and the Senior Staff on the gTLD Update 1. RA / RAA, 2. Auction timing, 3. "Hourglass" of PDT/contract signing.
Discussions with the ccNSO Council chair have been productive in moving the joint ccNSO/GNSO meeting forward and a small group of volunteers are to work with the ccNSO members to plan the agenda. Among the volunteers are: Petter Rindforth, Joy Liddicoat, Ching Chiao and Maria Farrell.
It is not yet clear what form the GAC discussions will take and who will attend the suggested meeting with the Board/GAC Recommendation Implementation Working Group.

Action Items

Beijing Meeting Planning:

  • Provide input to Jonathan Robinson for the Brainstorming session on Saturday morning GNSO Working session

  • Provide submissions on the Council mailing list for the GNSO Weekend discussions with:

    • Fadi Chehadé – President and CEO

    • Christine Willett and Senior staff

  • Form a small working group composed of GNSO and ccNSO representatives to discuss and prepare the topics for the joint meeting with ccNSO/GNSO Councils on Monday, 8 April 2013

Item 7: Any Other Business

Strawman proposal
Request staff to provide update on 'Strawman' proposal and add as an agenda item for Beijing meeting

Open vs Closed TLDs
Request staff to provide update on next steps with regards to Open vs Closed TLDs

Applicants for Meeting Strategy Working Group
Inform the Meeting Strategy Working Group organisers that:

The GNSO Council at its meeting on Thursday, 14 March 2013 has reviewed the attached list of applicants for the Meeting Strategy Working Group and removed Woldmariam, Mesfin F, an Academic from Africa as it is not apparent that he is representing the GNSO. Furthermore, whilst the Council takes note of the attached list of applicant and that it does not intend to take any further action in this regard.

Jonathan Robinson adjourned the GNSO Council meeting and thanked everyone for their participation.

The meeting was adjourned at 17:05 UTC.

The next GNSO Public Council meeting will take place in Beijing on Wednesday, 10 April 2013 at 07:15 UTC.
See: Calendar
http://tinyurl.com/bsfldkr