Re: [council] Proposed amendment to BCUC motion

[Ross Rader <ross@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike Rodenbaugh wrote:
> Ross, you cannot honestly call this a 'proposed amendment' to our
> motion.  It has nothing to do with our motion.

Shall I assume then that you don't view this as a friendly amendment?

> You are proposing that ICANN remove all existing contractual provisions
> regarding WHOIS, on the basis that a consensus WHOIS policy has not been
> achieved to date.  That is the first time I have ever heard someone
> suggest that lack of consensus as to policy to change the status quo,
> would lead to elimination of the status quo -- and thus in this matter,
> elimination of an open and accessible WHOIS database.  I am quite
> surprised to read such a proposal for the first time today, and
> surprised that you did not even mention it for discussion on our GNSO
> call today, nor in the past 7 years of debate as far as I know.  

In reviewing this proposal today, I said that the matter before council 
is to test consensus on the issue of Whois policy. I was very clear 
about this when I reviewed this motion on the call today. If council 
conducts this test and cannot find consensus, how does it stand that the 
status quo should be the default position? This might benefit your 
constituency, so I find your reaction understandable, but I don't 
understand your reasoning that a lack of consensus concerning whois 
policy means that the unsupported, non-consensus based contractual 
conditions should continue to prevail.

And for what its worth, I am not the first to advance this reasoning, 
although I do believe that it is a proper way to proceed in the event 
that there is no consensus regarding how Whois should be managed and 
maintained.

> I recall you stating at our GNSO Council meeting that kicked off this
> WG, that you would see lack of consensus as meaning we carry on with the
> status quo.  Apparently your statements were disingenuous or your
> thinking has changed dramatically since.  

My thinking has changed, yes. My apologies for taking a less than 
dogmatic approach.

> It now seems clear that your
> long and hard battling on this issue has been designed to eliminate ANY
> cost or obligation among registrars re WHOIS, rather than to mitigate
> any 'increased' cost above the status quo, as you have so frequently
> argued.    

Actually both characterizations are incorrect. My policy object has 
always been to improve the privacy of individuals as it relates to Whois 
such that my organization can reasonably defend its business practice to 
its customers in a meaningful way consistent with Canadian law. There 
was also a time when I thought that supposed industry leaders might take 
a similarly enlightened view. Too bad that protecting your trademarks in 
14 languages has to take precedent over making the internet a slightly 
better place, although I understand why a large publicly traded company 
might get its priorities mixed up once in a while.

> These contractual provisions have existed for a very long time, for very
> good reasons, and should not be considered for potential elimination
> without a PDP designed to analyze that potential outcome.  As far as I
> know, it simply has never been proposed or discussed that we would
> eliminate WHOIS altogether, so it would be ridiculous for Council to
> consider that as an option now.

PDP stands for Policy Development Process. If you'd like to propose that 
Council undertake a study to understand the implications of enacting, or 
redacting a policy, your proposal might make some sense. In the 
meantime, I've made a proposal that council support the elimination of 
contractual terms for registrars on the basis that there is no consensus 
policy to support these terms, nor any basis for consensus to be 
achieved in this area. It also leaves the door open such that if 
consensus policy on Whois services is developed in the future, than 
these consensus policies would be implemented just like any other 
consensus policy (i.e. Transfers, Data Reminder Policy, etc.)

--
Regards,

Ross Rader
Director, Retail Services
Tucows Inc.

http://www.domaindirect.com
t. 416.538.5492