[council] GNSO Council resolutions 24 September 2009

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Councillors,

Ahead of the complete minutes, please find the motions passed by the GNSO 
Council at the meeting on Thursday, 24 September 2009.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you.
Kind regards,

Glen


1.       Motion Requesting an Issues report on vertical Integration and 
Registry/Registrar cross-ownership
Motion proposed by Mary Wong and seconded by Philip Sheppard

Whereas, Recommendation 19 of the GNSO policy authorizing the new gTLD process 
states: "Registries must use only ICANN accredited registrars in registering 
domain names and may not discriminate among such accredited registrars;"

Whereas, opening up the market to many new TLD operators may call into question 
some of the assumptions on which the separation of registry and registrar 
functions is based;

Whereas, economic research commissioned by ICANN staff also suggests that 
changes in these assumptions might be justified;

Whereas, the new gTLD policies passed by the Council do not provide any 
guidance regarding the proper approach to cross ownership and vertical 
integration, but instead implicitly suggest that the status quo be left in 
place;

Resolved: the GNSO Council hereby requests the preparation of an Issues Report 
for delivery within 45 days on future changes in vertical integration and 
cross-ownership between gTLD registrars and registries, to assist in 
determining whether a PDP should be initiated regarding what policies would 
best serve to promote competition and to protect users and registrants.

Council votes in favour: 11 votes

Live Council votes: Philip Sheppard, Zahid Jamil, Kristina Rosette, Cyril Chua, 
Tony Harris, Maggie Mansourkia, Mary Wong, William Drake, Olga Cavalli (one 
vote each)

Terry Davis and Mike Rodenbaugh - absentee ballots (one vote each)

Council votes against: 6 votes

Live Council votes: Tim Ruiz, Stéphane van Gelder (two votes each)

Adrian Kinderis - absentee ballot (two votes each)

Four Councillors abstained (7 votes):

Live Council Abstentions: Chuck Gomes, Edmon Chung, (two votes each) Avri Doria 
(one vote)

Jordi Iparraguirre - absentee ballot  (two votes)

Three Councillors did not vote:

Carlos Souza, Ute Decker, Tony Holmes (one vote each)

Reasons for abstentions: Chuck Gomes and Edmon Chung

"I want to thank Kristina and the IPC for the good amendments that were 
accepted as friendly by the NCUC. The Registry constituency does not want to 
abstain because of the amendments, they have not had enough time to comment on 
them yet. The constituency had previously made a decision on the original 
motion to abstain and because there has not been enough time to obtain feedback 
on the amended motion, Edmon Chung and I are going to abstain.

The reason for the abstention has little to do with the request in the motion, 
except for the fact that even though the motion requests that any PDP not 
affect the timing of the new gTLDs, we think it would be highly unlikely that 
it would not have an impact on the launch of new TLDs, and because there could 
be misperceptions with regard to existing Registries doing anything that might 
cause delays and thinking that we are fearful of competition, we want to avoid 
that possible perception."


Reason for abstention : Jordi Iparraguirre

"I'm abstaing for the same reason as Chuck and Edmon. Our vote in the GNSO 
follows the decisions taken by our constituency, and we had no time to discuss 
it."

Reasons for abstention: Avri Doria

Due to CSG concerns about  the ethics of my decision to join the NCUC and about 
the propriety of my continuing to vote as an NCA, I abstain from all votes in 
the council until such time as the Board Structural Improvements Committee 
decides on the disposition of the CSG letter of   concern.  I do this so that 
there can be no later dispute concerning policy decisions of the GNSO council 
based on questions about my status.



2.        Amendment to Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat 
Transition
Motion made by Chuck Gomes on 23 September 2009 and seconded by Mary Wong

In the following Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition 
originally submitted on 15 September and amended on 17 September, add the 
following to step 9 of the Plan: "As the first substantial item on the agenda 
of 28 October, the new council members will discuss and vote on the updated 
Council Operating Procedures. Approval of the Procedures will require a 
majority of the voting members of each house for approval. Any amendment that 
results from comments submitted, will need to be voted on prior to the vote on 
the Procedures and will also require a majority of the voting members of each 
house."
2 a. Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition
http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/amended-motion-bicameral-council-seat-transition-plan-17sep09-en.htm


The amendment and the motion passed by voice vote.

Councillors present at the time of the vote:
Philip Sheppard, Zahid Jamil, Kristina Rosette, Cyril Chua, Tony Harris, Maggie 
Mansourkia, Mary Wong, William Drake, Tim Ruiz, Stéphane van Gelder, Edmon 
Chung, Chuck Gomes, Olga Cavalli.

One abstention - Avri Doria, Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA)
Avri Doria was referred to in the motion and thus abstained from voting.


3.       Council reached consensus and the Draft GNSO Council Operating 
Procedures will be posted for Public Comment along with the amendment which was 
modified to include comments with the document noting the issues with regard to 
counting of abstention votes and noting that additional work may be needed on 
that.

http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/public-comment-draft-17sep09-en.pdf


4.       The GNSO Council Motion to approve Internationalized Registration Data 
Working Group Charter
Motion proposed by Chuck Gomes seconded by Philip Sheppard.

Whereas:
*           There have been increasing community concerns that the current 
WHOIS service is deficient in a number of ways, including technical areas as 
noted in recent SSAC reports, such as accessibility and readability of WHOIS 
contact information in an internationalized domain name (IDN) environment.
*           On 21 April 2009, the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory 
Committee (SSAC) published a report titled SAC037 "Display and usage of 
Internationalized Registration Data" (SAC037) located at 
http://www.icann.org/committees/security/sac037.pdf.
*           On 26 June 2009 the ICANN Board approved a resolutionrequesting 
that the GNSO and SSAC, in consultation with staff, convene an 
Internationalized Registration Data Working Group (IRD WG) comprised of 
individuals with knowledge, expertise, and experience in these areas to study 
the feasibility and suitability of introducing display specifications to deal 
with the internationalization of Registration Data.
*           In the 26 June resolution, the Board directs the Internationalized 
Registration Data Working Group to solicit input from interested constituencies 
including ccTLD operators and the ccNSO during its discussions to ensure broad 
community input.
*           ICANN Staff in cooperation with members of the GNSO Council and 
SSAC developed a draft charter for said working group as attached.
The GNSO Council:
*           Approves the IRD WG draft charter, and
*           Encourages GNSO constituencies, stakeholder groups and other GNSO 
participants to identify possible participants of the IRD WG with knowledge, 
expertise, and experience in these areas to study the feasibility and 
suitability of introducing display specifications to deal with the 
internationalization of Registration Data.
Internationalized Data Registration WG Draft Charter 15 Sep 09.doc
http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/internationalized-data-registration-wg-draft-charter-27sep09.pdf

The motion was passed by voice vote.

Councillors present at the time of the vote:
Philip Sheppard, Kristina Rosette, Cyril Chua, Tony Harris, Maggie Mansourkia, 
Mary Wong, William Drake, Tim Ruiz, Stéphane van Gelder, Chuck Gomes, Olga 
Cavalli.

One abstention - Avri Doria, Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA)
Avri Doria stated the following reason for abstaining

Due to CSG concerns about  the ethics of my decision to join the NCUC and about 
the propriety of my continuing to vote as an NCA, I abstain from all votes in 
the council until such time as the Board Structural Improvements Committee 
decides on the disposition of the CSG letter of concern.  I do this so that 
there can be no later dispute concerning policy decisions of the GNSO council 
based on questions about my status.

Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat
gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://gnso.icann.org