[council] New Registrar Agreement Covers Most Registrations

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-24nov09-en.htm

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New Registrar Agreement Covers Most Registrations

Over 88 percent of domain names covered by new protections

24 November 2009

Less than six months after new registrant protections were approved by the 
ICANN Board, over 88 percent of all generic domain names are now covered.

The protections include improved ways of storing data that require registration 
companies to submit to more stringent rules. These are included in a revised 
contract between ICANN and registrars, called the Registrar Accreditation 
Agreement (RAA).

Since the revised RAA was approved on 21 May 2009, 650 registrars have 
voluntarily agreed to be bound by the new agreement; collectively they 
represent 88 percent of all generic top-level domains registered. In return, 
those that have signed the new agreement are recognized by ICANN on its listing 
of accredited companies.

Under their existing contract, registrars are not required to sign up to the 
new RAA until their existing agreement ends, but they can voluntarily sign up 
early. The high level of coverage achieved to date is due primarily to these 
voluntary early adopters.

ICANN CEO and President Rod Beckstrom said of the high sign-up rate: "The fact 
that the vast majority of generic domain names are now covered by these 
protections is a clear sign of the industry's goodwill and its commitment to 
effective self-regulation - especially since some of these protections come at 
a cost to the companies themselves. It is an extraordinary achievement in a 
very short time."

Some of the additional protections afforded registrants under the new contract 
include:

 *   Enhanced enforcement tools to assure registrar compliance with ICANN 
policies
 *   Enhanced data escrow requirements to protect registrants that use privacy 
or proxy services
 *   A Registrant Rights & Responsibilities document
 *   New requirements placed on resellers
 *   Improved contact information requirements
 *   Registrar required training program

"Registrars and the ICANN community successfully collaborated to make sure 
consumers are well protected while respecting the competitive marketplace ICANN 
has made part of its mandate," said Mason Cole, Vice President of Oversee.net 
and chair of the Registrar Stakeholder Group. "It's encouraging to see how 
quickly and assertively registrars have adopted the terms of the new agreement."

As an aid to potential registrants, ICANN has added an indicator on each of our 
public lists of registrars to show which registrars have adopted the 2009 RAA. 
See:

 *   http://www.internic.net/regist.html
 *   http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accreditation-qualified-list.html
 *   http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html

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