[council] RAA Negotiations - Update

[Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@xxxxxxxxx>]

http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-7-04jun12-en.htm
RAA Negotiations - Update
4 June 2012

In advance of the Prague Meeting, ICANN is posting a group of documents on the 
status of negotiation of amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement 
(RAA). While ICANN and the Registrars have made progress in the negotiations, 
the negotiations are not complete and there remain key areas of difference. Of 
highest priority for ICANN are the areas of Whois verification and data 
retention requirements, where ICANN and Registrars are not able to agree on 
certain aspects of the law enforcement recommendations. Because these two areas 
are so important, ICANN and the registrars are not able to post consolidated, 
negotiated amendments in advance of the Prague meeting. The memorandum 
described below explains this more fully; the draft RAA posted reflects ICANN's 
most recent proposal.

·        In the RAA Negotiations Summary 
Memo<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-raa-negotiation-issues-04jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 100 KB], we provide detail on the status of the negotiations and provide 
some discussion on topics that we propose for discussion at the 25 June 2012 
public session in Prague on the negotiations. The companion Summary 
Chart<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-raa-negotiations-summary-03jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 68 KB] provides a short description of the status of negotiations on 
each of the 12 law enforcement recommendations as well as other negotiation 
topics. These documents each reflect ICANN's understanding of the status of 
negotiations.

·        The Draft 2012 
RAA<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-draft-2012-raa-03jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 244 KB] is ICANN's most recent proposal for a new RAA, and is not a 
negotiated document. While the draft incorporates many terms that have been the 
subject of negotiations between the ICANN and Registrar Negotiation Teams, the 
draft also sets forth ICANN's current negotiating position on issues such as 
data retention, Whois verification, reseller relationships, and others. The 
Draft 2012 RAA is for discussion only, and does not reflect or incorporate 
finalized or approved language. ICANN is not posting a redline comparison of 
this Draft 2012 RAA to the 2009 RAA, as major portions of the document have 
been re-structured or re-organized, making a redline difficult to read. 
Instead, to help identify the changes proposed in the Draft 2012 RAA, we are 
providing a Summary of 
Changes<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-raa-summary-changes-04jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 343 KB] document that discusses the changes from the 2009 
RAA<http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/ra-agreement-21may09-en.htm>.

The Draft 2012 RAA is comprised ICANN's proposed language for many separate 
specifications that will be attached to the RAA, each attached here in ICANN's 
proposed draft form:
o   Whois 
Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-registration-data-directory-whois-03jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 148 KB] - a proposed Whois SLA and other requirements
o   Whois Accuracy Program 
Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-whois-accuracy-03jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 72 KB] - a Whois validation/verification program
o   Data Retention 
Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-data-retention-03jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 57 KB] - registrar data retention obligations
o   Additional Registrar Operation 
Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-registrar-op-03jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 70 KB] - new requirements for DNSSEC, IPv4/IPv6, and IDNs
o   Consensus Policy and Temporary Policy 
Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-consensus-temp-policy-03jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 98 KB] - Clarifying and consolidating the allowed topics for new 
Consensus Policies
o   Registrar Information 
Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-registrar-info-03jun12-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 72 KB] - the categories of information that Registrars must keep updated 
with ICANN, as well as public posting requirements for some of that information

Because the language is not finalized within the draft, ICANN is not at this 
stage seeking comment on the specific terms and provisions within the Draft 
2012 RAA. We do, however, welcome feedback on the discussion topics identified 
in the RAA Summary Negotiations Memo to help inform the community discussion in 
Prague. If you have general feedback you'd like to provide, please leave a 
comment on the RAA Negotiations Status 
WIKI<https://community.icann.org/display/RAA/Negotiations+Between+ICANN+and+Registrars+to+Amend+the+Registrar+Accreditation+Agreement>.


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