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Minutes of the GNSO Council Meeting 18 February 2016

Last Updated:
Date

Agenda and Documents

Coordinated Universal Time: 12:00 UTC
http://tinyurl.com/zz9uf5m
04:00 Los Angeles; 07:00 Washington; 12:00 London; 15:00 Istanbul; 23:00 Hobart
The meeting started at: 12:02 UTC

List of attendees:
NCA – Non Voting – Carlos Raúl Gutierrez - absent, apologies
Contracted Parties House
Registrar Stakeholder Group: James Bladel, Volker Greimann, Jennifer Standiford- absent, apologies, proxy to Volker Greimann,
gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group: Donna Austin, Keith Drazek, Rubens Kühl
Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA): Hsu Phen Valerie Tan absent, apologies, proxy to Donna Austin
Non-Contracted Parties House
Commercial Stakeholder Group (CSG);Philip Corwin, Susan Kawaguchi, Wolf-Ulrich Knoben, Tony Harris – joined late, Paul McGrady, Heather Forrest
Non-Commercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG): Amr Elsadr, Stephanie Perrin, David Cake, Stefania Milan - proxy to Stephanie Perrin –joined late, Edward Morris, Marilia Maciel
Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA): Julf (Johan) Helsingius

GNSO Council Liaisons/Observers:
Olivier Crèpin LeBlond– ALAC Liaison
Patrick Myles - ccNSO Observer - absent, apologies
Mason Cole – GNSO liaison to the GAC

ICANN Staff
David Olive - VP Policy Development
Marika Konings - Senior Policy Director
Rob Hoggarth - Senior Policy Director
Mary Wong – Senior Policy Director
Julie Hedlund – Policy Director
Steve Chan - Sr. Policy Manager
Berry Cobb – Policy consultant
Lars Hoffmann – Policy Analyst
David Tait – Policy Analyst
Glen de Saint Géry - GNSO Secretariat
Terri Agnew - Secretariat Services Coordinator, At-Large/GNSO
Eric Evrard- End-User Support

MP3 Recording
Adobe Chat Transcript
Transcript

Item 1: Administrative matters (5 minutes)

1.1 – Roll call
1.2 – Updates to Statements of Interest

1.3 – Review/amend agenda.
1.4 - The Draft minutes of the meeting of the GNSO Council on 21 January 2016 were posted as approved on 4 February 2016.

 

Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects & Action List

2.1 – Review focus areas and provide updates on specific key themes / topics, to include review of Projects List and Action List.

ACTION:

  • Council to review whether longstanding items that have been "on hold" should be closed or otherwise dealt with.

Item 3: Consent agenda

3.1 –The Recommendations Report to the ICANN Board regarding adoption of the Final Report from the Privacy & Proxy Services Accreditation Issues Policy Development Process (PDP) Working Group.

Approved.
Absent at time of the voice vote: Jennifer Standiford and Stephanie Perrin (connectivity issues)

ACTION:

  • Staff to proceed with submission of required documentation to the ICANN Board for Board action following close of public comment period on the Final Report on 16 March 2016.

3.2 – Appointment of the Chair and Vice-Chairs for the Next-Generation Registration Directory Services PDP Working Group; Stephanie Perrin to replace Susan Kawaguchi as Council liaison to the WG.

Approved.
Absent at time of the voice vote: Jennifer Standiford and Stephanie Perrin (connectivity issues)

ACTION:

None from the Council at the moment; staff to update relevant lists accordingly

Item 4: COUNCIL ACTION – Vote on Initiation of Policy Development Process (PDP) for the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs, and Discussion of Proposed Charter for the PDP Working Group

James Bladel, seconded by Donna Austin proposed a motion to Initiate a Policy Development Process (PDP) on a Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) in All Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

WHEREAS:

  1. In December 2011 the GNSO Council had requested that an Issue Report on the current state of all rights protection mechanisms (RPMs) implemented for both existing and new gTLDs, including but not limited to the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), be delivered to the GNSO Council no later than eighteen (18) months following the delegation of the first gTLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program;
  2. In January 2014 the GNSO Council agreed to extend the timeline for delivery of the Issue Report by six (6) months;
  3. ICANN staff published the Preliminary Issue Report on a Policy Development Process to Review All RPMs in All gTLDs for public comment on 9 October 2015, with the public comment forum closing on 30 November 2015;
  4. ICANN staff have reviewed the public comments received, published a Report of Public Comments on 10 December 2015 and updated the Issue Report accordingly;
  5. The Final Issue Report on a Policy Development Process to Review All RPMs in All gTLDs was delivered to the GNSO Council on 11 January 2016 (see http://gnso.icann.org/en/issues/new-gtlds/rpm-final-issue-11jan16-en.pdf);
  6. The Final Issue Report includes a recommendation that the GNSO Council proceed with a two-phased Policy Development Process (PDP) that will first review the RPMs that were developed for the New gTLD Program, followed by a subsequent second phase that will review the UDRP, with the overall goal of developing a uniform and consistent framework for any future review of RPMs; and
  7. The General Counsel of ICANN has indicated that the topics recommended for review are properly within the scope of the ICANN policy process and the GNSO.

RESOLVED:

  1. The GNSO Council hereby initiates a two-phased PDP to review all RPMs in all gTLDs, to review and determine whether modifications to the existing RPMs (including but not limited to the UDRP) are needed and, if so, what they should be. The outcome of the PDP may lead to (i) amendments or replacement of existing policies, principles or procedures; (ii) the development of new or additional policy recommendations; and/or (iii) the creation of new implementation guidance to supplement existing policies or procedures.
  2. The GNSO Council requests that the PDP Working Group be convened as soon as possible after the adoption of the PDP Working Group Charter in order to fulfill the requirements of this PDP.

The motion carried unanimously by roll call vote - to initiate a two-phased PDP (without specifying which reviews are to be conducted at which stage, as this is expected to be finalized in the Charter).

Voting results

ACTION:

  • Small team of Councillors (Heather Forrest, Susan Kawaguchi, Phil Corwin, Amr Elsadr, Paul McGrady) to work with staff to prepare an updated draft Charter to the Council for discussion prior to Marrakech, with a view to possible adoption in Marrakech.

Item 5: UPDATE & DISCUSSION – Marrakech Meeting Planning

The draft schedule was circulated on the Council mailing list.

Donna Austin suggested that time be allotted on Saturday afternoon, 5 March, for an exchange of information on the intercessional meetings that the Non Contracted Party House (NCPH) had recently held and the upcoming intercessional meeting, Global Domain Division Summit (GDD), of the Contracted Party House (CPH), as this would be educational and productive for the Council.
James Bladel noted that the relocation of the ICANN meeting in Panama in June 2016 was an item arising from the NCPH intercessional.
It was further suggested that since a GDD Summit occurred in September 2015 and the next one would not be until May 2016, the current agenda for the upcoming session could be presented as well as the topics that were addressed in September 2015 because with the abbreviated Meeting B schedule in June 2016 such updates may have to be dropped. However written updates could always be provided.
It was noted that the new CEO, Mr. Göran Marby has been invited to interact with the Council on Sunday but his schedule is still work in progress.

ACTION:

  • Councillors to review draft schedule and suggest any changes or updates as soon as possible.
  • Councillors to provide discussion points for the interaction with the new CEO.

Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION – Cross-Community Working Group on Enhancing ICANN Accountability

James Bladel reminded Council of the updated timeline for the delivery of the CCWG Final Report to the chartering organizations for approval, and that approval would be submitted to the ICANN Board and the Board would hand over the Final Report to the NTIA.

Thomas Rickert, co-chair of the Cross Community Working Group on Accountability provided the Council with a brief update.

Highlights from the Council discussion:

The bylaw drafting process will be a collaborative effort between the CCWG, external counsel, ICANN Legal and ICANN's lawyers. The implementation oversight will consist of the CCWG, the ICANN Board and some community representatives to ensure that the concrete bylaw language that is going to be enacted at a later stage truly reflects the spirit of the CCWG recommendations. The final bylaw language will be submitted to public comment, as is any bylaw change, where the community will have an opportunity to comment.

With regard to the deadline for document submission to the Board for the Board's Public meeting on 10 March 2016, it was noted that the Board is closely monitoring activities and thus the turnaround time will be short. "We need to make sure that there are no last minute surprised for the Board because then the timeline will not work anymore."

Thomas Rickert mentioned that the Accountability Cross Community Working Group will meet on Friday, 4 March 2016 in Marrakech, before the ICANN meetings start. A full agenda will be published, however, the primary purpose of the meeting is to kick-off Work Stream two activities as well as discuss the implementation of Work Stream one recommendations.

James Bladel referred to his posting on the Council list which sets out the following options for moving forward with the CCWG Accountability work; a) special meeting of the Council on Monday, 29 February 2016, b) repurposing certain GNSO Weekend Working sessions, c) repurposing the informal Council preparatory meeting on Tuesday, 8 March 2016.
There was general approval for the proposal.

Ed Morris noted that it was internally agreed that no NCSG councillor would participate in any vote prior to Marrakech.

Olivier Crépin-Leblond noted that the At Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) is planning two conference calls on 24 and 25 February 2016, as well as two half day meetings on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 March 2016 in Marrakech to review the recommendations with the view to the ALAC voting on the proposal on Tuesday, 8 March 2016.

ACTION:

  • Special Non-Voting Meeting of the Council to be scheduled for 29 February 2016, with aim of discussing the CCWG Supplemental Proposal (expected on 19 February) in view of SG/C work and updates. In particular, any potential "red flags" with the Supplemental Proposal should be raised before or at this Special Meeting.
  • Council chairs and staff to prepare draft motion for discussion only at the Special Meeting.
  • Staff to invite the GNSO representatives to the CCWG-Accountability to this Special Meeting.
  • Staff to contact Patrick Myles (ccNSO Council liaison), Mason Cole (GNSO-GAC liaison) and GAC Secretariat to ask for information about these organizations' timelines and plans for approval of the CCWG recommendations.
  • For Marrakech – Time to be allocated both during the Saturday schedule and the Tuesday evening meeting for further discussion; Council action (vote/approval) scheduled for the Wednesday public meeting.
  • No deferral of the motion to adopt the CCWG Accountability recommendations will be allowed at the Council meeting on 9 March 2016.

ITEM 7: UPDATE & DISCUSSION – GNSO Review

In the interest of time this item was deferred for update by Jen Wolfe at the next Council meeting on Wednesday, 9 March 2016 in Marrakech.

Item 8: BRIEFING & DISCUSSION – RDAP Implementation

In the interest of time this item was deferred to the next Council meeting in Marrakech on Wednesday, 9 March 2016.

ACTION:

  • Councillors to review Global Domain Division's (GDD's) Registry Data Access Protocol (RDAP) Briefing Paper in preparation for discussion with Cyrus Namazi, Francisco Arias and GDD staff in Marrakech.

There were no other items of business.

James Bladel, GNSO Council chair, adjourned the GNSO Council teleconference and thanked everyone for their participation.
The meeting was adjourned at 14:04 UTC.

There will be a Special GNSO Council session to discuss the Accountability proposal on Monday, 29 February 2016 at 21:00.
For other places see:
http://tinyurl.com/hj3pug7
The next GNSO Council Public Meeting will take place on Wednesday, 9 March 2016 in Marrakech, Morocco at 13:30 WET (13:30 UTC).
For other places see:
http://tinyurl.com/zfzoa5r