Public Forum

ICANN as an organization

• Emergency reserve fund
• PSC/IIC accountability mechanisms
• At Large Board Directors
• Whois Accuracy Study
• Constituency recertification
• Travel funding
• UDRP review
• Market-based IP transfers
• Board member compensation
• Fast domain takedown
• Consumer protections
• Board removal mechanism
• Emergency Names and Addressing Committee
• Cancelled domains
• Fewer, longer Board meetings
• Cost of ALAC
• President's Privacy Committee
• Whois accuracy
• Independent Review Process
• Cybersquatting lawsuits
• Board Risk Committee
• Registry Assignments
• Per domain fees
• Price of dotcom domains
• Domain name community
• Senior policy staff recruitment

Registrars/RAA

• RAA review
• Amendments approval
• Breach notices
• Suspending registration services
• Registrar Code of Conduct
• Names of registrars' directors
• Warehousing policy
• Proxy services
• Registrant rights
• Registrar applications
• AAAA glue
• Amendment process
• Place of business
• Control of expired domains
• Registrar attitude
• Policy process
• Bulk domain transfers
• Enforcement of RAA
• Domain blacklist
• Forced transfer of a domain
• Add Grace Period
• Price of .mx domains
• Mexico registrar model

Applicant Guidebook / New gTLDs

• Annual fees
• Registry fees
• Use of excess revenue
• Introduction of new gTLDs
• Phishing
• Rollout timeline
• Registrar accreditation process
• City TLDs
• Domain abuse
• Rights in second-level domains
• Fixed fee rules
• Third-level domains
• Language preservation
• Geographic names
• Supporting information
• Email and third-level domains
• Refund mechanism
• Guidebook in French
• Competition study

Public participation

• Member dossiers
• Remote participation
• Regional gatherings
• Video conference affilation
• Participation channels
• Fellowship program

IDNs / Fast Track

• Cost recovery
• Language tables
• Management of IDN ccTLDs
• Fast Track conflicts
• Government backing
• Disputes

Accountability and transparency

• Independent review
• Ombudsman

Others

Executive compensation | FX hedging program | Telephone costs | Compensation | Registrars and cybersquatting | WHOIS escrow | Registrar Auctions / Conflicts of Interest | CRISP | Uniform domain drop policy | Meetings and environment | DNSSEC | IPv6 | Online Multilingual Search | ICANN fellowship
 

Why did ICANN choose an investment policy that resulted in losses of $4.6m in the stock market? It was a carefully thought out policy derived from ICANN’s revenue and capital structure.

ICANN’s revenues are fairly stable and predictable and ICANN had built a large cash balance ($31m in Jun 2007). Concern was expressed by auditors and others about the concentration of cash and that led to a study for investment policy. That study recommended a moderately low risk (65 percent fixed income, 35 percent equity, plus 3 months worth of operating expense in cash). In hindsight it was an unfortunate decision with almost $5m loss (-16 percent) since inception. While that is bad, the market is much worse.

Also, ICANN’s portfolio performed better than other similar risk class portfolios (-12.63 percent compared to an annualized median for similar portfolios of -15.48 percent). Furthermore, the Reserve fund is not for operations. It’s a rainy day fund that has a three to five-year investment outlook. The working capital fund (separate from Reserve fund) has $20 min all cash for over three months of operations.

As far as reconsidering the Investment Policy, ICANN doesn't want to abandon the investment policy without careful consideration. We don't want to buy high and sell low. The Board has directed staff to hire a consultant to review the investment policy for reasonableness. No further transfers from working capital to the Reserve Fund will be made until the policy review has been completed.

The PSC is a committee that reports to the President, and the report's recommendations have now been passed on for consideration by the Board. No recommendations will be implemented until they have been considered by Board. The Board has put the report out to public comment and also asked staff to evaluate implementation of the proposals and report its findings to the Board. See: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#iic-plan

The draft final report of the ALAC review WG recommends two voting seats for ALAC in the Board; a public comment period is open at http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#alac-review.

After public comments (17 April) the WG will finalize its report to the Structural Improvements Committee and the Board. The Board review WG presented its initial report in Mexico for feedbacks; also this WG is considering the possibility for ALAC to nominate one or two Board Directors.

A public comment period is opened at http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/public-comment-200904.html#board-review. After public comments (17 April) the WG will finalize its report to the Structural Improvements Committee and the Board. More at http://www.icann.org/en/reviews/board/ and http://www.icann.org/en/reviews/alac/

The ICANN Compliance Department together with the National Opinion Research Center organized a Whois Accuracy Study. When can we expect to see the results of this study?

The results of the Whois Accuracy Study are expected to be published by ICANN at the ICANN 36 meeting in Seoul, South Korea.

The bylaws require constituent bodies to operate to the maximum extent feasible in a transparent manner. Will the Board refuse to re-certify constituencies that don’t publicly archive member discussions?

The re-certification submissions provided by all GNSO constituencies were posted for public comment through 25 February (see the summary of comments on the public comment webpage). The Staff also is conducting a thorough review of the submissions and any Board decisions will take place in the context of the GNSO Improvements implementation process. It is anticipated that the Board will take remedial steps to correct any areas where existing constituencies are not currently living up to the bylaws principles rather than taking the punitive step of de-certification.

A $60million budget is currently insufficient to fully fund GNSO Council travel expenses. How high does the budget need to be before full travel funding becomes available?

Travel funding was recently reviewed for all supporting organizations and advisory committees. For more information please visit: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/travel-support/

ICANN Staff issued a Draft Statement of Work for Funnel Review (indicating a review is consistent with ICANN's efforts to improve policies/procedures). Can we also expect a UDRP review?

While there are no current plans to review the UDRP, ICANN does consistently review and revise its main agreements and processes in order to keep them fit-for-purpose. The GNSO may initiate a PDP to revise the UDRP if desired.

RIRs are considering proposals to permit market-based address transfers. Does the Board have a view on this development?

ICANN works closely with the RIRs on areas of mutual interest while each recognizes that the other is entitled to set policies through their own processes.

When can we anticipate a decision being reached on the topic of board member compensation?

The Board review working group (WG) presented its initial report in Mexico, asking for further inputs from the community on this and other key issues; a public comment period is open at http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/public-comment-200904.html#board-review until 17 April. Then, the WG plans to present its final report in Sydney, taking into consideration comments from the community. More at http://www.icann.org/en/reviews/board/

Board’s thoughts on APWG’s Accelerated Domain Suspension Process proposal seeking to define accreditation requirements for entities that would expedite takedowns of domains used in phishing or malware distribution?

The Board recognizes that reducing the use of domains used in phishing or malware distribution is a difficult challenge and mitigation is a shared responsibility in which many types of service providers, law enforcement entities and users themselves can all play important roles.

The Board applauds the efforts of the APWG, including working with ICANN-accredited registrars, to develop and update best practices to encourage and facilitate the accelerated take-down of domains that are associated with criminal activity. The GNSO Council is initiating a Working Group on Registration Abuse that may address domain based phishing or malware. However, since much of this abuse is not related to domain name registrations, it may not be within the scope of ICANN’s policy remit to address all of these concerns.

Strategic Plan: “Clarify ICANN’s role in relation to consumer protection; develop a clear consensus position by the end of 2009.” What is the Board’s current view on ICANN’s role?

The purpose of this objective in the plan is to support the Board in developing an agreed-on view.

PSC Discussion Proposal: Establish accountability mechanisms that allow the community to remove the Board collectively and reconstitute it. When do you anticipate such a mechanism being in place?

The PSC is a committee that reports to the President, and the report's recommendations have now been passed on for consideration by the Board. No recommendations will be implemented until they have been considered by Board. The Board has put the report out to public comment and also asked staff to evaluate implementation of the proposals and report its findings to the Board. See: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#iic-plan

ICANN’s Emergency Names and Addressing Committee (ENAC) supposedly includes 1 appointed ALAC representative from each region. Whom has the ALAC appointed to serve on this Committee?

There are no current members of the ENAC. The ENAC is non-membership non-standing committee that will only be formed in the event that certain conditions warrant its invocation. If the conditions ever warranted formation of the committee there would then be call for members.

Will the ICANN Compliance Department be willing to tell us how many domains have been cancelled in the last year as a result of WDPRS filings?

WDPRS does not generate those statistics; it is not currently configured to inform ICANN about those registrants whose domains are cancelled as a result of complaints filed through the system. ICANN will explore enhancements that can be made to the WDPRS in order for it to generate additional statistics or other means of reporting.

The Independent Review of the Board of ICANN recommended to “Move to fewer but longer board meetings”; does the board agree or disagree?

The Board review working group (WG) presented its initial report in Mexico for feedback; this report discusses this recommendation of external reviewers (http://www.icann.org/en/reviews/board/board-review-interim-report-20feb09-en.pdf). A public comment period is open at http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/public-comment-200904.html#board-review and the WG plans to present its final report in Sydney, taking into consideration comments from the community. More at http://www.icann.org/en/reviews/board/

ALAC Review: “after a year since we first began asking, ICANN has not been able to produce current or historical data on the cost of the ALAC”; Board response?

With the recent efforts to provide more detailed expense reporting, (see the dashboard at: http://www.icann.org/idashboard/public/), Board and stakeholders, constituencies, and other community members have asked for even more detailed expense reporting. ICANN has committed to continue efforts to provide more and more detailed expense reporting to honor its continual commitment for transparency and accountability. More specifically, the draft FY10 Operating Plan and Budget will contain more information on the details of budget spending by constituency (SOs and ACs).

Why did the Board decide to eliminate the Board Privacy Committee which was first established at the recommendation of at-Large director Mueller-Maguhn? Is privacy no longer an important consideration?

Privacy has remained an important part of ICANN's policy discussions. The President's Standing Committee on Privacy was formed in 2003 but never progressed beyond an initial work plan. The Committee has not been formally dissolved although it has not been active for a number of years. For more information on the Committee view: http://www.icann.org/en/committees/privacy/

The stated goal of the WDRP Consensus Policy was to improve Whois accuracy. If Whois accuracy has not improved, will ICANN direct the GNSO to revisit this policy?

There are a number of Whois studies currently being planned. Several are being planned and executed by ICANN’s Compliance department. There are also studies of Whois being considered by the GNSO Council, these are focused on gathering and analyzing data that might be useful for potential future policy making. The results may provide insights related to Whois accuracy but are not specifically focused on the WDPRS. For the latest information on policy activities, please visit: http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois/. For information on Compliance-related activities, please see http://www.icann.org/en/compliance/.

In the matter of the Independent Review Process before the International Centre for Dispute, ICANN argues for a deferential standard of review. Is ICANN unwilling to be held accountable?

ICANN is committed to following accountability mechanisms, that were established as part of a community driven process and are set out in the bylaws, which can be found at: http://www.icann.org/en/general/bylaws.htm. With respect to the specific Independent Review Process, ICANN's papers are posted, and further papers will be posted as they become available, at: http://www.icann.org/en/irp/

How many cybersquatting-related lawsuits directed at registrars does ICANN need to see before it realizes that ICANN action is warranted?

Lawsuits are matters for courts to decide. Any suspected breach of the RAA should be reported to ICANN, and ICANN will address investigate these matters and take compliance action when appropriate. Cybersquatting matters can be addressed through the WDPRS. The RAA does not specifically address cybersquatting. A PDP is required to provide ICANN clear authority to take action regarding cybersquatting.

Will ICANN’s new board-level Risk Committee be reporting to the community on the risks associated with terminating the JPA?

Information about the Risk Committee, including its charter outlining its purpose and scope of responsibilities, can be found at: http://www.icann.org/en/committees/risk/.

ICANN has approved two registry assignments (.pro to Hostway; .name to Verisign’s VIS). Shouldn’t the assignment process be as robust as the new gTLD application process?

ICANN's registry agreements have a provision for assignments that required their approval by ICANN. In the case of .PRO and .NAME, assignments an appropriate evaluation occured.

Will ICANN reduce its per domain fee of $.20 now that is has a huge surplus, well in excess of its own stated reserve requirements?

ICANN's strategic plan calls for a Reserve Fund of an amount equal to one year of operating expenses. This amount has not been reached and thus the FY10 budget framework proposes additional contributions.

Will ICANN give back the profits it has made in 2009 to the domainers? will you tell verisign to stop raising the prices of .COM? will you stop big corporatons from influencing you?

ICANN is a not-for-profit organization. If the organization receives more income than its spends (as outlined in the community-approved budget), it typcially reduces the fee it charges registrars per domain. The terms of the dotcom contract approved by the Board in 2006 allow VeriSign to raise fees in a limited way without approval from ICANN. See that contract in full here: http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/com/

To what extent do ICANN officers regard the domain name community as a legitimate and respectable stakeholder in ICANN driven outcomes? Do ICANN support, in principle, the interests of "domainers"?

ICANN is a bottom-up consensus driven organization. The current GNSO improvements process calls for structure and process changes to create an environment that encourages the formation of new constituencies. The Board welcomes proposals for the formation of new constituencies and input from all interested stakeholders.

Are the recruitments for senior policy positions restricted by eligibility to work in the USA and also candidates living in certain geographical locations. If so, is ICANN really international?

Part of the Improving Institutional Confidence consultation - currently out for public comment (see: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#iic-plan) - reviews precisely the question of an additional "legal presence" for ICANN to deal with issues of nationality and other related factors.

Work in amending the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (resulting from the review of the accreditation process) is underway. Full details are available at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/raa. In addition, other issues related to the accreditation policy (http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/policy_statement.html) are under review. Most recently, GNSO approved a set of amendments to the RAA. Those amendments will be considered by the Board at its April meeting. The amendments improve protections for registrants and provide ICANN with better enforcement tools.

The various constituencies within the GNSO worked collaboratively on the new RAA amendments and approved it in Mexico City by unanimous agreement. It is now forwarded to the Board for action.

ICANN continues to improve its contractual compliance activities, including timeliness of its actions. Many breaches are cured using tools other than breach notices, i.e., other forms of communication with registrars. Each case is addressed individually in order to best protect registrants, cure breaches in a timely manner and ensure a level playing field. The Contactual Compliance team keeps the Board regularly updated on all of its activities.

RAA amendment: ability to create new Registered Names suspended if Registrar is repeatedly/willfully in fundamental/material breach of its obligations at least three times within year. Why isn’t once sufficient?

This proposed RAA amendment allows ICANN to suspend registration services for one breach if the breach is not cured; and suspend registration services when a registrar has repeatedly breached the RAA, even if all of the breaches were cured by the registrar within the year. To see the exact language, please go to: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/raa/raa-provisions-comparision-18jun08.pdf

RAA: In the event ICANN establishes a Code of Conduct for ICANN accredited registrars, Registrar shall abide by that Code; Will ICANN ever establish a registrar code of conduct?

The RAA requires that a code of conduct be supported by a consensus of all registrars in order to enforceable. Recent staff work has instead focused on improving protection of registrants through amendment of the RAA itself. The recent GNSO resolution requires that within 30 days of Board approval of the set of amendments, representatives from the GNSO community and the ALAC shall be identified to participate in drafting a registrant rights charter.

RAA amendment: “Upon execution of agreement, Registrar shall provide ICANN with a list of the names of Registrar's directors and officers”. Will such a list ever be made public?

It is currently not the intention to make such a list public. However, if in future that is seen to be a useful course of action, ICANN will put such a proposal through its normal procedures.

RAA: “Registrar shall abide by ICANN adopted specifications or policies prohibiting or restricting warehousing of or speculation in domain names by registrars.” Will such a policy be forthcoming?

That topic has been discussed and the possibility raised. All such policies must go through the GNSO's Policy Development Process.

RAA amendment: registrar shall display conspicuous notice when election is made to utilize proxy services that customer data is not being escrowed. Is Board comfortable with this loophole?

A careful balance was struck during the course of the RAA amendment process to obligate registrars to provide a high level of service without impeding the registrar marketplace.

RAA amendment: “In the event that ICANN publishes a webpage that identifies available registrant rights and responsibilities”. When does ICANN intend to publish such a page?

It is anticipated that a process for creating a registrant rights and responsibilities document would be initiated following adoption of a revised RAA. The process is intended to include significant community input.

One would think that an organization committed to transparency would publicly post registrar accreditation applications. Will this ever happen?

Registrar applications contain commerically sensitive material. ICANN currently does not publish them, and there has not been a formal set of requests for ICANN to do so.

Will ICANN issue a specification requiring Registrars to allow folk to add AAAA glue for their Domain Name Servers by a fixed date?

The ability for registrants to add IPv6 glue to their domain records is generally a function of the registrar marketplace. A requirement that this service be made available to registrants would need to go through some form of policy development and/or public comment processes.

GNSO Councilor comment: “the RAA amendment consultative process essentially excluded registrants and users including brand owners, and ignored their input.” Is the Board aware of such Staff mismanagement?

The RAA amendment process included substantial public input. Following each public comment period, a sythnesis document was posted that documented the ways in which input was incorporated and provided explanation of the comments that could not be incorporated. All of the relevant materials have been archived at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/raa.

RAA amendment: “Registrar shall provide on its website its accurate contact details including valid email and mailing address.” Why won’t ICANN require identification of registrar’s primary place of business?

This provision was included to make it easier for registrants to reach the registrar. Current, correct contact information is believed to be the most useful for parties with a need to reach the registrar.

Why are registrars allowed to hold or control names that have expired. It should be released to be re-registered by anyone. Why are registrar's allowed to sell trademark or similar names. Cheers!

Registrars function in a competitive marketplace. Registrants should carefully review the policies of the registrar they choose to use to determine whether they agree with its practices. Registrars have no obligation to conduct a review of names as they are registered. The Uniform Dispute Resolution Process (UDRP) is available to individuals as one means of challenging the registration of a name that violates trademark rights.

On top of that, the Expired Domain Deletion Policy (EDDP) is a consensus policy that revised the domain registration expiration provisions in ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement in December 2004 (see http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/eddp.htm). EDDP defines a uniform deletes practice that registrars must follow at the time of domain name expiry, as well as specific requirements for handling of expired names subject to a UDRP dispute - see the question "Is ICANN going to adopt a uniform policy for the deletion of expired domains? " for more information.

Why should registrars act as if they own the domains, they are supposed to offer a service...not control one ! This undermines the whole integrity of ICANN and should be stopped.

Under the Expired Domain Deletion Policy, http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/eddp.htm, registrars must provide registrants with the details of their deletion and auto-renewal policies. In selecting a registrar, registrants should read their registration agreement and consider the registrar's deletion policy. Any further policy to address such issues would have to be developed through the GNSO policy development process. ICANN has a contractual agreement with its registrars. If you feel a registrar has broken the terms of the agreement , any suspected breach of the RAA should be reported to ICANN’s Contractual Compliance team. See: http://www.icann.org/compliance/.

Why do "so called" non-profit organisations spend years talking about serious issues like domain wharehousing when it could be easily solved?...it's an obvious conflict of interest and should stop.

ICANN develops new policies through a bottom-up consensus-building process. The topic of domain warehousing by registrars may be addressed by the community through the GNSO's policy development process.

When ICANN closed down ESTdomains, they handed over EST's entire historical registrant database to Directi, instead of just current registrants, allowing Directi to spam ex-registrants with "ResellerClub" offers. Why?

Although ICANN had registrant information available through its Registrar Data Escrow program, ICANN did not provide any registrant information to Directi to facilitate the bulk transfer. EstDomains agreed independently to provide registration data to Directi. Questions about the transaction should be directed to one or both of the involved registrars.

The details of the bulk transfer of domains from ESTdomains to Directi can be found here: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-25nov08-en.htm. The process by which domains are transferred between registrars was developed with community input and through ICANN's public comment process. See: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-06jun08-en.htm.

I am concerned that ICANN has not developed effective policies for dealing with registrars that violate ICANN regulations. Please explain the enforcement process.

Investigations into possible non-compliance are triggered by proactive enforcement activities or by complaints (to see complaint escalation process, go to: http://www.icann.org/en/compliance/archive/compliance-newsletter-200805.html#escalation). When there is suspected non-compliance, ICANN transmitts an enforcement notice to the contracted party and requests proof that the violation has been cured.

Typically, 72 percent of initial enforcement notices result in corrective action by the registrar or registry, and no further enforcement action is required. If the Registrar or Registry does not provide proof of compliance after it has received a notice of non-compliance, ICANN initiates the breach process. This involves, among other things, sending a notice of breach of contract. When contract breaches are not cured within the time specified by ICANN's contracts, contract termination is considered. The interests of innocent registrants are considered in each case of proposed contract termination.

Would the emergence of a Realtime Blackhole list that blacklisted all domains from a given set of Registrars be evidence of the policing of Registrars not being sufficient?

Assuming this question concerns a proposed process for eradicating spam, content matters are outside of ICANN's mission and ICANN's Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) does not address content issues. ICANN does not have authority to take compliance action against registrars concerning issues that fall outside of the terms of the RAA. Therefore, the emergence of a Real-time Blackhole List for the purpose of identifying domains used for spam, and the name of the registrar associated with each domain, would not provide sufficient information that ICANN could use to take compliance action against registrars based on the terms of the RAA.

Would be possible to establish additional and immediate procedures to transfer a domain when the current registrar is not cooperating with the transfer process?

The Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy applies to all gTLD transfers. Where a "losing" registrars is not cooperative with a transfer, the registrant may request the "gaining" registrar to file a complaint under the Transfer Dispute Resolution Policy or may submit a compliance report to ICANN at http://reports.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi.

When the registrar can demonstrate that the domain was registered through fraud methods like stolen credit card, would ICANN think of extending the current 5 days window for refunds?

Changes to ICANN's fee structure can be made through the budgeting process. ICANN's budget is posted for public comment annually before it is presented to the Board for potential adoption. Registry fees are generally established in each registry's Registry-Registrar Agreement, and would need to be changed there.

In Mexico, a developing nation, the registry of domain names under the prefix .com.mx is handled by a single, private-owned company whose prices are much higher than the average worldwide.

ICANN sets registration policies only for generic top-level domains. Registration policies for country code domains, such as .MX, are the responsibility of each individual country or territory and are not in ICANN’s remit.

Hello!! I'd like to know why all .com.mx domain names have to be purchased through NIC.MX. Isn't it a monopoly? and, Isn't it really bad for internet gobernance? Thank you.

ICANN sets registration policies only for generic top-level domains. Registration policies for country code domains, such as .MX, are the responsibility of each individual country or territory and are not in ICANN’s remit.

The fees in the current draft agreement include a baseline fee of USD 25,000 per year. Transactional fees apply only after a registry has 50,000 registered names. This is intended to scale with the size of the registry. See the draft registry agreement at http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/draft-agreement-clean-18feb09-en.pdf.

The IANA’s .int registry serves the IGO population without fees. Will the Board direct the IANA to provide registry services without fees to other small populations?

It is not anticipated that IANA or ICANN will operate additional registries.

When will ICANN articulate a transparent mechanism, that includes community agreement, for the disposition of excess new gTLD revenues, should there be any, given ICANN’s non-profit status?

The evaluation fee covers the cost of peforming the evaluation and thus it is estimated that the fees collected will be offset by the costs to process an application. ICANN has committed to performing a careful cost accounting once the process is launched. If there are surplus funds, this will be addressed through the process of public review and comment. There is discussion in the guidebook about potential disposition of revenues that may result from auctions. This description is included in Module 4 of the draft Applicant Guidebook, currently out for public comment.

ICANN’s Articles of Incorporation require ICANN to determine the “circumstances” under which new TLDs are added to the root. What specific circumstances prompted the current new gTLD round?

The introduction of competition into the domain name system was one of the main reasons ICANN was created. Following two previous rounds, it was always the case that ICANN would pursue greater expansion of the registry space. Under the Joint Project Agreement that ICANN has with the US government, ICANN was also urged to introduce new gTLDs. That process has been running for three years and currently rests with a detailed implementation plan out to public comment. See: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#dagv2.

antiques.shop.ebay.com or ebay.shop.antiques or antiques.shop.ebay or ebay.antiques.shop? The only folks not confused by this are phishers. How will ICANN deal with the phishing that the TLD rollout will engender?

The issue of trademarks and string confusion are part of the ongoing Applicant Guidebook review process. A revised guidebook was recently posted for public comment. Please provide your comments as part of the public comment forum so they can be considered. See: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#dagv2.

Why did it take almost 5 years to get to a new TLD process? The Board and ICANN have repeatedly mislead the public by providing wrong dates. See http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/ announcement-10may07.htm

The new gTLD process has been developed through ICANN's Policy Development Process. That process depends on the consensual agreement of all parties to move forward and sometimes that process takes longer than originally anticipated. Dates put forward by ICANN staff and Board are provided with the expectation that the community recognises they are the best current estimate for how long a process will take.

How easy is the accreditation process for current registrars regarding new TLD and will there be any fixed pricing scheme?

You can find full details (including pricing) about registrar accreditation here: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accreditation.htm. The procedures followed by the Registrar Liaison department for adding TLDs can be found at http://www.icann.org/en/processes/registrars/adding-gtld-appendix-17feb09-en.pdf.

Will ICANN consider separate time tracks for the new gTLD process, e.g. the corporate, generic, city TLDs? Some are more contentious than others with City TLDs being the least contentious.

This is not currently part process described in the Applicant Guidebook. The guidebook is going through its second period of public comment at the moment (see: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#dagv2) and ICANN will carefully consider all feedback to that comment period in creating the next version of the guidebook.

New gTLDs will further fragment the Internet. Does the panel agree that a more fragmented Internet will help to reduce spamming/phishing activity due to increased costs, more domain spaces, etc.?

Possible abuse of new gTLDs was an important part of the feedback ICANN received in the first Applicant Guidebook public comment period. ICANN will work actively with the community to find solutions to these concerns and answer these questions more specifically in the next version of the guidebook.

A wiki page covering overarching new gTLDs issues can be found at https://st.icann.org/new-gtld-overarching-issues/index.cgi?new_gtld_overarching_issues.

If someone obtains a gTLD like dotCircus would it then allow them to lay claim to domain names like Circus.com or Circus.info or is ICANN going to protect these owners?

Currently there are no mechanisms in place that would grant a TLD operator rights in a second level domain that includes the names used in the TLD. Any disputes over the rights to second-level domains in new gTLDs would be covered by ICANN's UDRP, which includes a provision allowing registrants to demonstrate rights and legitimate interests in their domain names.

Can you simplify application and process for new gTLD rules with fixed fees and simple "4-5 points" rules? It's very complicated now.

The application lifecycle, available in Module 1 of the Applicant Guidebook, is a good place to become familiar with the process. The evaluation process is intended to be simple and straightforward in most cases but also sufficiently robust to provide a clear process in controversial or complex cases.

Staff is available to clarify or answer questions about the evaluation process. There is a four-month communications period that will precede the launch of the program, to provide additional opportunity for those interested to become develop more familiarity with the process.

Instead of usa.domain.city, I would propose us.domain.city, e.g. fr.domain.paris/ us.tn.domain.paris/ us.tx.domain.paris/ us.il.domain.paris. Also, you could have de.domain.berlin and us.domain.berin. We simply replace the "WWW" with the "ccTLD" extension. Thoughts???

It is possible for there to be third-level domains, and this is usually determined by either the TLD registry operator or the registrant of the second-level domain e.g. domain.domain. The examples provided are possible in existing top-level domains, and would be possible in new gTLDs.

Whether granting of domains of the first level to republics as a part of the Russia (noncommercial) is possible? It would help preservation of minority languages of the people.

Anyone is entitled to apply for a new generic top-level domain when the process opens subject to the process and procedures described in the Guidebook. There are specific processes outlined for certain geograpical names.

Will a string coinciding with a town name that is also a famous commercial TM be identified as a string representing a geographical name and require non-objection paper from government?

The intended usage by the registry plays a role in this determinanation. Support or non-objection from the government is only required if the applicant has declared that it intends to use the TLD as a city name.

NCUC still waiting for response from staff regarding our request for supporting information related to DAG, which we requested and were promised in Cairo. All attempts_to obtain this information have_received_no_response_from_staff.

Significant information has been provided in the Guidebook and explanatory memoranda. ICANN is assembling additional background information for publication with the next version of the Guidebook and memoranda.

Related to prior question. If you can replace the "WWW" with "ccTLDs", can you create e-mail addresses by placing the "@" at the very beginning, e.g. email@de.domain.berlin, email@fr.domain.paris, or email@us.tx.domain.paris?

Yes,what you outline can already be done.

In behalf of Netpia, thanks ICANN, for the updated guidebook. On refund mechanism: Has it been thoroughly, carefully discussed? For transparency, please explain how you came up with those figures.

The refund mechanism has been carefully discussed in order to assess its impact on the application process and the numbers of applications submitted. Substantive comments would be useful in evaluating the efficacy of the currently proposed approach. An analysis of the refunds can be found in section four of the response to comments document: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/agv1-analysis-public-comments-18feb09-en.pdf

When the Applicant Guidebook will be translated in French?

Version 2 of the Applicant Guidebook is available in French here: http://www.icann.org/fr/topics/new-gtlds/comments-2-fr.htm

Did ICANN commission an economic/competition study prior to the Dennis Carlton report? If yes, why was it not released to the community?

Prior to issuing the preliminary reports from Dennis Carlton of Compass Lexecon, ICANN retained CRAI. A report by CRAI can be found at: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtlds/crai-report-24oct08-en.pdf

Why was ICANN staff researching George Kirikos' political views on President Barack Obama? (as was verified by Apache webserver referrer logs) Does ICANN keep a dossier on every community participant?

Information regarding any such search has not been provided to ICANN. ICANN does not contract for, have access to, or maintain a dossier on any community participant, including on their political views.

Will ICANN allow the public to participate via NetMeeting (w/chat service) in order to participate real time? Also, will you provide video via the web real-time on the meetings?

ICANN expanded its experimentation with Adobe's Connect system at the Mexico City meeting. This service provides the level of participation you indicate. It was very warmly welcomed by the ccNSO (in whose room the system was run all week) and the ccNSO Council recommended its wider adoption by ICANN.

ICANN sponsors regional registry/registrar gatherings. Will it ever sponsor regional gatherings exclusive to the non-contracted parties?

Regional sessions with the contracted parties are used to educate and reinforce the contractual relationship. Significant attention is paid to compliance issues at these sessions. However, we agree that regional meetings for non-contracted parties would also be valuable. In fact, many educational and outreach meetings occur in various regions. These are often co-sponsored by ICANN, ISOC and others. ICANN’s Policy Staff has conducted an initial gathering for an array of non-contracted parties in Washington DC in early February 2009 and intends to conduct broader gatherings for non-contracted parties on a regular basis in the US, Europe, and other regions as the need arises.

Can you disclose whether the company currently supplying your telephone/video conference services have an affiliation with any ICANN employee in any shape, manner or form?

There is no affiliation that ICANN is aware of between an employee of the organization and the telephone or audio-visual companies that ICANN uses.

Congratulations on the numerous channels for participation. What mechanisms are in place to ensure that the comments are registered/recorded and seriously considered by the Board?

Thank you for your support. All questions and suggested responses drawn up by staff are provided to the Chairman to review before being publicly posted.

Thanks to ICANN Fellowship program for facilitating my participation in the Mexico meeting. It is critical that government stakeholders participate in order guide national policy development on internet governance issues.

We are happy to support active participants to the ICANN meetings and agree with your statement regarding the critical role of government in the ICANN process. Government representatives will continue to be considered for the Fellowship program as it progresses. To date, 38 of the 140 fellows from the previous 6 meeting have been gov't representatives, which makes up over 1/3 of the noted sectors of representation that includes the cctld community, civil society and private sector, business and academia.

Will fees for new IDN ccTLDs also be predicated on a cost-recovery basis?

This is an element of the Fast Track Process that is still under discussion. In the latest revision of the Draft Implementation Plan, Module 7 provides some additional information around a financial model. It is ICANN's position that some level of cost-recoveryshould be implemented, the level is under discussion. It is anticipated that ICANN staff will provide additional proposed details following the Mexico meeting. http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/

When can we see approporation for language table development as the base technology for IDN?

There is a paper specifically on the proposed development and use of IDN tables that is out for public comment at the moment. You can read it here: http://www.icann.org/en/topics/idn/fast-track/proposed-implementation-details-idn-tables-18feb09-en.pdf

IDNs/FastTrack may cause existing ccTLDs to decline in value. Will owners of a ccTLD get first pick of their existing domain(s) in the IDN ccTLDs to offset against such declines.

The selection or decision about who should manage the prospective IDN ccTLDs, will be done in accordance with the work of the IDNC working group and will be a matter to be decided in the local community, country or territory.

What would happen with the fast-track in one country if the government, the ASCII ccTLD operator and an independent group want to apply as IDN ccTLD operators?

Under the Fast Track, the ccTLD operator and the government would need to reach agreement. Any independent group would also need to reach agreement with the appropriate government.

Will parlamentary elections in one country affect the fast - track process? There will be a new government from a different political party.

The Fast Track requires the backing of the relevant government authority at the time the IDN is inserted into the root, i.e., at the end of the validation process as well as at the beginning.

What if there is more than one applicant for an IDN ccTLD from a country? Will the country stay on the fast-track?

In much the same way that the redelegation process works, ICANN leaves parties in dispute to find their own solution before acting.

Please answer the 7 specific unanswered questions, submitted in writing 3 years ago, at: http://hasbrouck.org/blog/archives/001007.html #procedures Please also tell us when, if ever, the Board will consider the pending requests for independent review.

Information relating the the Independent Review Process can be found at: http://www.icann.org/en/general/accountability_review.html. To initiate a request for Independent Review, please complete the ICDR form which can be found at: http://www.adr.org/si.asp?id=4588.

Please answer the 4 specific unanswered questions, previously submitted in writing, at: http://www.icannwatch.org/comments.pl? sid=2068&cid=16997 Please also tell us when, if ever, the Board will conduct a proper decision-making process to appoint an Ombudsman.

Frank Fowlie was appointed by the ICANN Board and has served as the Ombudsman since 2004. See: http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-24nov04-2.htm. Since that time, the Ombudsman's position has been subject to Board oversight. Also please note that the Ombudsman Framework is currently posted for public comment: http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-13mar09-en.htm.

In ICANN's Form 990, Paul Twomey's compensation was adjusted upwards to reflect the declining US dollar. Now that the US dollar has soared, will his compensation be adjusted downward accordingly?

Yes, as disclosed in the Form 990, the annual report, and the footnotes to the audited financial statements, payments to Dr. Twomey are paid through Argo Pacific. Payment terms are denominated in Australian Dollars. Thus when expressed in US dollars, any payments are made are adjusted upwards or downwards in accordance with the currency exchange rates.

Why is the Board Finance Committee planning an expensive hedging program, when it is possible to conduct most of its business in US dollars, shifting currency risks to suppliers?

The Board Finance Committee has studied an international currency exchange risk management policy for ICANN for the sole purpose of reducing exchange rate risks. Some of ICANN's expenses are denominated in currencies other than US Dollars reflecting the global focus of ICANN's efforts. Hedging instruments will not be purchased unless the risk reduction results warrant it.

One million/year is spent on telephone costs. What's being done to minimize that cost, in particular competitive tenders by suppliers, etc? What's the cost per minute of conference calls currently?

ICANN is always looking to reduce cost. We’re investigating your question to see what the actual cost of telephones are to the organization.

Why does ICANN use For-Profit companies as "comparables" in its compensation, when it purports to be a Non-Profit? Given staff's job security compared to the private-sector, isn't this unwise overspending?

ICANN's compensation practices are covered in detail on pages126-9 in the 2008 Annual Report. See: http://www.icann.org/en/annualreport/annual-report-2008-en.pdf.

A federal court in California awarded Verizon $33.15 million against OnlineNIC for cybersquatting. What's ICANN doing to protect registrants in the event of registrar failure? Are other registrars vulnerable?

ICANN takes steps to protect registrants in the event of the termination of a registrar's RAA, for example, by requiring registrars to participate in a data escrow program (see http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-09nov07.htm). In addition, ICANN has implemented its De-accredited Registrar Transition Procedure to facilitate bulk transfers of names from terminated registrars to functioning registrars (see http://www.icann.org/en/processes/registrars/de-accredited-registrar-transition-procedure-01oct08.pdf). ICANN generally publishes breach letters on its website which serves as a notice to registrants of potential issues at their registrar.

Since registrars can escrow privacy Whois in the RDE, how are registrants protected from a nefarious registrar using their privacy Whois system to hide current and historical registration information?

All registrars are required to escrow registrant and other contact data for each gTLD domain name. In the case of Whois proxy and privacy services that act as registrant, the RDE requirement is satisfied when the registrar deposits the registrant (proxy) data into escrow. Registrants should consider that their underlying customer data may not be escrowed when deciding whether to use a Whois proxy or privacy service. Proposed amendments to the RAA would require registrars to either escrow underlying customer data or prominently notify customers if the data will not be escrowed.

Registrars can earn more money by auctioning their customers' expired domains, thus they might "forget" to autorenew them so they can be auctioned. Does this conflict of interest concern ICANN?

Registrars have a duty to act in the best interest of their registrants. In addition, all registrars must abide by the policies in the Registrar Accreditation Agreement. This agreement can be accessed at http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/ra-agreement-17may01.htm (“RAA”).

Under the Expired Domain Deletion Policy, http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/eddp.htm, registrars must provide registrants with the details of their deletion and auto-renewal policies. In selecting a registrar, registrants should read their registration agreement and consider the registrar's deletion policy. Registrants can further protect themselves by reading the language of the RAA as well as the Registrar-registration agreement. If you feel a registrar has broken the terms of the agreement , any suspected breach of the RAA should be reported to ICANN’s Contractual Compliance team.

Just curious… whatever happened with the Cross Registry Information Service Protocol (CRISP)? Has anyone done anything with it?

“Cross Registry Inforation Service Protocol” was the name of an IETF working group that concluded some years ago. It generated a suite of documents, most notably a framework known as the Internet Registry Information Service, or IRIS. IRIS has not been widely deployed — the first significant deployment was of the “DCHK” protocol (which allows for domain availability checking) at the .DE registry.

It is described at http://www.denic.de/en_1/domains/technik/domaincheck/DCHK-background.html. The SSAC prepared two papers in 2008, SAC 027 and SAC 033, which, among other points, recommend a combination of policy development and adoption of a uniform directory service modeled on the IRIS standard that was developed by CRISP to provide security services.

SAC033 also identifies features common to public/private directory services and discusses how such features could benefit the domain name community. SAC 033 also proposes a methodology to study public/private directories and use findings to identify requirements for domain name related data. The GNSO Council has discussed these reports and also considered them in Mexico City.

Is ICANN going to adopt a uniform policy for the deletion of expired domains? Currently each registrar can do what they want, including just keeping their customer's expired domains.

The Expired Domain Deletion Policy (EDDP) is a consensus policy that revised the domain registration expiration provisions in ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement in December 2004 (see http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/eddp.htm). EDDP defines a uniform deletes practice that registrars must follow at the time of domain name expiry. In selecting a registrar, registrants should read their registration agreement and consider the registrar's deletion policy.

With the EDDP, all ICANN-accredited registrars are required to delete domain names by the conclusion of the 45 day auto-renewal period, unless the registrant has consented to have the registration renewed. The ICANN Compliance Department investigates all complaints received with regard to non-compliance with the EDDP.

The ALAC requested that the GNSO generate an Issues Report on registrants being able to recover domain names after their formal expiration date. The GNSO Council has reviewed that report (see http://gnso.icann.org/issues/post-expiration-recovery/report-05dec08.pdf) and is now working on a charter for a Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group to address these issues. Any further policy to address such issues would have to be developed through the GNSO policy development process.

Mexico, Sydney, Seoul. Evaluate the impact of our behaviour. When are we going to start with less meetings or hubs as to lower the negative climate impact of our traveling.

A recent review of the approach ICANN takes to meetings asked the community to consider a move from three meetings a year to two. Some of these issues are still being considered.

See full details of the comment period here: http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/public-comment-200807.html#meeting-consultation-2008

What statistical data, by country, does ICANN have regarding the consequences the fast-flux current has and the participation of attorneys has to this respect?
How is possible to collaborate? [¿qué datos estadísticos por país tiene ICANN con respecto a las consecuencias que actualmente tiene el fast-flux y la participación de abogados al respecto? - ¿cómo colaborar al respecto? ]

Fast flux hosting refers to techniques used by cybercriminals to evade detection by rapidly modifying IP addresses and/or name servers. The GNSO is exploring appropriate action. More information on the community's efforts in this area can be found at http://forum.icann.org/lists/gnso-ff-pdp-may08/ and http://gnso.icann.org/meetings/mexico-ff-mar09.htm.

ICANN has been active on IPv6 for some years. Nevertheless, could ICANN do even more to support public awareness about IPv4 address depletion?

ICANN works with organisations in a number of different areas to make sure that there is a good understanding that the IPv4 address space will be fully allocated in about two years and the need for IPv6 deployment. This work includes partnerships with the Regional Internet Registries, Network Operators’ Groups, the IETF, ISOC, the IPv6 Forum, business organisations, governments, regulators, TLD registries, registrars and others. We have also produced a fact sheet and other materials for the media.

If the internet is a global media, why is limited by the language barrier? if I want business information about China in Spanish, there is no source of information online.

ICANN has a limited technical remit for dealing with the Internet's naming and addressing systems. It is not within ICANN's power or purview to address content of any type on the Internet.

Is there any plan to improve fellowship program and make it really open and no restrictive to some communities? It lacks a real representativity.

We are sorry you feel that the fellowship is not representative. We go to great lengths to ensure that the program is open and inclusive, provided that the applicant has met the requirements noted at http://www.icann.org/en/fellowships/ . To date, 140 participants have been provided fellowships and within that group, 5 different sectors (business, academia, civil society and private sector, cctld community and government) from 70 countries have been represented.