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Re: [council] Proposed amendment to BCUC motion


Mike Rodenbaugh wrote:
> Ross, you cannot honestly call this a 'proposed amendment' to our
> motion.  It has nothing to do with our motion.

Shall I assume then that you don't view this as a friendly amendment?

You are proposing that ICANN remove all existing contractual provisions
regarding WHOIS, on the basis that a consensus WHOIS policy has not been
achieved to date.  That is the first time I have ever heard someone
suggest that lack of consensus as to policy to change the status quo,
would lead to elimination of the status quo -- and thus in this matter,
elimination of an open and accessible WHOIS database.  I am quite
surprised to read such a proposal for the first time today, and
surprised that you did not even mention it for discussion on our GNSO
call today, nor in the past 7 years of debate as far as I know.

In reviewing this proposal today, I said that the matter before council is to test consensus on the issue of Whois policy. I was very clear about this when I reviewed this motion on the call today. If council conducts this test and cannot find consensus, how does it stand that the status quo should be the default position? This might benefit your constituency, so I find your reaction understandable, but I don't understand your reasoning that a lack of consensus concerning whois policy means that the unsupported, non-consensus based contractual conditions should continue to prevail.

And for what its worth, I am not the first to advance this reasoning, although I do believe that it is a proper way to proceed in the event that there is no consensus regarding how Whois should be managed and maintained.


I recall you stating at our GNSO Council meeting that kicked off this
WG, that you would see lack of consensus as meaning we carry on with the
status quo.  Apparently your statements were disingenuous or your
thinking has changed dramatically since.

My thinking has changed, yes. My apologies for taking a less than dogmatic approach.

It now seems clear that your
long and hard battling on this issue has been designed to eliminate ANY
cost or obligation among registrars re WHOIS, rather than to mitigate
any 'increased' cost above the status quo, as you have so frequently
argued.

Actually both characterizations are incorrect. My policy object has always been to improve the privacy of individuals as it relates to Whois such that my organization can reasonably defend its business practice to its customers in a meaningful way consistent with Canadian law. There was also a time when I thought that supposed industry leaders might take a similarly enlightened view. Too bad that protecting your trademarks in 14 languages has to take precedent over making the internet a slightly better place, although I understand why a large publicly traded company might get its priorities mixed up once in a while.


These contractual provisions have existed for a very long time, for very
good reasons, and should not be considered for potential elimination
without a PDP designed to analyze that potential outcome.  As far as I
know, it simply has never been proposed or discussed that we would
eliminate WHOIS altogether, so it would be ridiculous for Council to
consider that as an option now.

PDP stands for Policy Development Process. If you'd like to propose that Council undertake a study to understand the implications of enacting, or redacting a policy, your proposal might make some sense. In the meantime, I've made a proposal that council support the elimination of contractual terms for registrars on the basis that there is no consensus policy to support these terms, nor any basis for consensus to be achieved in this area. It also leaves the door open such that if consensus policy on Whois services is developed in the future, than these consensus policies would be implemented just like any other consensus policy (i.e. Transfers, Data Reminder Policy, etc.)

--
Regards,

Ross Rader
Director, Retail Services
Tucows Inc.

http://www.domaindirect.com
t. 416.538.5492



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