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RE: [council] Proposed 2013 RAA Posted for Comment


Volker,

 

You will have seen Jeff?s suggestion to discuss this at the Council meeting
on Thurs.

 

I expect that we will hear from you on the topic.  I have asked Jeff to lead
but please free to discuss with Jeff and even to consider leading the topic
yourself.

Especially important (from a Council perspective) is your view on the impact
on ICANN policy making processes / the multi-stakeholder model.

 

Thanks,

 

 

 

Jonathan

 

From: owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Volker Greimann
Sent: 08 March 2013 14:10
Cc: council@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx List
Subject: Re: [council] Proposed 2013 RAA Posted for Comment

 

To complete the set of documents, I am fowarding the  statement of the RrSG
Negotiation Team on the current state of the negotiations.
Please note that the proposal currently envisioned by ICANN will effectively
move the policy development process from the GNSO to the board.
Most of the still contentious areas of the agreement are additions ICANN
staff made this February after having let the negotiations languish in
pause-mode for three months after the Toronto meeting and contain items that
were never discussed with the registrar negotiation team since first
proposed, due to other "matters of higher urgency".
This agreement is a portent of things to come and of a move away from the
multi-stakeholder model to a top-down structure.


Registrar Stakeholder Group Negotiating Team (Registrar NT) statement
regarding RAA negotiations

After nearly 18 months of negotiations with ICANN over a new Registrar 
Accreditation Agreement (RAA), formal negotiations have concluded. The
posting 
of a ?proposed? 2013 RAA by ICANN for public comment signals that ICANN
staff 
believes that negotiations have concluded and the remaining issues will not
be 
resolved. 
 
The Registrars? NT disagrees. To be clear, this is NOT the outcome that 
registrars wanted, and they remain ready and willing to continue
negotiations.
 
Prior to the Toronto ICANN meeting (October 2012), all parties acknowledged 
that they were very close to agreement on all remaining issues.  The process

appeared to be reaching a favorable conclusion and when ICANN CEO Fadi
Chehadé 
communicated his desire to have RAA negotiations wrapped up by the end of
2012, 
registrars felt it was an ambitious timeframe, but one worth pursuing for
the 
benefit of all parties.
 
When negotiations finally resumed in February 2013 much to the surprise of 
registrars, the few remaining issues were not the only items under
discussion. 
ICANN staff presented a list of 10 brand new items for inclusion in the 
agreement, under the pretext of enhancing the ?public interest.?
Furthermore, 
these new items came along with an arbitrary deadline and decision to link
the 
2013 RAA to the new gTLD timeline.
 
Among these new demands was a Registrant Rights and Responsibilities
document 
(R3), a temporary privacy accreditation program and a requirement that 
registrars accept and implement recommendations of the WHOIS Expert Working 
Group, which had yet to be formed and whose work is just beginning.
 
Although registrars were surprised by these new demands, registrars worked
in 
good faith with ICANN to accommodate its intentions. For example, registrars

consulted with their members to fine-tune the R3 document to make it easier
to 
understand and readily translatable in other languages.  
 
Some of the other new items for inclusion transcend the RAA and could affect

the entirety of the multi-stakeholder model.  For example, ICANN insisted on

including a proposed Revocation (or ?blow up?) Clause that would have given 
them the ability to unilaterally terminate all registrar accreditations.
After 
major pushback, ICANN staff relented and in its place proposed giving the
ICANN 
Board the ability to unilaterally amend the RAA. This is identical to what 
ICANN inserted into the proposed new gTLD registry agreement?a clause met
with 
strong opposition not only from the Registry Stakeholder Group but from the 
broader ICANN community.
 
The effect of such a clause in the primary agreements between ICANN and its 
commercial stakeholders would be devastating to the bottom-up, 
multi-stakeholder model.  First, it will effectively mean the end of the
GNSO?s 
PDP, as the Board will become the central arena for all controversial
issues, 
not the community. Second, it creates an imbalance of authority in the ICANN

model, with no limits on the scope or frequency of unilateral amendments,
and 
no protections for registrars and more important registrants.
 
In addition to the new items for inclusion there was a surprise announcement

that all new gTLD registries must only use registrars that have signed the
2013 
RAA, a transparent effort by ICANN to arbitrarily link the new gTLD program
to 
the outcome of RAA negotiations. This requirement would create separate 
?classes? or ?levels? of registrars, which is unprecedented in the DNS 
industry.  There can and must be only one meaning of ?ICANN-Accredited.?
 
All of the items that have been agreed to over the past 18 months would, by 
themselves, produce an RAA that is vastly improved over the current 2009 
version. If adopted, that RAA would significantly raise performance 
requirements for every ICANN accredited registrar and bring dramatic 
improvements to the domain name ecosystem. Nearly all of the Law Enforcement

requests that were endorsed by the GAC have been included, as well as the
major 
items that were requested by the GNSO are included in that RAA. That RAA
would 
bring registrant verification. That RAA would bring enhanced compliance
tools.
 
Registrars must emphasize that the key differences between that RAA and the
one 
currently proposed by ICANN are not issues raised by Law Enforcement, GAC or

the GNSO but by ICANN staff. 
 
It now moves to the greater ICANN community to review these competing draft 
RAAs, and registrars look forward to those public discussions.  We welcome 
engagement with all stakeholders on the new 2013 RAA, and what it means for 
registrars, registrants, and the management of the DNS as a whole.


 <https://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/proposed-raa-07mar13-en.htm>
https://www.icann.org/en/news/public-comment/proposed-raa-07mar13-en.htm
Proposed 2013 RAA Posted for Comment


Comment / Reply Periods (*)

Comment Open Date: 

7 March 2013

Comment Close Date: 

28 March 2013 - 23:59 UTC

Reply Open Date: 

29 March 2013

Reply Close Date: 

19 April 2013 - 23:59 UTC

Important Information Links

 <https://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-2-07mar13-en.htm>
Public Comment Announcement

 <mailto:comments-proposed-raa-07mar13@xxxxxxxxx> To Submit Your Comments
(Forum)

 <http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-proposed-raa-07mar13/> View Comments
Submitted

Brief Overview

Originating Organization: 

ICANN

Categories/Tags: 

*       Contracted Party Agreements

Purpose (Brief): 

ICANN is seeking public comments on a Proposed 2013 Registrar Accreditation
Agreement (RAA), particularly on areas where ICANN and the Registrar
Negotiating Team have not been able to reach agreement in principle. This
represents the first time in the nearly 18 months of negotiations that
community comment is formally sought on this document.

Current Status: 

ICANN and the Registrar Negotiating Team commenced negotiation on amendments
to the RAA in October 2011. While the documents posted today show many areas
of agreement, there are differences between the ICANN and Registrar
positions are highlighted. In addition, further discussion is still ongoing
regarding some of the specifications to the agreement.

Next Steps: 

After review of the comment received, the proposed 2013 RAA will be reviewed
to determine if further changes are warranted. In addition, ICANN and the
Registrar NT are likely to continue discussions regarding the areas where
the specifications remain open. The ultimate goal is to have a 2013 RAA
completed and approved in the near future.

Staff Contact: 

Samantha Eisner, Senior Counsel

 
<mailto:samantha.eisner@xxxxxxxxx?subject=More%20information%20on%20the%20Pr
oposed%202013%20RAA%20Posted%20for%20Comment%20public%20comment%20period>
Email Staff Contact

Detailed Information

Section I: Description, Explanation, and Purpose: 

After nearly 18 months of negotiations, ICANN is posting a new version of
the proposed 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) for public
comment.

The Registrar Negotiating Team (NT) has continued to engage in good faith
negotiations to understand ICANN's perspective with respect to the
outstanding issues, and to share the often divergent positions within the
Registrar Stakeholder Group. Recently, additional revisions were proposed by
ICANN's Negotiating Team stemming from the call by ICANN's CEO, Fadi
Chehadé, to work to improve the image of the domain industry and to protect
registrants through a further updated contractual framework. The Registrar
NT considered each of these new issues, and worked towards finding solutions
where appropriate. The RAA posted today reflects hard-fought concessions on
many of key issues raised throughout the negotiations, and highlights issues
remaining in order for the final 2013 RAA agreement to be reached.

Throughout the RAA and its Specifications, there are portions where two
versions of draft text appear side by side. These highlight areas where
ICANN and the Registrars have not been able to reach agreement in principle
on an issue, therefore both positions are provided for comment. Unless
otherwise noted, the remainder of the document reflects agreements in
principle among ICANN and the Registrar NT.

A fuller discussion of the status of negotiations and areas of difference is
available in
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/memo-07mar13-en.pdf>
ICANN's RAA Posting Memorandum [PDF, 66 KB].

Section II: Background: 

The current round of negotiations over the RAA began in October 2011. ICANN
and the Registrar Negotiation Team have presented updates to the community
at each of ICANN's public meetings since that time. Information on the
history of the negotiations, including previously released documentation, is
available at the community wiki at
<https://community.icann.org/display/RAA/Negotiations+Between+ICANN+and+Regi
strars+to+Amend+the+Registrar+Accreditation+Agreement>
https://community.icann.org/display/RAA/Negotiations+Between+ICANN+and+Regis
trars+to+Amend+the+Registrar+Accreditation+Agreement. This includes the
group of documents posted in June 2012, which demonstrated the progress to
date in the negotiations.

Section III: Document and Resource Links: 

There are multiple documents for review as part of this posting. The new RAA
is anticipated to be a base document with a series of specifications
attached. This posting includes all documents that are currently anticipated
to be part of the 2013 a. As noted above, a fuller discussion of the status
of negotiations and areas of difference is available in
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/memo-07mar13-en.pdf>
ICANN's RAA Posting Memorandum [PDF, 66 KB].

The base RAA documents:

*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-agreement-07mar1
3-en.pdf> Proposed 2013 RAA, Annotated to Show Differences Between ICANN and
Registrar Positions [PDF, 281 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-agreement-03jun1
2-redline-07mar13-en.pdf> Redline showing changes between Proposed 2013 RAA
and the June 2012 RAA Posting [PDF, 205 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-agreement-2009-r
edline-07mar13-en.pdf> Redline showing changes between Proposed 2013 RAA and
the 2009 RAA [PDF, 259 KB]
*       A
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-agreement-summar
y-changes-07mar13-en.pdf> Summary of Changes from the June 2012 RAA Posting
[PDF, 268 KB] is also available.

The Specifications and Addendums:

For the Consensus and Temporary Policy Specification, the Data Retention
Specification, and the Whois Accuracy Program Specification, each is
available in annotated format to show where differences remain with the
registrars, as well as redlines showing the differences in the documents
from the 2012 posting.

*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-consensus-tempor
ary-policy-07mar13-en.pdf> Proposed Consensus and Temporary Policy
Specification, Annotated to Show Differences Between ICANN and Registrar
Positions [PDF, 121 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-consensus-tempor
ary-policy-redline-07mar13-en.pdf> Redline showing changes between to the
Consensus and Temporary Policy Specification and the June 2012 Version [PDF,
95 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-data-retention-0
7mar13-en.pdf> Proposed Data Retention Specification, Annotated to Show
Differences Between ICANN and Registrar Positions [PDF, 113 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-data-retention-r
edline-07mar13-en.pdf> Redline showing changes between to the Data Retention
Specification and the June 2012 Version [PDF, 118 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-whois-accuracy-0
7mar13-en.pdf> Proposed Whois Accuracy Program Specification, Annotated to
Show Differences Between ICANN and Registrar Positions [PDF, 116 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-whois-accuracy-r
edline-07mar13-en.pdf> Redline showing changes between to the Whois Accuracy
Program Specification and the June 2012 Version [PDF, 142 KB]

For the remaining specifications to the RAA, the versions below are provided
as ICANN's latest proposal. The Registrar Negotiation Team is still
considering each of these specifications:

*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-registrant-right
s-responsibilities-07mar13-en.pdf> Proposed Registrant Rights and
Responsibilities Specification [PDF, 48 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-privacy-proxy-07
mar13-en.pdf> ICANN Proposed Specification on Proxy/Privacy Services [PDF,
70 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-additional-opera
tion-07mar13-en.pdf> ICANN Proposed Additional Registrar Operation
Specification [PDF, 78 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-registrar-inform
ation-07mar13-en.pdf> ICANN Proposed Registrar Information Specification
[PDF, 76 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-whois-07mar13-en
.pdf> ICANN Proposed Whois Specification [PDF, 160 KB]
*       ICANN Proposed Compliance Certificate
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-compliance-certi
ficate-07mar13-en.pdf>  [PDF, 64 KB]
*
<https://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/proposed-transition-adden
dum-07mar13-en.pdf> ICANN Proposed Transition Addendum [PDF, 63 KB]

Section IV: Additional Information: 

None


  _____  


(*) Comments submitted after the posted Close Date/Time are not guaranteed
to be considered in any final summary, analysis, reporting, or
decision-making that takes place once this period lapses.

 

 

Glen de Saint Géry 

GNSO Secretariat 

gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

http://gnso.icann.org

 

 



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