[ga] 12 October 2005 ICANN Board Meeting

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Below please find the notes of ICANN Board member
Michael Palage (already posted to the Council list and
to the Registrars list):



I apologize for the delay in posting my normal recap
of the ICANN Board
meeting resolutions.

The following resolution was passed by the ICANN Board
by a majority of
the Board with I believe 2 abstentions and 1 no vote.
I am sure of the 1
no vote that I cast (reason set forth below), the 2
abstentions (Peter
Dengate Thrush and Raimundo Beca). However, I am not
sure of the exact
affirmative votes because there were some directors
that were dropping
in and out of the call during the teleconference
because of connectivity
problems.

RESOLUTION - Approval of Amendment to .NET Registry
Agreement

Whereas, ICANN and VeriSign have entered an agreement
concerning the
operation of the .NET registry effective 1 July 2005.

Whereas, the community of ICANN-accredited registrars,
along with other
members of the ICANN community, have voiced complaints
concerning the
content of the .NET agreement at the Luxembourg
meetings and in postings
thereafter.

Whereas, VeriSign issued a statement during the
Luxembourg meeting
agreeing to renegotiate terms relating to the
wholesale price of names
to registrars and the terms Registry-Registrar
agreement (RRA).

Whereas, ICANN staff has spent several months engaged
in discussions
with VeriSign and the registrars community concerning
appropriate
revisions that could be made to the agreement in an
attempt to address
some of the community concerns.

Whereas, updates on the status of consultations and
negotiations have
been posted to the ICANN website on 9 August 2005 and
22 September 2005.

Whereas, these discussions have led to a proposed
agreement between
VeriSign and ICANN to amend the .NET Registry
Agreement, as posted on
the ICANN website for public comment on 22 September
2005.

Whereas, a public comment forum on the proposed
amendment was opened on
22 September 2005 and closed on 10 October 2005.

Whereas, the Board has reviewed and considered the
five comments that
were submitted to the public comment forum
<http://forum.icann.org/lists/net-amendment-comments>.

Whereas, the Board has determined that entering the
proposed amendment
would be in the best interests of ICANN and the
Internet community.
Resolved (05.___) the Board authorizes the President
and the General
Counsel to enter the proposed amendment to the .NET
Registry Agreement,
and to take such actions as appropriate to implement
the agreement as
amended.

There was a lengthy discussion on this topic (over 1
hour). I provided a
supplementary statement on the record as to why I
opposed the resolution
which will appear in the formal minutes. I do not have
a copy of the
exact wording but from memory I believe it involved
the following. I
thanked the Registrars, VeriSign and Staff for their
negotiations. I
talked about the differing viewpoints regarding volume
discounts within
the registrar constituency. My opinion is that the
final language is the
best possible solution given that it has enough
ambiguity to be
construed in favor of either position.

I also opposed the removal of the registrars ability
to approve the full
allocation charged to them under the RAA, now that the
registry has the
ability to collect 15 cents out of the 25 cent
variable registrar fee
through the registry. I believe this coupled with the
removal of the
registry fee cap that was previously in the .net
contract removes
important contractual safeguards to limit the overall
growth of ICANN.

Similar to how the new registry service process was
incorporated into
the .TRAVEL and .JOBS agreements, I believe this sets
a dangerous
precedent to boot-strap this provision in future
registry contracts and
thus removing the historic role that registrars have
played in approving
the budget. Staff denied that this was an attempt to
boot-strap anything
and that they were actively soliciting the support of
registrars like
last year to approve the budget. I had a different
perspective on this
outreach effort based upon the feedback I have heard
from registrars.

I then advocated delaying the passage of this
resolution for one month
to allow for further discussions. One director then
asked the staff what
would be the down side of waiting a month. The
response to the best of
my recollection was that there was no obligation for
VeriSign to
negotiate in these discussions, and that the
registrars would be
disappointed if we did not implement these agreements
based upon their
hard work.

I will copy those staff that participated on the call
on this email so
that they can clarify or object to any of my
recollections regarding
this discussion.

That being said, I believe that it is of growing
importance for the
whole Board teleconference to be audio recorded for
the community to
understand the depth of discussion taking place on our
calls. I greatly
appreciate the level of questioning that more
directors are asking which
is a very positive sign that they are listening to the
issues. 

In other action items: ICANN appointed a new CFO
Melanie Keller;
appointed Olof Nordling as the branch manager of the
Brussels office;
deferred on the creation of ICANN Board Compensation
Committee until the
Board had further time to review that documentation;
approved the
redelegation of .TK; directed General Counsel to
approve an analysis
regarding the proposed by-law changes from the GNSO;
approved the Board
Governance Committee to move forward with the
selection of the new
Non-Com chair prior to the annual meeting in
Vancouver, this was in an
attempt to start the Nom-Com process earlier in the
year to provide more
time for the review and analysis of candidates. The
staff provided an
update on the status regarding the VeriSign
litigation, however, there
is nothing to report there.

No discussion took place in connection the .xxx and
.asia sTLD
applicants. We also did not get to the GNSO PDP on new
registry services
or the IDN update. 

So that is the quick summary of a three hour marathon
Board Call. I hope
you find this information update informative.

Best regards,

Michael D. Palage



		
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