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Re: [registrars] .COOP agreement


Hi Tim and Jonathon,

There is no cause for concern here, on the contrary. The phrase simply states that the sponsor may *seek* exemption form ICANN. At that point, ICANN will proceed as it does now, i.e. publish the request, accept public comment etc. ICANN can deny the request for exemption, thus impose a given consensus policy.

The good thing is therefore that, at least, ICANN must have a good reason to overrule the objections of the TLD sponsor, and it must make its determination objectively specifically in view of the respective TLD.

I conclude that this phrase actually does deserve to be in all sponsored TLD agreements.

Regards,

Werner




Tim Ruiz wrote:
 > I am concerned about this precedent for the future.
No doubt within weeks or even days of this agreement being approved the other sponsored gTLD operators will be requesting the same change. And then the unsponsored operators will follow, claiming unfair competition. Wonder if registrars will be able to ask for a similar provision for policies that don't fit their varied business models?

Tim


    -------- Original Message --------
    Subject: [registrars] .COOP agreement
    From: "Nevett, Jonathon" <jnevett@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
    Date: Mon, May 14, 2007 5:11 pm
    To: "Registrar Constituency" <registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>

    I may be missing something, but it appears to me that the proposed
    .coop registry agreement includes a new provision – not appearing in
    other ICANN sTLD registry agreements (including the recent
    agreements covering .asia, .jobs, .mobi, .tel and .travel) – that
    would permit .coop to seek an exemption from complying with certain
    Consensus Policies with ICANN approval.  The proposed contract is
    silent as to who at ICANN would decide on such exemptions and by
    what criteria.  I’m not sure why .coop should have a special
    exemption with regard to complying with Consensus Policies that more
    recent sTLDs don’t enjoy.  I am concerned about this precedent for
the future. Are others as well? Here is the text of the new provision
    (http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/coop/draft-proposed-agreement-19apr07.pdf):

    “In the event that the Sponsor has a reasonable basis to believe
    that the established Consensus Policy is not relevant, or may
    represent an unreasonable burden to the Sponsored Community, Sponsor
    shall have the right to seek an exemption from ICANN.  If ICANN
    declines the exemption, the Sponsor and ICANN shall utilize the
    process for resolution of disputes set forth in Article 5/.//”
    / Section 3.1(b)(vii)

    I also should note that ICANN’s announcement regarding the proposed
    .coop registry agreement
    (http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-20apr07.htm) states
    that:

    “The proposed .COOP agreement substantially follows the format of
    other recent sTLD registry agreements negotiated by ICANN. The
    agreement is for a ten-year term, and provides for the same set of
    requirements for these key terms:

        * compliance with consensus and temporary policies except to the
          extent policy development has been delegated to the sponsoring
          organization”

    Again, unless I am missing something, this appears to me to be
    inaccurate.

    Thanks.

    Jon



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