ICANN tinkers on 12 commandments for Registrars

Registrar Stakeholder Group's Negotiating Team Session: RAA Negotiations

FOLLOWING months of negotiations, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the Registrars community, have made significant progress in negotiating the 12 recommendations from law enforcement authorities on improvements to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).

This was disclosed by ICANN president and chief executive officer, Mr. Fadi Chehadé, at the end of the World Communication on Information Technology (WCIT), which ended in Dubia, United Arab Emirate (UAE).

DigitalSENSEBusiness News recalls that in Toronto public meeting in October last year, Mr. Chehadé announced to the community that the changes to the RAA forms key priority for his leadership and assured of focused work on that. Also, while in Toronto, an ambitious schedule was set out for the completion of the RAA negotiations, including the posting of a proposed RAA for public comment before the end of 2012. 

The negotiation teams described the agreements in principle on 11 of the 12 key law enforcement-recommended improvements, including the establishment of an abuse point of contact at each registrar; enhanced requirements to maintain updated information with ICANN; and robust data retention requirements.

The documents posted in advance of the Toronto meeting popularly referred to by industry watchers as 12 commandments reflected the progress made with respect to the amendment topics proposed by the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) and At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC). 

On one of the more complex items within the negotiations – the institution of validation and verification requirements on Whois data submitted by registrants witnessed much progress which was made towards outlining an initial Whois verification process. However, a fundamental area of difference still remains between ICANN and the registrars, and agreement in principle has not been reached on this remaining topic.

ICANN and the registrars have jointly initiated work on the development of a strawman for a Proxy/Privacy Service Provider Accreditation Program. The working team hosted a session on this topic at ICANN’s Public Meeting in Toronto to start soliciting community input into what such a program should encompass.

While much progress has been made on the recommendations provided by law enforcement, the GNSO and the ALAC, additional items remain for ICANN and the registrars to discuss. Both ICANN and the registrars have additional proposed changes which have not yet been negotiated. 

As previously discussed, it has been ICANN’s position that the negotiations on key topics within the law enforcement recommendations need to come to resolution prior to concluding negotiations on these additional areas.

Since the Toronto meeting, the President and CEO, reportedly worked closely with ICANN staff to gain a deeper understanding of the RAA negotiation topics. The substantial amount of work spent on the Trademark Clearinghouse for the New gTLD Program as well as the organizational work to meet the operational excellence goals has pushed the RAA negotiations into December.  While the registrars and ICANN explored potential dates for negotiation in December 2012, both sides have agreed that between holidays, difficult travel schedules and the ICANN Prioritization Draw for New gTLDs, a December meeting is not feasible. 

Therefore, negotiations are expected to resume January 2013, and the anticipated date for publication of a draft RAA from community comments will be up by January 3, 2013, even as ICANN commended registrars for their continued engagement in this negotiation process.

 
Remmy Nweke/DSBNews

... Making SENSE of digital revolution!