Hi, On Mon, Apr 11, 2016 at 02:45:21AM +0000, Mueller, Milton L wrote:
I would have to add, however, that even the contractual requirements it imposes on registries are limited by its mission, which is to coordinate the global DNS name space. ICANN could not, I hope you agree, put into a registry contract that the registry operator must steal Andrew Sullivan's fedora whenever he is seen wearing it. Just to use a random example.
I agree with this, but I'd go a little further. Part of the point of restricting this to the root zone and thereby to ICANN and those who have direct contractual relationships with ICANN is to ensure that the contractual relationships are likely to be fit to that purpose. For instance, suppose that the RAA were under renegotiation and someone wanted to add a clause to the effect, "No delegations are allowed below delegations made from names delegated to any registry." I don't have a hard time imagining such a rule proposal, because it'd probably be intended to prevent more so-called "public suffixes" lower in the DNS tree. Yet under the same policy, it would not be possible for it.example.com and jp.example.com and us.example.com to be different delegations (in the DNS sense of the word) to different operating departments of the example.com corporation. I think people would be justifiably outraged, and might even have legal recourse, because this would really be an extra-contractual claim that ICANN was making (i.e. it would be a way of ICANN directly affecting the interests of parties with whom it has no direct agreement). It would certainly be contrary to the limited Mission. The current bylaw language quite clearly says not only that ICANN can make such a rule, but that making rules of this sort is part of ICANN's mission. By restricting the policy making throughout the tree to the contractual relationships ICANN actually has, we stop making this about where in the DNS the name appears and turn it into a normal contractual obligation. This gets away from the notion of ICANN-as-regulator. Best regards, A -- Andrew Sullivan ajs@anvilwalrusden.com