I don't know what the "right" answer is, but the options are not quire as clear-cut as implied. A few comments embedded. At 19/03/2010 10:57 AM, you wrote:
I am thinking that my presence here would merely be bouncing the rubble. I know of situations where the registry also act as registrar even as it appoints registrars. It is often times a size-appropriate response but undeniably, it is a business decision. I cannot see a threat to user interest here and no compelling reason for an intervention.
It is not clear what is meant by "intervention". There is a sort of status quo where cross-ownership is not allowed. Staff suggested moving away from this in DAGv2. The economic study used to at least partially justify it has been faulted by many. Based on community feedback, the proposal was withdrawn in DAGv3.
I believe that the practice of registries choosing who might represent them as registrars not only supportable but also impact-neutral to users. Caribbean ccTLDs, for example, are always courted by registrars wanting to represent us from all over the world. I like the idea that we can decide who we do business with and for that to remain unfettered. Not to make too fine a point of it, ccTLDs - who are variously constituted in the public interest - can decide without being coerced and on their own what their interests ought to be.
For better or worse, being allowed do pick and chose among accredited registrars is counter the GNSO nGTLD recommendation 19 and I do not bleeive that this is on the table at this point.
I'm with Evan on this. The vertical integration issue is a business model among competing business models. So long as the ability remains with users to decide who you do business with, then it does not make a compelling case for outlawing.
There are certainly some cases where elimination of separation is an easy decision. Registries which may only have a small number of second-level domains, or who do not sell them but distribute them without charge seem to fall into this category. And community TLDs may not be able to find any or sufficient registrars who are interested and therefore this could impact their ability to use the domain. Or due to the small market, all registrars could unreasonably mark that low-usage domain up a lot. On the other side, there was a wild out-cry when some registrars started front-running (registering a domain when someone had just done query on it). This practice has largely been eliminated as a unplanned consequence of the domain tasting PDP (front-running used the AGP). If a registrar is wholly owned by a registry (or vice-versa), front-running would again be possible - there would be a charge on the books of the registrar and a credit for the registry, but spanning both organizations, it is revenue-neutral - when registrar X inquires about a domain on behalf of a user, the registry knows, and it's captive registrar can take action. I don't have a clue whether this or other scenarios is actually possible or practical, but it seems to make sense to study the options and try to understand their impacts before setting a course that is irreversible. And that is what the Board resolution combined with the PDP does. Alan
Carlton Samuels ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 1:33 PM, Alan Greenberg <alan.greenberg@mcgill.ca>wrote:
To date, I believe that very few At-Large people have volunteered to join this group. The deadline for volunteering is 22 March.
Note that this is a time-limited PDP and is scheduled to deliver its final report by 20 Jun, so the work will likely be intensive.
The issue could have great impact on new TLDs. The proposal in DAGv2 was to allow a registrar related to (ie some sort of ownership relationship) to distribute up to 100,000 names for the TLD. Presumably in part, this was to address situations where the domain had very limited requirements to sell second level domains (corporate TLDs for example) or to ensure that startup TLDs had some marketing path if registrars were not interested in carrying them.
If you are considering volunteering, please read the Issues Report and Charter pointed to below.
Alan
From: Glen de Saint Géry <Glen@icann.org>
To: 'GNSO Council ' <council@gnso.icann.org> Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2010 04:34:11 -0500 Subject: [council] Revised: Call For Volunteers for the Working Group for the Vertical Integration PDP
Dear All,
The GNSO Council has initiated a policy development process (PDP) on the topic of Vertical Integration between Registrars and Registries. At its 10 March 2010 meeting, the GNSO Council formed a working group to perform the activities of this PDP, and is now seeking volunteers to serve on the working group.
This working group will evaluate and propose policy recommendations for new gTLDs and existing gTLDs on the topic of vertical integration between registries and registrars. The working group expects to define the range of restrictions on vertical separation that are currently in effect, to serve as a baseline to evaluate future proposals. The work will be done an expedited basis, with an expected completion date of 30 June 2010, and will follow the parameters of the charter approved by the GNSO Council for this PDP.
If you would like to participate in this working group as a volunteer, kindly respond by email to <<gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.htm> gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org> by Monday, 22 March. You will need to submit your Statement of Interest in order to serve on this working group. The template for the Statement of Interest is described in the GNSO Working Group Guidelines.
The working group plans to schedule its first meeting during the week of 22-26 March 2010. At that meeting, the first agenda item will be to select the Chair of the working group. The chair is expected to serve his/her duties in a neutral manner, in accordance with the GNSO Working Group guidelines. Please be prepared to nominate and vote an individual to serve as chair for this working group.
For more information on this policy development process, please refer to:
Issues Report on Vertical Integration:
<http://gnso.icann.org/issues/vertical-integration/report-04dec09-en.pdf> http://gnso.icann.org/issues/vertical-integration/report-04dec09-en.pdf
Charter:
<
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/vertical-integration/vi-wg-chartered-objectives...
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/vertical-integration/vi-wg-chartered-objectives...
Working Group Guidelines:
<
http://gnso.icann.org/en/improvements/proposed-working-group-guidelines-05fe...
http://gnso.icann.org/en/improvements/proposed-working-group-guidelines-05fe...
Best Regards,
Glen
Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat <mailto:gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org>gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org
_______________________________________________
At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org
http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large_atlarge-lists.icann...
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org
-- +========+++++++++++++++====== Carlton A Samuels Strategies for Education Technologies and Curriculum Development, Process Engineering & Improvement, ICT Policy, Internet Governance _______________________________________________ At-Large mailing list At-Large@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/at-large_atlarge-lists.icann...
At-Large Official Site: http://atlarge.icann.org