Dear BC colleagues After some discussion within the ExComm, I forwarded the following letter to ICANN staff to ask that they study the impact of VeriSign's proposed registry service in .net upon security and stability, rather than just approving it automatically. Please refer to Steve DelBianco's earlier email to the list explaining the proposed service. It was our view that BC members had sufficient questions that more examination is needed. In order to give BC members a chance to learn more about the proposed service and to ask questions of VeriSign, Steve DelBianco, our V.Chair, Policy Coordination, has undertaken organizing of a conference call with Pat Kane, VeriSign. The proposed time for the call is Tuesday, April 20, 11 a.m. EST. The call is solely purposed for discussing this service and will include a short overview of the proposed program by Pat Kane; followed by moderated Q and A. All Members are encouraged to participate. BRIDGE NUMBER WILL BE PROVIDED TO MEMBERS WHO RSVP. To ensure that we have sufficient attendance at that call, I would ask that you rsvp [ off list] to marilynscade@hotmail.com. Apologies to our Asian members -- I realize this is quite late in the evening for you. In the meantime, mark your calendars for the ICANN June meeting in Brussels -- workshops of relevance to BC begin on the Saturday and Sunday; Full meeting June 20-25. Marilyn CadeBC Chair From: marilynscade@hotmail.com To: patrick.jones@icann.org; excomm@bizconst.org CC: pkane@verisign.com Subject: Request regarding VeriSign's proposed registry service Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:56:35 -0400 April 13, 2010 Dear ICANN staff As Chair of the Business Constituency, I am writing regarding VeriSign’s RSEP proposal for its proposed new registry service, “Domain Exchange Service" in the .net TLD. On behalf of the BC executive leadership [ExComm], I request that ICANN Staff make the preliminary determination that this proposal requires further study because it could raise significant issues with regards to security and stability and/or competition. The BC leadership’s concerns are that, although not intended, the proposal may permit resumption of commercial “domain tasting” activities which have been curbed by the AGP Limits policy. In order to determine the implications of such risks, more time and analysis is needed to ensure such service does not pose significant consequences affecting the stability of the domain name system. As we understand the proposed service submitted by VeriSign, the Domain Name Exchange will permit domain name applicants to “repurpose” or exchange a domain name registration that has significant time remaining until expiration. For the price of a single domain name, applicants will be permitted to register at least 12 domain names a year. As an example of the potential volume of the service offering, if an applicant spent a mere $800 to register 100 domain names, this service would permit the applicant to register 1200 different domain names for that initial investment, over the course of a year. On its face, the increased churn of domain names and ability to monetize names for a short period of time appears to raise red flags for increased domain name abuse. The situation regarding harmful and abusive registrations of domain names associated with brands continues to be a significant burden in both costs to trademark holders and to users in terms of fraud and in other abusive uses of such names. As we all remember, after extensive policy debate and work by the ICANN community, ICANN specifically restricted the ability of registrars to register domain names for five days or less under the AGP to deter abusive practices, such as cyber squatting. Despite the closing of this loophole, business owners still face thousands of instances of new infringements today because cyber squatters are willing to pay a relatively low yearly registration fee for the high quality names, including trademarks that drive traffic. Although VeriSign is permitting applicants to register domain names for 30 days rather than 5 days or less and is not offering refunds, (different from the AGP), the proposed service reasonably raises concerns that permitting applicants to register a dozen domain names for the price of a single domain name will invite speculators to game the system and use it for domain name abuse. Certainly, our concern is whether the new service would facilitate abuse. However, in this case, it is also reasonable to ask staff to explore whether VeriSign's new service might be used so excessively that it would cause the same kinds of stability problems. We do understand that VeriSign’s proposal would make changes by modifying the registry record – not by an ‘add/delete’. Nonetheless, further exploration is needed to determine levels of use that could generate stability concerns, whether the use was for tasting or for some new form of domain recycling. We appreciate that VeriSign has described steps that it has taken up front to make their service more "transparent" but many of our members do not believe that the steps they have taken thus far are sufficient. None of the proposed remedies VeriSign lists thus far actually prevent the registration of trademarks or prevent domain name abuse at the front end of the service but appear instead to place the entire burden, administrative costs and enforcement costs on businesses and brand holders to deal with potential abuses. The BC has an extensive list of concerns and questions about the service and its proposed remedies that it would be glad to provide to ICANN separately as it begins its analysis of the proposed service. While the service as currently proposed applies only to .net, we may anticipate that if the current proposal is approved, VeriSign will next seek to extend the service to .com, where the potential for abuse and churn in the domain name system are even more pronounced. Given all these concerns, we urge ICANN to provide sufficient time to study this proposal, its affect on the stability of the domain name system, potential to contribute to abuse, and its potential ramifications for all affected stakeholders and to post the proposal for further public comment. On behalf of the BC Executive Committee Marilyn Cade, BC Chair CC: BC ExComm BC List Pat Kane, VeriSign