Jarrko,
Thank you for laying this out as it is
very helpful to see the process from a brandholder’s perspective. Also
to see the areas you feel need further examination. I would hope that our
fellow BC members might provide some feedback on this and, with that input
included, you might make the same case on the VIWG list.
Thanks again.
RA
Ronald N. Andruff
President
RNA Partners, Inc.
220
+ 1 212 481 2820 ext. 11
From:
owner-bc-gnso@icann.org [mailto:owner-bc-gnso@icann.org] On Behalf Of jarkko.ruuska@nokia.com
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 8:40
AM
To: randruff@rnapartners.com;
bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject: RE: [bc-gnso] BC Position
Statement on Vertical Integration (VI)--single registrant TLDs
Dear all,
I would be hesitant
to use Nokia as an example as there are many other potential .brand applicants
around anyway. But what I can do is to try to describe .brand case as I see it
(with the risk of repeating my previous mails to BC and VIWG lists). I agree
with Ron that some cases that have been on the table are more problematic than
others. That is why I want to put forward only the most clear-cut case. I feel
that once we begin to give/sell names to consumers we are closing the gap
between single and “standard” TLDs and not promoting fair
competition. It also begins to be more difficult to define such TLDs without
opening the flood gates for gaming.
The very basic case
for a .brand TLD would simply be a direct replacement of the current brand.com
second level domain name. No more than that. In some scenarios some names would
be strictly internal and wouldn’t even be shown outside corporate
intranet. The number of names would easily be below 10,000 names even with the
localized names and content. Names are not sold but only used for
internal purposes (web pages, services). No names are even registered to
employees. Basically you could imagine the current brand.com offering to be
moved one level up to .brand top-level-domain. There would be only registrant,
brand itself, hence the Single Registrant designation. And no registrars would
be required to act as “middle men” and .brand could register the
names for itself. All in all it would be a “fully vertically
integrated” TLD.
In my opinion that
should make a very clear case that we should be able to clearly define. The
names would be non-transferable (if the .brand goes out of business, the TLD
would be taken down in a controlled way).
If .brand would like
to start selling names, it would have to conform with the same rules as
everyone else. There would have to be ICANN accredited registrars and so on.
So, in a nutshell
the requirements for Single Registrant TLDs could be as follows:
1)
No
name selling
2)
Single
registrant
3)
Non-transferrable
names
Ron raised a valid
point about giving names to business partners. So, what are limits and
conditions in that? By “giving” I mean giving access, business
partners not being registrants at all. Names could probably be
“given” only to companies in direct relation with the TLD in
question, but I admit we do need more tangible rules than that to make it work.
I guess that covered
my line of thinking, I am happy to answer any questions you might have.
PS. While I feel
that the vertical integration is the single most important issue in the Single
Registrant case there are also other smaller DAG requirements that won’t
make sense for Single Registrants.
1)
ICANN
reporting should be simplified for Single Registrant cases (No need to extended
reporting based on single registrant)
2)
Escrow
requirements could also be relaxed (based non-transferability and single
registrant)
BR,
-jr
JARKKO
RUUSKA
Head of
Internet Domain Initiatives
Compatibility and Industry Collaboration, Tampere, Finland
Nokia Corporation
Tel: +358 50 324 7507
E-Mail: jarkko.ruuska@nokia.com
From: ext Ron Andruff
[mailto:randruff@rnapartners.com]
Sent: 18. toukokuuta 2010 0:20
To: Ruuska Jarkko
(Nokia-CIC/Tampere); bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject: RE: [bc-gnso] BC Position
Statement on Vertical Integration (VI)--single registrant TLDs
Jarrko and all,
Jarrko wrote: <It is generally seen that Single Registrant TLDs can
work if the boundaries are correctly defined.>
One of the most difficult things for the
VI WG is defining what the boundaries would be for a single registrant, so it
would be very helpful if we could use Nokia as a model to work through what
those issues could be. Would you consider putting your potential model
forward so that the VI WG could look at something ‘real’ from a
360-degree perspective? For my part, due to the fact that we have no
examples of how a brand would use their SR TLD, I don’t know what
boundaries are needed and which ones are extraneous…
Jarrko wrote: <brand TLDs
should not be allowed to sell any names outside their internal usage. Names
could probably be allowed to be given to business partners though. The brand
TLD should also be non-transferrable or at least that would require special
permission from ICANN. If the brand owner goes bankrupt TLD would be taken down
in a controlled way and not transferred to anyone else.
>
Even though the basic parameters you note
seem sensible and simple, the devil is in the details as to under what
conditions names would be “given” to business partners as opposed
to being “sold”; up to how many can be given away; for what purpose
can the business partners use those names and what if the brand allows second
level names that are out of ICANN’s perview; etc., etc.
Transferrable or non-transferrable: under what conditions would/could a brand
domain be transferred? What if the brand changes industry as the German
steel company that morphed into a travel business some year ago – how
would that affect its business partners, both past and new? How does ICANN take
down a top-level domain in a controlled way? What does that entail?
What if a business partner has built a significant business around the brand
TLD and doesn’t want to let it go?
These are just a few of the questions that
come to my mind. With more time and more minds focused on this, I am sure
many, many more questions would come to light and all of them would need to be
addressed before ICANN can open that space in the DNS, in my view.
Everything we do in this regard must have a basis upon which ALL brands
could follow…
So, in summary, I am not suggesting that
the BC not support single registrant TLDs; rather I am contending that this is
a topic that perhaps needs a working group of its own to flesh out all of the
pro and con arguments, so that the larger ICANN community can weigh in on a
recommendation that will – without question – have a significant
impact on the DNS going forward should it be agreed by the ICANN community that
brand TLDs are, in fact, necessary for innovation (something I personally
don’t hold any position on at this time).
Unfortunately, the VI issue is like
peeling an onion one layer at a time… For this reason I am
advocating putting the less problematic new TLDs in one queue and the more difficult
ones in queues of their own until such time as various working groups have
sorted through all of the issues that surround them and reported their finding
back to the community. In the meantime, the rollout of non-problematic
TLDs should proceed.
Kind regards,
RA
Ronald N. Andruff
President
RNA Partners, Inc.
220
+ 1 212 481 2820 ext. 11
From:
jarkko.ruuska@nokia.com [mailto:jarkko.ruuska@nokia.com]
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 2:01 PM
To: randruff@rnapartners.com;
bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject: RE: [bc-gnso] BC Position
Statement on Vertical Integration (VI)--single registrant TLDs
Hi Folks,
I haven’t been
overly active in the BC list but I’ve surely been an active follower. I
am also a member of the Vertical Integration Working Group.
To me, as a
representative of a large corporation in BC, it seems rather odd that BC would
not support Single Registrant TLDs.
As a matter of fact
the Single Registrant TLDs or brand TLDs are pretty much the only thing the
VIWG actually is in agreement. It is generally seen that Single Registrant TLDs
can work if the boundaries are correctly defined.
It would be pretty
strange if the one constituency that is supposed to drive the interests of
businesses would oppose Single Registrant TLDs.
The need is there
and the case is pretty simple. Here’s a message I posted earlier to the
VIWG mailing list:
<I think most of us recognize
that brand TLDs should not have to use registrars. It just doesn’t make
any sense for brand TLDs to buy their own internal names from some 3rd party.
As Milton stated the problem is how to define this kind of TLD in way that
prohibits gaming and unfair competition.
The way I see it, the solution is simple. I think brand TLDs should not be
allowed to sell any names outside their internal usage. Names could probably be
allowed to be given to business partners though. The brand TLD should also be
non-transferrable or at least that would require special permission from ICANN.
If the brand owner goes bankrupt TLD would be taken down in a controlled way
and not transferred to anyone else.
In my opinion this approach would satisfy the needs of brand TLDs without
promoting gaming or unfair competitive advantage.>
Just bringing a
potential TLD applicant’s view on the table,
BR,
JARKKO
RUUSKA
Head of
Internet Domain Initiatives
Compatibility and Industry Collaboration, Tampere, Finland
Nokia Corporation
Tel: +358 50 324 7507
E-Mail: jarkko.ruuska@nokia.com
From:
owner-bc-gnso@icann.org [mailto:owner-bc-gnso@icann.org] On Behalf Of ext Ron Andruff
Sent: 17. toukokuuta 2010 18:17
To: bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject: RE: [bc-gnso] BC Position
Statement on Vertical Integration (VI)--single registrant TLDs
Dear
members,
Steve
wrote:
<I am not aware of any BC member (or NetChoice member)
who's planning to apply for their own TLD, but I doubt any would want to
operate their own TLD if arbitrary caps were placed on self-managed
registrations.
I believe the BC is in the best position to argue for
potential needs of single registrant TLDs like those described in these
examples.
Let's acknowledge that single-registrant TLDs would need to
conform with ICANN's contract and consensus policies. It's also
acceptable to require the use of a single accredited registrar, as long as this
registrar can be wholly-owned and controlled by the single registrant
company. But let's argue against arbitrary registration caps
that would force single-registrant TLDs to use all ICANN registrars once those
caps were reached.>
While
Steve's arguments may have merit, as we saw in Jon's and Berry's responses,
there are so many different ways to look at every permutation of
single-registrant TLDs it is clear the entire subject needs considerably more
time to study than the VI WG has vis-à-vis trying to complete its mandate prior
to the start of the application process. For this reason, I noted what
follows below in one of my posts to the VI WG list last week. I share it
here with the members of the BC, because I believe that many members may feel
the same way about this exercise.
Ron
wrote:
<What I see shaping up is a divergence
of thinking that goes in two distinct directions, i.e., those that are more
supportive of VI and those that are more supportive of adhering to the status
quo (maintaining the tried and tested structure that has been in place for the
past decade).
In my view, we need to be realistic about
what we will/will not achieve as a result of this WG and consider promoting the
concept of finalizing an Applicant Guidebook as soon as possible, recognizing
that no matter how hard the community continues to try to refine it, it will
most certainly need some kind of re-tooling after the ‘first round’
or batch of applicants test the systems, as it were. This WG should take
the necessary time to do our work thoroughly without predetermined timelines
forcing the VI WG to compromise on a solution that will not be able to stand
the test of time going forward.
I don’t believe that a delay in
integrating our work product into the AG v2 (or not, should the outcome of our
efforts be a recommendation to maintain the status quo) will harm those applicants
that we are working hard to find solutions for, neither their intended
users. ‘Difficult’ new TLD applicants (e.g., brands, small
communities, etc.) could, and in my view, should, be put in a separate queue
until such time as any and all issues that cloud those applications (such as
VI) have been clarified. All others that are straightforward should be
allowed to get into the queue for immediate processing to allow ICANN to
initiate the application process in 2010.
Holding everything up until the ICANN
community believes we have addressed every issue is a fool’s
errand. Be sure, no matter how hard we try to address every aspect of
this, there will be issues and implications that arise only after the first
batch of new gTLD applications have been processed. What is at stake is
not only the loss of credibility of applicants in the eyes of their
‘communities’, investors and the like, as has been often cited at
open mikes and other for a, but also of ICANN’s credibility as an
institution. For 3+ years ICANN (that is, all of us as part of the
community of ICANN) has been trying to bring new TLDs to market.
Delaying this into 4 and then 5 years while we try to ‘get everything
just right’ serves no one.
Therefore, let’s be sure that the VI
WG does its work in an appropriate way in an appropriate time frame and NOT
link anything we are doing to the initiation of new TLD applications.>
Your
comments on this direction are most welcome. I would be happy to take
them back to the VI WG list, as appropriate.
Kind
regards,
RA
Ronald
N. Andruff
President
RNA
Partners, Inc.
220
Fifth Avenue
New
York, New York 10001
+
1 212 481 2820 ext. 11
-----Original
Message-----
From: owner-bc-gnso@icann.org [mailto:owner-bc-gnso@icann.org] On Behalf Of
berrycobb@infinityportals.com
Sent: Monday, May 17, 2010 8:57 AM
To: bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject: RE: [bc-gnso] BC Position Statement on Vertical Integration
(VI)--single registrant TLDs
Philip,
Thank
you for your response. I support your statement that we as BC
members
must advocate for commercial users. Just to be clear, the
intent
of my example is not in support of a Registry, but more about
the
market in general. I want to see each approved TLD succeed in the
market,
because that is ultimately the best for consumers. The last
thing
I want to support are policies that create unfair market
conditions
whereby a TLD fails and closes shop. Failing TLDs will
create
uncertainty and disruptions for other consumers and business
users
of that TLD.
Further,
I will state that I have not finalized my opinions WRT to the
concept
of Single Registrant TLDs, as there are many other
characteristics
to consider in the whole. Single Registrant Single
User(SRSU)
vs. Single Registrant Multiple User(SRMU) has been
discussed
a fair amount by not exhaustively.
I
appreciate the dialog.....lets keep the momentum going! Thank you.
Berry
Cobb
Infinity
Portals LLC
http://www.infinityportals.com
866.921.8891
-----Original
Message-----
From:
owner-bc-gnso@icann.org [mailto:owner-bc-gnso@icann.org] On
Behalf
Of Philip Sheppard
Sent:
Monday, May 17, 2010 12:35 AM
To:
bc-gnso@icann.org
Subject:
RE: [bc-gnso] BC Position Statement on Vertical Integration
(VI)--
single registrant TLDs
I
too agree on case 1 and understand the complexity with the other cases.
My
default in such cases is that unless one can be watertight in the
definition,
then
erring on the side of caution is probably better.
However,
as BC members we need to think what is the best model for commercial
users,
not what is best for one registry or other.
So
I'm not very sympathetic to the fate of the dot.social registry !!
Philip