Phil,
I wanted to get your proposal onto the correct list, with a
relevant title, and adding my support. The BC should make a statement on
this, for the reasons you mention. I think your draft is a good first
draft for further comment of members, as I’ve revised it below. If
no members object, then it could be submitted by the comment deadline as a BC
comment. Or it can be revised and submitted based upon any friendly
amendments offered to it in the meanwhile.
Thanks,
Mike
From: Phil Corwin
[mailto:pcorwin@butera-andrews.com]
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 7:55 AM
To: Marilyn Cade; bcprivate
Subject: RE: Informational: update from Oct. 12: Transcripts and MP3
recording update - 12 October /reminder that BC election for Councilor and
V.Chair, Operations and Finance will open soon/
There is a pending request for comment regarding the application of
the Arab Center for Domain Name Dispute Resolution (ACDR) to become a
certified UDRP arbitration provider. ACDR is located in Amman,
Jordan; The comment period closes on October 28th.
The BC opposes approval of this application at this time on the
grounds that no new UDRP providers should be accredited until ICANN
implements a standard contract with all accredited providers or finds some
other mechanism for establishing uniform rules and procedures and flexible
means of delineating and enforcing arbitration provider responsibilities.
It makes no sense to require that domains be registered or renewed
via ICANN-accredited registrars who are under a standard contract (the RAA) but
then provide that registrants can have domains
transferred away through a process administered by an organization that
has been granted this power by ICANN -- yet is under no contract that
defines its practices and procedures, is not subject to any regular or
standardized review by ICANN, and for which ICANN's
only disciplinary tool is accreditation revocation (so extreme a sanction
that it is unlikely to ever be used).
The Business Constituency suggests that
ICANN implement a contractual relationship that defines and constrains this grant
of power, and provides flexible and effective enforcement
mechanisms, because that delegated power can extinguish
substantial monetary investment and goodwill in a domain. Granting
this kind of power absent any restraints is not an accountable practice.
We appear to be transitioning from a DNS that featured
an effective duopoly of UDRP providers (WIPO and NAF) and in
which all significant gTLDs were based in the developed world -- to
one in which the majority of gTLDs and UDRP providers may well
be headquartered in nontraditional jurisdictions. Business
interests may well be investing substantial amounts in these new gTLDs, for
both defensive and new branding purposes. In this
type of environment it is even more important that a proliferating cast
of UDRP providers be subject to uniform and enforceable responsibilities,
as that is the only means of furthering the goal
that UDRP decisions are consistent within and among UDRP providers,
and that the UDRP remains an expedited and lower cost means of addressing
cybersquatting.
In closing, we note that this issue
of whether UDRP providers should be under standard contract with ICANN
is almost entirely separable from the question of whether the UDRP
evaluation standards for determining the existence
of cybersquatting should be reformed. There is
no need to debate the substantive elements of the UDRP in order to
address the fundamental issue of whether UDRP providers should be under
standardized contract.
Regards to all,
Philip
Philip S. Corwin
Partner
Butera & Andrews
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Suite 500
Washington, DC 20004
202-347-6875 (office)
202-347-6876 (fax)
202-255-6172 (cell)
"Luck is the residue of design." -- Branch Rickey
From: Marilyn
Cade [marilynscade@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 9:07 AM
To: bcprivate
Subject: Informational: update from Oct. 12: Transcripts and MP3
recording update - 12 October /reminder that BC election for Councilor and
V.Chair, Operations and Finance will open soon/
Thanks
again to all BC members for your participation in the full series of sessions
and events October 12.
Yesterday's
meetings were a combination of CSG working session; informational
roundtables with special guests, including ICANN, and a BC members policy
forum/meeting.
The
purpose of this email is to provide a brief and very high level update from
yesterday's meeting on a few of those items.
A
more detailed "next steps" summary is under development by the
officers and others who took work item assignments and should be
sent out by Monday. You should also expect to receive the PPs
from the speakers as they are gathered.
It
will be a busy time between now and Cartegena. We will try to manage the email
notices to you by having clear subject headings, so that you know whether an email
requires action, or is for information/action, or is informational only. This
email is informational.
To
recap:
CSG Charter
drafting will continue and draft will be circulated. A vote by members on a
final draft will be scheduled for November, to meet a Board deadline.
Sarah
Deutsch is the lead as our CSG rep. A small drafting group supports her
from BC: Marilyn Cade, Ron Andruff and Philip Sheppard. Other members are
from the other two CSG constituencies.
During the call, members did discuss other ways to improve
communications [discussion of a more formalized 'newsletter style approach] and
move to a more frequent members calls. Steve Delbianco, our V.Chair, Policy
Coordination, will be advising on a priorty topical approach for the policy
topics for monthly members calls. We also discussed launching a few 'working
group' approaches on key issues, where the BC can provide strategic leadership.
Stay tuned for more news on that front.
We
discussed a newsletter approach, and other changes in communications support
tools; heard an update on finances, and membership; discussed other
administrative functions updates, including announcing the Finance Committee
members: Jon Nevett and Anders Halverson, and heard a report on options to
manage the banking account and administrative support. Outcomes will be
summarized in thee follow up report.
Other
actions that need your involvement will be announced shortly, including opening
our elections for Councilor - 2 year term and V.Chair, Operations and Finance
-- completion of term for this year.
We
will have separate working sessions on Charter development. The present small
group of volunteers for working further on the BC Charter are Marilyn Cade,
Chris Chaplow, Steve DelBianco, Sarah Deutsch, Philip Sheppard, Ron Andruff,
and Mikey O'Connor. As we have worked with the Charter, we have identified
some gaps that need addressing, along with changes coming from GNSO
Improvements recommendations. A staff developed topical outline was presented
on our call and we will continue to utilize staff support and consultation to
advance further drafting/discussions re both the CSG charter and BC
Charter. If anyone else wants to join this small working group, please so
advise off list to Sarah Deutsch and myself by email. A couple of working calls
will be scheduled over the next weeks to get a draft document with the proposed
edits/clarifications.
In the meantime, I will continue to provide the MP3 and
transcripts from Oct. 12 as they arrive.
there are three MP3s from yesterday's call.
CSG charter
discussion
Roundtables/Dialogue
with Kurt Pritz, ICANN
BC Members Forum/Meeting
Summary of distribution of MP3 and Transcripts:
MP3 sent on Oct. 12. .
This email includes the CSG Transcript.
The
Roundtables MP3 has not yet been received, however, I do have the BC
call/MP3.
Transcripts
for both these sessions will be available much later today, or tomorrow and
will be posted then.
http://audio.icann.org/gnso/gnso-bc-20101012-en.mp3
Apologies
for any gaps due to acoustical challenges in capturing particular speakers,
but
they are still a very good resource to all. The PowerPoints from the
second Roundtable, Kurt Pritz discussion, and the BC officers
and ICANN staff Charter overview will be posted separately.
Special
thanks to ICANN for supporting the remote participation and
providing ICANN staff and the Chair of the SSAC [and ICANN Board
member] Steve Crocker have been extended.