Dear Councillors,

 

This is to alert you to an issue that arose following a recent transfer of the .tr ccTLD to a new ccTLD Manager, and the consequences for the ccNSO membership. Included is also a proposed way forward, and a draft resolution to resolve the first concrete issue with respect to the membership.

 

Kindly provide me with your input by the end of Monday, 20 May 2019, 23:59 UTC, in case you do not agree with the proposed resolution under chapter C (see below).

 

  1. The issue

 

On 3 May 2019, the .tr ccTLD was transferred from the Middle East Technical University (METU) to  Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu (BTK). Following the transfer, the ccNSO Secretariat received an application from BTK to become a member of the ccNSO.  However, Middle East Technical University (METU) - is still listed as a member of the ccNSO.

The underlying issue is that, to date, we have no procedure in place to end ccNSO membership following a transfer of the ccTLD, nor does Article 10 of the ICANN Bylaws provide guidance.

 

Note that ccNSO membership is defined as the entity that is listed as ccTLD Manager (originally Sponsoring Organisation) in the IANA Database (IANA TLD delegation record). Unfortunately that definition was amended as a result of the IANA transition.

 

  1. Steps to clean-up ccNSO membership list

 

To ensure that the ccNSO membership only includes ccTLD Managers, membership of entities that no longer are the Manager of a ccTLD needs to be ended and a termination process needs to be developed.  

 

  1. Starting point for such a process is matching the ccNSO Membership with the IANA Database. In practice, a comparison is needed - on a per ccTLD basis - between the entity listed as ccNSO Member and the ccTLD Manager as included in the IANA delegation record.
  2. Once completed, those entities which are currently listed as Members, but are no longer the current ccTLD manager, should be informed and their membership should be ended.

For future cases the secretariat and PTI staff are discussing an internal procedure to ensure the secretariat is kept abreast of transfers.

  1. Finally, the ccNSO Council is strongly advised to document how to end membership of the ccNSO after a transfer of management of the ccTLD and to inform the ccNSO Membership about it.

 

With respect to the documentation under bullet point number 3, there are two options:

 

  1. Without Bylaw change

 

Limited to documenting the procedure, in case of end of membership following a transfer of the ccTLD Manager. One could argue that end of membership is implied, if the membership definition from the Bylaws is no longer met.  See also other sections: for example definition of the membership and other related sections, such as section 10.4 (c )

 

  1. With Bylaw change

 

To provide a sound basis for ending ccNSO membership after a transfer, revocation of management of the ccTLD or retirement of the ccTLD.

 

It is suggested to discuss the proposed steps on the upcoming ccNSO Council call.

 

  1. Draft resolution - online decision

 

Please find below a draft resolution, presented to you for an online decision.  Kindly provide me with your input by the end of Monday, 20 May 2019, 23:59 UTC, in case you do not agree with the proposed resolution.

 

Termination ccNSO membership

 

For decision

End of ccNSO membership of Middle East Technical University (METU), the previous .tr ccTLD manager.

 

Background

Following a recent transfer of the .tr ccTLD to a new TLD manager, there is a discrepancy between the data of the ccTLD manager in the IANA delegation record and the ccTLD manager data as included in the ccNSO member database.

 

Draft Resolution

The ccNSO Council concludes that  the ccNSO  membership of Middle East Technical University (METU) has ended after completion of the transfer process of .tr to Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu (BTK).  , The secretariat is requested to take all necessary steps to inform METU on behalf of Council  about this decision, and to remove references to METU as .tr ccTLD manager from the ccNSO website and membership records, including removing all METU email addresses from the ccNSO mailing lists.

The membership of Bilgi Teknolojileri ve İletişim Kurumu (BTK) is approved and becomes effective after the former manager has been informed by the secretariat.

This resolution becomes effective seven (7) days after publication on the ccNSO Website.

 

  1. Background

 

Please find attached a document (PDF + word: not for publication) with details regarding:

 

 

Best regards,

 

Joke Braeken

ccNSO Policy Advisor 

joke.braeken@icann.org

 

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