January 2007 - council - lists.icann.org

[Fwd: [Fwd: [NCUC-DISCUSS] Recent Actions By Go Daddy]]
by GNSO.SECRETARIAT＠GNSO.ICANN.ORG Jan. 29, 2007

Jan. 29, 2007

The Chair of the NCUC has asked that the mail below be circulated on the Council list. Thank you. Glen -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [NCUC-DISCUSS] Recent Actions By Go Daddy Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 10:53:30 -0500 I would like to draw attention to the recent actions of the Go Daddy registrar in its decision to pull a .org domain name at the request of social networking site myspace.com because a third party had placed on the site a list of passwords and accounts of myspace users. http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6153607.html This strikes me as a serious abuse of power by a registrar, and should alarm the users of this constituency. If registrars can exercise such unrestrained authority over registrants, then no controversial speaker is safe. If there is not already a procedure for addressing this, I would strongly urge this constituency to take appropriate action. Harold Feld -- Carlos A. Afonso diretor de planejamento Rits - Rede de Informações para o Terceiro Setor *************************************************************** Projeto Sacix - Apoio técnico a iniciativas de inclusão digital com software livre, mantido pela Rits em colaboração com o Coletivo Digital. Para mais informações: www.sacix.org.br www.rits.org.br www.coletivodigital.org.br *************************************************************** -- Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org

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Revised outline of work for the working group on rights protection mechanisms
by Ute Decker Jan. 25, 2007

Jan. 25, 2007

As a follow up to the last Council call and in preparation for the upcoming call on 1 February, please find attached the revised outline of work for the working group on rights protection mechanisms (previously 'sunrise working group'). The revised outline aims to implement the comments, material, and input we received since the circulation of the initial draft, including the results of the last Council call. [... apologies for any remaining formatting issues ...] Best wishes Ute + Kristina Ute Decker Deputy Director - Global Legal Policy IFPI London - representing the recording industry worldwide 54 Regent Street W1B 5RE London UK fon: +44 (0)20 7878 7954 fax: +44 (0)20 7878 6832 Email: ute.decker(a)ifpi.org <mailto:ute.decker@ifpi.org> Website: www.ifpi.org <http://www.ifpi.org>

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GNSO Council: REVISED draft minutes 18 January 2007
by GNSO.SECRETARIAT＠GNSO.ICANN.ORG Jan. 24, 2007

Jan. 24, 2007

[council[at]gnso.icann.org] Dear Council Members, Please find the revised draft minutes of the GNSO Council teleconference held on 18 January 2007. The modifications are as follows: - Bruce Tonkin proposed that the language of the timelines could be modified after the current meeting, the concept being that the working group would complete its work one week prior to the ICANN meetings in Lisbon, that is, by 16 March 2007, but the Council may request some follow up work TO BE COMPLETED within 30 days AFTER THE LISBON MEETINGS." - Decision 2: The GNSO Council approved the Statement of Work for the Working Group on Reserved Names (WG-RN) with the modification in the timeline as proposed by Bruce Tonkin - 3. Working Timeline The Working Group is asked to convene at the earliest possible time and to achieve the following targets: 1. Progress report in the upcoming intercessional working sessions of Dec05 PDP committee and the Feb06 PDP task force, scheduled for February 22-25 2. Complete its work and deliver written recommendations for next steps to the GNSO Council at least one week prior to the start of the Lisbon ICANN meetings 3. Respond to any follow-up actions requested by the Council within 30 days after the Lisbon meetings. Please let me know if you would like any other changes made. Thank you very much. Kind regards, Glen .......................................................................... 18 January 2007 Proposed agenda and relevant documents List of attendees: Philip Sheppard - Commercial & Business Users C. - absent - apologies Marilyn Cade - Commercial & Business Users C. Alistair Dixon - Commercial & Business Users C Greg Ruth - ISCPC Antonio Harris - ISCPC - absent - apologies Tony Holmes - ISCPC - absent Thomas Keller- Registrars Ross Rader - Registrars Bruce Tonkin - Registrars Chuck Gomes - gTLD registries Edmon Chung - gTLD registries Cary Karp - gTLD registries Kristina Rosette - Intellectual Property Interests C Ute Decker - Intellectual Property Interests C Kiyoshi Tsuru - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent Robin Gross - NCUC. Norbert Klein - NCUC. - absent Mawaki Chango - NCUC Sophia Bekele - Nominating Committee appointee - absent - apology received after meeting Jon Bing - Nominating Committee appointee Avri Doria - Nominating Committee appointee 15 Council Members (21 Votes - quorum) ICANN Staff John Jeffrey - General Counsel Sue Jonklaas - Regional Business Advisor, Asia-Pacific, General Counsel Denise Michel - Vice President, Policy Development Olof Nordling - Manager, Policy Development Coordination Kurt Pritz - Senior Vice President, Services Liz Williams - Senior Policy Counselor Maria Farrell - GNSO Policy Officer Craig Schwartz - Chief gTLD Registry Liaison Glen de Saint Géry - GNSO Secretariat Rita Rodin - ICANN Board member GNSO Council Liaisons Suzanne Sene - GAC Liaison - absent - apologies Alan Greenberg - ALAC Liaison - absent Quorum present at 19:05 UTC. MP3 Recording Bruce Tonkin chaired this meeting Approval of the agenda Item 1: Update any statements of interest No updates Item 2: Approval of the GNSO Council minutes of 6 December 2006 Avri Doria moved the adoption of the GNSO Council minutes of 6 December 2006. Abstentions were noted from Council members who were not yet on the Council on 6 December 2006: Jon Bing, Chuck Gomes, Edmon Chung. Motion approved. Approval of the GNSO Council minutes of 21 December 2006 Avri Doria moved the adoption of the GNSO Council minutes of 21 December 2006. Abstentions were noted from Mawaki Chango. Motion approved. Decision 1: The minutes of the GNSO Council meetings on 6 December 2006 and 21 December 2006 were adopted. Item 3: Correspondence Bruce Tonkin mentioned that there had been correspondence from Chris Disspain, the chair of the ccNSO notifying that the ccNSO and GAC were forming a joint working group to work on ccTLD IDNs, and requested a representative from the GNSO. This request has been forwarded to the GNSO’s IDN Working group for action. Item 4: PDP on new gTLDs work - Proposal to form a GNSO working group to review the creation of a reserved words list for the top level and update the list for the second level for gTLDs (use: http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/jobs/appendix-6-05may05.htm -- Marilyn Cade and Chuck Gomes to draft terms of reference for consideration Chuck Gomes presented the draft Statement of Work - Version 2 for the Working Group on Reserved Names (WG-RN) I. Formation of the Working Group The Working Group (WG) is chartered by the GNSO Council with an approved statement of work, as defined below. This Statement of Work is intended to guide the work of the group. 1. Voting: In general, the working group should operate using a rough consensus approach. Every effort should be made to arrive at positions that most or all of the group members are willing to support. "Straw poll voting" should be used to determine whether there is rough consensus on particular issues. In order to ensure that each constituency does not have to provide the same number of members, constituencies, regardless of number of representatives, can hold 3 votes, and each individual nominating committee councilor hold one vote. Liaisons are non voting. 2. Membership The Working Group is open for membership to Councilors and to GNSO Constituency members; advisory committees (e.g., ALAC, GAC) may appoint non-voting liaisons to the working group. Members may be added by the constituencies and the Advisory groups at any time during the work of the WG. The ccNSO could be invited to have representatives participate as observers because there may be implications for the treatment of the two letter country codes, which are presently reserved at all levels. The WG may invite external experts as speakers or advisors (in the role of observer) that may be able to constructively contribute to the effort. Every effort should be made to ensure that the working group include and consider the varying points of view on key issues. It is more important that all varying points of view are examined and reflected than for every constituency or group to have representation or equal numbers of members. If this goal is achieved and recommendations are developed that have rough consensus of the group, then the full Council, with balanced representation from all constituencies and NomCom appointees, will then have opportunity to act. Members should be selected who can commit sufficient time during the next three-four months to facilitate achievement of the targeted accomplishments describe in the next section (Working Timeline). The Council will appoint an initial or interim chair [or co-chairs] and the Working Group should, at its initial meeting, elect or confirm the chair and co-chair(s). 3. Working Timeline The Working Group is asked to convene at the earliest possible time and to achieve the following targets: 1. Progress report in the upcoming intercessional working sessions of Dec05 PDP committee and the Feb06 PDP task force, scheduled for February 22-25 2. Deliver written recommendations for next steps forward to the GNSO Council at least one week prior to the start of the Lisbon ICANN meetings 3. Provide any follow-up actions requested by the Council within 30 days after the Lisbon meetings. As appropriate, the Working Group should coordinate throughout with the Dec05 PDP Committee, the Feb06 PDP Task Force and the GNSO Council. II. Purpose of the Working Group The purpose of the WG will be to perform an initial examination of the role and treatment of reserved domain names at the first and second level., with the goal of providing recommendations for further consideration by the TF or Council. This working group should focus initially on defining the role of reserved strings, and how to proceed with a full examination of issues and possible policy recommendations. This will include prioritizing sub-elements of the broad topic of reserved names in a manner that would facilitate breaking the broad topic into smaller parts that could then be divided into separate policy efforts of a more manageable size and that might also allow some less complicated issues to be resolved in a more timely manner so that some policy changes might be included in the introduction of new gTLDs. The treatment of reserved names is a matter of contract for existing gTLDs and will be a matter of contract for future gTLDs. As such it relates to the work of both the Dec05 PDP regarding the Introduction of New gTLDs including IDNs and the Feb06 PDP regarding Contractual Conditions for Existing Registries, Therefore the WG needs to provide an initial examination of reserved names at both the top and second level for both existing and new gTLDs. Should it be determined that the ToR for Feb 06 does not allow for addressing contractual conditions, the WG report to the Council regarding relevant recommendations. III. Working Group Responsibilities, Tasks and Proposed Working Approach A. To perform its initial examination of the role and treatment of reserved domain names at the first (top) level, WG responsibilities and tasks should include but need not be limited to the following: 1. Review the present treatment and process for reservation of names at all levels (using Appendix 6 in the latest gTLD Registry Agreements as examples), including reviewing treatment of reserved names that may differ in existing contracts - link provided in Background Section 2. Review any other discussions to date that have occurred related to reserved names for top level strings for new gTLDs including IDN gTLDs (e.g., the GNSO's Task Force on new gTLDs; constituency comments, etc.) 3. Review any ICANN staff reports related to reserved names - see Background Section 4. Review any relevant technical documents ,e.g., relevant RFCs -see Background Section and determine what technical outreach (IETF, IAB, SSAC,etc.) is needed and complete. 5. Liaise with the ICANN staff as needed, including legal and operational, to identify and review any existing work or relevant experiences related to reserved names processes and procedures 6. Liaise with the ccNSO and the ccTLD community in general as needed regarding the two letter names issues, including whether the present approach, as outlined in Appendix 6, is sufficient or necessary B. Proposed Working Approach for Working Group: 1. Initially, examine the sub-elements of the broad topic of reserved names to consider breaking the broad topic into smaller parts 2. Estimate the complexity of issues associated with each of the sub-elements and briefly describe the elements of complexity (e.g., more controversial issues involving multiple stakeholder groups with competing views might be rated more complex; consultation with the GAC might be rated as more complex; etc.) 3. Prioritize the sub-elements according to these two factors: a. Estimated level of complexity (less complex to higher) b. Importance/relevance to complete any future policy work prior to the introduction of new gTLDs c. Other {to be developed} 4. Identify any sub-elements for which any needed policy work may be able to be completed in time for the introduction of new gTLDs and develop recommendations about how that might best be accomplished/launch development of recommendations 5. Identify the remaining sub elements and establish a working plan to address these, including considering parallel work tracks, if feasible and resources permit, versus sequential work. 6. Prepare and submit an interim report to the relevant PDP group and/or the Council so that any additional policy work needed could be started as soon as possible referencing the Time Line provided by the Council 7. Prepare and submit a final report regarding all of the above for both PDP groups and the Council upon conclusion of work.. Regular progress reports should be provided for both PDP groups and the Council corresponding to scheduled meetings of those groups and the Council. IV. Example of Topics for Reserved Names This section provides an example of a work plan outline for the work of the Working Group. It is provided as an initial resource for potential use by the Working Group and to attempt to help to launch the Working Group quickly, due to the pressures of time limitations. It is not intended to be comprehensive nor prescriptive. It should be assumed that the work will need to ask the question of how reserved names apply to IDNs at both second and first levels, as well as Latin character gTLDs. 1. Identify possible roles and purposes for reserved names at the top level and review and examine those roles and purposes, including how to address the role of reserved names in IDNs 2. Identify and develop proposals to address any policy issues that should be or are under consideration by the existing GNSO PDPs regarding policy considerations related to the role, use, reservation, and release and allocation of reserved names at the top and second level 3. Determine: a. The various roles that reserved names may play in new gTLDs in addressing controversial categories of names, including whether trademark names and country/geopolitical names should have initial or permanent reserved status; etc. b. Whether existing reserved names at the second level should automatically be included at the first level or c. Whether there is different treatment proposed for existing reserved names at the second level, in the first level d. Whether reserved name requirements need to be the same for all gTLDs and, if not, which ones might vary e. Whether there should be a procedure by which staff publishes new categories of reserved names before adding them to registry agreements 4. Discuss and review processes by which names could be put into reserved status at the top level 5. Discuss and propose processes by which names can be unreserved at the top level and made available for allocation, including discussion of whether there are unique treatments in allocation for names that are reserved 6. Discuss whether and how categories of names can be unreserved and allocated at the second level from the existing categories, including second level reservations in single character[1] and two character labels, and reservations for geographic and geopolitical names, to include examination of any existing technical concerns 7. Reconfirm whether there should be a process by which new names or categories are added to the reserved status in the second level (e.g., should we assume that all new strings allocated for operation as registries are reserved at the second level when they are awarded?) Background Materials and Relevant Initiatives to take into account: Background: 1) Existing Registry Agreements Reserved Names (Annex 6 and other examples) http://www.icann.org/registries/agreements.htm 2) Relevant RFCs which discuss reserved names http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt http://www.ietf.org/rfc./rfc2141.txt http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3491.txt 3) Status report on single letter names - to be provided Relevant Initiatives: (1) PDP 05: developing policy recommendations on new gTLDs, as part of a policy development process called PDP-Dec05. http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/ (2) PDP 06 [need link] (3) IDN Working Group http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/idn-tlds/issues-report-02aug06.htm Attachment 1: Additional considerations: For a policy issue to warrant a policy development process it must Meet the following criteria: (A) Is within the scope of ICANN's mission statement; (B) is broadly applicable to multiple situations or organizations; (C) is likely to have lasting value or applicability, albeit with the need for occasional updates; (D) Will establish a guide or framework for future decision-making; or (E) Implicates or affects an existing ICANN policy. Bruce Tonkin commented that the use of a working group could lead to a faster policy development process, in that it was a short term approach to identify agreement on certain issues, which could help the Council decide whether or not a PDP process was likely to be successful. The statement of work could be looked upon as an initial issues report. In the context of new gTLDs it is what happens at both the top level and the second level of new gTLDs. In the evolution of gTLDs there were originally very few reserved words at the second level of .com/.net/.org, but since then the list for new gTLD operators has grown, and it would be appropriate for the community to discuss the topic, rather than leave it to the discretion of the staff as in previous gTLD selections Bruce Tonkin proposed that the language of the timelines could be modified after the current meeting, the concept being that the working group would complete its work one week prior to the ICANN meetings in Lisbon, that is, by 16 March 2007, but the Council may request some follow up work to be completed within 30 days after the Lisbon meetings. Alistair Dixon, seconded by Chuck Gomes proposed approving the statement of work for the Working Group on Reserved Names with the modification in the timeline as proposed by Bruce Tonkin. The motion passed by vote of acclamation. Ross Rader voted against the motion with the following explanation on record: "For the record, I am not opposed to having a conversation about this topic in order to discover areas of common interest in the community. However, I am not sufficiently convinced that this issue warrants a high enough priority to pursue it at this time." Decision 2: The GNSO Council approved the Statement of Work for the Working Group on Reserved Names (WG-RN) with the modification in the timeline as proposed by Bruce Tonkin I. Formation of the Working Group The Working Group (WG) is chartered by the GNSO Council with an approved statement of work, as defined below. This Statement of Work is intended to guide the work of the group. 1. Voting: In general, the working group should operate using a rough consensus approach. Every effort should be made to arrive at positions that most or all of the group members are willing to support. "Straw poll voting" should be used to determine whether there is rough consensus on particular issues. In order to ensure that each constituency does not have to provide the same number of members, constituencies, regardless of number of representatives, can hold 3 votes, and each individual nominating committee councilor hold one vote. Liaisons are non voting. 2. Membership The Working Group is open for membership to Councilors and to GNSO Constituency members; advisory committees (e.g., ALAC, GAC) may appoint non-voting liaisons to the working group. Members may be added by the constituencies and the Advisory groups at any time during the work of the WG. The ccNSO could be invited to have representatives participate as observers because there may be implications for the treatment of the two letter country codes, which are presently reserved at all levels. The WG may invite external experts as speakers or advisors (in the role of observer) that may be able to constructively contribute to the effort. Every effort should be made to ensure that the working group include and consider the varying points of view on key issues. It is more important that all varying points of view are examined and reflected than for every constituency or group to have representation or equal numbers of members. If this goal is achieved and recommendations are developed that have rough consensus of the group, then the full Council, with balanced representation from all constituencies and NomCom appointees, will then have opportunity to act. Members should be selected who can commit sufficient time during the next three-four months to facilitate achievement of the targeted accomplishments describe in the next section (Working Timeline). The Council will appoint an initial or interim chair [or co-chairs] and the Working Group should, at its initial meeting, elect or confirm the chair and co-chair(s). 3. Working Timeline The Working Group is asked to convene at the earliest possible time and to achieve the following targets: 1. Progress report in the upcoming intercessional working sessions of Dec05 PDP committee and the Feb06 PDP task force, scheduled for February 22-25 2. Complete its work and deliver written recommendations for next steps to the GNSO Council at least one week prior to the start of the Lisbon ICANN meetings 3. Respond to any follow-up actions requested by the Council within 30 days after the Lisbon meetings. As appropriate, the Working Group should coordinate throughout with the Dec05 PDP Committee, the Feb06 PDP Task Force and the GNSO Council. II. Purpose of the Working Group The purpose of the WG will be to perform an initial examination of the role and treatment of reserved domain names at the first and second level., with the goal of providing recommendations for further consideration by the TF or Council. This working group should focus initially on defining the role of reserved strings, and how to proceed with a full examination of issues and possible policy recommendations. This will include prioritizing sub-elements of the broad topic of reserved names in a manner that would facilitate breaking the broad topic into smaller parts that could then be divided into separate policy efforts of a more manageable size and that might also allow some less complicated issues to be resolved in a more timely manner so that some policy changes might be included in the introduction of new gTLDs. The treatment of reserved names is a matter of contract for existing gTLDs and will be a matter of contract for future gTLDs. As such it relates to the work of both the Dec05 PDP regarding the Introduction of New gTLDs including IDNs and the Feb06 PDP regarding Contractual Conditions for Existing Registries, Therefore the WG needs to provide an initial examination of reserved names at both the top and second level for both existing and new gTLDs. Should it be determined that the ToR for Feb 06 does not allow for addressing contractual conditions, the WG report to the Council regarding relevant recommendations. III. Working Group Responsibilities, Tasks and Proposed Working Approach A. To perform its initial examination of the role and treatment of reserved domain names at the first (top) level, WG responsibilities and tasks should include but need not be limited to the following: 1. Review the present treatment and process for reservation of names at all levels (using Appendix 6 in the latest gTLD Registry Agreements as examples), including reviewing treatment of reserved names that may differ in existing contracts - link provided in Background Section 2. Review any other discussions to date that have occurred related to reserved names for top level strings for new gTLDs including IDN gTLDs (e.g., the GNSO's Task Force on new gTLDs; constituency comments, etc.) 3. Review any ICANN staff reports related to reserved names - see Background Section 4. Review any relevant technical documents ,e.g., relevant RFCs -see Background Section and determine what technical outreach (IETF, IAB, SSAC,etc.) is needed and complete. 5. Liaise with the ICANN staff as needed, including legal and operational, to identify and review any existing work or relevant experiences related to reserved names processes and procedures 6. Liaise with the ccNSO and the ccTLD community in general as needed regarding the two letter names issues, including whether the present approach, as outlined in Appendix 6, is sufficient or necessary B. Proposed Working Approach for Working Group: 1. Initially, examine the sub-elements of the broad topic of reserved names to consider breaking the broad topic into smaller parts 2. Estimate the complexity of issues associated with each of the sub-elements and briefly describe the elements of complexity (e.g., more controversial issues involving multiple stakeholder groups with competing views might be rated more complex; consultation with the GAC might be rated as more complex; etc.) 3. Prioritize the sub-elements according to these two factors: a. Estimated level of complexity (less complex to higher) b. Importance/relevance to complete any future policy work prior to the introduction of new gTLDs c. Other {to be developed} 4. Identify any sub-elements for which any needed policy work may be able to be completed in time for the introduction of new gTLDs and develop recommendations about how that might best be accomplished/launch development of recommendations 5. Identify the remaining sub elements and establish a working plan to address these, including considering parallel work tracks, if feasible and resources permit, versus sequential work. 6. Prepare and submit an interim report to the relevant PDP group and/or the Council so that any additional policy work needed could be started as soon as possible referencing the Time Line provided by the Council 7. Prepare and submit a final report regarding all of the above for both PDP groups and the Council upon conclusion of work.. Regular progress reports should be provided for both PDP groups and the Council corresponding to scheduled meetings of those groups and the Council. IV. Example of Topics for Reserved Names This section provides an example of a work plan outline for the work of the Working Group. It is provided as an initial resource for potential use by the Working Group and to attempt to help to launch the Working Group quickly, due to the pressures of time limitations. It is not intended to be comprehensive nor prescriptive. It should be assumed that the work will need to ask the question of how reserved names apply to IDNs at both second and first levels, as well as Latin character gTLDs. 1. Identify possible roles and purposes for reserved names at the top level and review and examine those roles and purposes, including how to address the role of reserved names in IDNs 2. Identify and develop proposals to address any policy issues that should be or are under consideration by the existing GNSO PDPs regarding policy considerations related to the role, use, reservation, and release and allocation of reserved names at the top and second level 3. Determine: a. The various roles that reserved names may play in new gTLDs in addressing controversial categories of names, including whether trademark names and country/geopolitical names should have initial or permanent reserved status; etc. b. Whether existing reserved names at the second level should automatically be included at the first level or c. Whether there is different treatment proposed for existing reserved names at the second level, in the first level d. Whether reserved name requirements need to be the same for all gTLDs and, if not, which ones might vary e. Whether there should be a procedure by which staff publishes new categories of reserved names before adding them to registry agreements 4. Discuss and review processes by which names could be put into reserved status at the top level 5. Discuss and propose processes by which names can be unreserved at the top level and made available for allocation, including discussion of whether there are unique treatments in allocation for names that are reserved 6. Discuss whether and how categories of names can be unreserved and allocated at the second level from the existing categories, including second level reservations in single character[1] and two character labels, and reservations for geographic and geopolitical names, to include examination of any existing technical concerns 7. Reconfirm whether there should be a process by which new names or categories are added to the reserved status in the second level (e.g., should we assume that all new strings allocated for operation as registries are reserved at the second level when they are awarded?) Background Materials and Relevant Initiatives to take into account: Background: 1) Existing Registry Agreements Reserved Names (Annex 6 and other examples) http://www.icann.org/registries/agreements.htm 2) Relevant RFCs which discuss reserved names http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt http://www.ietf.org/rfc./rfc2141.txt http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3491.txt 3) Status report on single letter names - to be provided Relevant Initiatives: (1) PDP 05: developing policy recommendations on new gTLDs, as part of a policy development process called PDP-Dec05. http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/ (2) PDP 06 http://gnso.icann.org/issues/gtld-policies/ (3) IDN Working Group http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/idn-tlds/issues-report-02aug06.htm Attachment 1: Additional considerations: For a policy issue to warrant a policy development process it must Meet the following criteria: (A) Is within the scope of ICANN's mission statement; (B) is broadly applicable to multiple situations or organizations; (C) is likely to have lasting value or applicability, albeit with the need for occasional updates; (D) Will establish a guide or framework for future decision-making; or (E) Implicates or affects an existing ICANN policy. - Proposal to form a GNSO working group to review the sunrise processes used by recent gTLDs and ccTLDs (e.g .eu) and determine whether a standardised process that is scalable for many new gTLDs is feasible -- Kristina Rosette and Ute Decker to draft terms of reference for consideration http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg03135.html Bruce Tonkin commented that the current new gTLD report had no recommendation that a sunrise period was needed, but during committee discussions questions arose about what mechanisms there would be to protect trade mark holders during the start-up stages of new TLDs. Kristina Rosette introduced the draft Statement of Work for Sunrise Working Group Proposed Purpose: Analyze processes used to allow owners of trademark and analogous intellectual property rights to register, before the Landrush or general public registration period, domain names corresponding to such rights ("Sunrise processes"), identify commonalities among such Sunrise processes, assess the feasibility of developing and implementing a Sunrise process that is scalable for new gTLDs, and identify and evaluate alternative processes. Suggested Outline of Working Group Work Plan I. Analyze Existing Sunrise Processes A. Identify Relevant TLDs B. Describe Sunrise Processes 1. Eligibility 2. Rights bases or requirements 3. Submission process and costs of submission 4. Review of applications 5. Challenge mechanism and cost of mechanism C. Issues Arising out of or Related to Sunrise Process 1. Eligibility 2. Rights bases or requirements 3. Review of applications 4. Allocation D. Analyze Quantitative Success 1. Number of Sunrise registrations, number of Sunrise registrations vs. overall number of registrations; proportion of registrations that are purely defensive 2. Number of Sunrise challenges overall and in relation to number of registrations; challenger success rate E. Analyze Qualitative Success 1. Nature of use of names registered during sunrise 2. Whether Sunrise process protects IP rights in a cost-effective manner F. Impact on registries and registrars 1. Resource allocation a) Development of Sunrise process b) Implementation of Sunrise process 2. Revenue generation 3. Other considerations II. Identify Commonalities Among Sunrise Processes A. Eligibility Commonalities B. Procedural Commonalities 1. Submission 2. Review 3. Challenge C. User Satisfaction III. Developing and Implementing Scalable Sunrise Process A. Feasibility 1. Likely to be certain conclusions derived from I and II above -- sunrise registration user satisfaction; impact on registrars, registries, and other affected parties; IP owner concerns B. Content C. Implementation Considerations IV. Identify and Evaluate Alternative Mechanisms A. Alternatives B. Evaluation Suggested Working Group Membership* 1. U.S. owner of globally famous brand 2. Non-U.S. owner of globally famous brand 3. INTA Internet Committee member or Sunrise dispute panelist 4. Non-profit educational or charitable organization representative 5. Registrar that participated in Sunrise process 6. Registrar that participated in alternate mechanism 7. Registry with Sunrise process 8. Registry with alternative mechanism 9. Representative from EURid or PWC, EURid validation agent 10. Commercial financial institution representative 11. IPC designee 12. NCUC designee 13. ISP designee 14. BC designee * Suggested Working Group Membership is “floor”, not “ceiling” Avri Doria asked, given that in the establishment of new gTLDs there was a known set of rights, that extended into IDNs which presumption pertained to all new gTLDs that needed to be protected, was it the working group's intention to explore the notion of rights and whether there were counter rights to that that would affect the mechanisms that would be acceptable. Kristina Rosette responded not in the broad sense that intellectual property rights would be protected, because all of the new gTLD applications had had a mechanism for protecting prior rights and the Intellectual Property Constituency had not pushed for a sunrise period. But the working group would examine who would be eligible for the sunrise period. Chuck Gomes commented that it was important for the Statement of work to identify problems and in that light, evaluate and analyse their qualitative and quantitative success as well as any alternatives that might be proposed in the future. Bruce Tonkin summarised, the group should consider the role of the sunrise process and the problems that the sunrise process sought to solve. The term 'sunrise' should be elaborated, for example WIPO referred to preventive Intellectual Property protection mechanisms. Rita Rodin commented that in the applications for new gTLDs there was a requirement that applicants provide a mechanisms to provide protection for Intellectual Property rights. John Jeffrey confirmed the statement was correct Any new TLDs will have to deal with protecting Intellectual Property rights and there were mechanism in place to protect such rights. Chuck Gomes commented that there had been in the previous rounds, but it did not necessarily mean that the requirement was going forward. John Jeffrey considered it a good discussion because such issues should be pointed out to the community as issues that have been included and could continue to be included in future rounds. It would be natural to include those provisions and to require that all appropriate laws were followed. There are likely to be intellectual property laws relating to these areas that might require some specific views or concerns relating to these registrations. Bruce Tonkin asked John Jeffrey to restate the wording of the request in the RFP. John Jeffrey proposed sending the specific provisions to the council as well as references requiring compliance with the laws of the contractual agreement. Bruce Tonkin wanted to confirm one of the mechanisms in place in ICANN. Taking the .com example, the mechanism that provided some protection or mechanisms to assist in protection was that the registration agreement for a dot com name, required the registrant to agree to comply to the outcome of a UDRP. It was thus a contractual obligation of the registrant to submit to that process. John Jeffrey commented that also in the newer agreements, such mechanisms existed that required compliance relating to the intellectual property laws. Bruce Tonkin cautioned against the side effects of some of the previous processes. The general language John Jeffrey used was preferable, looking at mechanisms for protecting Intellectual Property rights, rather than presupposing a start-up phase where some had priority rights over others. Ute Decker clarified that the working group attempted to find solutions to alleviate the problem that faced Intellectual Property holders with the launch of new gTLDs. Two separate solutions could be envisaged: - the UDRP which could address problems that have fallen through the net, - a broad brush solution at the beginning of the process was necessary that would obviate a large number of applications having to resort to UDRPs at a later stage. Avri Doria commented that the rights of all should be considered, not only those of Intellectual property holders, but those excluded because they had no such rights. Jon Bing commented that there were other types of protected strings, not only proper names but the examples of dot com domains which corresponded to names of public agencies in non-English language jurisdictions, such as the 'Ministry of Justice' in Norwegian was used as a domain name which could be misleading. The relation between preventing the dispute and resolving a dispute should be considered. Mawaki Chango insisted on the point raised by Avri Doria as to what was exactly the problem intended to be addressed by the sunrise process. In other words, it was important not to carry on with the apparent assumption that it was just about protecting trademarks and intellectual property, if it was not so as Jon Bing pointed out. Mawaki would thus encourage the team working on this issue to try to provide as a complete view as possible of the purpose of the sunrise period and mechanism. Bruce Tonkin proposed that the GNSO Council meet on February 1 2007, to consider a revised draft of the statement of work. Constituencies may start identifying members of the working group in parallel with the revision of the draft statement of work. Bruce Tonkin commented that the outcome of the working group was not on the critical path for the work of the new gTLDs. The working group should focus on concluding its work and providing a report for the GNSO Council meeting in April 2007. Item 5: Update on planning for policy meeting on PDP-Dec05 and PDP-Feb06 in February - GNSO Secretariat to provide an update Bruce Tonkin confirmed that the new gTLD (PDP-Dec05) work would take place on the first two days of the face to face meetings, Thursday 22 and Friday 23 and the PDP-Feb06 work on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 February. The secretariat reported that some constituencies were considering sending different representatives for the two working sessions and splitting the funding. There would be room for observers, but constituencies were encouraged to identify the observers as soon as possible. ICANN technical staff will assist with the Remote participation. Item 6: Update on progress in WHOIS task force Jordyn Buchanan provided the followingupdate on the WHOIS task force: http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg03156.html "- We've briefly discussed two new proposals (one from Avri/Wendy/Robin to eliminate Whois or remove all non-technical contact information; and one from Marilyn with ideas to remove port 43 access, limit bulk Whois, and further study the topic). - We've had some further discussions about access to data that might be removed from public view by the TF. We've begun limiting the options from the five presented in the preliminary report. - Public comment period just closed and we've also received several constituency statements. We'll be discussing these next week. - We remain on track for completing our work on February 12 (I hope). Marilyn Cade, who submitted the 'pragmatic steps' proposal, added that it ' suggested moving all access to WHOIS to web based, with security measures; eliminating Port 43; using stronger contracts, enforced by ICANN for bulk access, and having ICANN undertake, and fund a study to inform policy making, not just now, but on a continual and occasional basis'. Item 7: Update on progress in PDP-Feb06 Avri Doria reported that the work on terms of reference 1 4 & 6 were essentially completed. An updated draft report would be forthcoming in February. The schedule has been organised to keep the end date for completion but include the two day face to face meeting in February. Work has started on term of reference 5 and the work should be ready to discuss at the face to face meeting in February. The task force was examining the data collected by registries in order to categorize it. The categories were still under discussion and part of the problem was that the task force did not have a firm grasp of what data was collected. For the next meeting on Tuesday 23 February the task force is considering what data was collected. There is outreach to the registries, the registry liaison and the legal staff, and outside sources with real expert knowledge on what data is collected by registries and how it is dealt with. Avri Doria requested that a registry liaison or legal staff person, attend the PDPFeb06 task force meeting on 23 February 2007 to inform the task force on registry data and how it is used. Terms of Reference 5 relate to Uses of registry data, and without full knowledge of the issue it would be difficult to consider whether or not a policy was needed. http://gnso.icann.org/issues/gtld-policies/tor-pdp-28feb06.html John Jeffrey committed to working with the policy team on having a staff person available at the next PDPFeb06 task force meeting on 23 January to review the various terms on traffic and registry data. Bruce Tonkin gave a high level overview: The Registry contract is detailed about the data that must be collected and stored for both registries and registrars. Additional data could be collected via logging the activity of registrants that connect to registrars (.e g from which IP address and how often they log into a domain name control panel) or logging incoming DNS queries at nameservers (either at the registry or at nameservers operated by registrars, ISPs, etc) so as to abstain information including IP address, the number of queries from that IP address, and the content of the query (e.g which domain name or resource record was the subject of the DNS query). This would be the Information that could be collected but it is not required. Cary Karp commented that there misperceptions about whose IP address was known to a registry when a resolution request was submitted. There was some belief that the IP address of the end user was probated to the registry and the registry was capable of knowing individually who was asking for the resolution of names which was not true. Bruce Tonkin commented that in many cases the IP address seen by the registry is of a DNS server within an ISP’s network, that in turn is responding to a query from an individual’s computer. There was a need to understand how DNS resolution works. Kurt Pritz proposed that the staff could coordinate an informational discussion among the registries to provide information on how the data is used and what data is available. Registry data is available to the registry as a consequence of registry operation. Examples of registry data could include information on domain name registrants, information in domain name records, and traffic data associated with providing the DNS resolution services associated with the registry. Item 8: Any other business 8.1. Chair for the working group on reserved names Given the statement of work has been approved by the Council a chair is needed to start the work as a deadline has been approved. Chuck Gomes proposed that constituency representatives called for participants from the constituency and that names be provided within a week. Bruce Tonkin, seconded by Avri Doria proposed Chuck Gomes as the interim chair of the working group on reserved names. The motion passed by a vote of acclamation Decision 3: Chuck Gomes selected as the interim chair of the working group on reserved names. Bruce Tonkin formally closed the meeting and thanked everybody for participating. The meeting ended: 21:00 UTC Next GNSO Council teleconference will be on 1 February 2007 at 19:00 UTC. see: Calendar Summary of Work Items arising from the minutes: 1. Arising from Item 3: Select a GNSO representative to the ccNSO and GAC joint working group to work on ccTLD IDNs 2. Arising from Item 5: 2.1 Kristina Rosette and Ute Decker to revise the draft terms of reference for the sunrise processes. 2.2 John Jeffrey to send the specific provisions in the RFP to the council as well as references requiring compliance with the laws of the contractual agreement. 2.3.Constituencies to start identifying members of the working group in parallel with the revision of the draft statement of work on the sunrise periods. 3. Arising from Item 7 3.1 John Jeffrey to work with the policy team to assign a staff person for the next PDPFeb06 task force meeting on 23 January to review the various terms on traffic and registry data. 3.2 Kurt Pritz proposed that the staff could coordinate an informational discussion among the registries to provide information on how the data is used and what data is available. 4. Arising from Item 8 Chuck Gomes to call for participants for the reserved names working group within the week. -- Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org

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RE: [council] GNSO Council drfat minutes 18 January 2007
by Bruce Tonkin Jan. 24, 2007

Jan. 24, 2007

Hello Chuck, > My understanding was that it should say (changes in CAPS), > ". . . but the Council may request some follow up work TO BE > COMPLETED within 30 days AFTER THE LISBON MEETINGS." Agreed. Regards, Bruce Tonkin

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GNSO Council drfat minutes 18 January 2007
by GNSO.SECRETARIAT＠GNSO.ICANN.ORG Jan. 24, 2007

Jan. 24, 2007

[council[at]gnso.icann.org] Dear Council Members, Please find the draft minutes of the GNSO Council teleconference held on 18 January 2007. Please let me know if you would like any changes made. Thank you very much. Kind regards, Glen ................................................................................... 8 January 2007 Proposed agenda and relevant documents List of attendees: Philip Sheppard - Commercial & Business Users C. - absent - apologies Marilyn Cade - Commercial & Business Users C. Alistair Dixon - Commercial & Business Users C Greg Ruth - ISCPC Antonio Harris - ISCPC - absent - apologies Tony Holmes - ISCPC - absent Thomas Keller- Registrars Ross Rader - Registrars Bruce Tonkin - Registrars Chuck Gomes - gTLD registries Edmon Chung - gTLD registries Cary Karp - gTLD registries Kristina Rosette - Intellectual Property Interests C Ute Decker - Intellectual Property Interests C Kiyoshi Tsuru - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent Robin Gross - NCUC. Norbert Klein - NCUC. - absent Mawaki Chango - NCUC Sophia Bekele - Nominating Committee appointee - absent Jon Bing - Nominating Committee appointee Avri Doria - Nominating Committee appointee 15 Council Members (21 Votes - quorum) ICANN Staff John Jeffrey - General Counsel Sue Jonklaas - Regional Business Advisor, Asia-Pacific, General Counsel Denise Michel - Vice President, Policy Development Olof Nordling - Manager, Policy Development Coordination Kurt Pritz - Senior Vice President, Services Liz Williams - Senior Policy Counselor Maria Farrell - GNSO Policy Officer Craig Schwartz - Chief gTLD Registry Liaison Glen de Saint Géry - GNSO Secretariat Rita Rodin - ICANN Board member GNSO Council Liaisons Suzanne Sene - GAC Liaison - absent - apologies Alan Greenberg - ALAC Liaison - absent Quorum present at 19:05 UTC. MP3 Recording Bruce Tonkin chaired this meeting Approval of the agenda Item 1: Update any statements of interest No updates Item 2: Approval of the GNSO Council minutes of 6 December 2006 Avri Doria moved the adoption of the GNSO Council minutes of 6 December 2006. Abstentions were noted from Council members who were not yet on the Council on 6 December 2006: Jon Bing, Chuck Gomes, Edmon Chung. Motion approved. Approval of the GNSO Council minutes of 21 December 2006 Avri Doria moved the adoption of the GNSO Council minutes of 21 December 2006. Abstentions were noted from Mawaki Chango. Motion approved. Decision 1: The minutes of the GNSO Council meetings on 6 December 2006 and 21 December 2006 were adopted. Item 3: Correspondence Bruce Tonkin mentioned that there had been correspondence from Chris Disspain, the chair of the ccNSO notifying that the ccNSO and GAC were forming a joint working group to work on ccTLD IDNs, and requested a representative from the GNSO. This request has been forwarded to the GNSO’s IDN Working group for action. Item 4: PDP on new gTLDs work - Proposal to form a GNSO working group to review the creation of a reserved words list for the top level and update the list for the second level for gTLDs (use: http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/jobs/appendix-6-05may05.htm -- Marilyn Cade and Chuck Gomes to draft terms of reference for consideration Chuck Gomes presented the draft Statement of Work - Version 2 for the Working Group on Reserved Names (WG-RN) I. Formation of the Working Group The Working Group (WG) is chartered by the GNSO Council with an approved statement of work, as defined below. This Statement of Work is intended to guide the work of the group. 1. Voting: In general, the working group should operate using a rough consensus approach. Every effort should be made to arrive at positions that most or all of the group members are willing to support. "Straw poll voting" should be used to determine whether there is rough consensus on particular issues. In order to ensure that each constituency does not have to provide the same number of members, constituencies, regardless of number of representatives, can hold 3 votes, and each individual nominating committee councilor hold one vote. Liaisons are non voting. 2. Membership The Working Group is open for membership to Councilors and to GNSO Constituency members; advisory committees (e.g., ALAC, GAC) may appoint non-voting liaisons to the working group. Members may be added by the constituencies and the Advisory groups at any time during the work of the WG. The ccNSO could be invited to have representatives participate as observers because there may be implications for the treatment of the two letter country codes, which are presently reserved at all levels. The WG may invite external experts as speakers or advisors (in the role of observer) that may be able to constructively contribute to the effort. Every effort should be made to ensure that the working group include and consider the varying points of view on key issues. It is more important that all varying points of view are examined and reflected than for every constituency or group to have representation or equal numbers of members. If this goal is achieved and recommendations are developed that have rough consensus of the group, then the full Council, with balanced representation from all constituencies and NomCom appointees, will then have opportunity to act. Members should be selected who can commit sufficient time during the next three-four months to facilitate achievement of the targeted accomplishments describe in the next section (Working Timeline). The Council will appoint an initial or interim chair [or co-chairs] and the Working Group should, at its initial meeting, elect or confirm the chair and co-chair(s). 3. Working Timeline The Working Group is asked to convene at the earliest possible time and to achieve the following targets: 1. Progress report in the upcoming intercessional working sessions of Dec05 PDP committee and the Feb06 PDP task force, scheduled for February 22-25 2. Complete its work and deliver written recommendations for next steps to the GNSO Council at least one week prior to the start of the Lisbon ICANN meetings 3. Respond to any follow-up actions requested by the Council within 30 days after the Lisbon meetings. As appropriate, the Working Group should coordinate throughout with the Dec05 PDP Committee, the Feb06 PDP Task Force and the GNSO Council. II. Purpose of the Working Group The purpose of the WG will be to perform an initial examination of the role and treatment of reserved domain names at the first and second level., with the goal of providing recommendations for further consideration by the TF or Council. This working group should focus initially on defining the role of reserved strings, and how to proceed with a full examination of issues and possible policy recommendations. This will include prioritizing sub-elements of the broad topic of reserved names in a manner that would facilitate breaking the broad topic into smaller parts that could then be divided into separate policy efforts of a more manageable size and that might also allow some less complicated issues to be resolved in a more timely manner so that some policy changes might be included in the introduction of new gTLDs. The treatment of reserved names is a matter of contract for existing gTLDs and will be a matter of contract for future gTLDs. As such it relates to the work of both the Dec05 PDP regarding the Introduction of New gTLDs including IDNs and the Feb06 PDP regarding Contractual Conditions for Existing Registries, Therefore the WG needs to provide an initial examination of reserved names at both the top and second level for both existing and new gTLDs. Should it be determined that the ToR for Feb 06 does not allow for addressing contractual conditions, the WG report to the Council regarding relevant recommendations. III. Working Group Responsibilities, Tasks and Proposed Working Approach A. To perform its initial examination of the role and treatment of reserved domain names at the first (top) level, WG responsibilities and tasks should include but need not be limited to the following: 1. Review the present treatment and process for reservation of names at all levels (using Appendix 6 in the latest gTLD Registry Agreements as examples), including reviewing treatment of reserved names that may differ in existing contracts - link provided in Background Section 2. Review any other discussions to date that have occurred related to reserved names for top level strings for new gTLDs including IDN gTLDs (e.g., the GNSO's Task Force on new gTLDs; constituency comments, etc.) 3. Review any ICANN staff reports related to reserved names - see Background Section 4. Review any relevant technical documents ,e.g., relevant RFCs -see Background Section and determine what technical outreach (IETF, IAB, SSAC,etc.) is needed and complete. 5. Liaise with the ICANN staff as needed, including legal and operational, to identify and review any existing work or relevant experiences related to reserved names processes and procedures 6. Liaise with the ccNSO and the ccTLD community in general as needed regarding the two letter names issues, including whether the present approach, as outlined in Appendix 6, is sufficient or necessary B. Proposed Working Approach for Working Group: 1. Initially, examine the sub-elements of the broad topic of reserved names to consider breaking the broad topic into smaller parts 2. Estimate the complexity of issues associated with each of the sub-elements and briefly describe the elements of complexity (e.g., more controversial issues involving multiple stakeholder groups with competing views might be rated more complex; consultation with the GAC might be rated as more complex; etc.) 3. Prioritize the sub-elements according to these two factors: a. Estimated level of complexity (less complex to higher) b. Importance/relevance to complete any future policy work prior to the introduction of new gTLDs c. Other {to be developed} 4. Identify any sub-elements for which any needed policy work may be able to be completed in time for the introduction of new gTLDs and develop recommendations about how that might best be accomplished/launch development of recommendations 5. Identify the remaining sub elements and establish a working plan to address these, including considering parallel work tracks, if feasible and resources permit, versus sequential work. 6. Prepare and submit an interim report to the relevant PDP group and/or the Council so that any additional policy work needed could be started as soon as possible referencing the Time Line provided by the Council 7. Prepare and submit a final report regarding all of the above for both PDP groups and the Council upon conclusion of work.. Regular progress reports should be provided for both PDP groups and the Council corresponding to scheduled meetings of those groups and the Council. IV. Example of Topics for Reserved Names This section provides an example of a work plan outline for the work of the Working Group. It is provided as an initial resource for potential use by the Working Group and to attempt to help to launch the Working Group quickly, due to the pressures of time limitations. It is not intended to be comprehensive nor prescriptive. It should be assumed that the work will need to ask the question of how reserved names apply to IDNs at both second and first levels, as well as Latin character gTLDs. 1. Identify possible roles and purposes for reserved names at the top level and review and examine those roles and purposes, including how to address the role of reserved names in IDNs 2. Identify and develop proposals to address any policy issues that should be or are under consideration by the existing GNSO PDPs regarding policy considerations related to the role, use, reservation, and release and allocation of reserved names at the top and second level 3. Determine: a. The various roles that reserved names may play in new gTLDs in addressing controversial categories of names, including whether trademark names and country/geopolitical names should have initial or permanent reserved status; etc. b. Whether existing reserved names at the second level should automatically be included at the first level or c. Whether there is different treatment proposed for existing reserved names at the second level, in the first level d. Whether reserved name requirements need to be the same for all gTLDs and, if not, which ones might vary e. Whether there should be a procedure by which staff publishes new categories of reserved names before adding them to registry agreements 4. Discuss and review processes by which names could be put into reserved status at the top level 5. Discuss and propose processes by which names can be unreserved at the top level and made available for allocation, including discussion of whether there are unique treatments in allocation for names that are reserved 6. Discuss whether and how categories of names can be unreserved and allocated at the second level from the existing categories, including second level reservations in single character[1] and two character labels, and reservations for geographic and geopolitical names, to include examination of any existing technical concerns 7. Reconfirm whether there should be a process by which new names or categories are added to the reserved status in the second level (e.g., should we assume that all new strings allocated for operation as registries are reserved at the second level when they are awarded?) Background Materials and Relevant Initiatives to take into account: Background: 1) Existing Registry Agreements Reserved Names (Annex 6 and other examples) http://www.icann.org/registries/agreements.htm 2) Relevant RFCs which discuss reserved names http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt http://www.ietf.org/rfc./rfc2141.txt http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3491.txt 3) Status report on single letter names - to be provided Relevant Initiatives: (1) PDP 05: developing policy recommendations on new gTLDs, as part of a policy development process called PDP-Dec05. http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/new-gtlds/ (2) PDP 06 http://gnso.icann.org/issues/gtld-policies/ (3) IDN Working Group http://www.gnso.icann.org/issues/idn-tlds/issues-report-02aug06.htm Attachment 1: Additional considerations: For a policy issue to warrant a policy development process it must Meet the following criteria: (A) Is within the scope of ICANN's mission statement; (B) is broadly applicable to multiple situations or organizations; (C) is likely to have lasting value or applicability, albeit with the need for occasional updates; (D) Will establish a guide or framework for future decision-making; or (E) Implicates or affects an existing ICANN policy. Bruce Tonkin commented that the use of a working group could lead to a faster policy development process, in that it was a short term approach to identify agreement on certain issues, which could help the Council decide whether or not a PDP process was likely to be successful. The statement of work could be looked upon as an initial issues report. In the context of new gTLDs it is what happens at both the top level and the second level of new gTLDs. In the evolution of gTLDs there were originally very few reserved words at the second level of .com/.net/.org, but since then the list for new gTLD operators has grown, and it would be appropriate for the community to discuss the topic, rather than leave it to the discretion of the staff as in previous gTLD selections Bruce Tonkin proposed that the language of the timelines could be modified after the current meeting, the concept being that the working group would complete its work one week prior to the ICANN meetings in Lisbon, that is, by 16 March 2007, but the Council may request some follow up work within 30 days thereafter. Alistair Dixon, seconded by Chuck Gomes proposed approving the statement of work for the Working Group on Reserved Names. The motion passed by vote of acclamation. Ross Rader voted against the motion with the following explanation on record: "For the record, I am not opposed to having a conversation about this topic in order to discover areas of common interest in the community. However, I am not sufficiently convinced that this issue warrants a high enough priority to pursue it at this time." Decision 2: The GNSO Council approved the Draft Statement of Work - Version 2 for the Working Group on Reserved Names (WG-RN) - Proposal to form a GNSO working group to review the sunrise processes used by recent gTLDs and ccTLDs (e.g .eu) and determine whether a standardised process that is scalable for many new gTLDs is feasible -- Kristina Rosette and Ute Decker to draft terms of reference for consideration http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg03135.html Bruce Tonkin commented that the current new gTLD report had no recommendation that a sunrise period was needed, but during committee discussions questions arose about what mechanisms there would be to protect trade mark holders during the start-up stages of new TLDs. Kristina Rosette introduced the draft Statement of Work for Sunrise Working Group Proposed Purpose: Analyze processes used to allow owners of trademark and analogous intellectual property rights to register, before the Landrush or general public registration period, domain names corresponding to such rights ("Sunrise processes"), identify commonalities among such Sunrise processes, assess the feasibility of developing and implementing a Sunrise process that is scalable for new gTLDs, and identify and evaluate alternative processes. Suggested Outline of Working Group Work Plan I. Analyze Existing Sunrise Processes A. Identify Relevant TLDs B. Describe Sunrise Processes 1. Eligibility 2. Rights bases or requirements 3. Submission process and costs of submission 4. Review of applications 5. Challenge mechanism and cost of mechanism C. Issues Arising out of or Related to Sunrise Process 1. Eligibility 2. Rights bases or requirements 3. Review of applications 4. Allocation D. Analyze Quantitative Success 1. Number of Sunrise registrations, number of Sunrise registrations vs. overall number of registrations; proportion of registrations that are purely defensive 2. Number of Sunrise challenges overall and in relation to number of registrations; challenger success rate E. Analyze Qualitative Success 1. Nature of use of names registered during sunrise 2. Whether Sunrise process protects IP rights in a cost-effective manner F. Impact on registries and registrars 1. Resource allocation a) Development of Sunrise process b) Implementation of Sunrise process 2. Revenue generation 3. Other considerations II. Identify Commonalities Among Sunrise Processes A. Eligibility Commonalities B. Procedural Commonalities 1. Submission 2. Review 3. Challenge C. User Satisfaction III. Developing and Implementing Scalable Sunrise Process A. Feasibility 1. Likely to be certain conclusions derived from I and II above -- sunrise registration user satisfaction; impact on registrars, registries, and other affected parties; IP owner concerns B. Content C. Implementation Considerations IV. Identify and Evaluate Alternative Mechanisms A. Alternatives B. Evaluation Suggested Working Group Membership* 1. U.S. owner of globally famous brand 2. Non-U.S. owner of globally famous brand 3. INTA Internet Committee member or Sunrise dispute panelist 4. Non-profit educational or charitable organization representative 5. Registrar that participated in Sunrise process 6. Registrar that participated in alternate mechanism 7. Registry with Sunrise process 8. Registry with alternative mechanism 9. Representative from EURid or PWC, EURid validation agent 10. Commercial financial institution representative 11. IPC designee 12. NCUC designee 13. ISP designee 14. BC designee * Suggested Working Group Membership is “floor”, not “ceiling” Avri Doria asked, given that in the establishment of new gTLDs there was a known set of rights, that extended into IDNs which presumption pertained to all new gTLDs that needed to be protected, was it the working group's intention to explore the notion of rights and whether there were counter rights to that that would affect the mechanisms that would be acceptable. Kristina Rosette responded not in the broad sense that intellectual property rights would be protected, because all of the new gTLD applications had had a mechanism for protecting prior rights and the Intellectual Property Constituency had not pushed for a sunrise period. But the working group would examine who would be eligible for the sunrise period. Chuck Gomes commented that it was important for the Statement of work to identify problems and in that light, evaluate and analyse their qualitative and quantitative success as well as any alternatives that might be proposed in the future. Bruce Tonkin summarised, the group should consider the role of the sunrise process and the problems that the sunrise process sought to solve. The term 'sunrise' should be elaborated, for example WIPO referred to preventive Intellectual Property protection mechanisms. Rita Rodin commented that in the applications for new gTLDs there was a requirement that applicants provide a mechanisms to provide protection for Intellectual Property rights. John Jeffrey confirmed the statement was correct Any new TLDs will have to deal with protecting Intellectual Property rights and there were mechanism in place to protect such rights. Chuck Gomes commented that there had been in the previous rounds, but it did not necessarily mean that the requirement was going forward. John Jeffrey considered it a good discussion because such issues should be pointed out to the community as issues that have been included and could continue to be included in future rounds. It would be natural to include those provisions and to require that all appropriate laws were followed. There are likely to be intellectual property laws relating to these areas that might require some specific views or concerns relating to these registrations. Bruce Tonkin asked John Jeffrey to restate the wording of the request in the RFP. John Jeffrey proposed sending the specific provisions to the council as well as references requiring compliance with the laws of the contractual agreement. Bruce Tonkin wanted to confirm one of the mechanisms in place in ICANN. Taking the .com example, the mechanism that provided some protection or mechanisms to assist in protection was that the registration agreement for a dot com name, required the registrant to agree to comply to the outcome of a UDRP. It was thus a contractual obligation of the registrant to submit to that process. John Jeffrey commented that also in the newer agreements, such mechanisms existed that required compliance relating to the intellectual property laws. Bruce Tonkin cautioned against the side effects of some of the previous processes. The general language John Jeffrey used was preferable, looking at mechanisms for protecting Intellectual Property rights, rather than presupposing a start-up phase where some had priority rights over others. Ute Decker clarified that the working group attempted to find solutions to alleviate the problem that faced Intellectual Property holders with the launch of new gTLDs. Two separate solutions could be envisaged: - the UDRP which could address problems that have fallen through the net, - a broad brush solution at the beginning of the process was necessary that would obviate a large number of applications having to resort to UDRPs at a later stage. Avri Doria commented that the rights of all should be considered, not only those of Intellectual property holders, but those excluded because they had no such rights. Jon Bing commented that there were other types of protected strings, not only proper names but the examples of dot com domains which corresponded to names of public agencies in non-English language jurisdictions, such as the 'Ministry of Justice' in Norwegian was used as a domain name which could be misleading. The relation between preventing the dispute and resolving a dispute should be considered. Mawaki Chango insisted on the point raised by Avri Doria as to what was exactly the problem intended to be addressed by the sunrise process. In other words, it was important not to carry on with the apparent assumption that it was just about protecting trademarks and intellectual property, if it was not so as Jon Bing pointed out. Mawaki would thus encourage the team working on this issue to try to provide as a complete view as possible of the purpose of the sunrise period and mechanism. Bruce Tonkin proposed that the GNSO Council meet on February 1 2007, to consider a revised draft of the statement of work. Constituencies may start identifying members of the working group in parallel with the revision of the draft statement of work. Bruce Tonkin commented that the outcome of the working group was not on the critical path for the work of the new gTLDs. The working group should focus on concluding its work and providing a report for the GNSO Council meeting in April 2007. Item 5: Update on planning for policy meeting on PDP-Dec05 and PDP-Feb06 in February - GNSO Secretariat to provide an update Bruce Tonkin confirmed that the new gTLD (PDP-Dec05) work would take place on the first two days of the face to face meetings, Thursday 22 and Friday 23 and the PDP-Feb06 work on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 February. The secretariat reported that some constituencies were considering sending different representatives for the two working sessions and splitting the funding. There would be room for observers, but constituencies were encouraged to identify the observers as soon as possible. ICANN technical staff will assist with the Remote participation. Item 6: Update on progress in WHOIS task force Jordyn Buchanan provided the followingupdate on the WHOIS task force: http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg03156.html "- We've briefly discussed two new proposals (one from Avri/Wendy/Robin to eliminate Whois or remove all non-technical contact information; and one from Marilyn with ideas to remove port 43 access, limit bulk Whois, and further study the topic). - We've had some further discussions about access to data that might be removed from public view by the TF. We've begun limiting the options from the five presented in the preliminary report. - Public comment period just closed and we've also received several constituency statements. We'll be discussing these next week. - We remain on track for completing our work on February 12 (I hope). Marilyn Cade, who submitted the 'pragmatic steps' proposal, added that it ' suggested moving all access to WHOIS to web based, with security measures; eliminating Port 43; using stronger contracts, enforced by ICANN for bulk access, and having ICANN undertake, and fund a study to inform policy making, not just now, but on a continual and occasional basis'. Item 7: Update on progress in PDP-Feb06 Avri Doria reported that the work on terms of reference 1 4 & 6 were essentially completed. An updated draft report would be forthcoming in February. The schedule has been organised to keep the end date for completion but include the two day face to face meeting in February. Work has started on term of reference 5 and the work should be ready to discuss at the face to face meeting in February. The task force was examining the data collected by registries in order to categorize it. The categories were still under discussion and part of the problem was that the task force did not have a firm grasp of what data was collected. For the next meeting on Tuesday 23 February the task force is considering what data was collected. There is outreach to the registries, the registry liaison and the legal staff, and outside sources with real expert knowledge on what data is collected by registries and how it is dealt with. Avri Doria requested that a registry liaison or legal staff person, attend the PDPFeb06 task force meeting on 23 February 2007 to inform the task force on registry data and how it is used. Terms of Reference 5 relate to Uses of registry data, and without full knowledge of the issue it would be difficult to consider whether or not a policy was needed. http://gnso.icann.org/issues/gtld-policies/tor-pdp-28feb06.html John Jeffrey committed to working with the policy team on having a staff person available at the next PDPFeb06 task force meeting on 23 January to review the various terms on traffic and registry data. Bruce Tonkin gave a high level overview: The Registry contract is detailed about the data that must be collected and stored for both registries and registrars. Additional data could be collected via logging the activity of registrants that connect to registrars (.e g from which IP address and how often they log into a domain name control panel) or logging incoming DNS queries at nameservers (either at the registry or at nameservers operated by registrars, ISPs, etc) so as to abstain information including IP address, the number of queries from that IP address, and the content of the query (e.g which domain name or resource record was the subject of the DNS query). This would be the Information that could be collected but it is not required. Cary Karp commented that there misperceptions about whose IP address was known to a registry when a resolution request was submitted. There was some belief that the IP address of the end user was probated to the registry and the registry was capable of knowing individually who was asking for the resolution of names which was not true. Bruce Tonkin commented that in many cases the IP address seen by the registry is of a DNS server within an ISP’s network, that in turn is responding to a query from an individual’s computer. There was a need to understand how DNS resolution works. Kurt Pritz proposed that the staff could coordinate an informational discussion among the registries to provide information on how the data is used and what data is available. Registry data is available to the registry as a consequence of registry operation. Examples of registry data could include information on domain name registrants, information in domain name records, and traffic data associated with providing the DNS resolution services associated with the registry. Item 8: Any other business 8.1. Chair for the working group on reserved names Given the statement of work has been approved by the Council a chair is needed to start the work as a deadline has been approved. Chuck Gomes proposed that constituency representatives called for participants from the constituency and that names be provided within a week. Bruce Tonkin, seconded by Avri Doria proposed Chuck Gomes as the interim chair of the working group on reserved names. The motion passed by a vote of acclamation Decision 3: Chuck Gomes selected as the interim chair of the working group on reserved names. Bruce Tonkin formally closed the meeting and thanked everybody for participating. The meeting ended: 21:00 UTC Next GNSO Council teleconference will be on 1 February 2007 at 19:00 UTC. see: Calendar Summary of Work Items arising from the minutes: 1. Arising from Item 3: Select a GNSO representative to the ccNSO and GAC joint working group to work on ccTLD IDNs 2. Arising from Item 5: 2.1 Kristina Rosette and Ute Decker to revise the draft terms of reference for the sunrise processes. 2.2 John Jeffrey to send the specific provisions in the RFP to the council as well as references requiring compliance with the laws of the contractual agreement. 2.3.Constituencies to start identifying members of the working group in parallel with the revision of the draft statement of work on the sunrise periods. 3. Arising from Item 7 3.1 John Jeffrey to work with the policy team to assign a staff person for the next PDPFeb06 task force meeting on 23 January to review the various terms on traffic and registry data. 3.2 Kurt Pritz proposed that the staff could coordinate an informational discussion among the registries to provide information on how the data is used and what data is available. 4. Arising from Item 8 Chuck Gomes to call for participants for the reserved names working group within the week. -- Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat - ICANN gnso.secretariat[at]gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org

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Kick Off Meeting for Reserved Names Working Group
by Gomes, Chuck Jan. 23, 2007

Jan. 23, 2007

A kick off meeting for the just-formed Reserved Names Working Group (RN-WG) is scheduled for this coming Thursday, 25 Jan, at 19:00 UTC [11:00 am Los Angeles, 14:00 Washington DC, 19:00 London, 3:00 am Hong Kong, 6:00 am (next day) Melbourne, 8:00am Wellington next day 19 January 2007]. Call details will follow. There have been 5 volunteers so far (1 from IPC, 3 from Registrars, and 1 from RyC), not including myself. All volunteers so far have indicated that they are available for the kickoff meeting. But for those who may still volunteer and cannot, please note that calls will be transcribed and/or recorded to assist those who miss a call. Also, an email list will be set up for the group. If at all possible, provide contact information regarding additional volunteers not later than COB Wednesday, 24 Jan. Thanks, Chuck Gomes

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Fwd: WG on Reserved Names: Correspondence from Patrick Jones
by Liz Williams Jan. 21, 2007

Jan. 21, 2007

Colleagues Please find below correspondence from Patrick Jones, ICANN's Registry Liaison, which will be of assistance to volunteers for the Reserved Names Working Group. Liz ..................................................... Liz Williams Senior Policy Counselor ICANN - Brussels +32 2 234 7874 tel +32 2 234 7848 fax +32 497 07 4243 mob Begin forwarded message: > From: "Patrick Jones" <patrick.jones(a)icann.org> > Date: Sat 20 Jan 2007 06:52:53 GMT+01:00 > To: "'Liz Williams'" <liz.williams(a)icann.org> > Subject: WG on Reserved Names > > Liz, > > > > I have read through the various documents for the new GNSO Working > Group on Reserved Names. I understand that this is a component of > the PDP Dec05 and PDP Feb06 work. > > > > With regard to reserved names for existing registries, the funnel > process provides a mechanism for current registries to propose > release of names from the reserved list. Global Name Registry > submitted a proposal for the limited release of two-character > names, which was approved by the ICANN Board on Tuesday 16 January > (http://www.icann.org/minutes/prelim-report-16jan07.htm) Two > character names will be shared at the registry level, and GNR will > only make third level registrations and two-character email > addresses available in .name. > > > > Prior to the Board’s approval, the proposal was carefully reviewed > by the Registry Services Technical Evaluation Panel (http:// > www.icann.org/registries/rsep/RSTEP-GNR-proposal-review-team- > report.pdf) and internal experts. This is the first time that > extensive research has been conducted on the technical issues > surrounding the use of two-character names. Please note that GNR’s > registry agreement also provided a mechanism to propose release of > two-character names from the reserved list. Other registries have > followed the same process to release reserved names. > > > > As a result, we may see more registries approach ICANN for the > release of two-character names. We may also see registries use the > funnel process to propose release of additional names from the > reserved list. > > > > The documents related to the GNR proposal may be useful to the > efforts of the Working Group, see http://www.icann.org/registries/ > rsep/submitted_app.html (Proposal # 2006004). > > > > Regards, > > > > Patrick > > > > Patrick L. Jones > > Registry Liaison Manager > > Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers > > 4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330 > > Marina del Rey, CA 90292 > > Tel: +1 310 301 3861 > > Fax: +1 310 823 8649 > > patrick.jones(a)icann.org > > > >

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Fwd: [registrars] Request for Reserved Names WG Volunteers: note from John Klensin
by Liz Williams Jan. 21, 2007

Jan. 21, 2007

Colleagues Please find below a note from John Klensin which sets out further historical and more current reserved names discussion. This is particularly relevant for the volunteers for the Reserved Names Working Group. Kind regards. Liz ..................................................... Liz Williams Senior Policy Counselor ICANN - Brussels +32 2 234 7874 tel +32 2 234 7848 fax +32 497 07 4243 mob Begin forwarded message: > From: John C Klensin <klensin(a)jck.com> > Date: Sat 20 Jan 2007 14:17:14 GMT+01:00 > To: Liz Williams <liz.williams(a)icann.org>, "Vinton G. Cerf" > <vint(a)google.com>, Alejandro Pisanty <apisan(a)servidor.unam.mx>, > steve(a)shinkuro.com > Subject: FWD: Re: [registrars] Request for Reserved Names WG > Volunteers > > Hi. > > Just FYI. Please feel free to distribute further as you think > appropriate. Since ICANN technical staff has still, as far as I > know, not changed the "we just discard mail" feature, I don't > even know if this reached the registrar list. > > john > > From: John C Klensin <klensin(a)jck.com> > Date: Sat 20 Jan 2007 14:11:11 GMT+01:00 > To: brunner(a)nic-naa.net > Cc: Bruce Tonkin <Bruce.Tonkin(a)melbourneit.com.au>, Registrars > Constituency <registrars(a)gnso.icann.org>, "Gomes, Chuck" > <cgomes(a)verisign.com> > Subject: Re: [registrars] Request for Reserved Names WG Volunteers > > > > > --On Friday, 19 January, 2007 20:57 -0500 brunner(a)nic-naa.net > wrote: > >> John, >> >> Your note on the subject of single octet labels was forwarded >> to the ICANN RC mailing list, where I saw it. > >> When Donald, Bill and I wrote 2929 we also considered the in >> the context of IANA Considerations for DNS Resource Records, >> the RR NAME included. > > That is certainly consistent with my recollection of discussions > at the time. > >> At the time, there were no ICANN considerations, and no IDN, >> so the whole mistake of Unicode hadn't yet happened. >> >> I no longer have the correspondence that circulated between >> Donald and I in particular, but we had some discussion related >> to the issue, circa 1999/2000, which is observable in the lack >> of overspecification for the values of octets used to >> construct lables (Section 3.3), and the care we took to >> document the RR CLASS (Section 3.2). >> >> If memory serves, Donald wanted to nail down the US-ASCII >> values for each octet, and prevent any octet sequence other >> than the iso3166 and c/n/o sequences from ever being available >> for allocation. > >> I think I made the case for future extension that might use >> values other than .-0-9A-Za-z, and that lables might be made >> from sequences not in the two-octet (iso3166) or three-octet >> (c/n/o et al) string spaces. > > As you may recall from discussions about RFC2181 a few years > earlier, my personal position has been is that the "recommended" > text about contents and structure of labels in 1035 should be > read as a requirement for RR types specified in 1034/1035 and as > more fuzzy only for new Classes and possibly new RR types within > Class=IN that specify different rules. That probably puts me, > again personally, closer to Donald than to you, but, as you > know, I've always been very conservative on this issue, and... > > Going back much further, 1123 relaxed the rule against leading > digits which was originally instituted to prevent confusion with > host numbers (later IP addresses), there was some discussion > about whether to explicitly continue to ban all-digit labels. > Those of us who don't like look-ahead when it can be avoided > would have preferred to retain the prohibition; others felt that > looking ahead for four putative labels to see if any non-digit > characters appeared was reasonable and that the prohibition was > not needed. I can't recall whether there was actually consensus > around the latter or whether we just gave up and omitted an > explicit rule, but 1123 did end up with an aside about numeric > TLDs. > > When 1591 was finally written to make fairly long-term practice > explicit and more easily available, we discussed TLD naming and > whether to include specific rules there. At that time, Jon > considered the odds of adding new TLDs, other than those in the > 3166 set, to be very low and, if I recall, didn't want to > clutter up the text with contingencies, but there was general > understanding that > > (1) there would be no single-letter TLD names > > (2) there would be no TLD names with numeric components > (unless ISO introduced them into the 3166 space) and > certainly no TLDs starting in digits. > > (3) all (additional) two-letter TLD names would be > derived from the primary 3166 list, with no further > nonsense about "certainly going to be approved", > reservations, etc. > > (4) any additional gTLDs would have three-character names > > (5) four-character gTLD names were to be exclusively > "ARPA". I suppose that, in principle, something else > connected to a distinct network, might have been created > with a four-character name, but we certainly didn't > spend time talking about it. By "another network", I'm > not referring to topology or connectivity or protocols > (as you will recall, ".uucp" and, for that matter, > ".csnet" and ".bitnet", were in active use at the time, > but as notation within those networks, not in the DNS > root), but something really different... I guess I'm > having visions of ".MARS" for an infrastructure domain > for a network on that planet. > > (6) there were to have been _no_ TLD names with five or > more letters. > > These kinds of firm naming rules aid users and application > software in detecting nonsense, producing good presentation > forms and error messages, and preventing repeated queries for > the impossible. Whether those benefits are sufficiently > important to overcome the desire to commercialize one > seemingly-attractive string or another is a balance that ICANN > needs to figure out how to resolve, preferably after considering > the needs of the widest range of materially concerned parties > possible rather than only short or medium-term commercialization > interests. > > Of course ICANN blew the last two rules off in 2000, with no > discussion at all. Suggestions that ICANN warn applicants that > there was applications software that incorporated those rules > and hence might make their domains inaccessible were rejected by > staff. > >> Which begs the question of what John's intent was, or whether >> I then, or ever, have had the smallest part of a clue. >> >> Of course, at that point in time, we weren't trying to see >> characters through the blinders of font fanatics, so phishing >> was limited to il1 and o0O bits of nonsense which policy, at >> either the registry, or the registrar or the zone file >> publishers, could have (and at times did) interposed upon. > > Exactly. As has been pointed out many times, the > "confusability" problem introduced by IDNs is, at one level, no > different from the ones we have had, in principle, with ASCII > since the dawn of the hostname table. However, addition of > hundreds or thousands of new "opportunities" with IDNs arguably > changes the problem from one about which those involved needed > to exercise moderate caution to one that no user is able to > fully understand and protect against, making an extremely strong > case for some precautions in the registration/zone-entry process > lest we essentially put referential integrity at the mercy of > the phishers and other Bad Guys. > > And, has also been noted multiple times (albeit without much > effective success), IDNs --especially any ideas or plans about > IDNs at the top level-- also require that we go back and > reinterpret and adjust all sorts of rules and conventions that > assumed ASCII, LDH, labels. The two most obvious examples > involve the questions of what goes into domain registration > ("whois") records and how they are indexed and whether such > "reserved name" rules as the restriction against > single-character names apply to the presentation form or to what > is stored in the DNS. The latter question is what makes the > single-character prohibition particular important at this time: > if the motivation for that prohibition really had been an idea > about future expansion, then IDNs would be irrelevant since the > form stored in the DNS is always more than four characters long. > On the other hand, since the prohibition was imposed because of > human factors and retrieval considerations, it should probably > apply to the presentation ("native character", "Unicode") form > of IDNs. > > best regards, > john > > >

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Fwd: Single-letter second level domains
by Liz Williams Jan. 19, 2007

Jan. 19, 2007

Colleagues Please find below a note from John Klensin which I received this morning. He has asked me to forward it to the list. I will be speaking with John and Steve later today if their schedules permit. Liz ..................................................... Liz Williams Senior Policy Counselor ICANN - Brussels +32 2 234 7874 tel +32 2 234 7848 fax +32 497 07 4243 mob Begin forwarded message: > From: John C Klensin <klensin(a)jck.com> > Date: Thu 18 Jan 2007 19:26:34 GMT+01:00 > To: liz.williams(a)icann.org > Cc: steve(a)shinkuro.com > Subject: Single-letter second level domains > > Liz, > > Your recent note to the GNSO Council about single-letter domains > (http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/council/msg03148.html) > and the attached report was just called to my attention. I'm > copying Steve Crocker on this note since the topic is very much > a stability issue and not a provision for expansion or > infrastructure one. > > The premise of the report, that the main reason for reserving > single-letter names was to permit future expansion, is not > correct. That explanation is, instead, the consequence of a > long-term, and oft-repeated, misunderstanding. I've tried > explaining this several time to a number of people and groups > within ICANN including various senior staff, both of the > previous IANA managers, and several of the members of the > community who have been pushing for single-character > registrations. > > The notion that single-character names should be reserved for > expansion of the DNS derives from an almost offhand comment Jon > Postel made many years ago. The essence of the comment was > that, given all of the confusion and problems that had been > created by trying to associate TLDs with specific semantics, we > would have been better off with TLDs named "b ... y" (reserving > "a" and "z" for future expansion and because people might think > they had special value). When someone asked for a domain name > at the second level, they would then be randomly assigned to one > of those single-character TLDs. A somewhat fanciful set of > notes circulated for a while that elaborated on this idea. That > document never made it into formal publication although part of > it inspired an alternative option for ENUM that also was never > published. It should be stressed that these ideas were more of > the character of whimsical musings than serious proposals. They > were never considered as serious proposals even by their > originators. > > In any event, that particular idea about DNS expansion would > never have produced "Example.a.com". It might have produced > "example.com.b" (as mentioned above, "a" and "z" were, in that > idea, permanently reserved) or, more likely, "example.d" or > "example.cc.b". > > There was apparently an entirely separate and unrelated > suggestion about reserving one-character labels at some level of > the DNS for infrastructure use, much as subdomains of .ARPA are > used today. While I remember hearing about that idea, I think > it was just a suggestion made during a meeting or conversation. > As far as I know, the suggestion was never written down or > explained, much less turned into a proposal that anyone > considered or approved. > > The reason for the prohibition on single-character registrations > was strictly a matter of identifier integrity and DNS stability. > Specifically, it was intended to reduce the odds of false > positive errors if a one-character typing error was made. The > prohibition on the use of underscore ("_") in domain names, > given that hyphen ("-") was going to be permitted, was largely > driven by very similar considerations. I believe that, had we > realized that we would end up with millions of names in some > TLDs and almost complete saturation of the two-character and > three-character spaces in those TLDs, registration of > two-character SLDs probably would have been prohibited as well. > > That reason has not changed. If one permits (and encourages, > which, in today's market, is much the same thing), single-letter > registrations, it is safe to assume that all 26 labels will > swiftly be populated (single-digit labels raise some additional > issues because they are very easily used in certain types of > tricky-syntax phishing attacks). Anyone trying to use one of > these labels and making a single-character mistake will almost > certainly reach an unintended host. In a world in which, for > most users, simply opening a web page associated with an unknown > site can be sufficient for virus infection, it is simply unwise, > and IMO, not in the best interests of the Internet, for ICANN to > consider relaxing the current rule. But the reason has nothing > to do with DNS expansion, infrastructure, or any other narrowly > technical reason. > > Just as we try to learn and extrapolate from our experience with > ASCII domain name labels to IDNs, we should also take advantage > of our experience with IDNs to inform our decisions about > possible changes to rules about ASCII labels. When the example > of the "paypal" domain (with Cyrillic "a"s) was widely > publicized, one of the primary reactions in the user and > observer communities was outrage that the various actors in the > domain name environment (and the certificate-issuing > environment) had permitted a registration whose obvious purpose > was to make it easy for users to make a potentially nasty and > identity-compromising mistake. I don't believe we need that > lesson again about single-character SLDs. > > Please forward this message as appropriate -- I don't believe > that I can post to the Council list. > > regards, > john >

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Request for Reserved Names WG Volunteers
by Gomes, Chuck Jan. 19, 2007

Jan. 19, 2007

As you are all probably aware, the statement of work was approved for the Reserved Names Working Group today with a very aggressive time schedule. To be able to achieve the required tasks, we are going to have to get started right away so it is imperative that we identify members of the group in very short order. Therefore, as the interim chair, I would like to ask each of you as Counselors to start your recruiting immediately. Here is some key information from the SoW relating to membership. The Working Group is open for membership to: * Councilors * GNSO Constituency members * Advisory committees (e.g., ALAC, GAC) as non-voting liaisons. Members may be added by the constituencies and the Advisory groups at any time during the work of the WG. Members should be selected who can commit sufficient time during the next three-four months to facilitate achievement of the targeted accomplishments. Please provide the following data for any volunteers who are willing to serve on this WG not later than close of business next Wednesday: * Name * Email address * Telephone number(s) - if possible. I am tentatively planning to schedule the first call for Thursday, 25 January at 19:00 UTC. (11:00 am Los Angeles, 14:00 Washington DC, 19:00 London, 3:00 am Hong Kong, 6:00 am (next day) Melbourne, 8:00 am Wellington next day 19 January 2007) I understand that some members may not be able to participate in the first call on such short notice but we can at least identify materials that need to be reviewed, talk about timing of regularly scheduled calls and possibly elect a permanent chair. I am working with staff regarding the following logistical items: 1. Will it be possible to have the meetings transcribed or recorded? I expect we will need to have a fairly aggressive work schedule so it is likely that group members may have to miss some meetings. Transcriptions or recordings of the meetings would allow those who miss meetings a way of catching up. 2. Teleconference arrangements 3. Email discussion list. Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions. Also, if any potential volunteers have questions, please encourage them to contact me if they like. My email address is cgomes(a)verisign.com. My office telephone number is +1 916 681-0389. And my mobile number is +1 703 362-8753. For time zone reference, I am located in California so I am on Pacific Standard Time. Chuck Gomes

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