Dear Councillors, Ahead of the complete minutes, please find the motions passed by the GNSO Council at the meeting on Thursday, 24 September 2009. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you. Kind regards, Glen 1. Motion Requesting an Issues report on vertical Integration and Registry/Registrar cross-ownership Motion proposed by Mary Wong and seconded by Philip Sheppard Whereas, Recommendation 19 of the GNSO policy authorizing the new gTLD process states: "Registries must use only ICANN accredited registrars in registering domain names and may not discriminate among such accredited registrars;" Whereas, opening up the market to many new TLD operators may call into question some of the assumptions on which the separation of registry and registrar functions is based; Whereas, economic research commissioned by ICANN staff also suggests that changes in these assumptions might be justified; Whereas, the new gTLD policies passed by the Council do not provide any guidance regarding the proper approach to cross ownership and vertical integration, but instead implicitly suggest that the status quo be left in place; Resolved: the GNSO Council hereby requests the preparation of an Issues Report for delivery within 45 days on future changes in vertical integration and cross-ownership between gTLD registrars and registries, to assist in determining whether a PDP should be initiated regarding what policies would best serve to promote competition and to protect users and registrants. Council votes in favour: 11 votes Live Council votes: Philip Sheppard, Zahid Jamil, Kristina Rosette, Cyril Chua, Tony Harris, Maggie Mansourkia, Mary Wong, William Drake, Olga Cavalli (one vote each) Terry Davis and Mike Rodenbaugh - absentee ballots (one vote each) Council votes against: 6 votes Live Council votes: Tim Ruiz, Stéphane van Gelder (two votes each) Adrian Kinderis - absentee ballot (two votes each) Four Councillors abstained (7 votes): Live Council Abstentions: Chuck Gomes, Edmon Chung, (two votes each) Avri Doria (one vote) Jordi Iparraguirre - absentee ballot (two votes) Three Councillors did not vote: Carlos Souza, Ute Decker, Tony Holmes (one vote each) Reasons for abstentions: Chuck Gomes and Edmon Chung "I want to thank Kristina and the IPC for the good amendments that were accepted as friendly by the NCUC. The Registry constituency does not want to abstain because of the amendments, they have not had enough time to comment on them yet. The constituency had previously made a decision on the original motion to abstain and because there has not been enough time to obtain feedback on the amended motion, Edmon Chung and I are going to abstain. The reason for the abstention has little to do with the request in the motion, except for the fact that even though the motion requests that any PDP not affect the timing of the new gTLDs, we think it would be highly unlikely that it would not have an impact on the launch of new TLDs, and because there could be misperceptions with regard to existing Registries doing anything that might cause delays and thinking that we are fearful of competition, we want to avoid that possible perception." Reason for abstention : Jordi Iparraguirre "I'm abstaing for the same reason as Chuck and Edmon. Our vote in the GNSO follows the decisions taken by our constituency, and we had no time to discuss it." Reasons for abstention: Avri Doria Due to CSG concerns about the ethics of my decision to join the NCUC and about the propriety of my continuing to vote as an NCA, I abstain from all votes in the council until such time as the Board Structural Improvements Committee decides on the disposition of the CSG letter of concern. I do this so that there can be no later dispute concerning policy decisions of the GNSO council based on questions about my status. 2. Amendment to Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition Motion made by Chuck Gomes on 23 September 2009 and seconded by Mary Wong In the following Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition originally submitted on 15 September and amended on 17 September, add the following to step 9 of the Plan: "As the first substantial item on the agenda of 28 October, the new council members will discuss and vote on the updated Council Operating Procedures. Approval of the Procedures will require a majority of the voting members of each house for approval. Any amendment that results from comments submitted, will need to be voted on prior to the vote on the Procedures and will also require a majority of the voting members of each house." 2 a. Motion to Approve Plan for Bicameral Council Seat Transition http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/amended-motion-bicameral-council-seat-transitio... The amendment and the motion passed by voice vote. Councillors present at the time of the vote: Philip Sheppard, Zahid Jamil, Kristina Rosette, Cyril Chua, Tony Harris, Maggie Mansourkia, Mary Wong, William Drake, Tim Ruiz, Stéphane van Gelder, Edmon Chung, Chuck Gomes, Olga Cavalli. One abstention - Avri Doria, Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA) Avri Doria was referred to in the motion and thus abstained from voting. 3. Council reached consensus and the Draft GNSO Council Operating Procedures will be posted for Public Comment along with the amendment which was modified to include comments with the document noting the issues with regard to counting of abstention votes and noting that additional work may be needed on that. http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/public-comment-draft-17sep09-en.pdf 4. The GNSO Council Motion to approve Internationalized Registration Data Working Group Charter Motion proposed by Chuck Gomes seconded by Philip Sheppard. Whereas: * There have been increasing community concerns that the current WHOIS service is deficient in a number of ways, including technical areas as noted in recent SSAC reports, such as accessibility and readability of WHOIS contact information in an internationalized domain name (IDN) environment. * On 21 April 2009, the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) published a report titled SAC037 "Display and usage of Internationalized Registration Data" (SAC037) located at http://www.icann.org/committees/security/sac037.pdf. * On 26 June 2009 the ICANN Board approved a resolutionrequesting that the GNSO and SSAC, in consultation with staff, convene an Internationalized Registration Data Working Group (IRD WG) comprised of individuals with knowledge, expertise, and experience in these areas to study the feasibility and suitability of introducing display specifications to deal with the internationalization of Registration Data. * In the 26 June resolution, the Board directs the Internationalized Registration Data Working Group to solicit input from interested constituencies including ccTLD operators and the ccNSO during its discussions to ensure broad community input. * ICANN Staff in cooperation with members of the GNSO Council and SSAC developed a draft charter for said working group as attached. The GNSO Council: * Approves the IRD WG draft charter, and * Encourages GNSO constituencies, stakeholder groups and other GNSO participants to identify possible participants of the IRD WG with knowledge, expertise, and experience in these areas to study the feasibility and suitability of introducing display specifications to deal with the internationalization of Registration Data. Internationalized Data Registration WG Draft Charter 15 Sep 09.doc http://gnso.icann.org/drafts/internationalized-data-registration-wg-draft-ch... The motion was passed by voice vote. Councillors present at the time of the vote: Philip Sheppard, Kristina Rosette, Cyril Chua, Tony Harris, Maggie Mansourkia, Mary Wong, William Drake, Tim Ruiz, Stéphane van Gelder, Chuck Gomes, Olga Cavalli. One abstention - Avri Doria, Nominating Committee Appointee (NCA) Avri Doria stated the following reason for abstaining Due to CSG concerns about the ethics of my decision to join the NCUC and about the propriety of my continuing to vote as an NCA, I abstain from all votes in the council until such time as the Board Structural Improvements Committee decides on the disposition of the CSG letter of concern. I do this so that there can be no later dispute concerning policy decisions of the GNSO council based on questions about my status. Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org