http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-7-04jun12-en.htm RAA Negotiations - Update 4 June 2012 In advance of the Prague Meeting, ICANN is posting a group of documents on the status of negotiation of amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). While ICANN and the Registrars have made progress in the negotiations, the negotiations are not complete and there remain key areas of difference. Of highest priority for ICANN are the areas of Whois verification and data retention requirements, where ICANN and Registrars are not able to agree on certain aspects of the law enforcement recommendations. Because these two areas are so important, ICANN and the registrars are not able to post consolidated, negotiated amendments in advance of the Prague meeting. The memorandum described below explains this more fully; the draft RAA posted reflects ICANN's most recent proposal. · In the RAA Negotiations Summary Memo<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-raa-negotiation-i...> [PDF, 100 KB], we provide detail on the status of the negotiations and provide some discussion on topics that we propose for discussion at the 25 June 2012 public session in Prague on the negotiations. The companion Summary Chart<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-raa-negotiations-...> [PDF, 68 KB] provides a short description of the status of negotiations on each of the 12 law enforcement recommendations as well as other negotiation topics. These documents each reflect ICANN's understanding of the status of negotiations. · The Draft 2012 RAA<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-draft-2012-raa-03...> [PDF, 244 KB] is ICANN's most recent proposal for a new RAA, and is not a negotiated document. While the draft incorporates many terms that have been the subject of negotiations between the ICANN and Registrar Negotiation Teams, the draft also sets forth ICANN's current negotiating position on issues such as data retention, Whois verification, reseller relationships, and others. The Draft 2012 RAA is for discussion only, and does not reflect or incorporate finalized or approved language. ICANN is not posting a redline comparison of this Draft 2012 RAA to the 2009 RAA, as major portions of the document have been re-structured or re-organized, making a redline difficult to read. Instead, to help identify the changes proposed in the Draft 2012 RAA, we are providing a Summary of Changes<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-raa-summary-chang...> [PDF, 343 KB] document that discusses the changes from the 2009 RAA<http://www.icann.org/en/resources/registrars/raa/ra-agreement-21may09-en.htm>. The Draft 2012 RAA is comprised ICANN's proposed language for many separate specifications that will be attached to the RAA, each attached here in ICANN's proposed draft form: o Whois Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-registration-data...> [PDF, 148 KB] - a proposed Whois SLA and other requirements o Whois Accuracy Program Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-whois-accuracy-03...> [PDF, 72 KB] - a Whois validation/verification program o Data Retention Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-data-retention-03...> [PDF, 57 KB] - registrar data retention obligations o Additional Registrar Operation Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-registrar-op-03ju...> [PDF, 70 KB] - new requirements for DNSSEC, IPv4/IPv6, and IDNs o Consensus Policy and Temporary Policy Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-consensus-temp-po...> [PDF, 98 KB] - Clarifying and consolidating the allowed topics for new Consensus Policies o Registrar Information Specification<http://prague44.icann.org/meetings/prague2012/presentation-registrar-info-03...> [PDF, 72 KB] - the categories of information that Registrars must keep updated with ICANN, as well as public posting requirements for some of that information Because the language is not finalized within the draft, ICANN is not at this stage seeking comment on the specific terms and provisions within the Draft 2012 RAA. We do, however, welcome feedback on the discussion topics identified in the RAA Summary Negotiations Memo to help inform the community discussion in Prague. If you have general feedback you'd like to provide, please leave a comment on the RAA Negotiations Status WIKI<https://community.icann.org/display/RAA/Negotiations+Between+ICANN+and+Regis...>. Glen de Saint Géry GNSO Secretariat gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org http://gnso.icann.org