All, A reminder of the background information prepared by Philip Sheppard and previously forwarded by Glen to the Council list. For reference, Philip is now working for the BRG but has long history of involvement in GNSO policy including a time as GNSO Council Chair. Jonathan -----Original Message----- From: BRG [mailto:philip@brandregistrygroup.org] Sent: 28 April 2014 08:26 To: jrobinson@afilias.info Subject: A way forward on the Specification 13 question Jeff, Jonathan, et al The essence of the current GNSO discussion seems to be focusing on the letter of recommendation 19 as it appeared in the final report. That was after various draft reports and 2 years of discussion. I had previously circulated the attached to Council to provide background on those 2 years. The essence is that it was ICANN staff not Council that introduced phrasing on non-discrimination. Compare the final report to the last draft report. Feb 2007: "Registries will be required to use ICANN accredited registrars." August 2007: "Registries must use only ICANN accredited registrars in registering domain names and may not discriminate among such accredited registrars." And Registries wanted to discuss the issue of use of exclusive registrars but did not so in time. Spec 13 is thus NOT inconsistent with Council's deliberation over those 2 years. Focusing on the letter of rec. 19 in the final report is insufficient to judge Council's perspective at that time. Did this backgrounder get discussed? Philip