Dear Russ,

Thank you for your message. Verisign and ICANN agree with your statement that the RZMA and the .COM registry agreement both have an impact on the security, stability and resiliency of the root zone infrastructure. This is why we have determined that it is in the public interest for the terms of the two agreements to be the same--to promote the stability of root operations [through the transition] and to remove potential instability that might otherwise arise if the terms did not coincide. 

Warm regards,

Trang

From: Russ Housley <housley@vigilsec.com>
Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2016 at 11:31 AM
To: Trang Nguyen <trang.nguyen@icann.org>
Cc: "iotf@icann.org" <iotf@icann.org>
Subject: Re: [IOTF] Update on RZMA

Trang:

Akram’s blog says:

      ... One of the tasks that must be completed is for ICANN and Verisign
   to enter into a Root Zone Maintainer Agreement (RZMA). Another is to
   extend the .com Registry Agreement to run for the same term as the
   RZMA, which ICANN and Verisign believe enhances the security,
   stability and resiliency of the root zone infrastructure.  …

The RMZA and then .com registry agreement are both important, and
they both have an impact on the security, stability and resiliency of the
root zone infrastructure.  However, I do not understand the need for
them to have the same term.

I do not want to spend valuable time on the call on this topic, but a
short note to the list about this would be helpful to me.

Russ


On Apr 13, 2016, at 5:56 PM, Trang Nguyen via IOTF <iotf@icann.org> wrote:

All,

There was a request for an update regarding the Root Zone Maintainer Agreement (RZMA) to be provided on today’s IOTF call. As ICANN was unable to provide this update on the call due to time constraint, this update is being sent to the IOTF mail list.

On 16 March 2016, Akram published a blog that provided an update regarding the ongoing discussions that ICANN and Verisign are engaged in to finalize the RZMA. The blog can be found at https://www.icann.org/news/blog/a-progress-update-ensuring-the-security-stability-and-resiliency-of-root-zone-maintenance. 

Since the publication of this blog, ICANN and Verisign continue to engage in discussions to finalize the few remaining open items. The target completion date that we shared with the CWG on the last call two weeks ago was mid-April. Although ICANN and Verisign have made progress, that target completion date will be pushed to end of April. Once a draft RZMA is finalized, it will be posted for public review.

Warm regards,

Trang Nguyen