Dear members of the NARALO: I have drafted a letter to the Board for discussion at our upcoming teleconference. I would appreciate any initial feedback to refine this letter as required. Dear ICANN board directors: While we are aware that you have been monitoring the public outrage in response to registrar activities that have been variously described as "front-running" and/or "domain reservation" or "cart-hold" or "cart-reserve" activities, we are of the view that the obligation to safeguard the operational stability of Registrar Services now requires the immediate temporary establishment of a consensus policy curtailing such practices to be taken in accordance with the board's authority under the provisions set out in section 4.3.4 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, that states: "A specification or policy established by the ICANN Board of Directors on a temporary basis, without a prior recommendation by the council of an ICANN Supporting Organization, shall also be considered to be a Consensus Policy if adopted by the ICANN Board of Directors by a vote of at least two-thirds of its members, so long as the Board reasonably determines that immediate temporary establishment of a specification or policy on the subject is necessary to maintain the operational stability of Registrar Services, Registry Services, the DNS, or the Internet, and that the proposed specification or policy is as narrowly tailored as feasible to achieve those objectives." Please be advised that we have reached this conclusion based in part upon the following considerations: 1. The use of "cart-hold" or "cart-reserve" systems has been actively under discussion within the registrars constituency since early October 2007 when three different registrars first advanced the concept within the context of a straw poll on the impact to registrants were the AGP to be eliminated in its entirety (footnote 1) -- see http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05123.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05130.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing- lists/archives/registrars/msg05131.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05380.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05626.html 2. The use of this domain name reservation practice next came to be adopted by a large-volume registrar (Network Solutions) on or about 8 January 2008, and the practice was immediately condemned by the community at large (with extensive coverage in the Tech media, the general press, in blogs world wide, on domain name forums, and on community discussion lists). 3. The actions of Network Solutions has now spawned a similar project on the part of another large-volume registrar (register.com), and we have no reason to believe that other large-volume registrars will refrain from rapidly setting up comparable efforts. (footnote -- see http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p... ) While we recognize that we are unable to point to an ICANN-approved definition of "operational stability of Registrar Services" (as no such definition exists within either current ICANN contracts or supporting materials), we take guidance from the ICANN Policy Document ICP-3 which posits that activities that do not interfere with the operation of the DNS are, generally speaking, those that operate within community-established norms. Such norms tend to respect a set of long-established principles such as the principle of least astonishment. When registrants currently search for a domain name at these registrars using normative search practices, they are clearly astonished by that which results from their efforts: the inability to readily register the domain name of their choice with a more competitive registrar and/or the domain name that they have selected appearing in the WHOIS with the name of the registrar as the registrant of record (footnote -- see http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p... ). The community's trust in ICANN's ability to manage the Domain Name System is at stake. It is inappropriate for such registrar activities to proceed unabated in a policy vaccuum. Accordingly we call upon the ICANN board to establish a temporary narrowly-tailored policy as a stopgap until such time as the relevant policy-recommending ICANN Supporting Organizations can provide a comprehensive consensus policy solution. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
In case I am unable to attend the next NARALO call, I wanted to express my support for this view, and hope NARALO can issue such a letter. The point is well stated and appropriate. Michael Maranda On Sat, Mar 1, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Danny Younger <dannyyounger@yahoo.com> wrote:
Dear members of the NARALO:
I have drafted a letter to the Board for discussion at our upcoming teleconference. I would appreciate any initial feedback to refine this letter as required.
Dear ICANN board directors:
While we are aware that you have been monitoring the public outrage in response to registrar activities that have been variously described as "front-running" and/or "domain reservation" or "cart-hold" or "cart-reserve" activities, we are of the view that the obligation to safeguard the operational stability of Registrar Services now requires the immediate temporary establishment of a consensus policy curtailing such practices to be taken in accordance with the board's authority under the provisions set out in section 4.3.4 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, that states:
"A specification or policy established by the ICANN Board of Directors on a temporary basis, without a prior recommendation by the council of an ICANN Supporting Organization, shall also be considered to be a Consensus Policy if adopted by the ICANN Board of Directors by a vote of at least two-thirds of its members, so long as the Board reasonably determines that immediate temporary establishment of a specification or policy on the subject is necessary to maintain the operational stability of Registrar Services, Registry Services, the DNS, or the Internet, and that the proposed specification or policy is as narrowly tailored as feasible to achieve those objectives."
Please be advised that we have reached this conclusion based in part upon the following considerations:
1. The use of "cart-hold" or "cart-reserve" systems has been actively under discussion within the registrars constituency since early October 2007 when three different registrars first advanced the concept within the context of a straw poll on the impact to registrants were the AGP to be eliminated in its entirety (footnote 1)
-- see http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05123.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05130.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing- lists/archives/registrars/msg05131.html<http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05131.html> http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05380.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05626.html
2. The use of this domain name reservation practice next came to be adopted by a large-volume registrar (Network Solutions) on or about 8 January 2008, and the practice was immediately condemned by the community at large (with extensive coverage in the Tech media, the general press, in blogs world wide, on domain name forums, and on community discussion lists).
3. The actions of Network Solutions has now spawned a similar project on the part of another large-volume registrar (register.com), and we have no reason to believe that other large-volume registrars will refrain from rapidly setting up comparable efforts.
(footnote -- see
http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p... )
While we recognize that we are unable to point to an ICANN-approved definition of "operational stability of Registrar Services" (as no such definition exists within either current ICANN contracts or supporting materials), we take guidance from the ICANN Policy Document ICP-3 which posits that activities that do not interfere with the operation of the DNS are, generally speaking, those that operate within community-established norms.
Such norms tend to respect a set of long-established principles such as the principle of least astonishment. When registrants currently search for a domain name at these registrars using normative search practices, they are clearly astonished by that which results from their efforts: the inability to readily register the domain name of their choice with a more competitive registrar and/or the domain name that they have selected appearing in the WHOIS with the name of the registrar as the registrant of record
(footnote -- see
http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p... ).
The community's trust in ICANN's ability to manage the Domain Name System is at stake. It is inappropriate for such registrar activities to proceed unabated in a policy vaccuum. Accordingly we call upon the ICANN board to establish a temporary narrowly-tailored policy as a stopgap until such time as the relevant policy-recommending ICANN Supporting Organizations can provide a comprehensive consensus policy solution.
____________________________________________________________________________________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs
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I have drafted a letter to the Board for discussion at our upcoming teleconference. I would appreciate any initial feedback to refine this letter as required.
I'd also say that front running clearly violates the RAA's requirement that the registrar have assurance of payment for each domain they register. If ICANN fails to enforce the terms of the RAA, what is the point of having an RAA in the first place? Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, ex-Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.
There's nothing I would change, and you have my personal support and the support of my organization in this position. Beau Brendler -----Original Message----- From: na-discuss-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:na-discuss-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Danny Younger Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 12:22 PM To: NA Discuss Subject: [NA-Discuss] Letter to the ICANN Board Dear members of the NARALO: I have drafted a letter to the Board for discussion at our upcoming teleconference. I would appreciate any initial feedback to refine this letter as required. Dear ICANN board directors: While we are aware that you have been monitoring the public outrage in response to registrar activities that have been variously described as "front-running" and/or "domain reservation" or "cart-hold" or "cart-reserve" activities, we are of the view that the obligation to safeguard the operational stability of Registrar Services now requires the immediate temporary establishment of a consensus policy curtailing such practices to be taken in accordance with the board's authority under the provisions set out in section 4.3.4 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, that states: "A specification or policy established by the ICANN Board of Directors on a temporary basis, without a prior recommendation by the council of an ICANN Supporting Organization, shall also be considered to be a Consensus Policy if adopted by the ICANN Board of Directors by a vote of at least two-thirds of its members, so long as the Board reasonably determines that immediate temporary establishment of a specification or policy on the subject is necessary to maintain the operational stability of Registrar Services, Registry Services, the DNS, or the Internet, and that the proposed specification or policy is as narrowly tailored as feasible to achieve those objectives." Please be advised that we have reached this conclusion based in part upon the following considerations: 1. The use of "cart-hold" or "cart-reserve" systems has been actively under discussion within the registrars constituency since early October 2007 when three different registrars first advanced the concept within the context of a straw poll on the impact to registrants were the AGP to be eliminated in its entirety (footnote 1) -- see http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05123.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05130.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing- lists/archives/registrars/msg05131.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05380.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05626.html 2. The use of this domain name reservation practice next came to be adopted by a large-volume registrar (Network Solutions) on or about 8 January 2008, and the practice was immediately condemned by the community at large (with extensive coverage in the Tech media, the general press, in blogs world wide, on domain name forums, and on community discussion lists). 3. The actions of Network Solutions has now spawned a similar project on the part of another large-volume registrar (register.com), and we have no reason to believe that other large-volume registrars will refrain from rapidly setting up comparable efforts. (footnote -- see http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.p hp?p_faqid=2796&p_created=1185549188&p_sid=*Nq5PxZi&p_accessibility=0&p_ lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01NDImcF 9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2Vhcm NoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1 ) While we recognize that we are unable to point to an ICANN-approved definition of "operational stability of Registrar Services" (as no such definition exists within either current ICANN contracts or supporting materials), we take guidance from the ICANN Policy Document ICP-3 which posits that activities that do not interfere with the operation of the DNS are, generally speaking, those that operate within community-established norms. Such norms tend to respect a set of long-established principles such as the principle of least astonishment. When registrants currently search for a domain name at these registrars using normative search practices, they are clearly astonished by that which results from their efforts: the inability to readily register the domain name of their choice with a more competitive registrar and/or the domain name that they have selected appearing in the WHOIS with the name of the registrar as the registrant of record (footnote -- see http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.p hp?p_faqid=2796&p_created=1185549188&p_sid=*Nq5PxZi&p_accessibility=0&p_ lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01NDImcF 9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2Vhcm NoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1 ). The community's trust in ICANN's ability to manage the Domain Name System is at stake. It is inappropriate for such registrar activities to proceed unabated in a policy vaccuum. Accordingly we call upon the ICANN board to establish a temporary narrowly-tailored policy as a stopgap until such time as the relevant policy-recommending ICANN Supporting Organizations can provide a comprehensive consensus policy solution. ________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ------ NA-Discuss mailing list NA-Discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss_atlarge-lists .icann.org Visit the NA-RALO Wiki at https://st.icann.org/naralo/ ------ *** Scanned
I think it is an excellent letter; I also support it. -- Jean Armour Polly http://www.netmom.com/
I think it is an excellent letter; I also support it.
I agree with everything in it, but I do think that a question about RAA enforcement or the egregiously lack thereof would be useful. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://www.johnlevine.com, ex-Mayor "More Wiener schnitzel, please", said Tom, revealingly.
Hello all, So far I have not heard from anyone speaking against the contents of this letter. At next week's meeting we will hold a vote on endorsement of the letter. It will make our case stronger if the endorsement is unanimous -- so if you have any concerns or comments, please state them before or at the conference call. If the motion for NARALO to endorse the letter passes -- unanimous or not -- I will forward it to ALAC for further endorsement. It would be prefereable to have all of ALAC endorse this, but even if not I will request that our letter be conveyed to the Board by its ALAC representative. I am especially appreciative to Danny for his initiation of this action. As has been already said, our movement on this perhaps suggests that we (if not all of ALAC, at least the NA region) wants to be proactive on issues and not simply respond to the reactive agenda that ICANN would set for us. - Evan
I think that this letter is an excellent way for the NARALO to be pro-active on an issue rather than merely re-active. D Darlene A. Thompson Community Access Program Administrator Nunavut Department of Education/N-CAP c/o P.O. Box 1000, Station 910 Iqaluit, NU X0A 0H0 Phone: (867) 975-5631 Fax: (867) 975-5610 dthompson@gov.nu.ca -----Original Message----- From: na-discuss-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org [mailto:na-discuss-bounces@atlarge-lists.icann.org] On Behalf Of Danny Younger Sent: Saturday, March 01, 2008 12:22 PM To: NA Discuss Subject: [NA-Discuss] Letter to the ICANN Board Dear members of the NARALO: I have drafted a letter to the Board for discussion at our upcoming teleconference. I would appreciate any initial feedback to refine this letter as required. Dear ICANN board directors: While we are aware that you have been monitoring the public outrage in response to registrar activities that have been variously described as "front-running" and/or "domain reservation" or "cart-hold" or "cart-reserve" activities, we are of the view that the obligation to safeguard the operational stability of Registrar Services now requires the immediate temporary establishment of a consensus policy curtailing such practices to be taken in accordance with the board's authority under the provisions set out in section 4.3.4 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, that states: "A specification or policy established by the ICANN Board of Directors on a temporary basis, without a prior recommendation by the council of an ICANN Supporting Organization, shall also be considered to be a Consensus Policy if adopted by the ICANN Board of Directors by a vote of at least two-thirds of its members, so long as the Board reasonably determines that immediate temporary establishment of a specification or policy on the subject is necessary to maintain the operational stability of Registrar Services, Registry Services, the DNS, or the Internet, and that the proposed specification or policy is as narrowly tailored as feasible to achieve those objectives." Please be advised that we have reached this conclusion based in part upon the following considerations: 1. The use of "cart-hold" or "cart-reserve" systems has been actively under discussion within the registrars constituency since early October 2007 when three different registrars first advanced the concept within the context of a straw poll on the impact to registrants were the AGP to be eliminated in its entirety (footnote 1) -- see http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05123.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05130.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing- lists/archives/registrars/msg05131.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05380.html http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05626.html 2. The use of this domain name reservation practice next came to be adopted by a large-volume registrar (Network Solutions) on or about 8 January 2008, and the practice was immediately condemned by the community at large (with extensive coverage in the Tech media, the general press, in blogs world wide, on domain name forums, and on community discussion lists). 3. The actions of Network Solutions has now spawned a similar project on the part of another large-volume registrar (register.com), and we have no reason to believe that other large-volume registrars will refrain from rapidly setting up comparable efforts. (footnote -- see http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.p hp?p_faqid=2796&p_created=1185549188&p_sid=*Nq5PxZi&p_accessibility=0&p_ lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01NDImcF 9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2Vhcm NoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1 ) While we recognize that we are unable to point to an ICANN-approved definition of "operational stability of Registrar Services" (as no such definition exists within either current ICANN contracts or supporting materials), we take guidance from the ICANN Policy Document ICP-3 which posits that activities that do not interfere with the operation of the DNS are, generally speaking, those that operate within community-established norms. Such norms tend to respect a set of long-established principles such as the principle of least astonishment. When registrants currently search for a domain name at these registrars using normative search practices, they are clearly astonished by that which results from their efforts: the inability to readily register the domain name of their choice with a more competitive registrar and/or the domain name that they have selected appearing in the WHOIS with the name of the registrar as the registrant of record (footnote -- see http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.p hp?p_faqid=2796&p_created=1185549188&p_sid=*Nq5PxZi&p_accessibility=0&p_ lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01NDImcF 9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2Vhcm NoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1 ). The community's trust in ICANN's ability to manage the Domain Name System is at stake. It is inappropriate for such registrar activities to proceed unabated in a policy vaccuum. Accordingly we call upon the ICANN board to establish a temporary narrowly-tailored policy as a stopgap until such time as the relevant policy-recommending ICANN Supporting Organizations can provide a comprehensive consensus policy solution. ________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ------ NA-Discuss mailing list NA-Discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss_atlarge-lists .icann.org Visit the NA-RALO Wiki at https://st.icann.org/naralo/ ------
participants (7)
-
Brendler, Beau -
Danny Younger -
Evan Leibovitch -
Jean Armour Polly -
John Levine -
Michael Maranda -
Thompson, Darlene