Paul, While I support your candidacy to the Non-Com, I do think you disclosure statement needs to be a little more forthcoming along the lines of what Tim Ruiz did in disclosing GoDaddy's joint venture with Afilias. In addition to eNom's involvement in the marketing of .TV names, it is my understanding that you were also recently pursuing the .ME registry contract as well. While I admire the vertically integrated distribution chain building (registry, registrar, and after market) that DemandMedia is building, the process by which many elected registrar representatives claim that they have no access to registry sensitive or proprietary information is a little suspect and a personal sore point for the reasons set forth below. Rob Hall asked a couple of months ago where this language originally came from, let me now take the time to set the record straight on the origins of this exact language. This language originated in connection with the backlash within the registrar constituency when GNR sought accreditation as an ICANN accredited registrar. Now I defended at that time the right of a registry to own a registrar, however at that time most of the registrar constituency was not exactly supportive of my position. Times have changed and we now have registrars advocating for registries to be permitted to own registrars. No doubt because next year with the new TLD process, many of the new applicants will be registrars or their sister companies :-) Now in response to this newly proposed language that was adopted by the constituency, it was deemed that my work as a consultant to Afilias barred me from continuing to stand as chair of the registrar constituency. Now the nature of the "registry sensitive and/or proprietary information" that it was deemed that I had access to was the registrar application form that stated what the minimum account balance a registrar would maintain prior to a registry contacting them to replenish their account. Now looking back I kind of laugh because today large registrars that receive the volume discounts made possible through the new registry agreements, are the only ones that have access to some of the most tightly guarded information in the industry, specifically, the nature of these volume discounts and marketing arrangements. When you look at the recent actions of GoDaddy and eNom to enter directly/indirectly the registry market, and Pool.com's exclusive deal to provide auction services to DotAsia it should be clear that these deals have to involve at least SOME form of registry sensitive or proprietary information. Another reason why I raise the issue of registrars entering into the registry marketplace is because I have been advocating publicly on behalf of .MUSEUM and .POST that registries need some additional flexibilities regarding their distribution models. Obviously I have heard loud and clear the registrar constituency opposition to this approach. However, the continued blurring of the lines between registrar and registry is an issues that needs to addressed if ICANN is going to artificially enforce through contracts a registry registrar distinction. Bruce Tonkin, hopefully you are reading this email, and it is possible for you to ask ICANN staff to provide the community with a public update on the economic study that the ICANN Board approved last year on 18-Oct-2006, see http://www.icann.org/minutes/minutes-18oct06.htm. While I commend staff on the open and transparent process by which they are going about selecting a provider to draft the new TLD RFP, things have been a lot less clear in connection with this economic study. Best regards, Michael -----Original Message----- From: owner-registrars@gnso.icann.org [mailto:owner-registrars@gnso.icann.org] On Behalf Of Paul Stahura Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 1:40 PM To: Registrars Constituency Subject: [registrars] stahura conflicts statement Thank you for the seconds for the nomination committee seat. Below is my statement: I am a fulltime employee of eNom where I'm the founder/CEO. I am also the COO, and board member, of eNom's parent company, Demand Media, Inc. eNom is an accredited registrar that is registering names in all major gTLDs and ccTLDs. eNom also owns a number of other registrars which are primarily used to catch names in the drop for our customers. eNom also provides back-end registrar services for other ICANN accredited registrars. eNom is a minor shareholder of Afilias. I am/was a member of the ICANN whois taskforce. I was the registrar's elected rep to the nomcom for 2007. I am not and never have been in possession of any registry sensitive or proprietary information. Thanks again, Paul