Dear IRT members,

As you know, on 7 February 2014, the ICANN Board adopted GNSO consensus policy recommendations regarding the provision of “Thick” Whois by all gTLD registries.

In consultation with the consensus policy Implementation Review Team (IRT), the implementation team identified two expected outcomes in the policy development process (PDP) recommendations:

• The consistent labeling and display of WHOIS output for all gTLDs
• The transition from Thin to Thick WHOIS for .COM, .NET and .JOBS

The first outcome was published as a consensus policy, the Registry Registration Data Directory Services Consistent Labeling and Display Policy (CL&D Policy), on 26 July 2016.

In August 2016, the Registry Stakeholder Group (RySG) submitted a Request for Reconsideration (RfR) regarding the CL&D Policy. The RfR objects to the inclusion of RDAP as part of the Consensus Policy as RDAP was not contemplated or referenced in the policy recommendations.

To resolve this matter, ICANN proposes the following path forward for the IRT:

1. ICANN to issue a revised CL&D Policy to all registry operators, removing provision 12. For your reference, provision 12 states: “The implementation of an RDAP service in accordance with the "RDAP Operational Profile for gTLD Registries and Registrars" is required for all gTLD registries in order to achieve consistent labeling and display.” Additionally, I have attached the proposed revised CL&D Policy.

2. Issue a revised notification to registry operators regarding implementation of the CL&D Policy, clearly indicating what has changed in the revised CL&D Policy.

3. Set the revised CL&D Policy effective date to allow for full 6-month implementation from the date of the revised notice.

4. Update the published CL&D Policy on the ICANN website, noting a change has been made. Note: The revised CL&D Policy would not be subject to another Public Comment process.

5. Rescind the notification sent to registrars to implement RDAP.

ICANN intends to issue notices for registries and registrars to implement RDAP after further dialogue with the community.

Please let us know if you have comments or concerns by responding to this list. Unless we hear otherwise, we intend to move forward with the plan outlined above on 4 October 2016.

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