Refer comments and/or corrections to mpalage@ipwarehouse.com
Chuck Gomes NSI chuckg@netsol.com David Johnson Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering djohnson@wilmer.com Michael D. Palage InfoNetworks mpalage@ipwarehouse.com Eric Eden Verio eeden@verio.net Paul Stahuna eNom stahuna@enom.com John Kane CSC Jkane@cscinfo.com Richard Lindsay InterQ richard@interg.ad.jp Bob Connelly Procurement Services tconnelly@psi-japan.com Jordi Himajasa Lauren Gaviser Register.com lgaviser@register.com Jeau Michel Becar ETSI becar@etsi.fr Amadeu Abril i Abril Nominalia amadeu@nominalia.com Louis Touton Jones Day/ICANN lltouton@jonesday.com Gregoire Seneclauze France Telekom Ken Stubbs CORE kstubbs@corenic.org Hal Lubsen Domain Bank hlubsen@altronics.com Ivan Pope NetNames ivan@netnames.com
A registrar is an entity that acts as a (technical and operational) interface between domain name holders ("registrants") and a TLD registry, pursuant to a right to write records to the registry database providing registration services for the public as a business enterprise. Registrars directly submit to the registry zone file information and other data for each of their customers in a given TLD.
(1) Accredited Registrars and those entities intended to be accredited by ICANN as Registrars.
The group decided that initial membership in the Registrar Constituency would be broken down into two distinct time frames. The first time frame being that period of time preceding 90 days after conclusion of the testbed stage. The second time frame being the 90 day post testbed period conclusion.
For membership during the testbed and 90 day post testbed period membership would be limited to the following three classes:
For membership following the 90 post testbed period, membership would be initially be exclusively limited to ICANN accredited registrars.
NSI and their counsel David Johnson, voiced their collective concerns that this definition on its face would exclude NSI from participating in the 90 post testbed stage since it was not their intention to sign the current registrar agreement with ICANN.
This was in response to a statement from Louis Touton, representative counsel for ICANN, that NSI would be required to be bound by the same requirements that all other ICANN registrars. At the beginning of the meeting representatives from NSI made the collective statement that NSI had two divisions – a registry and registrar. However, it was unclear from the discussions the basis of NSI’s objection to sign an agreement and if this objection was raised on behalf of both NSI divisions.
After several comments from the group that the topic of conversation had gotten off track, the discussion was turned to the remaining.
(2) Representative Associations
After a brief discussion the group as a majority agreed that allowing a representative association an independent membership, without first seeking independent ICANN accreditation, would violate the one registrar one vote rule. However, the group did agreed in principal that nothing would preclude a member of association (i.e. CORE) from seeking independent ICANN approval and therefore gaining their own independent membership and voting privileges.
(3) ccTLD Registrars
The primary discussion involving this class centered on non-ICANN accredited ccTLD registrars. After much heated debate, the group decide to defer for further consideration how to handle membership for ccTLD registrar. It was unamiously agreeed upon that this group has potentially valuable insight into .
However, there was a concern voiced by Kenn [AAA: Ken] Stubbs and agreed upon by several other participants that there was a fundamental problem that need to be addressed. Specifically, allowing a registrar to participate in the formation of policy making decisions that they themselves would not be bound by. Ken Stubbs offers the poignant example of him travelling north to Canada and trying to lobby, propose and enact legislation for the Canadian people with the returning to the confines of the United States of America. The group expressed a genuine interest in adopting guidelines to allow for the inclusion of ccTLDs registrars, however, time did not permit for this resolution of this matter. It was therefore decided that a special committee would be commissioned to look into this matter in a prudently expeditious matter.
The adoption of this definition was not without opposition. In addition to NSI, protests a representative from South Africa (get name and organization) voiced his concern that this initial determination effectively preclude him and similarly situated ccTLDs registrars from initially particpating in this Constituency group. He then voiced his opinion that his own recourse was to petition ICANN for the recognition of a new Constituency Group since he did not feel that the ccTLD group could adequately protect his interest.
(4) Reseller and Others
The group as a whole welcomed non-voting participation from anyone or any group that could offer valuable contributions to the efforts of this constituency group. The group agreed to adopt and implement an open and transparent process for running this group.