ICANN-accredited registrars and ICANN commenced a series of direct bilateral negotiations to amend and update the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) in November, 2011.  ICANN and the registrar negotiation teams have concluded their negotiations.    The ICANN Board of Directors approved the new 2013 RAA on 27 June  2013.

Negotiation Goals/Objectives 

During the ICANN Dakar Meeting, ICANN and the Registrar Stakeholder Group announced their agreement to commence negotiations on possible amendments to the RAA to address recommendations made by law enforcement agencies and the GNSO, provide increased protections for registrants, to enhance  security generally, and to increase predictability for all stakeholders.  

At its meeting in Dakar, the ICANN Board directed these negotiations to commence immediately, with the goal of reaching agreement on amendments that are “in the global public interest with the twin goals of registrant protection and stability...” for consideration by the ICANN Board at the Costa Rica Meeting.  

ICANN and the Registrars have agreed to discuss the following topics in these negotiations: 

  • The law enforcement RAA recommendations, including as formulated by law enforcement in its proposed code of conduct;
  • The “High Priority” recommendations from the joint GNSO/ALAC RAA Drafting Team’s Final Report (see Final Report);
  • To the extent time permits, the  “Medium Priority” recommendations from the joint GNSO/ALAC RAA Drafting Team’s Final Report;
  • Other topics that would advance the goals of registrant protection, DNS stability, and increased predictability for all stakeholders.

Background

In 2009, the GNSO Council embarked on a collaborative process with the At Large Advisory Committee regarding the RAA.  As part of this process, a joint GNSO/ALAC drafting team was formed (known as the RAA Drafting Team or, “RAA DT”) to consider various proposals for improvements to the RAA. The RAA DT reviewed proposals from the law enforcement community, the Intellectual Property Constituency, as well as other stakeholders.  The RAA DT published a Final Report on 18 October, 2010, that identified potential topics to be addressed in an amended RAA.  The RAA DT also propose several  next steps for the GNSO Council to consider in determining whether to recommend a new form of RAA.   

Prior to Dakar, Staff published a Discussion Paper on the Next Steps for the RAA that recommended the immediate commencement of bilateral negotiations with the Registrars.   At Dakar, law enforcement representatives and other stakeholders debated the need for additional amendments to the RAA. 

In Dakar, the ICANN Board adopted a resolution (2011.10.28.31) <http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-28oct11-en.htm#7> acknowledging that the effort to evolve the RAA is an important element in a program to protect registrants and safeguard the stability of a single interoperable Internet.  The resolution called for immediate negotiations and called on the negotiating teams to publish proposed amendments for consideration at ICANN’s meeting in Costa Rica in March 2012. The Board resolution called on the negotiating teams to address of law enforcement and GNSO working group recommendations as well as other topics that would advance the twin goals of registrant protection and DNS stability.  The ICANN Board also directed Staff to prepare an Issues Report with respect to any remaining items suited for a PDP.

The Registrars Stakeholder Group and ICANN announced in Dakar the immediate commencement of negotiations on the RAA. 

Update:

 

ICANN published the Proposed Final 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement for public comment at:

http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-22apr13-en.htm

For a detailed overview of the improvements to the Proposed Final 2013 RAA, please listen to  the webinar recording   or view the slides from the webinar conducted by ICANN Staff on April 30th.   

ICANN and the Registrar Negotiating Team commenced negotiation on amendments to the RAA in October 2011. Since the 7 March 2013 version was posted, ICANN and the Registrars (through the Registrar Negotiating Team) continued to reach agreement on the proposed text of the 2013 RAA, which was posted for community comment on April 22, 2013.   These include:

The Proposed Specifications and Addendums:

Section IV: Additional Information: 

A Report of the Public Comments submitted in response to the 7 March 2013 posting of the RAA is available here [PDF, 178 KB].

Documents related to the revisions of the WHOIS Bulk Access provisions (Section 3.3.6 of the RAA):

  • Letter to Kurt Pritz from Demand Media  6 May 2011
  • Letter to Kurt Prtiz from Network Solutions, 23 January 2010
  • Summary of Economic Analysis performed by Joshua Wright, Professor, George Mason University School of Law and Department of Economics

Documents related to the GNSO policy development process (PDP) to commence on the "remaining issues" left unresolved at the conclusion of the negotiations:

 


 

Archive


Archive of Documents Related to the Beijing Meeting:

In advance of the Beijing Meeting, on   ICANN posted a group of documents on the status of negotiation of amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). These include:

More information iis available by reviewing the archives of the Beijing Session.

Archive of Documents Related to the Toronto Meeting:

In advance of the Toronto Meeting, on 24 September 2012,  ICANN posted a group of documents on the status of negotiation of amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). These include:

More information is available by reviewing the Transcript and recording of the Toronto Update on the RAA Session.

  Archive of Documents Posted Prior to the Prague Meeting:

More Information

 

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2 Comments

  1. Has a security analysis been conducted on the verification proposals? I'm concerned that these steps would add new opportunities to steal domains from legitimate registrants. (Consider all the challenges that the IRTP groups have analyzed, for example.)

  2. August 27 update says "More details are available on the individual meeting reports posted on the WIKI." Where?

    Please include links, as RAA Negotiation Meeting Reports has not been updated since May.