Page History

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2019 ALAC Policy Comments & Advice
At-Large Policy Summary
At-Large Executive Summary page
Multistakeholder Advice Development graphic
Consolidated Policy Working Group (CPWG)

Recently Ratified by the ALAC

Comment

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: Proposed Renewal of .asia Registry Agreement
The ALAC supports the proposed changes to the .asia (DotAsia) renewal agreement, with (3) comments related to universal acceptance (UA), public interest commitments and fees to be paid to ICANN org.

Comment: ALAC Statement on Registry Agreement Renewals .org, .biz and .info
The ALAC generally refrained from commenting on these prior proposed Registry Agreement renewals, with the exception of the proposed renewal of the .NET Registry Agreement in 2017. The ALAC in general favors standardizing Registry Agreements as this allows for transparency and predictability, as well as ease of review and compliance monitoring of one standard contract (with necessary but controlled variations through Addendums) instead of managing many disparate/varying contracts. Being supportive of this approach, the ALAC has not objected to the base Registry Agreement, or to its use in prior renewals.

In respect of the intent to standardize the said 3 proposed Registry Agreement renewals (.org, .biz, .info), the ALAC welcomes the following proposals:

(i) inclusion of Public Interest Commitments (per Specification 11), 
(ii) inclusion of Minimum requirements for Rights Protection Mechanisms (per Specification 7), 
(iii) adoption of the Registry Code of Conduct (per Specification 9), and
(iv) amendment of the relevant section in Specification 5 to govern the allocation of two-character labels at the second level to avoid confusion with corresponding country codes.

The ALAC also noted there are differences in opinion within At-Large regarding the omission and quantum of price caps.

Public Comment for Decision

None

During ICANN64, the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) and Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) drafted and approved a Joint GAC-ALAC Statement on the EPDP. The GAC and ALAC are aligned overall with the EPDP Phase I Report, as it pertains to outstanding concerns as articulated in their respective statements to the report. The two advisory committees are in agreement on the need to distinguish between natural and legal persons. In addition, the GAC and ALAC highlighted the importance of data accuracy, the technical contact field, and protecting the public interest. The statement was drafted jointly with the GAC with input from the ALAC Liaison to the GAC, Yrjö Lansipuro, and GAC representative, Cathrin Bauer-Bulst, as well as the At-Large representatives to the EPDP, Hadia Elminiawi and Alan Greenberg.

Comment:Updated Operating Standards for Specific Reviews

It is the view of the ALAC that the level of specificity for specific reviews is necessary to prevent misunderstandings and missteps by any of the parties involved in the review. The ALAC believes scope should be well defined within the confines of bylaws and review teams should be free to pursue their mandate within that scope. Accordingly, the ALAC voiced their strong support for the updates to the Operating Standards for Specific Reviews.

Comment: First Consultation on a 2-Year Planning Process

The ALAC/At-Large community agrees that more time should be given for additional community involvement, and requests that ICANN Org provide a listing of priorities and statements on the impact of each project within ICANN Org and on each of the unique ACs and SOs. The ALAC also encourages ICANN Org to provide the appropriate level of resources to ICANN IT for continued support of services which are vital for community policy work. The ALAC believes that the additional time from 15 months to 2 years would provide more transparency as the community is becomes more aware of priority ranking of projects or has collaborated with ICANN Org on priority ranking. The At-Large Advisory Committee believes that beyond the priorities of keeping the Internet secure and stable, and maintaining the multistakeholder model, the community should be directly involved in setting other priorities. In addition to policy activity, the ALAC emphasizes that outreach and engagement are integral to the planning cycle, and the benefit of CCWGs and CCEGs in planning activities. The ALAC supports a formalized, dedicated planning phase to plan for SO/AC activities. The ALAC noted it strongly believes that for ICANN to be as inclusive as possible, documents should be translated into multiple languages; important community meetings should be held in different time zones and in different languages, with real time translation (language channels) and captioning / real time transcription (RTT) provided on all calls. Finally, the ALAC strongly believes that for ICANN to be seen to be truly multistakeholder-focused and inclusive, then appropriate resources must be made available to remove barriers that might prevent the full participation of the ICANN community in policy activities.

Public Comment for Decision

Proposed Renewal of .biz Registry Agreement  14 May 2019 
Proposed Renewal of .info Registry Agreement 29 Apr 2019 

Current Statements (ALAC Advice, Comment or Correspondence)

5. ICANN65 Updates - Gisella Gruber (5 minutes)

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