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GNSO Council Meeting #6 of 2023 held on 14 Jun 2023 during ICANN 77 

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Meeting #6 of 2023 held on 14 Jun 2023 during ICANN 77

Full Agenda  |  Documents  |  Motions

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List. 
• Item 3: Consent Agenda
  • Motion to Commemorate Pam Little

• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Non-Objection of SubPro Timelines

• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - DNS ABUSE
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consideration of Accuracy Scoping Team recommendations in light of 6 month timeline originally established (factoring in April meeting discussion and input received from ICANN org)
• Item 7: GNSO TOWN HALL 
• Item 8: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 8.1 ccNSO & GAC Liaisons updates

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 20 April 2023 were posted on 07 May 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 25 May 2025 were posted on 09 June 2023.
  • Minutes of the GNSO Extraordinary Council meeting on 05 June will be posted on 19 June 2023.

• Item 4: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Non-Objection of SubPro Timelines

  • At ICANN76, the Board resolved to adopt the majority of the recommendations from the Final Report of the New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP. The Board also resolved that the Outputs in Section B of the Scorecard be designated as pending.

  • Further, the Board resolved that several deliverables be completed by the last day of the ICANN77 Public Meeting (15 June 2023):

    1. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard;
    2. A working methodology and IRT work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;
    3. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs; and
    4. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.
  • For item 2, the GNSO Council agreed upon a methodology (Open + Representative) at ICANN76 which effectively completed that item from a Council perspective. However, for items 1, 3, and 4, Council has diligently worked on the each of the items, in conjunction with the respective teams as necessary (e.g., the IDNs EPDP leadership team). 
  • During the Council’s Extraordinary Meeting on 5 June, Council had an initial discussion on all of the work plans and timelines. The work plans and timelines will have been further discussed during Council’s pre-ICANN77 sessions on 11 June, which will likely have been supplemented by Board input on how to resolve the pending recommendations.
  • Council will acknowledge the three work plans and timelines (i.e., for the pending recommendations, IDNs EPDP Phase 2, and closed generics EPDP) and agree to their submission to the ICANN Board.
• Item 5: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - DNS ABUSE
  • In February 2022, the GNSO Council formed a small team of interested Council members to consider what policy efforts, if any, the GNSO Council should consider undertaking to support the efforts already underway in the different parts of the community to tackle DNS abuse. 
  • On 7 October 2022, the DNS Abuse Small Team transmitted its Report to the GNSO Council. Recommendation #2 from the Report recommended the GNSO Council to request, et.al., the Registrar Stakeholder Group “to further the role that bulk registrations play in DNS Abuse as well as measures that Registrars may have already put in place to address this vector. Based on the feedback received, the GNSO Council will consider whether further action on bulk registrations is deemed necessary.”

  • The DNS Abuse Small Team received input from the following groups:

    • Contractual Compliance, ICANN Org
    • DNS Abuse Institute
    • gTLD Registries Stakeholder Group
    • Registrar Stakeholder Group
  • Upon reviewing the feedback, the DNS Abuse Small Team preliminarily concluded that there is not enough information available for bulk registrations to be the subject of further policy work at this time.
  • Council will receive an update from the DNS Abuse small team.
• Item 6: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - Consideration of Accuracy Scoping Team recommendations in light of 6 month timeline originally established (factoring in April meeting discussion and input received from ICANN org)
  • The Registration Data Accuracy (RDA) Scoping Team was initiated by Council in July 2021 per the formation instructions. The Scoping Team was tasked with considering a number of accuracy-related factors including the current enforcement, reporting, measurement, and overall effectiveness of accuracy-related efforts. 
  • The Scoping Team completed:
    • Assignment #1 (enforcement and reporting) and Assignment #2 (measurement of accuracy) and submitted its write up to the Council on 5 September 2022.
    • In the write up, the group suggested moving forward with two proposals that would not require access to registration data, namely a registrar survey (recommendation #1) and a possible registrar audit (recommendation #2) that may help further inform the team’s work on assignment #3 (effectiveness) and #4 (impact & improvements), while it awaits the outcome of the outreach to the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) by ICANN org in relation to proposals that would require access to registration data (recommendation #3). 
  • In November 2021, Council adopted recommendation #3 of the Scoping Team’s write up, which recommended;
    • (i) pausing the work in relation to proposals that require access to registration data,
    • (ii) encouraging ICANN org to proceed with their outreach to the EDPB as well as the Data Protection Impact Assessment in connection with the scenario(s) in which the request and processing of registration data takes place as a matter of urgency, and
    • (iii) requesting that ICANN org and Contracted Parties finalize the negotiations on the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) as soon as practicable as the absence of a completed DPA may act as a roadblock for policy work before Council.
    • In response to the Council’s requests, ICANN org provided the following written update to the GNSO Council on 14 March 2023.
  • ICANN org provided a verbal update to Council during the 20 April meeting. Six months has now passed from the Council’s initial deferral of the Scoping Team’s recommendations 1 and 2. 
  • Council will consider whether a further six month deferral is appropriate or if other next steps are timely e.g., the consideration of the Scoping Team’s recommendations 1 and 2.
• Item 7: GNSO TOWN HALL 
  • To encourage GNSO community engagement with Council, Council is inviting the community to engage directly with it during the ICANN77 meeting. The objective is to have an open and frank discussion with the GNSO Community during which any topics or questions can be raised.
  • One particular topic that Council would like to draw your attention to is the recent trend of attrition in GNSO Working Group participation - a topic discussed during the recent GNSO Policy Webinar. Council is interested to hear from the community on how it can best address this trend.
  • Additional topic prompts will be included closer to the session.

Records of 14 Jun 2023 Meeting

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 14 Jun 2023 Meeting to ALT-PLUS

For brevity, I will just highlight a few things here. For some of the issues, you can glean a wider perspective from GNSO Council Jun 2023 Matters of Interest and/or from GNSO Council Jun 2023 Meeting Records.

1. Next Round of New gTLDs / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations & Other Dependencies

• To recap, GNSO Council considered a draft combined project plan, which attempts to address the 4 deliverables requested of Council by the ICANN Board. For convenience, the 4 deliverables are replicated as follows, as drawn from the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution:

1. 1. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard (the 38 Pending Recommendations);
   2. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;
   3. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs; and
   4. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.

• Ongoing conversations with the Board SubPro Caucus co-leads, Avri Doria and Becky Burr, have led to an update of the approach for the 38 Pending Recommendations. Based on this development, Council did not object to 3 of the 4 deliverables as contained in the Draft SubPro ICANN77 Deliverables: Workplan and Timeline:

a. The 38 Pending Recommendations have been re-organised into 3 categories:

ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting on 6 Jun 2023 

• Agenda 
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting held on 6 Jun 2023

1. Opening and Welcome (3 mins)

- Eduardo Diaz, Moderator
- Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair
- Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair 

2. Next Round of New gTLDs / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendation Recommendations & Other Dependencies (45 mins) 

GNSO Speakers: Paul McGrady (GNSO Council Small Team lead)
ALAC Speaker: Justine Chew (ALAC Liaison to the GNSO) 

(2a) The GNSO plan requested by the Board in respect of the 38 pending recommendations; 
(2b) ALAC's response to draft Closed Generics Framework and ensuing policy process.

3. DNS Abuse (with reference to GNSO Council Small Team on DNS Abuse) (20 mins)

ALAC Speaker: Jonathan Zuck (ALAC Chair)
GNSO Speaker: Greg DiBiase (GNSO Council Vice-Chair)

(3a) ICANN-CPH Contractual Amendment Negotiations Public Comment Proceedings, 29 May - 13 Jul
(3b) ALAC's response to the GNSO DNS Abuse Small Team's draft findings on bulk registrations.

4. Next Steps (5 mins)

- Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair 
- Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair

5. Adjourn

Records of ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting held on 6 Jun 2023

• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• TranscriptMinutes

Special Summary Report of 6 Jun 2023 ALAC-GNSO Council Bilateral Meeting to ALT-PLUS

For brevity, I will just highlight a few key outcomes on the 2 topics that were discussed at this bilateral call. 

1. Next Round of New gTLDs / Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendation Recommendations & Other Dependencies

(2a) The GNSO plan requested by the Board in respect of the 38 pending recommendations;

• As the GNSO Council Small Team lead on the Subsequent Procedures 38 Pending Recommendations, Paul McGrady provided a high level update on where Council stood on these pending recommendations post its Extraordinary meeting yesterday on 5 Jun 2023 ( see report ). He noted that the dialogue between the small team/Council and the Board SubPro caucus / full Board was ongoing as both sides work towards either resolution with the Board, or in some cases, non-adoption, of the pending recommendations by the Board. At present, Council is still considering the positions suggested by its small team on how to approach each of the grouped recommendations. More details of the groupings and corresponding approaches can be found at the small team's wiki (see link the small team's work sheet )
• I responded to Paul's queries about where the ALAC/At-Large stood on these pending recommendations, based on the consultation that was conducted with CPWG on 31 Mar 2023, wherein the ALAC's priority - even from past statements to the SubPro PDP WG and advice to the ICANN Board - concentrated on a handful of topics among the 38 pending recommendations. Those priorities revolve around the enforceability of PICs/RVCs (including the Board-mooted limited Bylaw amendment to fully guard against potential legal challenges against ICANN on questions of mission creep), completion of the Applicant Support implementation guidance work, and possibly the issue brought up by the Board on a possible case-by-case waiver of DNS Abuse obligations on single-registrant TLD registry operators per the RA Spec 11 3(a) and 11 3(b).  
• I made it a point to note that the following in-principle remarks:
  • The ALAC remains respectful of the multi-stakeholder model of policy development, wherein we would respect recommendations derived out of clear community consensus unless new information arises (which were not considered during the PDP) such as the concerns raised by the Board on Rec. 9.2 (i.e. which calls for a blanket waiver on DNS Abuse obligations on single-registrant TLD registry operators per the RA Spec 11 3(a) and 11 3(b) as mentioned above.
  • For topics or issues where no recommendation exists (or where recommendations were not approved by Council, and therefore does not go to the Board of adoption), then the ALAC will continue to socialize its positions on the same. As an example, the issue of Auctions, which bears a composite of 2 parts: (1) the permissability of vs ban on private auctions, and (2) the Vickrey Auction model as a better alternative to the existing ICANN Auctions of Last Resort.  
  • The ALAC and the At-Large are prepared to consider the above-mentioned limited Bylaw amendment approach if that is what the Board deems as the best way to guard against potential legal challenges if ICANN were to enforce contractual PICs/RVCs which a registry or a third party mounts a case for the PIC/RVC being unenforceable for falling outside of ICANN's mission.
• While there wasn't significant divergence on how ALAC's position sat with GNSO's on these pending recommendation, I did touched on one area where both AC and SO might want to collaborate, during implementation perhaps, which is work on ensureing that the mechanism by which PICs/RVCs as submitted/considered and eventually framed and transformed into contractual obligations will enable the formulation of objective commitments with clear criteria for evaluation/enforcement purposes.

(2b) ALAC's response to draft Closed Generics Framework and ensuing policy process

• John McElwaine, GNSO Council Vice-Chair and the GNSO Council Liaison to the Closed Generics Dialogue, spoke on the latest development to the work of the small group for the Dialogue and indicated that a version of the draft Closed Generics Framework would be released very soon (targeting after the small group call on Wed, 6 June). He also reminded us that whatever the framework read, it would still need to undergo some policy development process to actually generate policy recommendations. An EPDP is being mooted by Council as the policy vehicle for this purpose, although it has yet to be decided by Council. John however confirmed - in response to my request - that the policy vehicle ought to be of a cross-community nature, involving the ALAC and the GAC and others. 

2. DNS Abuse (with reference to GNSO Council Small Team on DNS Abuse)

(3a) ICANN-CPH Contractual Amendment Negotiations Public Comment Proceedings, 29 May - 13 Jul

• Jonathan Zuck, ALAC Chair, expressed satisfaction that the question of clarity needed for DNS Abuse obligations on the part of Contracted Parties is finally being attempted to be addressed through the ICANN-CPH contractual amendment negotiations as this has been long requested by the community.
• Greg DiBiase, GNSO Council Vice-Chair, echoed Jonathan's sentiment and reiterated that this was something that the Contracted Parties also felt was a necessary step, especially to help provide some clear minimum standards which ICANN Contractual Compliance can effectively enforce.
• We need to examine the proposed amendments and the ICANN Advisory which are are the subject of the public comment proceedings and provide inputs there.

(3b) ALAC's response to the GNSO DNS Abuse Small Team's draft findings on bulk registrations.

• Jonathan queried the GNSO DNS Abuse Small Team's draft findings on bulk registrations and asked after the rationale for the same. If it's a question of definition of bulk registrations being the stumbling block, GNSO or the community could designate one or even adopt one that has been used in past research (eg. in ). It seems that putting in abeyance the issue of investigating the relationship between bulk registrations and DNS Abuse is not desirable in the context of the continual fight to mitigate DNS Abuse.
• Both Greg and Sebastien Ducos, GNSO Chair assured us that the proposed investigation into bulk registrations has not been rejected, but merely that GNSO didn't have sufficient information at this point to pursue any attempt at policy development on it, and because  of this, it cannot be prioritized along with other streams of work already being undertaken by GNSO Council (eg. Closed Generics, the pending SubPro recommendations etc etc). 
• Both Greg and Sebastien would be happy to carry on this conversation with ALAC Leadership to gain an understanding and ideas on how GNSO might progress such an investigation.

GNSO Council Extraordinary Meeting on 5 Jun 2023 

• Agenda
• Matters of Interest
• Meeting Record
• Special Summary Report

GNSO Council Extraordinary Meeting held on 5 Jun 2023

Full Agenda  |  Documents

• Item 1: Administrative Matters
• Item 2: Opening Remarks / Review of Projects List and Action Item List.
• Item 3: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro - Progress Update on Recommendations Marked as Pending
• Item 4: ANY OTHER BUSINESS

For notes on highlighted items click on MATTERS OF INTEREST tab above

Matters of interest to ALAC/At-Large

• Item 1: Administrative Matters

  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 15 March 2023 were posted on 30 March 2023.

  • Minutes of the GNSO Council meeting on 20 April 2023 were posted on 07 May 2023.

• Item 3: COUNCIL DISCUSSION - SubPro - Progress Update on Recommendations Marked as Pending
  • During its informal session at ICANN76 and the subsequent Council meeting, the Council discussed and agreed to task a small team of interested councilors to review the recommendations that the Board placed in a pending status and suggest to the full Council how the underlying concerns that caused the pending status can be best addressed (i.e., a limited triage exercise). 
  • Since ICANN76, the Council SubPro Small Team has met several times and has completed an initial run through of the issues chart, with an update from Board members on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status.
  • Council then discussed the main output of that triage effort, the proposed paths forward for each pending recommendation, during an Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May. During that meeting, Council agreed to further task the small team with taking interim steps (e.g., provision is clarifying information, developing speaking points) in order to support the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May.
  • Council debriefed after the dialogue with the ICANN Board and discussed next steps. The small team has continued to consider what the “landing spots” are for each recommendation, though the Council and small team are still awaiting input from the Board on where they believe the “landing spots” are; ideally, there will be mutual agreement in as many places as possible, which among other things, helps facilitate the development of a more accurate work plan and timeline (i.e., the key deliverable for ICANN77 in respect of the pending recommendations).
• Item 4: ANY OTHER BUSINESS
  • 4.1 Standing Predictability Implementation Review Team (“SPIRT”) 
  • 4.2 Data accuracy in the context of NIS2

Records of 5 Jun 2023 Extraordinary Meeting

• Presentation
• Audio Recording
• Zoom Recording (includes chat and visual and rough transcript. To access the rough transcript, select the Audio Transcript tab)
• Transcript
• Minutes

Special Summary Report of 5 Jun 2023 Extraordinary Meeting to ALT-PLUS

1. Subsequent Procedures: Outstanding Work, in particular the 38 Pending Recommendations

• Since ICANN76 where the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution was adopted, Council's SubPro Small Team has completed a triage of the issues with Board member input on why the Board placed specific recommendations into a pending status. The most recent Council discussions on moving the Small Team's work forward are captured during Council's Extraordinary Meeting on 4 May ( see report ), the Council’s dialogue with the ICANN Board on 22 May, and Council's Meeting on 25 May ( see report ), which were summarily reported on during the At-Large CPWG call of 31 Mar 2023.
• Afterwards, some further tidying up led to 5 landing spots which more or less mirrors the 4 earlier groups of recommendations. These 5 landing spots are:
  1. Provision of clarifying statement
  2. Board non-adoption (meaning that the Board declines to approve recommendation in its current form and would trigger a process to generate a GNSO supplemental recommendation aimed at addressing the Board's concern while attempting the preserve the core intention of the original recommendation)
  3. Confirmation that issues can be address as part of implementation
  4. Exploring need for a limited Bylaw amendment
  5. Modification of recommendations (GNSO Section 16 PDP, which would involve consultation with a reconstituted SubPro PDP WG)
• Council was briefed on an indicative path for each of these 5 landing spots ( best to see presentation for details )
• Council also asked to consider a draft combined project plan, which attempts to address the 4 deliverables requested of Council by the ICANN Board. For convenience, the 4 deliverables are replicated as follows, as drawn from the ICANN Board 16 March 2023 Resolution:

1. 1. A plan and timeline as agreed upon by the ICANN Board and the GNSO Council for consideration and resolution of all Outputs contained in Section B of the Scorecard;
   2. A working methodology and Implementation Review Team (IRT) work plan and timeline as agreed upon by ICANN org and the GNSO Council;
   3. A GNSO Council project plan and timeline for policy work, or an alternate path, on how to handle closed generics for the next round of new gTLDs; and
   4. A project plan from the GNSO Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) Expedited Policy Development Process (EPDP) Working Group (WG) identifying all charter questions that will impact the next Applicant Guidebook, along with considerations to ensure a consistent solution on IDN Variant TLDs with the ccPDP4 on IDN ccTLDs (in accordance with prior Board Resolution 2019.03.14.09), and a timeline by when the IDNs EPDP WG will deliver relevant recommendations to the GNSO Council.

Action by ALAC Liaison

• •  To monitor and keep sharing updates regarding progress of the Council Small Team work on the 38 Pending Outputs
  •  To maintain ALAC positions on the 38 Pending Outputs for purposes of the pre-ICANN77 ALAC-GNSO Bilateral.

2. Closed Generics Draft Framework for onward policy process

• There remains no firm indications at this point on when the draft framework will actually be released. It was mentioned that a close-to-complete version could be released after the Closed Generics Dialogue call on Wed, 7 June, prior to ICANN77 GNSO Day Zero.
• Staff generated a very conservative project plan of 96 weeks assuming an EPDP is used as the policy development mechanism to produce consensus policy out the framework. Several councilors against pushed back against either the 96-week time frame as being too long or the use of an EPDP as the optimal mechanism.
• Discussions will continue at the Day Zero session on 11 June.

3. Data accuracy in the context of NIS2

• NIS2 has a provision on registration data accuracy: Article 28 subsection 3, "Member States shall require the TLD registries and the entities providing domain registration services - those being registrars, resellers, and privacy proxy services - to have policies and procedures including verification procedures in place to ensure that the database as referred to in paragraph 1 include accurate and complete information. Member States shall require such policies and procedures to be publicly available." Then there's a corresponding recital, i.e. recital no. 111, "Those policies and procedures should take into account to the extent possible, the standards developed by the multi-stakeholder or governance structures at the international level." (in other words, ICANN). There is something on accuracy in the RAA version 2013, but it is possible that that isn't good enough for the European lawmakers.
• The question then arose as to whether GNSO could take some onward action, given that European national lawmakers are already in the process of drafting laws to transpose this to international laws, and this applying equally to gTLDs / GNSO and ccTLDs / ccNSO, to: (a) avoid fragmentation in the DN marketplace; (b) address potential divergence in national laws, and (c) avoid friction or major differences in user experience between generic side and the country-code side when registering for DNs.
  
• Council is to take this discussion further in its June 2023 meeting.