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Comment: Migrated to Confluence 5.3
Comment Close
Date		Statement
Name 

Status

Assignee(s) and
RALO(s)

Call for
Comments		Call for
Comments
Close 		Vote
Announcement 		Vote OpenVote
Reminder		Vote CloseDate of SubmissionStaff Contact and EmailStatement Number
13.05.2013Proposed Final 2013 RAADraftingAdopted 12Y, 0N, 0A23.04.201221.05.2013TBC23.05.201323.05.2013TBC02.06.2013

03.06.2013

04.06.2013Samantha Eisner
samantha.eisner@icann.orgTBC		AL-ALAC-ST-0613-01-00-EN
Comment / Reply Periods (*)
Comment Open Date: 
22 April 2013
Comment Close Date: 
13 May 2013 - 23:59 UTC
Reply Open Date: 
14 May 2013
Reply Close Date: 
4 June 2013 - 23:59 UTC
Important Information Links
Public Comment Announcement
To Submit Your Comments (Forum)
View Comments Submitted
Brief Overview
Originating Organization: 
ICANN
Categories/Tags: 
  • Contracted Party Agreements
Purpose (Brief): 

ICANN is seeking public comments on the Proposed Final 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). This is the culmination of 18 months of intensive negotiations.

Current Status: 

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 is now posted for community comment.

Next Steps: 

After review of the comment received, the Proposed Final 2013 RAA will be reviewed to determine if further changes are warranted. Input on the areas that have changed since the 7 March 2013 posting will be of particular help.

Staff Contact: 
Samantha Eisner, Senior Counsel
Email Staff Contact
Detailed Information
Section I: Description, Explanation, and Purpose: 

After an extended period of negotiations, ICANN is posting a proposed 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) for public comment.

On 7 March 2013, ICANN posted its version of the 2013 RAA for public comment, noting some areas of disagreement between ICANN and the Registrar Negotiating Team (NT). In addition, some of the specifications posted for comment were ICANN versions only. Since the 7 March posting, the Registrar NT has engaged in frequent negotiation sessions with ICANN in order to bring to closure to all of the open negotiation topics and to consider the community comments received from the 7 March posting. As a result, at ICANN's public meeting in Beijing, ICANNand the Registrar NT announced that they had reached agreement in principle on each of the outstanding items highlighted in the March posting version. The documents posted today reflect ICANN and the Registrar NT's agreements and are the Proposed Final 2013 RAA. This proposed 2013 RAA is a cornerstone of ICANN's efforts to work to improve the image of the domain industry and to protect registrants through a further updated contractual framework. It is ICANN's intention to have the 2013 RAA completed and approved in the near future for use in the NewgTLD Program.

To allow for transparency into the proposed final version of the 2013 RAA and community input on the changes from the 7 March posting,ICANN is opening a full comment forum.

ICANN thanks the Registrar Negotiating Team (NT) for its continued engagement in good faith negotiations on the RAA. The RAA posted today reflects hard-fought concessions on many of key issues raised throughout the negotiations.

A fuller discussion of the status of negotiations and areas of difference is available in ICANN's RAA Posting Memorandum [PDF, 65 KB].

Update on 8 May 2013: On 6 May 2013 ICANN hosted a webinar to provide further information on the 2013 RAA. The recording of the webinar can be accessed here and the presentation from the webinar can be accessed here.

Section II: Background: 

The current round of negotiations over the RAA began in October 2011. ICANN and the Registrar Negotiation Team have presented updates to the community at each of ICANN’s public meetings since that time. Information on the history of the negotiations, including previously released documentation, is available at the community wiki at https://community.icann.org/display/RAA/Negotiations+Between+ICANN+and+Registrars+to+Amend+the+Registrar+Accreditation+Agreement. This includes the group of documents posted in June 2012, which demonstrated the progress to date in the negotiations.

Section III: Document and Resource Links: 

There are multiple documents for review as part of this posting. The new RAA is anticipated to be a base document with a series of specifications attached. Each specification is an integral, enforceable component of the RAA. This posting includes all documents that are currently anticipated to be part of the 2013 RAA. As noted above, a fuller discussion of the status of negotiations and areas of difference is available in ICANN's RAA Posting Memorandum [PDF, 65 KB]. A summary [PDF, 59 KB] of how the 12 law enforcement recommendations are incorporated into the RAA is also provided.

The base RAA documents:

The Proposed Specifications and Addendums:

Consensus and Temporary Policy Specification [PDF, 90 KB]Redline Showing Changes from June 2012 Posting [PDF, 145 KB]
Redline Showing Changes from March 2013 Posting [PDF, 161 KB]
Data Retention Specification [PDF, 77 KB]Redline Showing Changes from June 2012 Posting [PDF, 113 KB]
Redline Showing Changes from March 2013 Posting [PDF, 120 KB]
Whois Accuracy Program Specification [PDF, 86 KB]Redline Showing Changes from June 2012 Posting [PDF, 121 KB]
Redline Showing Changes from March 2013 Posting [PDF, 115 KB]
Whois SLA [PDF, 93 KB]Redline Showing Changes from March 2013 Posting [PDF, 169 KB]

Specification on Proxy/Privacy Services [PDF, 43 KB]

Corrected version posted on 24 April 2013

Redline Showing Changes from March 2013 Posting [PDF, 127 KB]

Corrected version posted on 24 April 2013

Registrant Rights and Responsibilities Specification [PDF, 50 KB]No changes since March 2013 posting
Additional Registrar Operation Specification [PDF, 73 KB]No changes since March 2013 posting
Registrar Information Specification [PDF, 64 KB]Redline Showing Changes from March 2013 Posting [PDF, 128 KB]
Compliance Certificate [PDF, 55 KB]Redline Showing Changes from March 2013 Posting [PDF, 92 KB]
Transition Addendum [PDF, 61 KB]Redline Showing Changes from March 2013 Posting [PDF, 105 KB]

 

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].

(*) Comments submitted after the posted Close Date/Time are not guaranteed to be considered in any final summary, analysis, reporting, or decision-making that takes place once this period lapses.

FINAL VERSION TO BE SUBMITTED IF RATIFIED

The final version to be submitted, if the draft is ratified, will be placed here by upon completion of the vote. 

Please click here to download a copy of the PDF below.

PDF
nameAL-ALAC-ST-0613-01-00-EN.pdf

 

FINAL DRAFT VERSION TO BE FINAL DRAFT VERSION TO BE VOTED UPON BY THE ALAC

Introduction

...

The ALAC Statement on the Revised New gTLD Registry Agreement Including Additional Public Interest Commitments Specification outlined a position which generally supported ICANN’s posture on certain contentious issues even as we signaled our qualified acceptance. While we are inclined to support all the major accompanying documents with the Contract, the details of some specifications very critical to deciding our full support remain in limbo. The the Contract, we regret that some areas, such as the Privacy/Proxy Specifications is one such example.Until such time as these are decided, this Statement records our qualified support for the Final RAA 2013 as published, did not go further in defining registrant rights and obligations that would conserve the public interest.

Overall Structure and Process

...

We give our full support for the Consensus Policies and Temporary Policies Specification. In the matter of the so-called ‘right to unilaterally amend the RAA,’ we believe the updated construct per Clause 6.5 incorporates additional safeguards and attracts our endorsement. Nevertheless, some have argued the intent in this clause undermines the consensus policy making that has produced this RAA. bottom-up multi-stakeholder model on which ICANN is built. We disagree and take a different and more benign view of the role reserved for ICANN as the public benefit corporation. Indeed, there might be exceptional circumstances in which ICANN would have to take unilateral action - part of being prepared for unknown unknowns.

For the first time, the topics and areas pertinent to the RAA that are within the purview of consensus policy making are finally unambiguously defined. The contract is intended, among other things, to protect and defend the global public interest. The language of Clause 1.4.4 acknowledges said Consensus Policies, or the procedures derived from them, shall not “Modify ICANN’s obligations to not apply standards, policies, procedures or practices arbitrarily, unjustifiably, or inequitably.” The converse is equally true: the language also embraces the notion that there are matters outside of the consensus policy domain for which the Board has a duty of care and is empowered to act in protecting the global public interest. The ALAC fully supports this approach.

...