Page History

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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

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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.

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