Page History
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. These negotiations are currently underway 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
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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 staffed 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. These negotiations will occur regularly with the goal of issuing agreed amendments to the RAA for consideration by the ICANN Board.
Current Status
In advance of the Prague Meeting,on 4 June 2012, ICANN posted a group of documents on the status of negotiation of amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).
These documents note that while ICANN and the Registrars have made progress in the negotiations, the negotiations are not complete and there remain key areas of difference. Of highest priority for ICANN are the areas of Whois verification and data retention requirements, where ICANN and Registrars were not able to agree on certain aspects of the law enforcement recommendations. Because these two areas are so important, ICANN and the registrars were not able to post consolidated, negotiated amendments in advance of the Prague meeting. The RAA Negotiations Summary Memorandum posted on 4 June 2012 explains this more fully; the Draft RAA reflects ICANN's most recent proposal as of 4 June 2012.
Recent developments
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:
- ICANN's Posting Memorandum
- Proposed Final 2013 RAA
- Redline against the 7 May 13 posting
- Redline against the 2009 RAA
- Summary of Changes from the 2009 RAA
The Proposed Specifications and Addendums:
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:
- Public Comment Announcement for Draft RAA
- ICANN's Posting Memorandum
- Registrar Stakeholder Group Statement
- Proposed 2013 RAA
- Redline from 2009 RAA
- Redline from the June 2012 Posting
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:
- Staff published a status report reflecting the status of the law enforcement recommendations ass of 1 March 2012, in advance of the Costa Rica Meeting
- Staff publshed an updated status report of the RAA Drafting Team's recommended amendment topics as of 1 March 2012.
- Correspondence delivered from the Registrar Stakeholder Group on the status of the negotiations
- Law enforcement representatives produced updates to their recommendations with respect to two issues:
- Documents published with the 4 June 2012 announcement in advance of the ICANN Prague Meeting:
- RAA Negotiations Summary
- Draft RAA
- Summary Chart
- Summary of Changes to the 2009 RAA
- WHOIS Specification
- WHOIS Accuracy Specification Program
- Data Retention Specification
- Additional Registrar Operation Specification
- Consensus Policyc Policy and Temporary Policy Specification
- Registrar Information Specification
- Documents submitted by the Registrar Stakeholder Group for the Prague Meeting:
More Information
- The ICANN Board’s Dakar resolution on the RAA is posted at: http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-28oct11-en.htm#7
- To review the Final Report on Improvements to the RAA, please see: http://gnso.icann.org/issues/raa/raa-improvements-proposal-final-report-18oct01-en.pdf
- To review the Staff Discussion Paper published prior to Dakar, please see: http://gnso.icann.org/issues/final-raa-discussion-paper-13oct11-en.pdf
- To learn more about the RAA, please refer to the Non-Lawyers Guide to the RAA, posted at: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/non-lawyers-guide-to-ra-agreement-15feb10-en.htm
- Reports of each of the RAA meetings and discussion of amendment topics addressed at each meeting will be posted on separate WIKI pages attached to this Home Page.
- The GNSO Final Issue Report delivered by Staff in response to the Board Dakar Resolution identifies the policy avenues for addressing these amendment topics.
- A Status Report on the RAA Negotiations was published on the ICANN website on 1 March 2012, at http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-01mar12-en.htm
- An updated Status Report on the RAA Drafting Team recommendations as of 1 March 2012
Comments Requested at the ICANN Prague Session
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