<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>Begin forwarded message:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>From: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">"Denise Michel" <<a href="mailto:denise.michel@icann.org">denise.michel@icann.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Date: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">March 25, 2008 9:44:13 AM PDT</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">"Council GNSO" <<a href="mailto:council@gnso.icann.org">council@gnso.icann.org</a>>, liaison6c <<a href="mailto:liaison6c@gnso.icann.org">liaison6c@gnso.icann.org</a>></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Subject: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>[council] FYI - ALAC letter sent to Board on Domain "Reservation"</b></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#000000" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #000000"><b>Reply-To: </b></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><a href="mailto:denise.michel@icann.org">denise.michel@icann.org</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><br></div> <a href="http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org/2008q1/003290.html">http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/pipermail/alac_atlarge-lists.icann.org/2008q1/003290.html</a><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br> <br> Dear ICANN board directors:<br> <br> While we are aware that you have been monitoring the<br> public outrage in response to registrar activities<br> that have been variously described as "front-running"<br> and/or "domain reservation" or "cart-hold" or<br> "cart-reserve" activities, we are of the view that the<br> obligation to safeguard the operational stability of<br> Registrar Services now requires the immediate<br> temporary establishment of a consensus policy<br> curtailing such practices to be taken in accordance<br> with the board's authority under the provisions set<br> out in section 4.3.4 of the Registrar Accreditation<br> Agreement, that states:<br> <br> "A specification or policy established by the ICANN<br> Board of Directors on a temporary basis, without a<br> prior recommendation by the council of an ICANN<br> Supporting Organization, shall also be considered to<br> be a Consensus Policy if adopted by the ICANN Board of<br> Directors by a vote of at least two-thirds of its<br> members, so long as the Board reasonably determines<br> that immediate temporary establishment of a<br> specification or policy on the subject is necessary to<br> maintain the operational stability of Registrar<br> Services, Registry Services, the DNS, or the Internet,<br> and that the proposed specification or policy is as<br> narrowly tailored as feasible to achieve those<br> objectives."<br> <br> Please be advised that we have reached this conclusion<br> based in part upon the following considerations:<br> <br> 1. The use of "cart-hold" or "cart-reserve" systems<br> has been actively under discussion within the<br> registrars constituency since early October 2007 when<br> three different registrars first advanced the concept<br> within the context of a straw poll on the impact to<br> registrants were the AGP to be eliminated<br> in its entirety (footnote 1)<br> <br> -- see<br> <a href="http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05123.html" target="_blank">http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05123.html</a><br> <a href="http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05130.html" target="_blank">http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05130.html</a><br> <a href="http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05131.html" target="_blank">http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-<br> lists/archives/registrars/msg05131.html</a><br> <a href="http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05380.html" target="_blank">http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05380.html</a><br> <a href="http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05626.html" target="_blank">http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg05626.html</a><br> <br> 2. The use of this domain name reservation practice<br> next came to be adopted by a large-volume registrar<br> (Network Solutions) on or about 8 January 2008, and<br> the practice was immediately condemned by the<br> community at large (with extensive coverage in the<br> Tech media, the general press, in blogs world wide, on<br> domain name forums, and on community discussion<br> lists).<br> <br> 3. The actions of Network Solutions has now spawned a<br> similar project on the part of another large-volume<br> registrar (<a href="http://register.com" target="_blank">register.com</a>), and we have no reason to<br> believe that other large-volume registrars will<br> refrain from rapidly setting up comparable efforts.<br> <br> (footnote -- see<br> <a href="http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2796&p_created=1185549188&p_sid=*Nq5PxZi&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01NDImcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1" target="_blank">http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2796&p_created=1185549188&p_sid=*Nq5PxZi&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01NDImcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1</a><br> )<br> <br> <br> While we recognize that we are unable to point to an<br> ICANN-approved definition of "operational stability of<br> Registrar Services" (as no such definition exists<br> within either current ICANN contracts or supporting<br> materials), we take guidance from the ICANN Policy<br> Document ICP-3 which posits that activities that do<br> not interfere with the operation of the DNS are,<br> generally speaking, those that operate within<br> community-established norms.<br> <br> Such norms tend to respect a set of long-established<br> principles such as the principle of least<br> astonishment. When registrants currently search for a<br> domain name at these registrars using normative search<br> practices, they are clearly astonished by that which<br> results from their efforts: the inability to readily<br> register the domain name of their choice with a more<br> competitive registrar and/or the domain name that they<br> have selected appearing in the WHOIS with the name of<br> the registrar as the registrant of record<br> <br> (footnote -- see<br> <a href="http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2796&p_created=1185549188&p_sid=*Nq5PxZi&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01NDImcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1" target="_blank">http://help.register.com/cgi-bin/register_help.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2796&p_created=1185549188&p_sid=*Nq5PxZi&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01NDImcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1</a><br> ).<br> <br> The community's trust in ICANN's ability to manage the<br> Domain Name System is at stake. It is inappropriate<br> for such registrar activities to proceed unabated in a<br> policy vaccuum. Accordingly we call upon the ICANN<br> board to establish a temporary narrowly-tailored<br> policy as a stopgap until such time as the relevant<br> policy-recommending ICANN Supporting Organizations can<br> provide a comprehensive consensus policy solution.<br><br>[Submitted to Board via At-Large Advisory Committee Board Liaison, Wendy Seltzer]</div><br><br clear="all"><br></blockquote></div><br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div>IP JUSTICE</div><div>Robin Gross, Executive Director</div><div>1192 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA 94117 USA</div><div>p: +1-415-553-6261 f: +1-415-462-6451</div><div>w: <a href="http://www.ipjustice.org">http://www.ipjustice.org</a> e: <a href="mailto:robin@ipjustice.org">robin@ipjustice.org</a></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>