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<FONT face=Tahoma size=2><B>From:</B> owner-liaison6c@gnso.icann.org
[mailto:owner-liaison6c@gnso.icann.org] <B>On Behalf Of </B>Denise
Michel<BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, March 25, 2008 12:44 PM<BR><B>To:</B> Council
GNSO; liaison6c<BR><B>Subject:</B> [liaison6c] FYI - ALAC letter sent to Board
on Domain "Reservation"<BR></FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV></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></BODY></HTML>