[Fwd: [council] WHOIS draft final/staff overview attached]

[Milton L Mueller]

Robin:
Thanks for passing on the report. This is the end game of the critical
Whois policy process.
The report contains the following language:

"Constituency Statements.  The Representatives will each be responsible
for soliciting the position of their constituencies, at a minimum, and
other comments as each Representative deems appropriate, regarding the
issue under consideration.  This position and other comments, as
applicable, should be submitted in a formal statement to the Council
list and to the ICANN Policy Lead (each, a "Constituency Statement")
within twenty one (21) calendar days after initiation of the PDP.

          "Every Constituency Statement shall include at least the
following:
          (i) If a Supermajority Vote was reached, a clear statement of
the constituency's position on the issue;"

With respect to this, I am recommending that NCUC express its support
for Motion #3 contained in the report. That motion declares that there
is no consensus on existing Whois policy and asks that the Whois
portions of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement be "sunsetted" (i.e.,
expired, eliminated, deleted) at the end of 2008. I would also recommend
that this motion NOT be withdrawn if Motion #1 passes. The text of this
motion is can be seen below my signature. 

I encourage all NCUC members to attend this Sunday's conference call
(via Skype). At that time we will discuss this recommendation and find
out whether there is any support for any other recommendation. 

Milton Mueller, Professor
Syracuse University 
School of Information Studies
------------------------------
Internet Governance Project:
http://internetgovernance.org
------------------------------
The Convergence Center:
http://www.digitalconvergence.org

Motion #3 conditional motion offered by Ross Rader, seconded by Mawaki
Chango (may be withdrawn if Doria motion above is approved)
  
Whereas;

(i) The GNSO Council has considered the reports of the WHOIS Working
Group and WHOIS Task Force, and;
(ii) That the GNSO Council vote on resolution [XXXXX] failed to produce
supermajority or majority support for the recommendations of the report
of the Task Force, and;
(iii) The GNSO Council considers that the results of this vote signifies
the continued lack of consensus on the key issues and possible solutions
to those issues, both within the Council, the GNSO and between key
stakeholder groups, and;
(iv) The GNSO Council recognizes that there is no standing consensus
policy concerning the management of the WHOIS service and data provided
to the public through that service by ICANN's contracted commercial
operators, the registries and registrars, save and except the WHOIS Data
Reminder Policy and the WHOIS Marketing Restriction Policy, and;
(v) That significant policy must have the support of the Internet and
DNS community and without that support, those policies cannot be
reasonably implemented or enforced.

Therefore be it resolved;

(i) That, with regret, the GNSO Council advises the ICANN staff and
Board of Directors of the lack of general consensus on the key issues
and solutions pertaining to gTLD WHOIS, and;
(ii) That due to this lack of consensus the GNSO Council recommends that
the Board consider "sunsetting" the existing current contractual
requirements concerning WHOIS for registries, registrars and registrants
that are not supported by consensus policy by removing these unsupported
provisions from the current operating agreements between ICANN and its
contracted parties, and;
(iii) That these provisions be sunset no later than the end of the 2008
ICANN Annual General Meeting and;
(iv) That such provisions will remain sunset until such time that
consensus policy in this area has been developed to replace the sunset
provisions, at which point they will be eliminated or modified.