On 24 October 2005, ICANN announced proposed settlement terms between ICANN and VeriSign, including a proposed new .COM agreement. Since then, ICANN has been conducting extensive public consultations on the proposed settlement. At its 24th International Public Meeting in Vancouver this week, the ICANN Board has been engaged in consultations with the ICANN community on this topic, among others.
Today at its Board meeting, ICANN Chairman, Vint Cerf, announced:
"The Board has listened long and hard this week to all constituencies and internet users who participated with regard to the .COM agreements and the settlement proposals."
"We are deeply grateful to the efforts made by all of those who contributed positively to respond to the Board's invitation to organize comments on the proposals and to provide, where possible, concrete suggestions for improving them.
"We are also very grateful for the time each constituency spent going over with the Board their ideas and reactions.
"We ask the staff to accept any further written comments until December 7 and to produce for the community a public report summarizing, analyzing and organizing the feedback provided on the .com and settlement agreements by December 11.
"We recommend that staff approach VeriSign with the results of the report on the proposed contract and settlement. We remind all parties that the Board has not yet agreed to the terms of the contract and settlement.
"We also note the existence of a policy development process on new gTLDs and strongly believe that this policy development process should be informed by the results of the comments received on the proposed contract for .com and settlement with VeriSign."