ICANN Opens Comment Period on Telnic Proposal
11 May 2007
On 27 April 2007, ICANN posted for public information a proposal from Telnic Ltd., the sponsor of the .TEL top-level domain, to amend the .TEL Registry Agreement. Specifically, Telnic is seeking to alter the public display of Whois for .TEL customers pursuant to Appendix S, Section VII of the .TEL Registry Agreement (http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/tel/appendix-s-07apr06.htm#Part7). (Telnic intends to launch registry operations in late 2007/early 2008.)
Telnic’s request states that they have been in communication with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office concerning Telnic’s current contractual obligations on Whois. However, there is no pending enforcement action against Telnic, therefore this is not a situation that would trigger the Draft ICANN Procedure for Handling Whois Conflicts with Privacy Law (http://gnso.icann.org/issues/whois-privacy/whois_national_laws_procedure.htm). In addition, this change is being proposed while discussion continues within the GNSO Policy Development Process on Whois. Telnic (and all gTLD registries) will be required to comply with new Whois consensus policy when approved by the Board.
As provided for by existing consensus policy (http://www.icann.org/registries/rsep/rsep.html), ICANN has undertaken a preliminary determination period to determine whether the proposed service might raise significant security or stability, or competition issues. ICANN's determination is that the proposed amendment does not raise such issues.
The next step in evaluation is that (because implementation of the proposal would require a change to the .TEL Registry Agreement) ICANN will post the proposed amendment, solicit public comment and refer the proposal to the ICANN Board for consideration.
A copy of the proposed amendment is available at http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/tel/tel-amendment-30may07.pdf [PDF, 25K] and provides for changes to Appendix 1, Appendix 5 and Appendix S, Part VI of the .TEL Registry Agreement. The comments on the proposal may be submitted to registryservice@icann.org until 10 June 2007 23:59 UTC and may be viewed at http://forum.icann.org/lists/registryservice/. The process for considering new registry services is posted at http://www.icann.org/registries/rsep/rsep.html. All documentation regarding this proposed service and corresponding comment forum has been previously posted as part of the procedure at http://www.icann.org/registries/rsep/#2007004.
