Preliminary GNSO Issue Report on the Registrar Accreditation Agreement Amendments

The Preliminary Issue Report on the Registrar Accreditation Agreement Amendment is published in response to the Board Resolution (2011.11.10.18.32) in Dakar regarding proposed amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA). Recognizing that continuing to evolve the RAA is an important element of a program to protect registrants and safeguard the stability of a single interoperable Internet, the Board directed Staff to commence immediate negotiations with registrars on the RAA. The Board further requested an issue report to address any amendment topics that remain unaddressed upon the conclusion of these bilateral negotiations.

This Report summarizes and categorizes these various amendment topic proposals and recommendations to amend the RAA in order to facilitate the commencement of a Board-requested policy development process (PDP) on the RAA.

ICANN seeks community input on the Preliminary GNSO Issue Report on the RAA Amendments. This Report will be updated to reflect such feedback in the Final Issue Report to be presented to the GNSO Council after the closing of this public comment forum. A PDP is expected to be commenced by the GNSO Council, as requested by the Board, after the release of the Final Issue Report.

The RAA is the contract that governs the relationship between ICANN and its accredited registrars. The RAA was last amended by the ICANN Board in May, 2009. At the time, some community members expressed their support for the 2009 RAA, while others insisted that it had not gone far enough to address concerns. A joint drafting team ("RAA-DT") with members of the GNSO and At-Large Community was subsequently formed, and published proposals to improve the RAA. The RAA-DT Final Report contained a list of specific topics for potential future amendments to the RAA, including proposals from representatives from the law enforcement community to enhance their ability to respond to cyber-crime and DNS abuse.

In the Dakar RAA Resolution, the Board directed negotiations between the contracted parties & ICANN and Registrars, to be commenced immediately, so as to result in proposed amendments to be provided for consideration at ICANN's meeting in Costa Rica in March 2012. The Dakar RAA Resolution clarified that the subject of the negotiations is to include the recommendations made by law enforcement, those made by the GNSO RAA Drafting Team in its Final Report, as well as other topics that would advance the twin goals of registrant protection and DNS stability. This resolution further requested the creation of an Issue Report to undertake a GNSO PDP as quickly as possible to address remaining items suited for a PDP.

Separately, on 6 October 2011, the GNSO Council motion passed a motion requesting an issue report on certain of these law enforcement recommendations. Because of overlap in topics identified in this GNSO Council motion with the topics referenced by the Board in its Dakar RAA Resolution, the Preliminary Issue Report on the RAA Amendments addresses each of these requests.

Documents posted for comment

• Preliminary GNSO Issue Report on the Registrar Accreditation Agreement Amendments:
  http://gnso.icann.org/issues/raa/prelim-issue-report-raa-amendments-12dec11-en.pdf [PDF, 415 KB]
  

Additional Resources

• The ICANN Board's Dakar resolution on the RAA is posted at:
  http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-28oct11-en.htm#7
  
• The Final Report on Proposals for Improvements to the RAA:
  http://gnso.icann.org/issues/raa/raa-improvements-proposal-final-report-18oct10-en.pdf [PDF, 6.78 MB]
  
• Staff-published Discussion Paper on the Next Steps for the RAA:
  http://gnso.icann.org/issues/final-raa-discussion-paper-13oct11-en.pdf [PDF, 1.58 MB]
  
• Registrar Accreditation Agreement:
  http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/agreements.html