Minutes | Special Meeting of the Board 15 September 2005

A Special Meeting of the ICANN Board of Directors was held via teleconference, on 15 September 2005, and was called to order at 2:04 APM, Pacific Daylight Time. Chairman Vinton G. Cerf presided over the entire meeting. The following other Board Directors participated in all or part of the meeting: Raimundo Beca, Mouhamet Diop, Demi Getschko, Hagen Hultzsch, Joichi Ito, Veni Markovski, Thomas Niles, Michael D. Palage, Alejandro Pisanty, Hualin Qian, Vanda Scartezini, Peter Dengate Thrush, and Paul Twomey. Board Member Njeri Rionge did not participate in the Meeting. The following Board Liaisons participated in all or part of the meeting: Steve Crocker, Security and Stability Advisory Committee Liaison; Roberto Gaetano, At Large Advisory Committee Liaison; Thomas Narten, IETF Liaison; Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, Governmental Advisory Committee Liaison; Richard Thwaites, Technical Liaison Group Liaison; and Suzanne Woolf, RSSAC Liaison. John Jeffrey, General Counsel and Board Secretary; Kurt Pritz, Vice President of Business Operations; and Barbara Roseman, IANA Operations Manager also participated in the meeting.

A Voting Transcript of the Special Board Meeting is being provided simultaneously with the posting of these adopted minutes.

Authorization for Board Member Travel Expenditure

The below resolution was proposed by Vint Cerf and was seconded by Hagen Hultzsch. After brief discussion the board took action on the following resolution:

Resolved [05.73], The board hereby authorizes Alejandro Pisanty to participate at WSIS PrepCom 3 and will undertake to pay his reasonable and customary costs for purposes of that participation.

The board approved the resolution by a unanimous vote of the Board Members present, 13-0 with one abstention from Alejandro Pisanty. Njeri Rionge was not present for the vote.

Approval of .CAT Sponsored Top-Level Domain Registry Agreement

Kurt Pritz described the current proposal by staff to approve the .CAT sTLD Registry Agreement. After a detailed discussion of the sponsored top-level domain application criteria and after a detailed discussion regarding the terms of the proposed agreement. A part of the discussion was included on the voting record which is attached to these minutes for reference. Mouhamet Diop moved and Raimundo Beca seconded and the board took action on the following resolution after discussion led to additional amendments:

Whereas, the application for the delegation of .CAT submitted by Fundació puntCAT was determined by the independent evaluators to have met the baseline criteria, and accordingly the President and General Counsel were authorized to enter into negotiations with the applicant relating to proposed commercial and technical terms for the .CAT sponsored top-level domain.

Whereas, on 9 August 2005, the proposed .CAT sponsored TLD registry agreement was posted on the ICANN website <http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/cat/proposed-cat-agmt-09aug05.pdf> and submitted to the ICANN Board for approval.

Whereas, ICANN has received letters from a representative of the Government of Andorra - Sr. Daniel Bastida, Director del Department de la Societat de la Informació, Projectes Estrategics, Govern d'Andorra; and from the Government of Spain - Excmo. Sr. D. Francisco Ros Per?n, Secretario de Estado de Telecomunicaciones y para la Sociedad de la Información, Palacio de Comunicaciones. The letters were submitted at the request of Fundació puntCAT.

Whereas, the Board has determined that approval of the agreement and delegation of a .CAT sponsored top-level domain to Fundació puntCAT would be beneficial for ICANN and the Internet community.

Resolved (05.74), that the proposed agreement with Fundació puntCAT concerning the .CAT sTLD is approved, and the President is authorized to take such actions as appropriate to implement the agreement.

The board approved the above resolution by a vote of 13-1 with a negative vote by Thomas Niles. Njeri Rionge was not present for the vote.

Review of Proposed .XXX Sponsored Top-Level Domain Registry Agreement

Kurt Pritz and John Jeffrey described the current status of the registry agreement and the terms contained therein. After a lengthy discussion involving nearly all of the directors regarding the sponsorship criteria, the application and additional supplemental materials, and the specific terms of the proposed agreement, a resolution was put on the table by Tom Niles and seconded by Veni Markovski. Additional amendment language was proposed and the board took action on the following resolution:

Whereas, an application for the delegation of .XXX was submitted by ICM Registry LLC was evaluated according to ICANN's designated sTLD processes and it was determined by the ICANN Board that the President and General Counsel were authorized to enter into negotiations with the applicant relating to proposed commercial and technical terms for the .XXX sponsored top-level domain.

Whereas, on 9 August 2005, the proposed .XXX sponsored TLD registry agreement was posted on the ICANN website <http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/xxx/proposed-xxx-agmt-09aug05.pdf> and submitted to the ICANN Board for approval.

Whereas, the ICANN Board has expressed concerns regarding issues relating to the compliance with the proposed .XXX Registry Agreement (including possible proposals for codes of conduct and ongoing obligations regarding potential changes in ownership) and has noted the importance of private registry agreements, in creating contractual means of affecting registries and other actors of the Internet community for the public interest.

Whereas, ICANN has received significant levels of correspondence from the Internet community users over recent weeks, as well as inquiries from a number of governments.

Resolved (05.75), that the ICANN President and General Counsel are directed to discuss possible additional contractual provisions or modifications for inclusion in the .XXX Registry Agreement, to ensure that there are effective provisions requiring development and implementation of policies consistent with the principles in the ICM application. Following such additional discussions, the President and General Counsel are requested to return to the board for additional approval, disapproval or advice.

The board approved the above resolution by a vote of 11-0 with three abstentions by Michael Palage (due to a conflict), Alejandro Pisanty and Hualin Qian. Njeri Rionge was not present for the vote.

Other Matters

The approval of the minutes and the transcript from the voting for the 16 August 2005 was put over until the next Board Meeting to allow the Board Member's sufficient time to review the proposed minutes and transcript of the voting.

The ICANN Board of Directors deferred consideration of the remaining items on the Board's agenda until the next Board Meeting.

The Meeting was adjourned at 4:05 PM, Pacific Daylight Time.