Public Comment
Proposed 2013 RAA Posted for Comment
Open Date
7 March 2013 23:59 UTC
Close Date
28 March 2013 23:59 UTC
Staff Report Due
18 April 2013 23:59 UTC
Brief Overview
ICANN is seeking public comments on a Proposed 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), particularly on areas where ICANN and the Registrar Negotiating Team have not been able to reach agreement in principle. This represents the first time in the nearly 18 months of negotiations that community comment is formally sought on this document.
Section I: Description and Explanation
After nearly 18 months of negotiations, ICANN is posting a new version of the proposed 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) for public comment.
The Registrar Negotiating Team (NT) has continued to engage in good faith negotiations to understand ICANN's perspective with respect to the outstanding issues, and to share the often divergent positions within the Registrar Stakeholder Group. Recently, additional revisions were proposed by ICANN's Negotiating Team stemming from the call by ICANN's CEO, Fadi Chehadé, to work to improve the image of the domain industry and to protect registrants through a further updated contractual framework. The Registrar NT considered each of these new issues, and worked towards finding solutions where appropriate. The RAA posted today reflects hard-fought concessions on many of key issues raised throughout the negotiations, and highlights issues remaining in order for the final 2013 RAA agreement to be reached.
Throughout the RAA and its Specifications, there are portions where two versions of draft text appear side by side. These highlight areas where ICANN and the Registrars have not been able to reach agreement in principle on an issue, therefore both positions are provided for comment. Unless otherwise noted, the remainder of the document reflects agreements in principle among ICANN and the Registrar NT.
A fuller discussion of the status of negotiations and areas of difference is available in ICANN's RAA Posting Memorandum [PDF, 66 KB]. The Registrar Stakeholder Group's Statement on the Posting of the RAA [PDF, 18 KB] is also available. ICANN is also providing a Discussion Memo on the Board Approved Amendment Process [PDF, 101 KB] for community consideration along with the RAA documents.
Section II: Background
The current round of negotiations over the RAA began in October 2011. ICANN and the Registrar Negotiation Team have presented updates to the community at each of ICANN's public meetings since that time. Information on the history of the negotiations, including previously released documentation, is available at the community wiki at https://community.icann.org/display/RAA/Negotiations+Between+ICANN+and+Registrars+to+Amend+the+Registrar+Accreditation+Agreement. This includes the group of documents posted in June 2012, which demonstrated the progress to date in the negotiations.
Section III: Relevant Resources
There are multiple documents for review as part of this posting. The new RAA is anticipated to be a base document with a series of specifications attached. This posting includes all documents that are currently anticipated to be part of the 2013 a. As noted above, a fuller discussion of the status of negotiations and areas of difference is available in ICANN's RAA Posting Memorandum [PDF, 66 KB]. The Registrar Stakeholder Group’s Statement on the Posting of the RAA [PDF, 18 KB] is also available.
The base RAA documents:
- Proposed 2013 RAA, Annotated to Show Differences Between ICANN and Registrar Positions [PDF, 281 KB]
- Redline showing changes between Proposed 2013 RAA and the June 2012 RAA Posting [PDF, 205 KB]
- Redline showing changes between Proposed 2013 RAA and the 2009 RAA [PDF, 259 KB]
- A Summary of Changes from the June 2012 RAA Posting [PDF, 268 KB] is also available.
The Specifications and Addendums:
For the Consensus and Temporary Policy Specification, the Data Retention Specification, and the Whois Accuracy Program Specification, each is available in annotated format to show where differences remain with the registrars, as well as redlines showing the differences in the documents from the 2012 posting.
- Proposed Consensus and Temporary Policy Specification, Annotated to Show Differences Between ICANN and Registrar Positions [PDF, 121 KB]
- Redline showing changes between to the Consensus and Temporary Policy Specification and the June 2012 Version [PDF, 95 KB]
- Proposed Data Retention Specification, Annotated to Show Differences Between ICANN and Registrar Positions [PDF, 113 KB]
- Redline showing changes between to the Data Retention Specification and the June 2012 Version [PDF, 118 KB]
- Proposed Whois Accuracy Program Specification, Annotated to Show Differences Between ICANN and Registrar Positions [PDF, 116 KB]
- Redline showing changes between to the Whois Accuracy Program Specification and the June 2012 Version [PDF, 142 KB]
For the remaining specifications to the RAA, the versions below are provided as ICANN's latest proposal. The Registrar Negotiation Team is still considering each of these specifications:
- Proposed Registrant Rights and Responsibilities Specification [PDF, 48 KB]
- ICANN Proposed Specification on Proxy/Privacy Services [PDF, 70 KB]
- ICANN Proposed Additional Registrar Operation Specification [PDF, 78 KB]
- ICANN Proposed Registrar Information Specification [PDF, 76 KB]
- ICANN Proposed Whois Specification [PDF, 160 KB]
- ICANN Proposed Compliance Certificate [PDF, 64 KB]
- ICANN Proposed Transition Addendum [PDF, 63 KB]
Section IV: Additional Information
None
Comments Closed
Report of Public Comments