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ICANN POLICY UPDATE | Volume 09, Issue 07 – July 2009

PDF Version [201 KB]

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/policy/

CONTENTS:

  1. YOUR INPUT NEEDED NOW ON POLICY-RELATED ISSUES
  2. CCNSO WORKING GROUP EYES DNS EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANNING
  3. SYDNEY SESSION FOCUSES ON STRATEGIC PLANNING ISSUES
  4. CCNSO, GNSO COUNCILS SEEK CONSENSUS APPROACH ON gTLD ISSUES
  5. MEMBERS NAMED TO DELEGATION AND RE-DELEGATION WORKING GROUP
  6. ccNSO MEETINGS EVALUATION CONDUCTED
  7. OPERATORS ASKED TO PARTICIPATE IN DNSSEC SURVEY
  8. RIRS DISCUSSING GLOBAL POLICY PROPOSAL FOR RECOVERED IPv4 ADDRESS SPACE
  9. SSAC PREVIEWS REPORTS AT THE ICANN SYDNEY MEETING
  10. GNSO IMPROVEMENTS ADVANCE WITH FOCUS ON STAKEHOLDER GROUP CHARTERS AND BYLAW AMENDMENTS
  11. BOARD APPROVES GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS REVIEW CHARTER
  12. REGISTRATION ABUSE POLICIES GET CLOSER LOOK
  13. GNSO CONSIDERS EXPIRED DOMAIN NAME RECOVERY CHANGES
  14. MAKING IT EASIER TO TRANSFER DOMAINS BETWEEN REGISTRARS
  15. HOW DO WE DEAL WITH FAST FLUXING CYBERCRIMINALS?
  16. AT-LARGE COMMUNITY’S VIEWS ON SYDNEY SESSIONS ARE ONLINE
  17. AT-LARGE COMMUNITY ACTIVE ON MANY POLICY FRONTS

The ICANN Policy Update contains brief summaries of issues being addressed by the ICANN community’s bottom-up policy development structure, as well as information on related policy development activities. ICANN’s Policy Staff publishes these monthly updates to maximize transparency and encourage broad community participation in ICANN’s policy development activities.

Links to additional information are included and readers are encouraged to go beyond these brief summaries to learn more about the ICANN community’s work. As always, the Policy Staff welcomes comments and suggestions on how to improve its policy communications efforts. Please send these comments to policy-staff@icann.org .

ICANN Policy Update Available in Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, Spanish, English

The ICANN Policy Update is available in all six official languages of the United Nations: English (EN), Spanish (ES), French (FR), Arabic (AR), Chinese (Simplified -- siZH), and Russian (RU). The Policy Update is posted on ICANN’s website and available via online subscription. If you would like us to send these updates directly to your inbox each month, simply go to the ICANN subscriptions page, enter your e-mail address, and select “Policy Update” to subscribe. This service is free of charge to subscribers. More information is available at:

What's on the Calendar for Today?

Keep up-to-date on what’s happening in ICANN policy development by visiting the online calendars of ICANN’s policy development and advisory bodies. Three of the most active calendars include:

Want To Learn More About The Issues?

Recordings of Webcasts Available on Many Subjects

At a Glance

ICANN Staff regularly organizes audio briefings on topical policy issues. These briefings provide information valuable for all ICANN stakeholder communities.

Briefings generally feature simultaneous interpretation so users may participate in English, Spanish or French, and recordings are available in all three languages, along with any presentation materials from the briefings.

More Information

Currently available webcasts include:

Staff Contact

Matthias Langenegger, At-Large Secretariat.


1. YOUR INPUT NEEDED NOW ON POLICY-RELATED ISSUES

Numerous public comment periods are open on issues of interest to the ICANN community (check here for a complete list). Act now for the opportunity to share your views on such items as:

  • Two ICANN Advisory Committees (SSAC and RSSAC) commissioned a study of the potential impact on the operation of the root server system of adding IPv6 address records, IDN top level names, other new TLDs, and new records to support DNS security to the root zone. Public input is requested on the study’s Terms of Referenceby 31 July 2009.
  • Comment on drafting team amendments to the ICANN Bylaws, reflecting GNSO improvements. Approval of the Bylaw amendments is critical to the process of seating a restructured GNSO Council. Comments close 29 July 2009.
  • A proposed Bylaw amendment would extend the period for consecutive review of ICANN structures from three years to five years, allowing more time for improvements to take hold between cycles. Comments close 9 August 2009.

2. CCNSO WORKING GROUP EYES DNS EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANNING

At a Glance

New ccNSO ad-hoc working group on Emergency Response Planning formed.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO Council resolved at its Sydney meeting to set up an open, ad-hoc working group (WG) to draft a plan and procedures to establish a more systematic and coordinated approach among ccTLDs and other stakeholders to address global events affecting the DNS.

Next Steps

Initial WG members include: Becky Burr, NomCom appointee to the ccNSO Council; Norm Ritchie, CIRA, the .ca manager; Youri Ito and John Crain, ICANN Staff. They will draft a purpose statement and define the scope of the group’s activities, subject to ccNSO Council approval. After approval, the ccNSO secretariat will send out a call for volunteers.

Background

At the Sydney meeting two sessions were conducted to report back on the experiences gained from the Conficker incident. Attendees concluded that coordination among ccTLDs in general and other stakeholders, such as CERTs, needs to be improved for a collaborative response to future global incidents affecting the DNS.

More Information

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, Senior Policy Advisor, ccNSO


3. SYDNEY SESSION FOCUSES ON STRATEGIC PLANNING ISSUES

At a Glance

ccTLD managers conducted a workshop at the Sydney meeting to identify strategic issues relevant to ccTLDs.

Recent Developments

At the Sydney meeting the Strategic and Operational Planning Working Group (SOP WG) organized a session facilitated by Patrick Sharry to identify strategic issues considered relevant to ccTLDs. This was the first session of its kind and a preamble to increased participation of ccTLDs in ICANN’s upcoming strategic planning process.

Next Steps

The results of the session will be consolidated and included in a survey to be conducted among ccTLDs for further feedback and input. The survey will be sent out in time before the Seoul meeting to allow the SOP WG to present results to the ccTLD community and the ccNSO Council and to facilitate input into ICANN’s strategic plan.  

More Information

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, Senior Policy Advisor, ccNSO


4. CCNSO, GNSO COUNCILS SEEK CONSENSUS APPROACH ON gTLD ISSUES

At a Glance

ccNSO and GNSO to set-up joint IDN working group .

Recent Developments

At the ICANN meeting in Sydney the GNSO and ccNSO Councils again discussed the timing of launching the new gTLD process and the IDN ccTLD Fast Track. Differences remain with regard to the timing of the launch dates. The GNSO and ccNSO Councils stated that they have shared interests and open issues (for instance, the policy implications of the completion of the IDNA protocol), but a willingness to resolve these issues in a joint effort. At the joint meeting, the chair of the GNSO and the chair of the ccNSO requested Jian Zhang, NomCom member of the ccNSO, and Edmon Chun, member of the GNSO Council, to explore and report the goal(s) and scope of activities of a joint WG effort.

Next Steps

At its next meeting, the ccNSO Council will consider the creation of a GNSO/ccNSO joint working group.

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, Senior Policy Advisor, ccNSO


5. MEMBERS NAMED TO DELEGATION AND RE-DELEGATION WORKING GROUP

At a Glance

At the Sydney meeting, the ccNSO Council appointed members and an observer to its Delegation and Re-delegation Working Group. The GAC nominated two observers to this working group.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO Council adopted the charter of the Delegation and Re-delegation Working Group at its meeting on 9 June 2009. After a call for volunteers, the following representatives of ccTLDs (both from members and non-members of the ccNSO) were appointed to the working group:

African Region: Vika Mpisane, .za; Paulos Nyirenda, .mw; Alioune Badara Traore, .ml; and Eberhard Lisse, .na. Asia/Australia/Pacific Region: Keith Davidson, .nz; Dave Main, .ws; Bill Semich, .nu; and Tan Yaling, .cn. European Region: Ondrej Filip, .cz; Slobodan Markovic, .rs; Desiree Miloshevic, .gi; Nigel Roberts, .gg; Denzil West, .ms; Martin Boyle, .uk; and Annebeth Lange, .no. Latin American/Caribbean Region: Juan Carlos Namis, .bz; and Oscar Robles, .mx. North American Region: Dotty Sparks de Blanc, .vi. Regional Organization
Observer: Erick Iriarte Ahon, LACTLD; and Ramesh Kumar Nadarajah, APTLD.

At the request of the ccNSO Council, the GAC nominated the following persons as observers: Jayantha Fernando from Sri Lanka and Suzanne Sene from USA.

According to the charter, the chair and the two vice-chairs of the ccNSO Council are members of the WG as well.

Next Steps

Once the administrative tasks have been completed and the working group has appointed its chair, the WG will start exploring and identifying issues and topics relating to delegation, re-delegation and retirement of ccTLDs.

More Information

http://www.ccnso.icann.org/workinggroups/drdwg.htm

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, Senior Policy Advisor, ccNSO


6. ccNSO MEETINGS EVALUATION CONDUCTED

At a Glance

The Meetings Program Working Group conducted meetings evaluation.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO Council approved the charter of the Meetings Program WG at its meeting on 9 June 2009. The WG coordinated the ccNSO general meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday, prior to actual approval of its charter. As part of its activities, the WG has also conducted an evaluation of the meeting.

Next Steps

The Meeting Program Working Group will organize and schedule the upcoming ccNSO meeting in Seoul, taking into account the results of the Sydney meeting evaluation.

Background

The ccNSO Participation Working Group has recommended that one way to increase participation of the ccTLD community in the ccNSO and Regional Organizations is to increase the input of the ccTLDs into the general ccNSO meeting agenda at ICANN events. For that reason, the ccNSO Council has established the Meeting Program Working Group. The ccNSO meeting in Sydney was the first meeting organized by that working group and, as part of its activities, it will request participants of the meeting to provide feedback on (future) meetings.

More Information

http://www.ccnso.icann.org/workinggroups/mpwg.htm

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


7. OPERATORS ASKED TO PARTICIPATE IN DNSSEC SURVEY

At a Glance

DNSSEC survey is re-launched.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO Secretariat re-launched its DNSSEC survey, first conducted in 2007. All ccTLD operators are invited to participate. A few questions have been added or slightly reshaped compared to the previous version in order to better reflect the current situation.

Background

The Swedish ccTLD operator .se and the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) recommended repeating the survey, suggesting that a comparison between the two surveys could be of interest for the community.

Next Steps

The survey will be evaluated in September and presented to the community during the ccNSO meeting in Seoul in October 2009.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


8. RIRS DISCUSSING GLOBAL POLICY

PROPOSAL FOR RECOVERED IPv4 ADDRESS SPACE

At a Glance

Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) are currently discussing a proposed global policy for handling IPv4 address space returned from the RIRs to IANA. According to the proposal, IANA should act as repository of returned address space and allocate such space to the RIRs in smaller blocks than currently, once the free pool of IANA IPv4 address space has been depleted.

Recent Developments

The RIRs discussed the proposal at their most recent meetings. APNIC has adopted the proposal, which has passed final call in AfriNIC and entered final call in LACNIC. The proposal remains in the discussion stage in ARIN and RIPE.

Next Steps

If adopted by all RIRs, the Number Resource Organization Executive Committee and the Address Supporting Organization Address Council (ASO AC) will review the proposal and then it will be forwarded to the ICANN Board for ratification and implementation by IANA.

A third update of the Background Report on recovered IPv4 addresses will be announced in August on the ICANN web site.

Background

IPv4 is the Internet Protocol addressing system used to allocate unique IP address numbers in 32-bit format. With the massive growth of the Internet user population, the pool of such unique numbers (approximately 4.3 billion) is being depleted and a 128-bit numbering system (IPv6) will replace it.

The proposed global policy has two distinct phases: 1) IANA only receives returned IPv4 address space from the RIRs and 2) IANA continues to receive returned IPv4 address space and also reallocates such space to the RIRs. This proposal is connected to a recently adopted global policy for allocating the remaining IPv4 address space. When that global policy takes effect, it also triggers phase two in the proposal.

Click here for more details.

More Information

Staff Contact

Olof Nordling, Director Services Relations


9. SSAC PREVIEWS REPORTS AT THE ICANN SYDNEY MEETING

At a Glance

SSAC has numerous initiatives underway or recently completed, all intended to assure the security and stability of the Internet.

Recent Developments

Ram Mohan led a "Birds of a Feather" session on internationalizing registration data during the Sydney ICANN meeting. The BoF provided attendees with an overview of the SSAC report on this subject and an opportunity for the community to participate in determining an appropriate way forward.  At SSAC's request, the ICANN Board passed a resolution calling for the formation of a working group on this topic.

During the SSAC public meeting, Dave Piscitello previewed a draft report, SAC040, Measures to Protect Domain Registration Services from Exploitation or Misuse. The report details major episodes of unauthorized access to domain accounts and malicious alteration of registration data to identify exploitable areas in current registration service models. It also describes measures that e-merchants, financial bodies, and enterprise intranets apply to mitigate certain exploits. The report has been forwarded to the GNSO Registrar Constituency to give members the opportunity to work collaboratively with SSAC on this important issue. The report will be issued later this month.

SSAC also presented an Advisory recommending that redirection and synthesis of responses be prohibited in all top level domains. The ICANN Board adopted SSAC's recommendation and passed a resolution directing staff to pursue implementation of this restriction.

SSAC concluded an internal review and delivered its report to the ICANN Board review working group. In October 2008, ICANN retained JAS Communications as consultants to perform an independent review of the SSAC. The SSAC reviewed comments from JAS, and also offered a committee self-critique. SSAC members met with the Board review WG during the ICANN Sydney meeting to assist the WG in concluding its review.

SSAC members met with several ICANN SOs and ACs including the ALAC, GAC, CCNSO, and several GNSO constituencies. Dave Piscitello gave presentations during the Abuse of DNS workshop (SAC 038, Registrar Abuse contacts), ALAC (Report on Conficker) and CCNSO (Domain Front Running and Top 5 Threats).

Jeremy Hitchcock participated in the GNSO RAP Pre-PDP WG.  Several members participated in the public discussion of the Terms of Reference for the Root scaling study jointly prepared by the SSAC and RSSAC.

During the DNSSEC public meeting, the DOC/NTIA explained its reasons for adopting a way forward for signing the root zone. TLDs active in implementing DNSSEC provided status reports and described their deployment experiences.

Next Steps

SSAC continues its study into the availability of explicit abuse contact information at ICANN accredited registrar web sites. The study relates to SAC038, published in February 2009, and provides supporting data for ICANN and the community to consider when it discusses future RAA amendments.

SSAC is working with ICANN staff in response to the ICANN Board resolution to create an Internationalized registration data working group. A webinar or Adobe Connect conference call is being arranged to present the issues to interested community members who were unable to attend the Sydney meeting. With staff and the community at large, members are also studying alternatives for collecting, storing and enabling display of Whois data in local scripts.

Background

Malicious use of domain names has become a mainstay for criminals, "hacktivists," and notoriety seekers. Much of SSAC's attention continues to focus on these events. At the same time, the Internet community is preparing for dramatic changes over the next several years, including the introduction of DNSSEC, IPv6, IDN, and new gTLDs. Each of these changes individually poses new issues; introduced together, even over a span of years, they represent additional complexity and could have cumulative side effects. SSAC will be reviewing these changes for potential new vectors for attacks in both contexts.

More Information

Staff Contact

Dave Piscitello, Senior Technology Specialist


10. GNSO IMPROVEMENTS ADVANCE WITH FOCUS ON STAKEHOLDER GROUP CHARTERS AND BYLAW AMENDMENTS

At a Glance

The Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) community is working to implement a comprehensive series of organizational and structural changes designed to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and accessibility of the organization. Interested community members are encouraged to offer their expertise and brainpower by volunteering to participate in the effort and by joining any one of a number of focused work teams making implementation recommendations.

Recent Developments

Progress continues in overall implementation, coordination and planning for transition to a newly structured GNSO Council. To become familiar with the GNSO's new structure and organization, please see the discussion and diagrams on the GNSO Improvements webpage.

New Stakeholder Groups. In May, the Board directed the Structural Improvements Committee (SIC) and ICANN Staff to make changes to various Stakeholder Group charters submitted by the community to make them consistent with the Board’s GNSO Improvements Report and related Resolutions, and to post the revised charters, and an explanatory memorandum, for GNSO consultation and public comment. Prior to and during the Sydney ICANN meeting week, members of the SIC developed and discussed revised charter documents with various charter proponents and members of the ICANN community. Those revised documents have been posted for public review and comment (see - http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-01jul09-en.htm).

New GNSO Constituencies. With the conclusion of the new City TLD public comment forum on 10 July (see http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/#city), all four of the new GNSO Constituency candidate charters (CyberSafety, Consumers, City TLDs and IDNgTLD) have completed full 30-day public comment forums.

ICANN Bylaw Amendments. A GNSO Council Restructure Drafting Team has been working on a set of Bylaw amendments needed to implement the new GNSO structure and processes. The Drafting Team sought further guidance from the Board’s Structural Improvements Committee, continued its work in Sydney and, although not approved by all six constituency groups, endorsed a set of proposed Bylaw amendments at the 9 July special GNSO Council meeting on the topic. There are some expectations that the Board will consider and perhaps move to approve Bylaw amendments necessary to implement the seating of the new GNSO Council at its scheduled 30 July meeting. A public forum on the Bylaw amendments is currently open for community comment (see http://www.icann.org/en/public-comment/public-comment-200907.html - gnso-restructure). The forum includes copies of the proposed amendments drafted by the GNSO and additional suggestions prepared by the Staff.

Work Team Implementation Efforts The Operations Steering Committee (OSC) and Policy Process Steering Committee (PPSC), created by the GNSO Council, established five Work Teams to develop specific proposals, processes and mechanisms for implementing the GNSO Improvement Recommendations endorsed and adopted by the Board as follows:

PPSC A team to develop recommendations for a new and improved Policy Development Process (PDP)
PPSC A team to develop recommendations for a standardized Working Group model for GNSO policy development
OSC A team to develop recommendations for revised GNSO Council operations
OSC A team to develop recommendations for standard Stakeholder Group and Constituency processes and operations
OSC A team to develop recommendations for efforts to improve the various communications functions in the GNSO community that will lead to broader and more effective participation in all policy development activities (e.g., web site design and translation policies).

Announcements encouraging volunteers to join the Work Teams were posted on the main ICANN web page and circulated throughout the GNSO and ALAC communities in early January. Subsequently, the Work Teams were staffed by volunteers from the community and each team met for the first time in Mexico City. The status of each of the Work Teams follows:

PPSC Efforts:

  1. PDP Team
  2. The PDP Work Team is developing a new policy development process (PDP) (including a report of proposed new bylaws, rules and procedures) that is better aligned with the contractual requirements of ICANN’s consensus policies, expands early issue scoping and fact-finding prior to launch of a PDP, is more flexible and effective, and includes a post-PDP assessment process to measure the effectiveness of policy recommendations. The team is meeting weekly and currently is discussing the pre-PDP planning and initiation phase, which includes initial issue scoping and fact-finding steps. In recent weeks, the team has considered what parties should be able to "raise an issue" and the types of recommendations and policy outcomes that might result from a PDP.

  3. Working Group Team
  4. The Working Group Model Work Team is in the process of developing two new guidebooks that are targeted to separate audiences as follows: "Working Group Implementation and Charter Drafting Guidelines" is intended for sponsoring organizations such as the GNSO Council and will contain a comprehensive set of elements to be considered in creating, purposing, funding, staffing, and guiding a WG to accomplish the desired outcome; and "Working Group Operating Model Guidebook" is intended for leaders/members of working groups and will provide guidance on such elements as structuring, norming, tasking, reporting, and delivering the outcome(s) as chartered. As of the June ICANN meeting, both outlines have been completed and drafting activities have begun on both documents.

OSC Efforts:

  1. The GNSO Operations Work Team
  2. This team has developed suggestions for high-level principles to establish the role of the Council as a "strategic manager of the policy process" and is finalizing a draft "Statement of Interest"/"Declaration of Interest" policy. The team is meeting bi-weekly and has begun to consider changes to the GNSO Council Rules of Procedure to meet the requirements of the Board Recommendations for GNSO Improvements.

  3. The Constituency & Stakeholder Group Operations Work Team
  4. This team is developing a Work Plan and timelines to determine recommendations for best practices in the following areas: a framework for participation in any ICANN Constituency that is objective, standardized, and clearly stated; operating principles that are representative, open, transparent, and democratic; and creating and maintaining a database of all constituency members (and others not formally a part of any constituency) that is up-to-date and publicly accessible. The team is meeting bi-weekly and recently sent an inquiry to Constituencies concerning suggestions relating to the Board Recommendation for a “tool kit” of basic administrative, operational and technical services that could be made available to all Constituencies.

  5. The Communications Work Team
  6. This team has recently completed its first draft of a set of Business Requirements to improve the GNSO website and, in a phased approach, address basic collaboration as well as limited document management capabilities that were identified as deficient in the Board’s Report on GNSO Improvements. The Team is also working on recommendations to enhance the GNSO’s ability to solicit meaningful community feedback. In addition, the team is considering the current ICANN translation process for documents associated with policy development and recommendations to improve GNSO’s coordination with other ICANN structures.

Next Steps

Resolution of this comprehensive effort will require a longer timetable than the Board originally planned. At its meeting in Sydney, the ICANN Board formally extended the implementation schedule for seating the newly structured GNSO Council to the Seoul, South Korea ICANN meeting in October 2009. Three public comment forums related to GNSO Improvements Implementation close this month. The Board will likely discuss the issue of the new Stakeholder Group charters, the Bylaw amendments to implement the GNSO Council restructuring, the new constituency petitions and charters and other GNSO Improvements implementation matters at its 30 July meeting.

Also, the various work teams and steering committees will continue to work on developing recommendations on the broader improvements issues in the hope of realizing the new GNSO as soon as practically possible.

Background

 Through a series of decisions at its February, June, August and October 2008 meetings, the ICANN Board has endorsed a series of goals, objectives and recommendations for improving several aspects of the GNSO’s structure and operations. These decisions are a culmination of a two-year effort of independent review, community input and Board deliberations. Click here for more details.

More Information

Staff Contact

Robert Hoggarth, Senior Policy Director


11. BOARD APPROVES GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS REVIEW CHARTER

At a Glance

The proposed charter of the community-wide working group tasked with the review of ICANN’s system of geographic regions was approved by the Board at its 26 June meeting in Sydney, Australia. The group is now working on finalizing its Initial Report for community review.

Recent Developments

After several months of dialogue between the Board and the Geographic Regions Working Group, the Board approved the group’s proposed charter of work at its 26 June meeting in Sydney, Australia.

Earlier that month, the working group welcomed two new members. Representatives of the Number Resource Organization (acting to fulfill the role, responsibilities and functions of the Address Supporting Organization) joined the working group effective 1 June 2009.

Next Steps

The working group is now hard at work finalizing the draft of its Initial Report and hopes to have the document completed and circulated for community review in late July or early August.

Background

Click here for more details.

More Information

Staff Contact

Robert Hoggarth, Senior Policy Director


12. REGISTRATION ABUSE POLICIES GET CLOSER LOOK

At a Glance

Registries and registrars seem to lack uniform approaches to dealing with domain name registration abuse, and questions persist as to what actions constitute "registration abuse." The GNSO Council has launched a Registration Abuse Policies (RAP) Working Group to take a closer look at registration abuse policies.

Recent Developments

The working group hosted an open meeting at the ICANN meeting in Sydney to inform the community of its ongoing work and to allow for questions from and discussions with the broader ICANN community. Review the transcript of this meeting at http://syd.icann.org/node/3857.

Next Steps

The RAP Working Group will continue meeting bi-weekly to address the issues outlined in its charter, such as: the difference between registration abuse and domain name use abuse; the effectiveness of existing registration abuse policies; and which areas, if any, would be suitable for GNSO policy development to address registration abuse.

Background

Click here for more details.

More Information

Staff Contacts

Marika Konings, Policy Director, and Margie Milam, Senior Policy Counselor


13. GNSO CONSIDERS EXPIRED DOMAIN NAME RECOVERY CHANGES

At a Glance

To what extent should registrants be able to reclaim their domain names after they expire? At issue is whether the current policies of registrars on the renewal, transfer and deletion of expired domain names are adequate.

Recent Developments

The GNSO Council adopted a charter for a Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery Working Group (PEDNR WG) at its meeting on 24 June in Sydney. The PEDNR WG initially will be instructed to:

  1. Pursue the availability of further information from ICANN compliance staff to understand how current RAA provisions and consensus policies regarding deletion, auto-renewal, and recovery of domain names following expiration are enforced;
  2. Review and understand the current domain name life cycle;
  3. Review current registrar practices regarding domain name expiration, renewal, and post-expiration recovery.

The Working Group shall then consider the following questions:

  1. Whether adequate opportunity exists for registrants to redeem their expired domain names;
  2. Whether expiration-related provisions in typical registration agreements are clear and conspicuous enough;
  3. Whether adequate notice exists to alert registrants of upcoming expirations;
  4. Whether additional measures need to be implemented to indicate that once a domain name enters the Auto-Renew Grace Period, it has expired (e.g., hold status, a notice on the site with a link to information on how to renew, or other options to be determined);
  5. Whether to allow the transfer of a domain name during the RGP.

The Working Group is expected to organize an issue update / workshop at the Seoul meeting, in addition to an update to the GNSO Council. The Working Group should consider recommendations for best practices as well as -- or instead of -- recommendations for Consensus Policy.

In addition, a PEDNR workshop was held at the ICANN meeting in Sydney to allow for a first exchange of views with the broader ICANN community on the issues outlined in the charter above. For further information, including a transcript and audio recording of the workshop, please see http://syd.icann.org/node/3869.

Next Steps

A call for volunteers to join the PEDNR WG has been launched (see http://gnso.icann.org/issues/post-expiration-recovery/call-pdp-pednr-06jul09.pdf ) and the WG will start its deliberations shortly.

Background

During the ICANN meeting in Cairo, the ALAC voted to request an Issues Report on the subject of registrants being able to recover domain names after their formal expiration date. The ALAC request was submitted to the GNSO Council on 20 November 2008. ICANN Staff prepared the Issues Report on post-expiration domain name recovery and submitted it to the GNSO Council on 5 December 2008. ICANN Staff provided the GNSO Council with clarifications on the questions raised in a motion that was adopted at its 18 December meeting. The GNSO Council reviewed these clarifications during its meeting on 29 January and agreed to create a Post-Expiration Domain Name Recovery drafting team to eventually propose a charter and to provide recommendations.

Click here for more details.

More Information

Staff Contact

Marika Konings, Policy Director


14. MAKING IT EASIER TO TRANSFER DOMAINS BETWEEN REGISTRARS

At a Glance

The Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy (IRTP) aims to provide a straightforward procedure for domain name holders to transfer their names from one ICANN-accredited registrar to another. The GNSO is reviewing and considering revisions to this policy.

Recent Developments

IRTP Issues – Set B

At its meeting on 24 June at the ICANN meeting in Sydney, the GNSO Council resolved to initiate a Policy Development Process (PDP) on IRTP Part B which will address the following issues:

  • A process for urgent return/resolution of a domain name should be developed, as discussed within the SSAC hijacking report (http://www.icann.org/announcements/hijacking-report-12jul05.pdf; see also http://www.icann.org/correspondence/cole-to-tonkin-14mar05.htm).
  • Additional provisions on undoing inappropriate transfers are needed, especially with regard to disputes between a registrant and Admin Contact (AC). The policy is clear that the registrant can overrule the AC, but how this is implemented is currently at the discretion of the registrar.
  • Special provisions are needed for a change of registrant occurring soon before or after a change of registrar. The policy does not currently deal with change of registrant, which often figures in hijacking cases.
  • Standards or best practices should be implemented regarding use of Registrar Lock status (e.g., when it may/may not, should/should not be applied).
  • And if so, how best to clarify denial reason #7: A domain name was already in "lock status" provided that the registrar provides a readily accessible and reasonable means for the registered name holder to remove the lock status.

In addition, an IRTP Part B Brainstorming Session was held to allow for an initial exchange with the broader ICANN community on the issues outlined above. For further information on this session, please see http://syd.icann.org/node/4027.

Next Steps

The GNSO Council is expected to consider a charter for the IRTP Part B Working Group at its next meeting on 23 July.

Background

As part of a broader review of the Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy, the first in a set of five distinct policy development processes (PDPs) has now been completed and a second one is in preparation.

Click here for more details.

More Information

Staff Contact

Marika Konings, Policy Director


15. HOW DO WE DEAL WITH FAST FLUXING CYBERCRIMINALS?

At a Glance

Fast flux attacks refer to techniques used by cybercriminals to evade detection by rapidly modifying IP addresses and/or name servers. The GNSO is exploring appropriate action.

Recent Developments and Next Steps

The Working Group is reviewing the public comments received and working on finalizing its report.

Background

Following a SSAC Advisory on Fast Flux Hosting and an Issues Report, the GNSO Council launched a Policy Development Process (PDP) on Fast Flux Hosting in May 2008. The Working Group published its Initial Report in January 2009, which discusses a series of questions about fast flux hosting and the range of possible answers developed by Working Group members. The Report also outlines potential next steps for Council deliberation. These next steps may include further work items for the Working Group or policy recommendations for constituency and community review and comment, and for Council deliberation.

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More Information

Staff Contact

Marika Konings, Policy Director


16. AT-LARGE COMMUNITY’S VIEWS ON SYDNEY SESSIONS ARE ONLINE

At a Glance

At-Large members experimented with a new form of participation at the Sydney meeting – they reviewed the schedule and agreed who would attend which sessions, to ensure at least one community member participated in as many meetings as possible. They also agreed to report back via wiki with their views on the sessions attended, and got together on Thursday to review major issues and possible responses.

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17. AT-LARGE COMMUNITY ACTIVE ON MANY POLICY FRONTS

At a Glance

At-Large is advancing on a diverse program of policy advice development.

Recent Developments

At-Large, like other ICANN communities, is busy developing consensus positions on many policy areas in an environment with many open public consultations. At-Large concluded statements on the following subjects in June and early July:

  • IRT Working Group Final Report
  • FY 2010 Operating Plan and Budget
  • The Draft Travel Procedure for FY2010
  • Expense Analysis Consultation

All official At-Large statements are posted.

Work is underway on the following subjects:

  • “Improving Institutional Confidence – The Way Forward” documents posted by the ICANN Staff.
  • At-Large proposals for Improvements to the Public Consultation Process
  • IDN Fast Track v3 proposals
  • Second Report of the Board Review Working Group
  • Root Server System Scaling Study Consultation

More Information

Staff Contact

Nick Ashton-Hart, Director for At-Large

update-jul09-en.pdf  [197 KB]

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."