Unsponsored TLD Agreement: Appendix E (.biz) Posted: 11 May 2001

1. Definitions. Capitalized terms used herein and not otherwise defined shall have the definitions ascribed to them in Appendix D to the Registry Agreement or the Registry-Registrar Agreement.

2. Credits. If Registry Operator fails to meet the Performance Specifications defined in Appendix D to the Registry Agreement ("Service Level Exception" or "SLE"), Registry Operator shall pay in the aggregate to the Registrar Community a credit according to the tables provided below ("Applicable Credit"). Each Registrar shall only be entitled to a fraction of the Applicable Credit. Such fractions of the credit specified in the tables to be paid to any individual Registrar will be calculated based upon the number of domain names that such Registrar added to the Registry during the Service Level Measurement Period compared to the total number of domain names added to the Registry by all Registrars during the Service Level Measurement Period in which the SLE occurred. The credit due to Registrar may be paid as an offset to registrations and other fees owed to Registry Operator by Registrar. All credits shall be paid in U.S. Dollars. The following Credit Lookup Matrix indicates the corresponding credit table for which the credits defined in this Appendix will be levied.

	Performance Specification Description	SRS	Nameserver	Whois
1	Service Availability	Table C1a	Table C1b	Table C1a
2	Processing Time - Add, Modify, Delete	Table C2	NA	NA
3	Processing Time - Query Domain	Table C2	NA	NA
4	Processing Time - Whois	NA	NA	Table C2
5	Processing Time - Nameserver Resolution	NA	Table C2	NA
6	Update Frequency	NA	Table C3	Table C3
7	Planned Outage - Duration	Table C4b	NA	Table C4b
8	Planned Outage - Timeframe	Table C4a	NA	Table C4a
9	Planned Outage - Notification	Table C4a	NA	Table C4a
10	Extended Planned Outage - Duration	Table C4b	NA	Table C4b
11	Extended Planned Outage - Timeframe	Table C4a	NA	Table C4a
12	Extended Planned Outage - Notification	Table C4a	NA	Table C4a
13	Cross-Network Nameserver Performance	NA	See note.	NA

Note: The cross-network nameserver performance requirement is a subject of Registry Operator's obligations under Subsection 3.3 of the Registry Agreement but is not a subject of this Service Level Agreement (Appendix E).

If one or more SLEs occurs as the direct result of a failure to meet a Performance Specification in a single credit class, Registry Operator shall be responsible only for the credit assessed for the credit class which is the proximate cause for all directly related failures.

The following tables identify total Registrar Community credits due for SLEs in the four credit classes C1 - C4. Notwithstanding the credit levels contained in these tables, the total credits owed by Registry Operator under this Agreement shall not exceed $ 30,000 USD monthly and $ 360,000 USD annually. The credits contained in Tables C1a-C4 represent the total credits that may be assessed in a given SLR category in one Service Level Measurement Period.

2.1 C1 Credit Class–If availability of C1 Credit Class components or systems does not meet C1 Performance Specifications in any given Service Level Measurement Period described in the Performance Specification Matrix in Appendix D of the Registry Agreement, Registry Operator will credit the Registrar Community according to the tables (which amount will be credited to the Registrar on a proportional basis as set forth above).

C1a Availability Example: In a given measurement period, the SRS Availability is 99.87%, which equates to 52 minutes of unplanned downtime. The Registry Operator's Performance Specification for SRS Availability is 99.9%, or 43 minutes of downtime. The Service Level Exception, therefore, is 9 minutes (52-43 minutes), the difference between the Performance Specification and the actual measured performance. From the Credit Lookup Matrix, we see the relevant SLA is found in Table C1a. In Table C1a, the time interval (2-10 minutes) has a corresponding credit of $3,750 USD to be paid to the Registrar Community.

C1b Availability Example: In a given Service Level Measurement Period, the measured Nameserver Availability is 99.990% over a twelve (12) month period, which equates to 52 minutes of downtime. The Registry Operator's Performance Specification for Nameserver Availability is 99.999%, or 5minutes of downtime per calendar year. The Service Level Exception, therefore, is 47 minutes (52-5 minutes), the difference between the Performance Specification and the actual measured performance. From the Credit Lookup Matrix, we see the relevant SLA is found in Table C1b. In Table C1b, the time interval (30-60 minutes) has a corresponding credit of $25,000 USD to be paid to the Registrar Community.

2.2 C2 Credit Class–If processing time for C2 Credit Class services does not meet C2 Service Levels in any given Service Level Measurement Period, Registry Operator will credit the Registrar Community according to the following table (which amount will be credited to the Registrars on a proportional basis as set forth above).

C2 Processing Example: The Performance Specification for Processing Time for Add, Modify, and Delete is 3 seconds or less for 95% of the transactions. In a given Service Level Measurement Period 7% of the transactions are greater than 3 seconds. The 5% of those transactions with the longest processing times are not subject to the SLE calculation (3 seconds for 95%). The SLE is calculated using the average processing time for the 2% of the transactions that are subject to the SLE. If there were 1,000 transactions and they took a total of 4,000 seconds the average is 4 seconds. That generates an SLE of 1 second (4 seconds - 3 seconds). From the Credit Lookup Matrix, we see the relevant SLA is found in Table C2. In Table C2, the SLE time interval (< 2 seconds) has a corresponding credit of $375 USD to be paid to the Registrar Community.

2.3 C3 Credit Class–If update frequency measurements of C3 Credit Class components or systems do not meet C3 Service Levels in any given Service Level Measurement Period as described in the Performance Specification Matrix in Appendix D of the Registry Agreement, Registry Operator will credit the Registrar Community according to the following tables (which amount will be credited to the Registrars on a proportional basis as set forth above).

C3 Update Frequency Example: In a given Service Level Measurement Period, 95% of the updates to the Nameserver take 24 minutes or less to complete. The corresponding Registry Operator's Performance Specification is 15 minutes for 95% of the updates. The SLE, therefore, is 9 minutes. From the Credit Lookup Matrix, we see the relevant SLA is found in Table C3. The SLE time interval (2-10 minutes) has a corresponding credit of $938 USD to be paid to the Registrar Community.

2.4 C4 Credit Class–If Registry Operator fails to comply with C4 Credit Class category Performance Specifications, Registry Operator will credit the Registrar Community according to the following tables (C4a and C4b) (which amount will be credited to the Registrars on a proportional basis as set forth above).

C4a Planned Outage Notification Example: In each instance the Registry Operator fails to meet the Performance Specifications for Notification and Timeframe related to Planned Outages and Extended Planned Outages, the Registry Operator is subject to the credit in Table C4a. For example, the Registry Operator informs the Registrar Community that it will initiate a Planned Outage of the SRS on the next calendar Sunday (five (5) days advance notice). The corresponding Registry Operator's Performance Specification is 28 days notice. From the Credit Lookup Matrix, we see the relevant SLA is found in Table C4a. This results in a credit of $500 USD to be paid to the Registrar Community.

C4b Planned Outage Example: In a given Service Level Measurement Period, the actual duration of a planned outage is 11 hours and 20 minutes for the SRS. The corresponding Registry Operator's Performance Specification is 8 hours per month for the SRS. The SLE, therefore, is 3 hours and 20 minutes. From the Credit Lookup Matrix the relevant SLA is found in Table C4b. The SLE time interval (2-4 hours) has a corresponding credit of $1,200 USD to be paid to the Registrar Community.

3. Receipt of Credits. In order for Registrars to claim credits, the following procedure must be followed:

3.1 Registry Operator shall perform the required measurements in order to obtain the total credits associated with the applicable Service Level Measurement Period. Such measurements and associated documentation shall be delivered by e-mail to each of the Registrars in the Registrar Community. Such notice shall also include the total credit (if any) to be paid to the Registrar Community as a result of any outages.

3.2 Receipt of Credit - When the above steps have been completed, the Registry Operator shall enter in each Registrar's account balance the amount of credit (if applicable) that can be used immediately toward registrations in the Registry.

4. Obligations.

4.1 Except in the case of cross-network nameserver performance (which is not a subject of this Service Level Agreement), Registry Operator will perform monitoring from internally located systems as a means to verify that the conditions of the SLA are being met.

4.2 Upon written request, and at the sole expense of the requesting Registrar(s), Registry Operator will retain an independent third party to be selected by Registry Operator with the consent of the Registrar(s). The Registrar may, under reasonable terms and conditions, audit the reconciliation records for the purposes of verifying measurements of the Performance Specifications. The frequency of these audits will be no more than once yearly during the term of the agreement between Registry Operator and the Registrar.

4.3 Registry Operator's obligations under this SLA (Appendix E) are waived during the first 120 days after the Commencement-of-Service Date.

4.4 A Registrar must report each occurrence of alleged occasion of Unavailability of Core Services to the Registry Operator customer service help desk in the manner required by the Registry Operator (i.e., e-mail, fax, telephone) in order for an occurrence to be treated as Unavailable for purposes of the SLE.

4.5 In the event that the Core Services are Unavailable to an individual Registrar, Registry Operator will use commercially reasonable efforts to re-establish the affected Core Services for such Registrar as soon as reasonably practicable. In the event that the Unavailability of Core Services affects all Registrars, the Registry Operator is responsible for opening a blanket trouble ticket and immediately notifying all Registrars of the trouble ticket number and details.

4.6 Both Registrar and the Registry Operator agree to use reasonable commercial good faith efforts to establish the cause of any alleged Core Services Unavailability. If it is mutually determined to be a Registry Operator problem, the issue will become part of the Unplanned Outage minutes.

4.7 Beginning no later than 120 days post Commencement-of-Service Date, the Registry Operator will publish preliminary weekly system performance and availability reports. Registry Operator will use best efforts to finalize these reports no later than 30 days after the preliminary reports are provided.

4.8 The Registry Operator will use commercially reasonable efforts to restore the critical systems of the Core Services within 24 hours after the termination of a force majeure event and restore full system functionality within 48 hours after the termination of a force majeure event. Outages due to a force majeure will not be considered Service Unavailability.

4.9 Incident trouble tickets must be opened within a commercially reasonable period of time.

5. Miscellaneous.

5.1 This Service Level Agreement is independent of any rights, obligations or duties set forth in the Registry Agreement. In the event of any conflict between the terms and conditions of this Agreement and the Registry Agreement, the Registry Agreement shall control.

Earlier draft:

27 April 2001