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ICANN POLICY UPDATE | Volume 13, Issue 7 – August 2013 Issue

PDF Version [613 KB]

http://www.icann.org/en/resources/policy/update

CONTENTS:

Across ICANN

  1. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

ccNSO

  1. Celebrating the ccNSO's 10 Year Anniversary in Durban
  2. ccNSO Welcomes New Chair, Thanks Lesley Cowley for Service
  3. New Video of Durban Highlights
  4. Rwanda Joins ccNSO
  5. Members Vote Again on Internationalized Domain Names
  6. Durban Sessions Rated Highly By ccNSO Participants
  7. Volunteers Needed for Drafting Team on Geographic Regions

GNSO

  1. GNSO Council Adopts Locking of a Domain Name Subject to UDRP Proceedings Policy Recommendations – Public Comment Forum Opened Prior to Board Consideration
  2. Volunteers Needed for Policy and Implementation Working Group

ASO

  1. ASO Considers Autonomous System Number Transfers

At-Large

  1. ALAC Submits Five Policy Advice Statements between mid-July and early August
  2. At-Large Community Expands to 156 At-Large Structures

GAC

  1. GAC Concludes Meeting in Durban

RSSAC

  1. RSSAC Restructure Progresses

SSACC

  1. SSAC Publishes Comment on ICANN's Report on Examining the User Experience Implication of Active Variant TLDs

Read in Your Preferred Language

ICANN Policy Update is available in all six official languages of the United Nations. Policy Update is posted on ICANN's web site and available via online subscription. To receive the Update in your Inbox each month, visit the ICANN subscriptions page, enter your e-mail address, and select "Policy Update" to subscribe. This service is free.

ICANN Policy Update statement of purpose

Send questions, comments and suggestions to: policy-staff@icann.org.

Policy Supporting Organizations and Advisory Committees

Address Supporting Organization ASO
Country Code Names Supporting Organization ccNSO
Generic Names Supporting Organization GNSO
At-Large Advisory Committee ALAC
Governmental Advisory Committee GAC
Root Server System Advisory Committee RSSAC
Security and Stability Advisory Committee SSAC

Across ICANN

1. Issues Currently Open for Public Comment

Numerous public comment periods are currently open on issues of interest to the ICANN community. Act now to share your views on such topics as:

Draft Final Report on Universal Acceptance of IDN TLDs. Comment now on recommendations to ensure that registration systems and services accept Internationalized Domain Names. Reply period closes 16 August.

Draft Final Report ccNSO Study Group on the Use of Country and Territory Names as TLDs. Is a cross community working group, with participants from ALAC, ccNSO, GAC and GNSO, a good next step for determining how to use country and territory names as TLDs? Reply period closes 30 August.

.MOBI Cross-Ownership Removal Request. Afilias Limited requested removal of the cross-ownership restrictions reflected on the .MOBI Registry Agreement. Comment period closes 16 August; reply period closes 8 September.

.PRO Cross-Ownership Removal Request. Afilias Limited requested removal of the cross-ownership restrictions reflected on the .PRO Registry Agreement. Comment period closes 16 August; reply period closes 8 September.

Locking of a Domain Name Subject to UDRP Proceedings Policy Development Process (PDP) Recommendations for Board Consideration. What does it mean to lock a domain and when should it be done? Comment period closes 23 August; reply period closes 13 September.

Proposal to Mitigate Name Collision Risks. Interisle Consulting Group has completed a study on the likelihood and potential consequences of collision between new public gTLD labels and existing private uses of the same strings. Comment period closes 27 August; reply period closes 17 September.

GNSO Structures Charter Amendment Process. What should the process look like for amending Stakeholder Group and Constituency charters? Comment period closes 28 August; reply period closes 18 September.

For the full list of issues open for public comment, plus recently closed and archived public comment forums, visit the Public Comment web page.

The staff also populates a web page to help preview potential "upcoming" public comment opportunities. This page – "Public Comments – Upcoming" page – which will be updated again soon, provides information about potential future public comment opportunities. The page is designed to be updated after every ICANN Public Meeting to help individuals and the community to set priorities and plan their future workloads.


ccNSO

2. Celebrating the ccNSO's 10 Year Anniversary in Durban

ccNSO Logo

At a Glance

The ccNSO celebrated its 10th anniversary at a special cocktail reception with the ICANN Board in Durban. The reception included a presentation highlighting the ccNSO's history and its accomplishments, including the Internationalized Domain Name ccTLD Fast-Track Program and its growth to nearly 140 members.

Background

ccNSO 10th Anniversary Cocktail Reception
ccNSO 10th Anniversary Cocktail Reception

The ccNSO is a body within the ICANN structure created for and by ccTLD managers. Since its creation in 2003, the ccNSO has provided a forum for country code Top-Level Domain (ccTLD) managers to meet and discuss topical issues of concern to ccTLDs from a global perspective.

The ccNSO provides a platform to nurture consensus, technical cooperation and skill building among ccTLDs and facilitates the development of voluntary best practices for ccTLD managers.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


3. ccNSO Welcomes New Chair, Thanks Lesley Cowley for Service

At a Glance

Lesley Cowley and Byron Holland
Lesley Cowley and Byron Holland

The ccNSO thanked Lesley Cowley of .UK for serving as Council chair since March 2011, and welcomed Byron Holland of .CA as her successor. Byron will serve a one-year term as chair. Lesley, who did not stand for a third term as chair, will remain as a member of the Council.

Recent Developments

The new ccNSO Council chair, Byron Holland, is President and CEO of the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) and the registry operator of the .CA top-level domain.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


4. New Video of Durban Highlights

At a Glance

The ccNSO posted a highlights video on YouTube of its activities at ICANN 48 in Durban. It includes scenes from the 10th anniversary cocktail reception and remarks by outgoing chair Lesley Cowley and incoming chair Byron Holland.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


5. Rwanda Joins ccNSO

At a Glance

Rwanda Information Communication and Technology Association (RICTA), the ccTLD operator of .rw (Rwanda), is the newest ccNSO member. There are now 138 members of the ccNSO.

Background

Rwanda is located in Central Africa, east of Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are now 30 African country-code registry operators in the ccNSO membership.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


6. Members Vote Again on Internationalized Domain Names

At a Glance

IDN ccPDP is set to complete a second, final round of voting by the ccNSO members.

Recent Developments
Graphical Representation of the ccNSO PDP

At the ICANN Public Meeting in Beijing, the ccNSO Council adopted a set of proposals relating to the selection of IDN ccTLD strings and on the inclusion of IDN ccTLDs in the ccNSO as the Council Recommendation. The ccNSO members were given the opportunity to vote upon the Council Recommendation. Unfortunately the required 50 percent quorum was not met (65 ccTLD managers cast their votes – three short of the 68 ccTLD voters required by the process). As a result a second, final round of voting is being conducted.

Next Steps

The second, final round of voting on the ccNSO Council Recommendation, which includes proposals for the overall policy for the selection of IDN ccTLD strings and on the inclusion of IDN ccTLD in the ccNSO will close on 13 August at 23.59 UTC. If the Council Recommendation is adopted by the membership of the ccNSO, it will be submitted to the ICANN Board as the ccNSO Recommendation to replace the IDN ccTLD Fast Track Process. This will end a six-year process.

More Information

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, ccNSO Senior Policy Advisor


7. Durban Sessions Rated Highly By ccNSO Participants

At a Glance

Approximately 80 percent of ccNSO respondents rated the overall ccNSO day one and two sessions in Durban as excellent or good, according to an online survey.

Recent Developments

The survey for day one was completed by 37 respondents; the survey for day two had 24 respondents. The most highly-rated sessions included Cross-Regional Capacity Building, Regional Organization News and ccTLD News Session.

Next Steps

Survey results are used to form the agenda and schedule for the next meeting.

More Information

Staff Contact

Gabriella Schittek, ccNSO Secretariat


8. Volunteers Needed for Drafting Team on Geographic Regions

At a Glance

ccNSO seeks volunteers to help draft a formal response on Geographic Regions Working Group Final Report.

Recent Developments

The ccNSO was requested to provide feedback and input on the Final Report of the Geographic Regions Working Group. At its meeting in Durban the ccNSO Council resolved to initiate the process to provide a ccNSO Statement and ask for volunteers for the drafting team.

Next Steps

The ccNSO secretariat has sent out a call for volunteers to participate in the drafting team for the ccNSO Statement on this matter. The Council will appoint the drafting team.

Background

At the request of the ccNSO, the cross-community Geographic Regions Working Group was formed by the Board to identify the different purposes for which ICANN's Geographic Regions are used, determine whether the uses of ICANN's Geographic Regions (as currently defined, or at all) continue to meet the requirements of the relevant stakeholders. Based on its findings the Working Group submitted proposals for community and Board consideration relating to the current and future uses and definition of the ICANN Geographic Regions.

The WG published an earlier draft Final Report, which included recommendations to redefine ICANN's Geographic Regions. The ccNSO commented on that draft document.

More Information

Staff Contact

Bart Boswinkel, ccNSO Senior Policy Advisor


GNSO

9. GNSO Council Adopts Locking of a Domain Name Subject to UDRP Proceedings Policy Recommendations – Public Comment Forum Opened Prior to Board Consideration

At a Glance

The GNSO Council has now adopted the Locking of a Domain Name subject to UDRP Proceedings Final Report, including 17 full consensus recommendations, which are intended to clarify and standardize the process for locking of a domain name subject to UDRP Proceedings.

Recent Developments and Next Steps

ccNSO Board Vote

The "locking" of a domain name registration associated with UDRP proceedings is not currently required by the UDRP as written, but is a common practice. Since there is no uniform approach, the GNSO Council initiated a PDP and formed a Working Group to address and unify the issues surrounding the locking of a domain that is subject to a UDRP proceeding.

Following review of the public comments received on its Initial Report, the Working Group submitted its Final Report to the GNSO Council on 5 July. The GNSO Council unanimously adopted the Final Report that includes 17 full consensus recommendations, which are intended to clarify and standardize the process for locking of a domain name subject to UDRP Proceedings, including:

  • Definition of 'locking'

  • Requiring registrar to apply lock within two business days following request for verification

  • Removing obligation for complainant to notify the respondent at the time of filing, but add automatic extension of four days to response time upon request

  • Step-by-step clarification of requirements of parties

  • Development of educational and informational materials to assist in informing affected parties of new requirements and recommended best practices

Following the adoption by the GNSO Council, a public comment forum has now been opened to request public input prior to Board consideration of the recommendations. Comments may be submitted until 23 August, followed by a reply period if applicable.

Background

The "locking" of a domain name that is subject to UDRP proceedings is not something that is literally required by the UDRP as written, but is a practice that has developed around it. As a result, there is no uniform approach, which has resulted in confusion and misunderstandings. The GNSO Council initiated a PDP on this specific topic in December 2011 and tasked the WG to make recommendations to the GNSO Council to address the issues identified with the locking of a domain name subject to UDRP Proceedings. As part of its deliberations, the WG was required to consider the following questions:

1. Whether the creation of an outline of a proposed procedure, which a complainant must follow in order for a registrar to place a domain name on registrar lock, would be desirable.

2. Whether the creation of an outline of the steps of the process that a registrar can reasonably expect to take place during a UDRP dispute would be desirable.

3. Whether the time frame by which a registrar must lock a domain after a UDRP has been filed should be standardized.

4a. Whether what constitutes a "locked" domain name should be defined.

4b. Whether, once a domain name is 'locked' pursuant to a UDRP proceeding, the registrant information for that domain name may be changed or modified.

5. Whether additional safeguards should be created for the protection of registrants in cases where the domain name is locked subject to a UDRP proceeding.

More Information

Staff Contact

Marika Konings, Senior Policy Director


10. Volunteers Needed for Policy and Implementation Working Group

At a Glance

The GNSO Council seeks volunteers to serve on a Working Group to address a number of issues that have been raised in the context of the recent discussions on policy and implementation that affect the GNSO.

Recent Developments and Next Steps

The GNSO Council invites all interested parties to put forward their names so they can be added to the WG mailing list. The WG will be open to anyone interested to join. Community members who wish to be invited to join the group should email the GNSO secretariat.

Background

Mainly as a result of discussions stemming from implementation related issues of the New gTLD Program, there is increased focus on which topics call for policy and which call for implementation work, including which processes should be used, at what time and how diverging opinions should be acted upon. In order to facilitate these discussions, ICANN staff developed a draft framework for community discussion that identifies a number of steps and criteria that might facilitate dealing with similar questions in the future. The paper identifies a number of questions that the community may want to consider further in this context, as well as a couple of suggested improvements that could be considered in the short term.

While developing a bright-line rule as to what is policy or implementation may not be possible, the hope is that by developing clear processes and identifying clear roles and responsibilities for the different stakeholders, it will become easier to deal with these issues going forward and allow for broad community participation and involvement. Following several discussions by the GNSO Council on this topic, the GNSO Council has now formed a Working Group which has been tasked to provide concrete recommendations on how to address some of these issues from a GNSO perspective.

More Information

Staff Contact

Marika Konings, Senior Policy Director


ASO

11. ASO Considers Autonomous System Number Transfers

ASO Logo

The Address Supporting Organization is currently considering issues related to the transfer of Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs) between Regional Internet Registry regions. This activity will require a global policy for the IANA ASN registry to reflect the appropriate transferred registration in formation.

ASNs are used by various routing protocols and IANA assigns them in blocks to regional registries.

More Information

Staff Contact

Barbara Roseman, Policy Director and Technical Analyst


At-Large

12. ALAC Submits Five Policy Advice Statements between mid-July and early August

At a Glance

The ALAC continues its high rate of preparing statements in response to ICANN public comments periods as well as comments and communications. Between the ICANN Meeting in Durban held in July and early August, the ALAC published and submitted five policy Advice Statements. The ALAC is currently developing several additional policy advice statements.

Recent Developments

The ALAC policy advice statements and communications submitted between mid-July and early August are:

ALAC Statement on the Consultation on the Source of Policies & User Instructions for Internet Number Resource Requests [PDF, 329 KB]

ALAC Statement on the Draft Final Report ccNSO Study Group on the Use of Country and Territory Names as TLDs

ALAC Statement on the Draft Final Report on Universal Acceptance of IDN TLDs

ALAC Statement on the Initial Report on Protection of IGO and INGO Identifiers in All gTLDs

ALAC Statement on the Thick Whois Initial Report – GNSO Policy Development Process

More Information

Staff Contact

Matt Ashtiani, Policy Specialist


13. At-Large Community Expands to 156 At-Large Structures

At a Glance

ALAC recently certified two organizations as At-Large Structures (ALSes): The Euro Individuals Association and the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN). These two new ALSes expand the regional diversity of the At-Large community, which represents thousands of individual Internet end-users. With the addition of these two new organizations, the number of accredited ALSes will now total 156.

Recent Developments

The ALAC recently voted to certify the Euro Individuals Association and ACCAN as ALSes. The certification process included due diligence carried out by ICANN staff and regional advice provided by the European Regional At-Large Organization (EURALO) and the Asian-Australasian-Pacific region (APRALO).

Additional information on the new At-Large Structures:

The Euro Individuals Association (EIA) – This organization's purpose is to organize individuals within EURALO who are not members of other At-Large Structures. The mission of EIA includes, among others to support the general objectives of ICANN's European At-Large Organization (EURALO) specified in its Bylaws and its MoU with ICANN signed in March 2007 in Lisbon – i.e., inter alia, to promote the open development, multi-stakeholder based evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout Europe and the world. This organization will be an ALS within EURALO.

The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) is located in Ultimo, Australia. The mission of ACCAN is to develop a strong, coordinated voice for consumers and to represent and advocate on behalf of consumers to government, regulators and the telecommunications industry as well as to undertake research, policy development and education on consumer telecommunications issues. This organization will be an ALS within APRALO.

Background

One of the strengths of the At-Large community is that it incorporates the views of a set of globally diverse, Internet end-user organizations, or ALSes, organized within five Regional At-Large Organizations. The views of these grassroots organizations are collected through an internal, bottom-up, consensus-driven policy development process and find representation in the official documents of the ALAC.

More Information

Staff Contact

Silvia Vivanco, Manager, At-Large Regional Affairs


GAC

14. GAC Concludes Meeting in Durban

At a Glance

The GAC met in Durban to follow-up on outstanding issues from the Beijing GAC Communiqué [PDF, 159 KB], including the Board's response to GAC safeguard advice. The GAC also met to discuss future work beyond providing advice on new gTLDs. For further information please see the Durban GAC Communiqué [PDF, 103 KB].

Background

ICANN receives input from governments through the GAC. The GAC's key role is to provide advice to ICANN on issues of public policy, and especially where there may be an interaction between ICANN's activities or policies and national laws or international agreements. The GAC usually meets three times a year in conjunction with ICANN meetings, where it discusses issues with the ICANN Board and other ICANN Supporting Organizations, Advisory Committees and other groups. The GAC may also discuss issues between times with the Board either through face-to-face meetings or by teleconference.

More Information

Staff Contact

Jeannie Ellers, ICANN staff


RSSAC

15. RSSAC Restructure Progresses

The Root Server System Advisory Committee is progressing through its reorganization. The Executive Committee of the RSSAC has met several times, most recently at IETF 87 in Berlin, Germany. The old RSSAC has been dissolved with all ongoing work products moving to the new group and timelines set for delivery. Invitations to the SSAC and Internet Architecture Board to send liaisons to the RSSAC have been issued, and documents about the operating processes, roles and responsibilities are being completed.

More Information

Staff Contact

Barbara Roseman, Policy Director and Technical Analyst

SSAC

16. SSAC Publishes Comment on ICANN's Report on Examining the User Experience Implication of Active Variant TLDs

At a Glance

At the request of the Board of Directors of ICANN, SSAC provided comments and advice regarding ICANN's Report on Examining the User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs [PDF, 1.39 MB] in its recently published document, SAC060: SSAC Comment on Examining the User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs Report [PDF, 706 KB].

Recent Developments and Next Steps

On 11 April 2013 the ICANN Board of Directors passed a resolution directing staff to implement the procedure to develop and maintain the label generation rules for the root zone with respect to IDNA labels, as well as requesting that interested ICANN supporting organizations and advisory committees provide staff with any input and guidance they may have to be factored into implementation of the recommendations in the user experience report.

In response to the Board's request the SSAC reviewed ICANN's report Examining the User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs [PDF, 1.38 MB] and in SAC060: SSAC Comment on Examining the User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs Report [PDF, 706 KB] and it provided comments on recommendations specifically concerning security and stability issues.

Background

Internationalized variant top-level domains have been subjects of interest for several years for a number of user communities. The ICANN Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Variant TLD Program has been working with subject matter experts in the community to develop solutions to enable the secure and stable delegation of IDN variant TLDs. The Program has recently concluded the work on two key components of the solution: The Procedure to Develop and Maintain the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone in Respect of IDNA Labels [PDF, 1.39 MB] and the Report on User Experience Implications of Active Variant TLDs [PDF, 1.38 MB].

More Information

Staff Contact

Julie Hedlund, Policy Director

update-aug13-en.pdf  [612 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."