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One Last Look at the RAA

22 April 2013
By Cyrus Namazi

We are there. As a result of sincere and constructive negotiations that have gone on for nearly 18 months, a new 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement is in our hands. All remaining differences have been settled and ICANN and the members of the Registrar Negotiating Team have achieved an agreement on all issues.

As you know, on 7 March, we posted a draft of the 2013 RAA for public comment noting the outstanding differences remaining in the negotiations at that time. Differences that have since been reconciled through many additional hours of meeting and dialogue. ICANN and the Registrar Negotiating Team considered as part of the negotiations the public comments received and resolved all the remaining issues and differences. Now the ICANN community is able to review this final draft before it is approved and adopted. And so, we are posting the final draft of the 2013 RAA for public comment.

I must say that I am extremely delighted with the new spirit of partnership that has evolved between ICANN and the registrar community as a whole. On behalf of ICANN, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the Registrar Negotiating Team for their tireless efforts and spirited attitudes in getting us to the finish line. A few of them have offered their own reflections on the process and the Agreement.

Matt Serlin, Chair of the Registrar Stakeholder Group:

“On behalf of the entire Registrar Negotiating Team, I am pleased to see negotiations on the 2013 RAA have come to a conclusion after a long process in which both parties worked long and hard to resolve difficult issues. The outcome of these discussions is a new RAA which will be impactful for everyone involved in the DNS industry including every ICANN accredited registrar. We look forward to continuing to work with ICANN as we now move from the negotiations phase to implementing the numerous new requirements contained in the 2013 RAA.”

James Bladel, GoDaddy.com:

“The new 2013 RAA represents over a year’s work between registrars and ICANN Staff, and is an important milestone in the development of the DNS ecosystem. It raises the bar for service providers, provides new tools for law enforcement, and gives registrars long-term stability in their relationship with ICANN.”

Volker Greimann, Key-Systems Group:

“ICANN and the registrars negotiation teams have worked long and hard towards the completion of a 2013 RAA to address the difficult issues put before us. Despite complicated issues, sometimes moving goalposts and further complications were able to conclude the negotiations with a result that we hope will be a great step ahead for the community. I am especially pleased that the negotiated 2013 RAA recognizes the need for fair and balanced exemption process where applicable law prohibits the direct implementation of certain terms within new requirements, such as the data retention specification.”

Rob Hall, Momentous.com:

“It isn’t just the new RAA that is significant, it is the collaborative way it was created.  Those of us who participated saw the dawn of a new day at ICANN, one where getting things done for the community as a whole takes precedence over any single concern.”

Authors

Cyrus Namazi