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Podcast: Cops and Registrants Seek to Amend the RAA

28 May 2010
By Scott Pinzon

We always try to have a new ICANN Start podcast episode available to you by the first of each month, and the 1 June episode has arrived early.

This month’s episode discusses ICANN’s Registrar Accreditation Agreement. If you’re not familiar with it, perhaps you should be — more than 900 ICANN registrars have signed it, making it one of ICANN’s most foundational documents. Though it has seldom been revised in ICANN’s history, currently, a Working Group contemplates amending it.

Advocates for changing it include individual domain name holders, seeking a “Registrant Rights” charter; and numerous law enforcement agencies have focused on the RAA in hopes of gaining an edge in their fight against cybercrime. To learn more, listen to (or read) Senior Policy Counselor Margie Milam’s briefing in our latest episode of the podcast, entitled simply, “RAA.”

Could RAA amendments unveil cybercriminals? Or might they harm privacy?

If you missed last month’s episode, it’s also well worth your time. Leo Vegoda, Manager of Number Resources, delivered an outstanding orientation on almost every issue related to the fast-approaching shortage of Internet addresses. Whether or not you feel geeky enough to understand IPv4, IPv6, and the differences between them, Leo will help you understand all the ramifications of a worldwide Internet address shortage, what’s being done about it, and how the problem will affect you. If you’ve ever wondered at all about IPv6, check out Episode 5, “What Does IPv6 Mean?”

If you feel you learn better (or faster) by reading rather than listening, I’m pleased to announce that as of this month, every ICANN Start episode now has its transcript sitting right next to it. We’re continuing our effort to make the podcast a useful starting point when you want to understand an ICANN issue that is new to you. The ICANN community has responded, with the number of downloads during the podcast’s second month soaring north of 1,000. Thank you for your support!

What else would you like to hear a basic orientation about? Send an email to start@icann.org, where we’re watching for your input.

Authors

Scott Pinzon