[bc-gnso] PUBLIC COMMENT ANNOUNCEMENT RE: Initial Report on Vertical Integration Between Registrars and Registries/BC process TBD

[Marilyn Cade <marilynscade@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

NOTICE to BC Members: I AM ASKED AS CHAIR, TO DISTRIBUTE THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. 
Please note your opportunity to submit your individual comments. Steve 
DelBianco, our V.Chair, Policy Coordination, will advise the BC of his proposal 
on how, and whether to submit BC comments. This announcement is an alert, since 
many BC members may wish to submit individual comments. 
Some BC members have been on this working group, in their INDIVIDUAL capacity. 
They are subject matter experts that can inform the rest of us. They were not 
acting on behalf of the BC, and I applaud each of them, especially Mikey 
O'Connor, for undertaking the work, and understanding and 'living' the unique 
separation of WG from 'REST of WORK' for a Constituency that one belongs to. 
All of you who worked on this WG are invited to help to inform the RoU [rest of 
us], but we respect that you will now act as a BC member, or abstain, if you so 
determine. I wanted to recognize your work on this WG. It has been 'heavy 
lifting' and is much appreciated. 
We will have an aggressive schedule of ICANN public comments ahead, and we will 
try our best to be clear, in the subject line, of the purpose of an 
announcement. 

http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-2-23jul10-en.htm







Public Comment: Initial Report on
Vertical Integration Between Registrars and Registries

23 July 2010

The
GNSO Vertical Integration Working Group is seeking comments on its Initial
Report on Vertical Integration Between Registrars and Registries. This Initial
Report [PDF, 731 KB] is
posted for public
comment as a required step in
the GNSO’s Policy Development Process on Vertical Integration between
Registrars and Registries. The Initial Report describes various proposed
solutions for restrictions on vertical integration between registrars and
registries for adoption in the New gTLD Program.

Please
note: The
Working Group is working under an extremely aggressive schedule in order to
meet the requirements that have been placed on it by the GNSO Council and the
ICANN Board. The Working Group is planning to continue its analysis throughout
the public comment period. Reviewers are encouraged to submit comments early to
provide the group as much time as possible to consider them.

The
public comment period ends on 12 August 2010.

Background:

The
GNSO Council has commenced a policy development process (PDP) on the topic of
vertical integration between registrars and registries. The GNSO Council formed
a working group to evaluate whether any policy recommendations should be
developed on the topic of vertical integration between registrars and
registries affecting both new gTLDs and existing gTLDs.

ICANN
is currently in the process of finalizing the implementation details for the
launch of new gTLDs. ICANN has posted four draft applicant guidebooks and a
series of topic papers for public comment describing the manner in which ICANN
proposes to implement this program. These documents include proposals on the
topic of vertical integration and whether cross-ownership restrictions or other
rules related to vertical integration should be adopted to apply to the New
gTLD Program.

The
Initial Report describes several proposals regarding vertical integration that
have been developed and analyzed by the VI Working Group. No proposal has
achieved consensus support within the VI Working Group. These proposals are
included for the purpose of seeking public comment and will be subject to
further analysis and debate as the VI Working Group continues to strive to
develop a consensus position to recommend to the GNSO Council on an expedited
basis.

The
Initial Report published for public comment is a “snapshot” of a living
document that will be revised several times during the public comment period.
Reviewers are encouraged to check on the working-group wiki for the latest
version of this Initial Report.

This
public comment forum is an opportunity to comment on any of the proposed
vertical integration models that are described the Initial Report. The Initial
Report will be posted for a public comment period that closes on 12
August 2010. Comments can be sent to vi-pdp-initial-report@xxxxxxxxx and 
reviewed athttp://forum.icann.org/lists/vi-pdp-initial-report/.

Additional
Information:

To
review the Issues Report on Vertical Integration Between Registries and
Registrars, please refer to 
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/vertical-integration/report-04dec09-en.pdf [PDF, 
254 KB].

The
ICANN Board resolution on Vertical Integration is posted at 
http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/resolutions-12mar10-en.htm#5.

To
review the charter describing the policy work undertaken by the Vertical
Integration Working Group, please refer to: 
http://gnso.icann.org/issues/vertical-integration/vi-chartered-objectives-10mar10-en.pdf
 [PDF, 41 KB].

For
information on the details of the implementation planning activities for new
gTLDs, please refer to the documents posted 
athttp://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-program.htm

To
review updates to the Initial Report that may be developed by the VI Working
Group during the public comment period, please refer to the archive of Initial
Report snapshots posted at 
https://st.icann.org/vert-integration-pdp/index.cgi?initial_report_snapshots.

Staff
responsible:
Margie Milam

 

Glen de
Saint Géry

GNSO
Secretariat

gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

http://gnso.icann.org