RySG Invitation to Community Consultation Teleconference on Monday, March 4 -- Discuss ICANN's Proposed Registry Agreement Changes

["Drazek, Keith" <kdrazek@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

**** RySG/NTAG Community-Wide Consultation on the New gTLD Agreement 
Modifications*****

The Registries Stakeholder Group (RySG) and its New gTLD Applicant Group (NTAG) 
invite your participation in a community-wide consultation teleconference on 
Monday, March 4, 2013 at 1500 UTC.

On 5 February 2013, nearly nine months after new gTLD applicants spent hundreds 
of millions of dollars in anticipation of the new introduction of new gTLDs, 
ICANN proposed a series of last-minute material changes to the registry 
agreement contained in the Final New gTLD Applicant Guidebook.  Included within 
these changes are a brand new process for making additional Public Interest 
Commitments (PICs), a unilateral right for ICANN to amend the registry 
agreement, the requirement to use only registrars that have executed the 
yet-to-be-completed 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement and a host of other 
changes summarized in a 21-page summary of changes document. 
(http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/agb/base-agreement-specs-summary-changes-05feb13-en.pdf).

The RySG believes that the latest proposed version of the Final Agreement 
contains so many serious and fundamental flaws that it should be withdrawn in 
its entirety and the previously agreed-to version in the Applicant Guidebook 
should be used. We oppose certain proposed amendments, and believe that other 
provisions need further thought and refinement. We are equally concerned about 
the timeline ICANN has imposed on the community's consideration of these 
proposals, and the mechanism by which ICANN proposes to adopt and implement the 
changes.

The issues at stake in the short and long term deserve sufficient time and 
consideration to ensure that new gTLDs are offered in a secure and stable 
manner and are successful in fostering innovation via sound business models 
that support the needs of all stakeholders in ways that have been developed via 
the bottom-up, multi-stakeholder process.

The RySG's full public comments are available here: 
(http://forum.icann.org/lists/comments-base-agreement-05feb13/msg00019.html)

ICANN has posted the proposed changes for public comment which ends on February 
26, 2013, with a reply period that closes on March 20, 2013.  In order to 
facilitate the receipt of public input in this short amount of time, the RySG 
will host this open community-wide consultation to discuss the proposed 
agreement modifications. The meeting will be held on Monday, March 4, 2013 at 
1500 [UTC].  We cordially invite applicants, members of the community, the 
ICANN Board and the ICANN staff to attend this consultation.

Please open the attachment to find the Adobe connect link and teleconference 
details.

Sincerely,

Keith Drazek
RySG Chair




Keith Drazek
Director of Policy
kdrazek@xxxxxxxxxxxx
m: +1-571-377-9182
12061 Bluemont Way
Reston, VA 20190

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Attachment: RySG Invitation to Community Consultation Teleconference on Monday, March 4 to Discuss ICANN Proposed Registry Agreement Changes.pdf
Description: RySG Invitation to Community Consultation Teleconference on Monday, March 4 to Discuss ICANN Proposed Registry Agreement Changes.pdf