Existing Registries should accept NEW Registry contract or keep their existing one, not negotiate a hybrid.

[Rob Hall <rob@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Existing ICANN Registries who are up for renewal should be allowed to continue 
under their existing contract or sign the new gTLD Registry contract.

Existing Registries should not be allowed to cherry pick clauses they like from 
the new contracts, and not be bound to ones they don't like.  Typically a 
contract is a balanced work that has something for both sides.  Allowing one 
side to take only the good and leave the bad will lead to unexpected 
consequences and gaming.

ICANN should be striving to make its life simpler, especially in light of 
potentially 100's of new TLD's.    The last thing ICANN needs to do is maintain 
multiple versions of Registry contracts.

Registrars all have the same contract.  At renewal time, one either signs the 
new one, or ceases being a Registrar.   Having standard Registry Registrar 
contracts (RRA) would also be a benefit to Registrars and ultimately consumers.

The new gTLD contract has been vetted by the public through various rounds of 
drafting and multiple public comment periods.

I am in favour of allowing cross ownership of Registries and Registrars, 
provided there are protections against market power and dominance.  The new 
gTLD contract has taken that into consideration, and the old ones in many cases 
do not.  Topics like picking which Registrars Registries choose to deal with 
are also dealt with differently in the various existing Registry contracts, but 
uniformly in the new gTLD one.

In short, Yes to cross ownership, but only under the new gTLD contract.

Lets keep life as simple as we can.  ICANN has way too many things going on for 
the community to keep track of now, let alone if every contract starts getting 
negotiated, posted and reviewed.


Rob Hall
CEO
Momentous Corp.