[gnso-raa-dt] Expected staff inputs to RAA Working Group

[Doug Brent <doug.brent@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear RAA Working Group members,
I know you will continue your work during ICANN's Seoul meeting, considering 
possible future changes to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) and 
development of a proposed Registrant Rights Charter. This work is of 
significant interest to many stakeholders - Registrars, Intellectual Property 
interests, At Large, and others - all in the interest of effective protection 
of and service to registrants.
There is another important view for consideration in this discussion: that is 
from the perspective of the execution/enforcement of the RAA through ICANN's 
contractual compliance work. Why?

 *    Future RAA changes should consider aspects of the existing RAA that are 
hard to enforce, or for which there are significant mismatches between 
community expectations and actual enforcement provisions and tools.
 *   RAA provisions should define practices that are efficiently enforceable. 
Some of the existing provisions are expensive and time consuming to execute for 
both ICANN (inefficiently spending registrants' money), and for Registrars.
 *    On a daily basis, staff compliance work is either aided or frustrated by 
clear, enforceable language.
Immediately after the Seoul meeting, staff will provide the working group with 
a set of notes outlining areas of potential concerns, and offer some possible  
implementation options for those areas of concern for community consideration. 
The primary reason for providing these implementation options is to ensure that 
there is at least an "existence proof" of a possible solution. Staff is not 
saying that these concerns are certainly of most importance to the community, 
or that the solutions are right. Staff is simply trying to offer you an 
actionable set of suggestions for your consideration, based on day-to-day 
experience in enforcement/compliance.
Staff notes will address the following possible areas of concern:

 *   Cybersquatting: Explicitly tackle the issue of possible cybersquatting by 
Registrars, suggesting that cybersquatting be considered a violation of the RAA.
 *   Malicious Conduct: Establish requirements for Registrars to investigate 
and report out on credible reports regarding malicious conduct.
 *   Registrant data escrow: Extend data escrow requirements to privacy and 
proxy registrations.
 *   Full information on affiliates: For relevant compliance purposes, ensure 
ICANN has complete information on and ability to verify Registrar and affiliate 
information.
 *   Whois Accuracy: Extend requirements for problem investigation to some 
definition of validation or verification of accurate data.
 *   Clarify response time requirements: Clarify and codify the amount of time 
a registered name holder has to respond to an inquiry or accept liability for 
harm caused by wrongful use of that name.
 *   Improve timeliness of arbitration processes: Reduce the number of 
arbitrators to save time and expense for all involved, when arbitration is 
required.
 *   Modernize process for TLD accreditation: With many registrars and possibly 
many TLDs, improve administrative process so that Registrars in good standing 
can efficiently be accredited for additional TLDs.
I hope that the working group will find these inputs useful for your 
consideration.
As ICANN's Chief Operating Officer, I want to ensure that staff is providing 
you with the "front line" information about areas of possible concern directly 
experienced in our enforcement processes. Success for the community and for 
registrants is a set of rules that provide adequate registrant protection, are 
easily understood by all, represent a consensus, and that can be both 
effectively implemented by Registrars and are efficiently enforceable in a way 
that meets expectations.
I am very interested in how the community will drive further considerations of 
the RAA, and will be tracking your work closely – in the working group and 
beyond. If I or other ICANN staff can provide information or assistance, please 
let me and your assigned Policy Staff support, Margie Milam, know.
Sincerely,
Doug Brent
--
Doug Brent
Chief Operating Officer
ICANN

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