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RE: [gnso-vi-feb10] What do we mean by "single registrant"?

  • To: "Eric Brunner-Williams" <ebw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Subject: RE: [gnso-vi-feb10] What do we mean by "single registrant"?
  • From: "Tim Ruiz" <tim@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:19:24 -0700

<html><body><span style="font-family:Verdana; color:#000000; 
font-size:10pt;"><div>I would&nbsp;prefer this concept not be pursued right now 
at all,&nbsp;but if it is&nbsp;I&nbsp;prefer Single Registrant / Single User 
(SRSU) as the descriptor indicating that the Registry Operator(RO) is the sole 
registrant and user of the second level names and that if such 
names&nbsp;resolve, they resolve to a site/tool/resource that is 
produced/maintained solely by and for the RO.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>For example, 650i.bmw or coupes.bmw as sites produced by BMW for BMW 
marketing and promotion. Or search.msn or developers.msn as sites produced by 
Microsoft for internet search and developer support.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>However, if BMW and/or Microsoft want to offer their vendors, employees, 
customers, or anyone else domain names in their TLD, then they are no longer 
SRSU TLDs. If they want to set up private access to their systems for vendors, 
employees, customers, etc. they don't need a TLD in the public root to do that. 
In fact, many enterprises already have their own TLDs set up for such private 
use and access.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>The examples above use well known trademarks as TLDs so besides the SRSU 
issues, there is also the issue of having such marks in the public root and 
under contract to ICANN. How well will such IP owners deal with things like 
consensus policy,&nbsp;equitable treatment, enforcement actions, etc.? I may be 
paranoid, but I see how effectively IP interests are lobbied within ICANN and I 
guess I don't see them taking direction from a bottom up, process driven 
institution very well. And if a TLD string is one RO's IP, why should VeriSign 
and NeuStar not argue that com and biz are their IP properties 
respectively?</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Cliches like *can of worms* and *slippery slope* and *day in court* come 
to mind when I think of all this. So if the SRSU concept has to move forward, 
it should be with much&nbsp;caution and restraint until we can see and 
understand all the repercussions.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Tim&nbsp;</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 8px; FONT-FAMILY: 
verdana; COLOR: black; MARGIN-LEFT: 8px; FONT-SIZE: 10pt" id=replyBlockquote 
webmail="1">
<DIV id=wmQuoteWrapper>-------- Original Message --------<BR>Subject: 
[gnso-vi-feb10] What do we mean by "single registrant"?<BR>From: Eric 
Brunner-Williams &lt;ebw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx&gt;<BR>Date: Mon, April 05, 2010 
12:03 pm<BR>To: "Gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx" 
&lt;Gnso-vi-feb10@xxxxxxxxx&gt;<BR><BR><BR><BR>One way of distinguishing 
something that doesn't yet exist, and for<BR>which we have no examples to point 
to, and the models for which we do<BR>have examples:<BR>- price capped "open" 
or "standard" gTLDs,<BR>- price uncapped "open" or "standard" gTLDs,<BR>- 
sponsored gTLDs, and<BR>- community-based gTLDs,<BR>is the single purpose or 
unitary agency of a single registrant.<BR><BR>Milton used "private" vs "public" 
to attempt the distinction, and<BR>Richard has used a "customer, member, 
employee, ..." relationship.<BR><BR>I've been trying to generalize because I 
don't think these get to the<BR>difference. We don't know or care why 
registrants use com/net/org ...<BR>we used to care that .net registrants were 
access network operators or<BR>"in the wire trade", and that .org registrants 
were non-profit<BR>organizations, and that .com registrants were communists 
(humor).<BR><BR>The point is, there is no reason common to the registrants, 
other than<BR>the desire to use a namespace, complicated by preferences, for 
.com<BR>primarily, and accommodation to prior registrations, trademark 
claims,<BR>and so on.<BR><BR>In the case of a single registrant there is a 
reason common to the<BR>single registrant, and all of the registrations by that 
registrant.<BR>The reason will vary from registrant to registrant, asset 
management<BR>for one, liability management for another, accounts receivable 
for a<BR>third, customer care for a fourth, ...<BR><BR>I suggest it is the 
unity, or singularity of purpose that<BR>distinguishes most a "single 
registrant" from what we have -- the<BR>existing four types of present, and 
DAGvX anticipated registry<BR>contract types.<BR><BR>This doesn't answer 
several important questions:<BR>- what is the rational for excepting some asset 
or liability or<BR>accounts receivable or customer care or ... management tool 
from<BR>having more than one access channel? Is it size? Is it margin? Is 
it<BR>quality control?<BR>- are brand management solely instances of single 
registrant<BR>sufficiently different from asset or liability or ... instances 
to<BR>make policy differentiation?<BR>- what should the ICANN transactional fee 
be? Is $0.20, from the<BR>purposeless CNOBI market reasonable? Does it recover 
cost? Is it<BR>equitable where the entry is a brand? Is it equitable where the 
entry<BR>is a managed asset and the value of the registry is the savings 
using<BR>an ICANN namespace product rather than some other asset management 
tool?<BR><BR>I suggest that there are at least two kinds of "single 
registrant",<BR>what we call "brand" and what we call "customer" or "member" or 
...<BR>and that if, and only if, we decide that one or more of these kinds 
of<BR>"single registrant" be included in DAGv4, or DAGv5, that there 
are<BR>adequate gross differences to support differences in policy for 
these<BR>two kinds, and any other kinds which we come up 
with.<BR><BR>Eric<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></span></body></html>



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