ICANN .NET Renewal Registry Agreement

[Krista Papac <Krista.Papac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

AusRegistry International appreciates the opportunity to comment on the 
proposed .NET Renewal Agreement.

AusRegistry International expresses its concern over the implication that the 
.NET agreement can be negotiated in a way that gives a Registry, in this case 
an existing Registry - VeriSign, an unfair competitive advantage.

The .NET Registry Renewal Agreement which has been posted contains 'some' terms 
from the 'proposed' New gTLD Agreement and 'some' terms from the existing 
Registry Agreement. This gives the appearance that ICANN are allowing an 
existing gTLD Registry to hand pick clauses to include in their contract with 
ICANN that suit the needs of their business. This is not the way to promote 
competition and, in fact, it creates an unfair competitive advantage.

At present, all existing gTLD registries have similar business and operating 
terms and conditions in their ICANN Registry Agreements. If VeriSign are 
permitted to introduce selected terms and conditions from the proposed New gTLD 
Registry Agreement into the Registry Renewal Agreement for .NET-they will have 
been given an advantage over existing gTLD Registries AND an advantage over new 
gTLD Registries. I.e., Unfair competitive advantage.

A level playing field among Contracted Parties is necessary to ICANN 
maintaining its mandate to ensure the security, stability and interoperability 
of the domain name system. If ICANN allows the inequities proposed in the .NET 
Registry Renewal Agreement - they are agreeing to provide VeriSign with both an 
unfair advantage over existing Registries and an unfair advantage over future 
gTLD Registries.

Ultimately, all Registry Agreements with ICANN should contain the same, or 
nearly the same, terms and conditions. Otherwise, an environment of imbalance 
is created and the ability to provide consumers with innovative solutions, 
choice and competition is diminished. It is important that ICANN only allow 
changes to the core, or underlying terms and conditions of the Registry 
Agreement once a.) those terms and conditions are accepted by the Board via 
approval of the Applicant Guidebook or some other documented mechanism, and b.) 
the core terms and conditions contained in the New gTLD Registry Agreement are 
available to all gTLD Registries.

Kind regards,
Krista Papac
Chief Strategy Officer
AusRegistry International
5267 Warner Avenue, Suite 176
Huntington Beach. California. United States. 92649
Ph:  +1 714 846 8780
Fax: +1 323 443 3573
Email: krista.papac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:krista.papac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Web: www.ausregistry.com

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