Registrar Constituency Position on VeriSign's Proposed Registry Service Requests
July 9, 2009
Registrar Constituency Position on VeriSign's Proposed Registry Service Requests
BACKGROUND
VeriSign, Inc. ("VeriSign") recently submitted several Registry Service
Requests to ICANN. Among its proposals, VeriSign submitted requests for a
"Registry-Registrar Two-Factor Authentication Service" and a "Domain Name
WhoWas Service" (collectively, the "Proposed Services"). This Position Paper
captures the overall sentiment expressed by the RC Members who provided
feedback about these Proposed Services. Due to time constraints, however, no
formal vote regarding this Position Paper was taken.
RC POSITION
The RC is concerned with certain statements contained in the Proposed Service
applications related to VeriSign's communication related to the Proposed
Services. For example, page "3" section (c) of the Domain Name WhoWas Service
application asks:
"Were consultations with other constituency groups appropriate? Which groups
were consulted? What were the nature and content of these consultations?"
VeriSign's response is:
"VeriSign has discussed this concept with members of the Intellectual Property
Constituency and Registrar Constituency. VeriSign received positive feedback
from these initial discussions, especially with respect to the registry
providing an authoritative source of historical registration data." (emphasis
added).
Furthermore, page 2 section (b) of the Domain Name WhoWas Service application
asks:
"Were consultations with gTLD registrars or the registrar constituency
appropriate? Which registrars were consulted? What were the nature and content
of the consultation?" (emphasis added).
VeriSign's response is:
"VeriSign is currently discussing the Domain Name WhoWas concept with both
registrars and non-registrars."
Similar responses were provided regarding the Two-Factor Authentication
Service. The RC notes that VeriSign's answers are not fully responsive to the
questions. The RC believes that VeriSign should identify the nature of its
consultations with registrars, without necessarily providing the names of the
individual registrars. The RC also does not believe that consultations with
individual members should supplant consultations with the constituency group as
a whole.
The RC is concerned that consultation between VeriSign and registrars on the
Proposed Services have, thus far, been insufficient. To date, no known
consultations between VeriSign and the RC have occurred, and it is unclear
which RC members, if any, were consulted.
Because these Proposed Services may directly impact registrars, the RC believes
that a formal consultation process between VeriSign and the RC is appropriate.
Accordingly, the RC requests that ICANN delay making a preliminary
determination until July 31, 2009 to give VeriSign time to appropriately
consult with the RC. This will allow the RC time to fully understand the
proposed registry services, and provide the necessary information for ICANN to
make an informed preliminary determination as called for under the Registry
Services Evaluation Policy.
The RC generally believes that consultation on proposed Registry Service
Requests is extremely important. Accordingly, the RC requests that ICANN not
approve any registry funnel requests that do not fully and completely respond
to the questions related to consultations. Moreover, the RC offers to assist
ICANN and the Registry Constituency in establishing a formal process for RC
consultations on future Registry Service Requests. The RC believes that a
formal consultation process for these and future applications would reduce the
risk of mis-understandings between registrars and registries.
The RC is not commenting on the substantive nature of the Proposed Service
applications at this time, however it anticipates possibly offering substantive
comments after the requested consultations.
CONCLUSION
The opinions expressed by the RC in this Position Paper should not be
interpreted to reflect the individual opinion of any particular RC member.
Attachment:
RC Position - Verisign RSPs v1-2.pdf |