EnCirca supports the proposed changes for .PRO

["Thomas Barrett - EnCirca" <tbarrett@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

EnCirca supports the proposed .PRO rule changes as positive steps for the
.PRO Registry and ICANN to better serve Professionals desiring an identity
on the Internet.  As the most active .PRO Registrar, we look forward to
contributing towards the evolution of the .PRO top-level domain to serve
professionals from anywhere in the world.

We see two essential Core Values that need to be incorporated in the
implementation of these proposed changes.


1. "Serve professionals from every country in the world."
A Core Value for the launch of any new top-level domain should be that it is
available to its entire intended audience from the first day of its launch.


If this Core Value had been followed for .PRO, then it would have clear that
a license pre-verification model would never scale to a world-wide
environment.  The initial .PRO verification process was modeled upon an
ethnocentric understanding of professional accreditation in the United
States along with assumed public access to existing professional
credentials.

In the implementation of these proposed .PRO changes, it is critical that
RegistryPro and ICANN completely eliminate any ethnocentric assumptions in
their policies and maintain flexibility in how other countries recognize and
issue credentials for professionals in their respective societies rather
than assume all countries follow the United States' model.


2. "Current registrants in the .PRO TLD will not be discriminated against or
disadvantaged by the implementation of these changes".

EnCirca supports RegistryPro's position that "current registrants in the
.PRO TLD are not discriminated against or disadvantaged by the
implementation of these changes".  A critical element for the security and
stability of the Internet is that Internet users have the right to expect
that a valid domain name registration should never become invalidated due to
a subsequent change in registry policy.  

Since all of the current registrations in .PRO adhere to current registry
policy, .PRO users deserve the right to continue existing registrations.
EnCirca will work closely with RegistryPro to help ensure this Core Value is
incorporated in the implementation of these proposed changes.


Yours Truly,

Thomas Barrett
President
EnCirca, Inc