gTLD Registries Constituency Statement concerning the VeriSign settlement agrement

[Marie.Zitkova@xxxxxxxxx]

The gTLD Registries Constituency Statement concerning the VERISIGN
SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT

This statement responds to the request from Vint Cerf dated November 10,
2005, for constituency input on the VERISIGN SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT.

I. Constituency Position

The Registry Constituency welcomes the progress made to date between ICANN
and VeriSign to settle the .COM litigation and to develop a more
constructive relationship for the future.

The Registry Constituency supports the approval of the proposed settlement
of the pending litigation.

While the registry constituency does not have a consensus position
concerning the merits of individual terms of the proposed .com agreement,
inclusion of certain terms exclusively in this agreement and without any
apparent commitment by ICANN that such improvements will be offered to
other registries, raises a question.

To eliminate the possibility that the settlement could afford the dominant
player an unfair competitive advantage, ICANN should commit to extend
certain specific contract improvements, such as presumptive renewal, to
similarly situated registry operators on an equitable and
non-discriminatory basis.  While the diversity of registries precludes an
exhaustive list of specific terms, principals of equity and fairness should
guide ICANN's contractual relationships with registries.

II. Method for Reaching Agreement on RyC Position

The Registry Constituency position was adopted by the Constituency's
members at a meeting dated 1 December 2005. VeriSign and Neulevel abstained
from voting.