Summary of Public Comments on .POST Sponsorship Agreement

[Craig Schwartz <craig.schwartz@xxxxxxxxx>]

Summary of public comments for:
.POST Sponsorship Agreement

2 December 2009

BACKGROUND

The public comment period was created to solicit feedback from the Internet 
community on the proposed .POST Sponsorship Agreement.

ICANN and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) reached an agreement in principle 
for the UPU sponsorship of the .POST Top-Level Domain and final approval of the 
agreement is subject to ICANN's public comment process and consideration by the 
Board of Directors.

The .POST agreement contains several material deviations from the terms of 
existing sTLD agreements and those are highlighted in the below referenced 
summary of contractual provisions. The UPU cited their status as an 
intergovernmental organization and specialized agency of the United Nations as 
the reason it sought unique contractual provisions. The most significant change 
to the agreement is the addition of Section 8.11: Provisions Relating to the 
Sponsor as a Specialized Agency of the United Nations.

The .POST Sponsorship Agreement can be viewed at 
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-agreement-02nov09-en.pdf<http://icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-agreement-02nov09-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 128K], its appendices at 
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-appendices-02nov09-en.pdf<http://icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-appendices-02nov09-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 244K] and a summary of contractual provisions at 
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-summary-of-provisions-02nov09-en.pdf<http://icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/post/post-summary-of-provisions-02nov09-en.pdf>
 [PDF, 36K].
SUMMARY

The public comment period was open from 2 November 2009 through 1 December 
2009. Two comments were received from individuals; one was supportive and the 
other reported to, "mostly disagree with all provisions..." The public comments 
for this forum are archived at http://forum.icann.org/lists/post-agreement-2009.

Michael Palage's comments are supportive. Mr. Palage cited positive aspects of 
the agreement include the establishment of a partnership between ICANN and an 
intergovernmental organization, empowering and enabling the UPU to innovatively 
serve the global postal sector, and the creation of a registry framework for 
other organizations and entities to work in collaboration with ICANN. Mr. 
Palage voiced criticism about the amount of time it took to get to the point of 
approval of .POST. The explanation for the lengthy negotiation of .POST is 
provided in ICANN's 2 November 
announcement<http://icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-02nov09-en.htm>. 
Mr. Palage's comments may be viewed in their entirety at 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/post-agreement-2009/msg00002.html.

Patrick Mevzek (Dot and Co). Mr. Mevzek's commented that he "mostly disagrees 
with all provisions, for themselves, and the fact of granting .POST such broad 
specific treatment." Generally speaking, Mr. Mevzek appears to be critical 
about the purpose and viability of .POST and how it might fare in light of the 
competition that will exist from new gTLDs. Further, Mr. Mevzek does not 
support the contractual provisions that ICANN and the UPU agreed to in 
principle and commented that "I find no reason to give UPU specific treatments, 
even more because any change in this specific gTLD contract may be requested 
later on by other registries." Lastly, Mr. Mevzek made specific comment of 
support or non-support for each of the material contractual deviations 
highlighted in the summary of the 2 November announcement. Mr. Mevzek's 
comments may be viewed in their entirety at 
http://forum.icann.org/lists/post-agreement-2009/msg00001.html.



CONCLUSION



This summary should not be considered a full and complete recitation of every 
comment, concern, or recommendation contained in the public comments.  It is an 
attempt to capture in broad terms the nature and scope of the comments.  This 
summary has been prepared in an effort to highlight key elements of these 
submissions in an abbreviated format, not to replace them.  Every effort has 
been made to avoid mischaracterizations and to present fairly the views 
provided.  Any failure to do so is unintentional.


NEXT STEPS

This summary of public comments will be used to inform the Board in its 
consideration of the .POST Sponsorship Agreement.



CONTRIBUTORS are in order of first appearance and number of postings if more 
than one:

Michael Palage
Patrick Mevzek (Dot and Co)


Craig Schwartz
Chief gTLD Registry Liaison
ICANN