So on Jan 3 , Lawrence Strickling from the NTIA send a letter to ICANN.
NTIA ? Lemme explain the current setup before we go into the letter.
Before the establishment of ICANN, the Government of the United States controlled the domain name system of the Internet. Then there was some discussion to let the UN control the internet but the good ole USA wasn’t in favor of that idea so the Clinton administration came up with ICANN.
Since 1998 we currently have the following model.
National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The United States government has a contract with ICANN for performance of the IANA function.
Okay now that we understand the setup lets move on to the letter from the NTIA to ICANN. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/ntia_letter_on_gtld_program_jan_3_2012.pdf
Let’s not pick the entire letter apart and focus on the key points.
- Trademark owners feel they need to apply for a gTLD and are worried about cybersquatting with the new gTLD’s.
- NTIA is worried about the new gTLD’s and asks ICANN to work together with the GAC. Maybe some evaluation is a good thing ?
- The NTIA feels that stakeholders in the USA have no idea what the gTLD program is about and urges ICANN to be more clear throughout the process.
Now this is all in all very diplomatic and the NTIA was put under pressure to write this letter.
What’s being said here is the following.
Image via Wikipedia
- ICANN has not explained in depth that the new gTLD program is not supposed to be a landrush to secure brands, but an oppertunity to obtain a TLD. The new TLD program is to encourage innovation. Ofcourse mainstream media daily reporting about .XXX domain names and trademark infringements didn’t help ICANN much and ICANN just played their part poorly.
- Hello ICANN, still you are not listening to the GAC while you should… Get on with it !
- Trademark clearinghouse and all kinda protections are not in place at all. Get on with it
The diplomatic letter continues however.
- Strengthend RAA.
- WHOIS policy.
- ICANN compliance.
If you do not follow ICANN you might think these are nice requests and friendly reminders at first glance.
However….
ICANN’s response on jan 11th.
http://www.icann.org/en/correspondence/beckstrom-to-strickling-11jan12-en.pdf
Let’s breakdown the response into the following bullets.
- RAA negotians ie we will finally modify it.
- WHOIS. After tons of studies ICANN discovered that the current WHOIS system is flawed and useless for LEA’s. So what we gonna do is move to a THICK WHOIS and hey to make it even better we let the domain registrars verify the registrant whois data, no clue how but we gonna enforce it, scouts honor !
- Complaince.. we already started hiring people and we will hire tons more and finally enforce the shizzle in the RAA.
- GAC gTLD KillSwitch The GAC didn’t get their veto right but they did get a Killswitch all of the sudden. Suprise ? Read the NTIA letter again.
- Suddenly ICANN revealed details that willbe in the new RAA
Single point of entry
Reseller obligations.
Heightended obligations privacy/proxy services
Increased complaince mechanisms
So ICANN is stepping on the gas and putting the pedal to the metal.
7 days later after the ICANN response, ICANN released a priority list.
1. Execute IANA contract follow up
2. Launch New gTLD Program
3. Ensure excellency in the management of DNS Stability, DNS Security, IP addresses and
parameters
4. Build on Contractual Compliance
5. Strengthen globalization of Operations
6. Enhance infrastructure, processes and systems for effectiveness and efficiency
7. Integrate ATRT Recommendations into day-to-day culture
8. Enable effective and constructive early participation of the GAC in the policy
development process
9. Effectively support SO/AC and Board increasing activities
10. Engage new stakeholders into the multistakeholder model
11. Support Law Enforcement engagement with Community
12. Advance Whois database policy and procedures
13. Evolve ICANN meetings.
So januari 2012 was a month where ICANN put things in motion after months of non action and delay’s
Additional reading/sources
One [PDF, 61 KB]
Two [PDF, 100 KB]
Three [PDF, 213 KB]
Four [PDF, 114 KB]
Five [PDF, 140 KB]
Six [PDF, 146 KB]
Related articles
- NTIA Expresses Support for New gTLD Program (circleid.com)
- US Gov’t Official: ICANN GTLD Plan Should Move Forward – PCWorld (pcworld.com)
- New gTLD Roadshows (undisputed.be)
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