<<< Date Index >>>     <<< Thread Index >>>

[council] GNSO Council draft minutes,teleconference May 6, 2004



[To: council[at]gnso.icann.org]

Dear All,

Please find the draft GNSO Council teleconference minutes for May 6, 2004 in
html and plain text version.
If you would like any changes made, please let me know.

Thank you very much.

Glen de Saint Géry
GNSO Secretariat
****************************************************************************
*********************************
06 May 2004.

Proposed agenda and related documents

List of attendees:
Philip Sheppard - Commercial & Business users C.
Marilyn Cade - Commercial & Business users C.
Grant Forsyth - Commercial & Business users C.
Greg Ruth - ISCPC - absent
Antonio Harris - ISCPC - absent, apologies, proxy to Greg Ruth
Tony Holmes - ISCPC - absent, apologies, proxy to Greg Ruth
Thomas Keller- Registrars
Ross Rader - Registrars
Bruce Tonkin - Registrars
Ken Stubbs - gTLD registries
Philip Colebrook - gTLD registries
Cary Karp - gTLD registries
Lucy Nichols - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent - apologies
Niklas Lagergren - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent - apologies,
proxy to Kiyoshi Tsuru/Lucy Nichols
Kiyoshi Tsuru - Intellectual Property Interests C. - absent
Jisuk Woo - Non Commercial users C. - ( joined after roll call)
Marc Schneiders - Non Commercial users C.- absent, apologies, proxy to Jisuk
Woo
Carlos Afonso - Non Commercial users C. - absent, apologies, proxy to Jisuk
Woo
Alick Wilson - absent
Demi Getschko - absent
Amadeu Abril I Abril


11 Council Members

Barbara Roseman - ICANN Staff Manager

Thomas Roessler - ALAC Liaison
Suzanne Sene - GAC Liaison
Young-Eum Lee - ccTLD Liaison

The WHOIS Task Force Chairs were asked to join the call.

Jeff Neuman - WHOIS Task Force 1 Chair absent - apologies
Jordyn Buchanan - Whois Task Force 2 - absent
Brian Darville - WHOIS Task Force 3 Chair


Glen de Saint Géry - GNSO Secretariat

MP3 Recording
Quorum present at 12:10 UTC,

Bruce Tonkin chaired this teleconference.

Item 1: Approval of Agenda

Agenda approved


Item 2: Summary of the April 1, 2004 minutes
Deferred until GNSO Council teleconference, June 10, 2004.

Item 3: Update on WHOIS task forces
Receive an update from the WHOIS task force chairs, Jeff Neuman, Jordyn
Buchanan, Brian Darville
- status of constituency statements
- next steps
- possible recommendations

Jeff Neuman, task force 1 chair's apologies for being absent were noted and
a report was provided in which an extension in time was requested for the
preliminary report.
Tom Keller, in Jordyn Buchanan's, absence reported that the Whois task force
2 was making good progress but that at least another week was needed to
complete the preliminary report.
Brian Darville, task force 3 chair supported an extension and a deadline
where all 3 task forces would produce reports at the same time. A
substantive section of the report deals with recommendations addressing best
practices and further work required on the issue.

Bruce Tonkin had consulted with John Jeffrey and reported that if final
recommendations were to be made before the ICANN meetings in Kuala Lumpur,
the report would have to be submitted to the ICANN Board 45 days before the
Board meeting.
He proposed extending the deadline for the preliminary reports to the end of
May , followed by the prescribed public comment period so that in early July
the reports could be updated in response to the public comments and
presented to the GNSO Council for consideration at the Kuala Lumpur meeting.
Bruce Tonkin, seconded by Ross Rader proposed:
That the Whois task forces' timing for producing their first reports be
extended to May 28, 2004 and that a joint task force meeting be scheduled
for 2 weeks time.

The motion carried unanimously

Decision 1: The deadline for the submission of preliminary reports for the
three Whois task forces be extended to May 28, 2004 and that a joint task
force meeting take place before the deadline.

Item 3: Update on PDP for approval process for gtld registry changes
Receive an update from the GNSO Committee chair (Bruce Tonkin)

Bruce Tonkin gave a high level summary of questions he had discussed with
John Jeffrey, ICANN General Counsel.

1. The approval process:

In the approval process did the ICANN Board need to approve a change or
could the ICANN staff approve the change directly?
The key question for ICANN staff would be "is the contractual change a
material change?" A material change would require ICANN Board approval.
In most of the instances involving a Quick Look Process or Detailed Review
Process, where competition or technical advice is required, a contractual
change is likely to require the ICANN Board's approval. The staff would be
able to give approval to a proposal which was consistent with a clear
existing ICANN policy or consistent with a previous Board decision.

What sort of notice did the ICANN Board require to make a decision?

Notice of a motion would be put out 45 days prior to the Board meeting, with
30 Days for public comment. The public comment would be summarized and
included with the Board motion and presented to the Board members at least
two weeks before the Board meeting.


2. The criteria for evaluation:
It was Counsel's opinion that all the criteria could be framed under the
headings:
a. Technical - would the change affect the stability, interoperability or
security of the Internet
b. Competition - would the change have an impact on competition in the
general sense.
The criteria discussed by the Council in Rome could all be included as
guidelines of issues for ICANN staff to consider when reviewing technical or
competition aspects of the proposed change.

3. Appeals process

Counsel felt that the reconsideration process in the existing bylaws would
apply.
There were already several processes in place, such as the dispute
resolution provisions in the registry agreements, the reconsideration
process in the ICANN bylaws, and the court of law under which the
jurisdiction for the contracts fell and other mechanisms. Adding yet another
appeal process would not add much value.

Bruce Tonkin proposed updating the diagrams of 5 May, 2004, to explicitly
include the ICANN Board approval step as well as the timing factor and
inviting General Counsel to participate in a GNSO Council committee
teleconference on the Policy Development Process for the approval process
for gTLD registry changes.

Item 5: Re-assignment of .net
Receive an update from the .net Council subcommittee

Philip Sheppard, .net Council subcommittee chair, reported that there had
been a few teleconferences and mailing list exchanges in which all
the subcommittee members had participated,
Commercial and Business Users Constituency: Philip Sheppard
Noncommercial Users Constituency: Marc Schneiders
Registrars Constituency: Ross Rader
gTLD Registries Constituency: Cary Karp
Intellectual Property Interests Constituency: Lucy Nichols
The Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers Constituency: Tony
Holmes
ALAC Liaison to the GNSO Council: Thomas Roessler

The first draft report listed the criteria to be considered under 6
headings:

1. Criteria related to the targeting of the domain
Dot net should remain un-sponsored.
Dot net should remain un-chartered.

2. Criteria relating to stability: technical and financial competence
The current .net registry agreement; efficiency and reliability, a baseline
for the functional capabilities and performance specifications to handle
potential migration issues, name service resolution time should not exceed
the current time for existing .net name service resolution and the minimum
financial stability should be required.

3. Criteria related to promotion of competition
Maximization of consumer choice, pricing, innovation and new services should
be considered.

4. Criteria related to existing registry services such as the pending
Verisign wait list service, the redemption grace period and the migration of
the test-bed internationalised domain names. Applicants should be asked
"Does the applicant wish to maintain all existing registry services?" If
yes, please provide specifics and demonstrate the technical and legal
ability of the registry to maintain existing services. If no, please expand
on any issues relating to the withdrawal of such services.

5.Continuity
Grand fathering where existing registrants should not be penalised by
changes in policy as a result of this process and should be entitled to
maintain their registrations on terms materially consistent with their
existing contracts under current policy, including the right to transfer a
.net domain to another party.

6. Policy compliance
Consensus policies of ICANN, both existing (UDRP, WHOIS, Deletes, Transfers
etc), and any which are developed via the ICANN process in the future should
be complied with by the registry operator. Policy development Policy
development for .net should continue to take place in an open bottom-up
process and all registrars that have qualified to operate as .net
registrars, must be treated equitably by the registry operator.

Bruce Tonkin cautioned that transparency was important and Cary Karp and Ken
Stubbs suggested adding a disclaimer:
"DRAFT report from the .net sub-committee in preparation for submission to
the GNSO Council" on each page of the draft report .
For the next meeting, Bruce Tonkin requested an audio record.
The aim is to present the Final .net report to the GNSO Council at the June
6, 2004 teleconference.


Item 6: Any Other Business

1. Update on ICANN staff support for the GNSO Council
Bruce Tonkin reported that Paul Verhoef, mentioned that a full time GNSO
Policy Officer position would be advertised in August, once the new budget
was approved by the ICANN Board, and until then, there would be no full time
support. It would be impossible to meet the ICANN bylaws' timelines and this
should be made clear to the ICANN Board and the community.
Marilyn Cade reminded Council that the Board's approval was needed to change
the policy development process timelines.
Grant Forsyth urged Council to communicate to Paul Verhoef that not only was
it being put in the invidious position of trying to run a policy development
process without the necessary resources but that the global expectations of
ICANN as a whole were seriously threatened given that a full time GNSO
support was noted as a crucial function in the reform process and that the
organization had filled and created other positions ahead of what was
clearly identified during the reform discussions,.
Marilyn Cade commented that ICANN's legitimacy was based on the policy
development process which was a shared responsibility and essential in
assuring that ICANN remained the place where technical coordination,
management of the key technical aspects and indicators of the Internet were
undertaken, particularly given the concerns and even offers from other
organizations to undertake some of the work.
Philip Sheppard suggested finding out where the CEO's priorities lay in
terms of staffing as a basis for discussion.
Bruce Tonkin proposed giving immediate feedback to Paul Verhoef that the
GNSO Council felt that they could not wait till August to replace the policy
officer and called for a small group of volunteers to seek a solution with
senior ICANN staff.


Marilyn Cade mentioned that a WSIS update was being planned for Kuala Lumpur
in a timeframe allowing everyone, including the GAC to attend.

Bruce Tonkin reported discussions with a ccTLD representative about joint
meetings in Kuala Lumpur to discuss internationalised domain names and
Tuesday morning of the GNSO Council meeting was proposed as an initial
schedule.

Bruce Tonkin declared GNSO meeting closed and thanked everybody for
participating.
The meeting ended: 12:54 UTC

Next GNSO Council teleconference on June 10, 2004, at 12:00 UTC
see: Calendar



06 May 2004.

Proposed agenda and related documents

List of attendees:
Philip Sheppard - Commercial & Business users C.
Marilyn Cade - Commercial & Business users C.
Grant Forsyth - Commercial & Business users C.
Greg Ruth - ISCPC - absent
Antonio Harris - ISCPC - absent, apologies, proxy to Greg Ruth
Tony Holmes - ISCPC - absent, apologies, proxy to Greg Ruth
Thomas Keller- Registrars
Ross Rader - Registrars
Bruce Tonkin - Registrars
Ken Stubbs - gTLD registries
Philip Colebrook - gTLD registries
Cary Karp - gTLD registries
Lucy Nichols - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent - apologies
Niklas Lagergren - Intellectual Property Interests C - absent - apologies, proxy to Kiyoshi Tsuru/Lucy Nichols
Kiyoshi Tsuru - Intellectual Property Interests C. - absent
Jisuk Woo - Non Commercial users C. - ( joined after roll call)
Marc Schneiders - Non Commercial users C.- absent, apologies, proxy to Jisuk Woo
Carlos Afonso - Non Commercial users C. - absent, apologies, proxy to Jisuk Woo
Alick Wilson - absent
Demi Getschko - absent
Amadeu Abril I Abril

11 Council Members

Barbara Roseman - ICANN Staff Manager

Thomas Roessler - ALAC Liaison
Suzanne Sene - GAC Liaison
Young-Eum Lee - ccTLD Liaison

The WHOIS Task Force Chairs were asked to join the call.

Jeff Neuman - WHOIS Task Force 1 Chair absent - apologies
Jordyn Buchanan - Whois Task Force 2 - absent
Brian Darville - WHOIS Task Force 3 Chair


Glen de Saint Géry - GNSO Secretariat

MP3 Recording
Quorum present at 12:10 UTC,

Bruce Tonkin chaired this teleconference.

Item 1: Approval of Agenda

Agenda approved

Item 2: Summary of the April 1, 2004 minutes
Deferred until GNSO Council teleconference, June 10, 2004.

Item 3: Update on WHOIS task forces
Receive an update from the WHOIS task force chairs, Jeff Neuman, Jordyn Buchanan, Brian Darville
- status of constituency statements
- next steps
- possible recommendations

Jeff Neuman, task force 1 chair's apologies for being absent were noted and a report was provided in which an extension in time was requested for the preliminary report.
Tom Keller, in Jordyn Buchanan's, absence reported that the Whois task force 2 was making good progress but that at least another week was needed to complete the preliminary report.
Brian Darville, task force 3 chair supported an extension and a deadline where all 3 task forces would produce reports at the same time. A substantive section of the report deals with recommendations addressing best practices and further work required on the issue.

Bruce Tonkin had consulted with John Jeffrey and reported that if final recommendations were to be made before the ICANN meetings in Kuala Lumpur, the report would have to be submitted to the ICANN Board 45 days before the Board meeting.
He proposed extending the deadline for the preliminary reports to the end of May , followed by the prescribed public comment period so that in early July the reports could be updated in response to the public comments and presented to the GNSO Council for consideration at the Kuala Lumpur meeting.
Bruce Tonkin, seconded by Ross Rader proposed:
That the Whois task forces' timing for producing their first reports be extended to May 28, 2004 and that a joint task force meeting be scheduled for 2 weeks time.


The motion carried unanimously

Decision 1: The deadline for the submission of preliminary reports for the three Whois task forces be extended to May 28, 2004 and that a joint task force meeting take place before the deadline.

Item 3: Update on PDP for approval process for gtld registry changes
Receive an update from the GNSO Committee chair (Bruce Tonkin)

Bruce Tonkin
gave a high level summary of questions he had discussed with John Jeffrey, ICANN General Counsel.

1. The approval process:

In the approval process did the ICANN Board need to approve a change or could the ICANN staff approve the change directly?
The key question for ICANN staff would be "is the contractual change a material change?" A material change would require ICANN Board approval.
In most of the instances involving a Quick Look Process or Detailed Review Process, where competition or technical advice is required, a contractual change is likely to require the ICANN Board's approval. The staff would be able to give approval to a proposal which was consistent with a clear existing ICANN policy or consistent with a previous Board decision.

What sort of notice did the ICANN Board require to make a decision?

Notice of a motion would be put out 45 days prior to the Board meeting, with 30 Days for public comment. The public comment would be summarized and included with the Board motion and presented to the Board members at least two weeks before the Board meeting.


2. The criteria for evaluation:

It was Counsel's opinion that all the criteria could be framed under the headings:
a. Technical - would the change affect the stability, interoperability or security of the Internet
b. Competition - would the change have an impact on competition in the general sense.
The criteria discussed by the Council in Rome could all be included as guidelines of issues for ICANN staff to consider when reviewing technical or competition aspects of the proposed change.

3. Appeals process

Counsel felt that the reconsideration process in the existing bylaws would apply.
There were already several processes in place, such as the dispute resolution provisions in the registry agreements, the reconsideration process in the ICANN bylaws, and the court of law under which the jurisdiction for the contracts fell and other mechanisms. Adding yet another appeal process would not add much value.

Bruce Tonkin proposed updating the diagrams of 5 May, 2004, to explicitly include the ICANN Board approval step as well as the timing factor and inviting General Counsel to participate in a GNSO Council committee teleconference on the Policy Development Process for the approval process for gTLD registry changes.

Item 5: Re-assignment of .net
Receive an update from the .net Council subcommittee

Philip Sheppard,
.net Council subcommittee chair, reported that there had been a few teleconferences and mailing list exchanges in which all
the subcommittee members had participated,
Commercial and Business Users Constituency: Philip Sheppard
Noncommercial Users Constituency: Marc Schneiders
Registrars Constituency: Ross Rader
gTLD Registries Constituency: Cary Karp
Intellectual Property Interests Constituency: Lucy Nichols
The Internet Service Providers and Connectivity Providers Constituency: Tony Holmes
ALAC Liaison to the GNSO Council: Thomas Roessler

The first draft report listed the criteria to be considered under 6 headings:

1. Criteria related to the targeting of the domain
Dot net should remain un-sponsored.
Dot net should remain un-chartered.

2. Criteria relating to stability: technical and financial competence
The current .net registry agreement; efficiency and reliability, a baseline for the functional capabilities and performance specifications to handle potential migration issues, name service resolution time should not exceed the current time for existing .net name service resolution and the minimum financial stability should be required.

3. Criteria related to promotion of competition
Maximization of consumer choice, pricing, innovation and new services should be considered.

4. Criteria related to existing registry services such as the pending Verisign wait list service, the redemption grace period and the migration of the test-bed internationalised domain names. Applicants should be asked "Does the applicant wish to maintain all existing registry services?" If yes, please provide specifics and demonstrate the technical and legal ability of the registry to maintain existing services. If no, please expand on any issues relating to the withdrawal of such services.

5.Continuity
Grand fathering where existing registrants should not be penalised by changes in policy as a result of this process and should be entitled to maintain their registrations on terms materially consistent with their existing contracts under current policy, including the right to transfer a .net domain to another party.

6. Policy compliance
Consensus policies of ICANN, both existing (UDRP, WHOIS, Deletes, Transfers etc), and any which are developed via the ICANN process in the future should be complied with by the registry operator. Policy development Policy development for .net should continue to take place in an open bottom-up process and all registrars that have qualified to operate as .net registrars, must be treated equitably by the registry operator.

Bruce Tonkin
cautioned that transparency was important and Cary Karp and Ken Stubbs suggested adding a disclaimer:
"DRAFT report from the .net sub-committee in preparation for submission to the GNSO Council" on each page of the draft report .
For the next meeting, Bruce Tonkin requested an audio record.
The aim is to present the Final .net report to the GNSO Council at the June 6, 2004 teleconference.

Item 6: Any Other Business

1. Update on ICANN staff support for the GNSO Council

Bruce Tonkin reported that Paul Verhoef, mentioned that a full time GNSO Policy Officer position would be advertised in August, once the new budget was approved by the ICANN Board, and until then, there would be no full time support. It would be impossible to meet the ICANN bylaws' timelines and this should be made clear to the ICANN Board and the community.
Marilyn Cade reminded Council that the Board's approval was needed to change the policy development process timelines.
Grant Forsyth urged Council to communicate to Paul Verhoef that not only was it being put in the invidious position of trying to run a policy development process without the necessary resources but that the global expectations of ICANN as a whole were seriously threatened given that a full time GNSO support was noted as a crucial function in the reform process and that the organization had filled and created other positions ahead of what was clearly identified during the reform discussions,.
Marilyn Cade commented that ICANN's legitimacy was based on the policy development process which was a shared responsibility and essential in assuring that ICANN remained the place where technical coordination, management of the key technical aspects and indicators of the Internet were undertaken, particularly given the concerns and even offers from other organizations to undertake some of the work.
Philip Sheppard suggested finding out where the CEO's priorities lay in terms of staffing as a basis for discussion.
Bruce Tonkin proposed giving immediate feedback to Paul Verhoef that the GNSO Council felt that they could not wait till August to replace the policy officer and called for a small group of volunteers to seek a solution with senior ICANN staff.


Marilyn Cade mentioned that a WSIS update was being planned for Kuala Lumpur in a timeframe allowing everyone, including the GAC to attend.

Bruce Tonkin reported discussions with a ccTLD representative about joint meetings in Kuala Lumpur to discuss internationalised domain names and Tuesday morning of the GNSO Council meeting was proposed as an initial schedule.

Bruce Tonkin declared GNSO meeting closed and thanked everybody for participating.
The meeting ended: 12:54 UTC