[ga] ICANN Reform & Registrar Sanctions

[DannyYounger@cs.com]

Steve Metalitz, President of the Intellectual Property Constituency, 
testifying before the House Judiciary Committee that conducted oversight 
hearings on the accuracy of the whois database, stated: 

"It's hard to escape the conclusion that most registrars don't care about the 
quality of the WHOIS data they collect and they feel under no compulsion to 
improve it, or even to respect questions... even from this subcommittee, 
about it."  [Please note that the Subcommittee sent out letters of inquiry to 
over fifty registrars and only a dozen bothered to reply]  
Steve also made the following point:  "I think at this point, the buck stops 
with ICANN.  ICANN has entered into these agreements [the Registrar 
Accreditation Agreements].  It's past time for it to enforce those 
agreements."   

So, the question becomes... How do we reform our organization if certain key 
players (registrars) are not willing to play by the rules?  We have 
contracts, and we have breaches of contracts (many breaches of contracts).... 
and at the moment the only available sanction for contract breach is 
disaccreditation (and we know that ICANN will never take that step).  So what 
do we do?  It's like the Wild West with no marshall in town.  By what means 
should ICANN "enforce those agreements"?

Advisories alone won't solve our problems, as they can be ignored as readily 
as the RAA contract language.  

We have already adopted a sanctions program at the registry level.  In my 
view, reform of ICANN should probably include a sanctions program at the 
registrar level as well.  What good are contracts if enforcement mechanisms 
have no teeth?

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