Re: [ga] European ccTLDs refuse to pay ICANN fee?

[Eva Frölich <eva@nic-se.se>]

Attached you find the pressrealease from the CENTR meeting in Trondheim.


Eva Frölich
Director of the CENTR Board




At 21:29 2000-06-06 +0200, Alexander Svensson wrote:

>Dear all,
>
>this is my rough translation of a statement originally in
>German concerning the ccTLDs position on the ICANN fee.
>(You can find the German original at www.icannchannel.de,
>'Allgemeines Forum'). I haven't seen anything about in the
>media yet, so I wondered if you all know about it.
>
>To me, this doesn't just look like it's about money; the
>European registries know that they will have to contribute
>to ICANN. It seems they are unsatisfied with how ICANN and
>especially DNSO work. Does anyone have more information from
>the Trondheim meeting?
>
>Best regards,
>/// Alexander
>
>_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
>European domain registries oppose ICANN demands for payment of fees
>
>The mainly European (ccTLD) domain registries forming the organisation
>CENTR have on a meeting in Trondheim, Norway, rejected demands from
>ICANN, the international management body for domain names and Internet
>addresses, for payment of fees in the manner aimed at by ICANN. All
>national registries are supposed to procure a total of 35 percent
>of ICANN's budget for the financial year 1999/2000 amounting to
>$1.5 millions and have received 'invoices' in April. The amounts are
>calculated according to the number of registered domain names in
>each country. As largest domain zone, Germany alone was supposed to
>remit nearly $500,000. CENTR criticizes that there is no legal basis
>for these invoices. ICANN's activities are welcomed and a contribution
>to its financing is generally accepted. Yet without a skeleton
>contract between registries and ICANN the organization cannot just
>ask for fees which do not correspond to any services in the period of
>time in question. Additionally, it is not appropriate to calculate the
>claims according to the number of domains as the service provided by
>ICANN to the individual registries does not in any way depend on the
>amount of domains, but rather is generally identical for all the
>registries.
>
>"We are thoroughly willing to pay our share of ICANN's financing costs.
>But we see this year's payment as a initial start financing, not as a
>fee that corresponds to a precise service form ICANN", says Carsten
>Schiefner from the board of DENIC eG, who manage the German domain names.
>"ICANN cannot decide arbitrarily on the contribution which the individual
>registries have to pay. In addition, it has to be clarified which services
>ICANN will take on in the future and how the registries' influencing
>opportunities are turning out."
>
>The board of DENIC is going to confer on the course of action, especially
>concerning the amount of the payment to ICANN in the next couple of days.
>
>DENIC --> www.denic.de
>CENTR --> www.centr.org
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CENTR Press Release
5/6/00


European Country Code Top level domain registries respond to ICANN invoices

At their General Assembly meeting in Trondheim, 1-2 June 2000, CENTR members discussed ICANN funding and the invoices issued to ccTLD registries for the ICANN financial year 99/00.

CENTR, the Council of National Top level domain Registries, is an association of Internet Country Code Top-Level Domain Registries (ccTLDs) such as .uk in the United Kingdom and .es in Spain. The current membership consists of 30 such ccTLDs registering over five million domain names between them.

During the Trondheim meeting, members endorsed the position of the CENTR Executive Committee set out in a letter to ICANN CEO, Mike Roberts on 10 May 2000. The letter pointed out that there are no contracts, funding "arrangements" or binding relationships presently in place between CENTR members and ICANN. There are no heads of agreement between CENTR / CENTR members and ICANN on funding or any other matter. The letter went on to set out five essential issues for CENTR members:

* the provision under contract of root services;
* the sovereign right of the local Internet community in each CENTR country to manage its own ccTLD;
* the desire to participate in any policy formulation or restructuring activities by ICANN, while retaining local policy implementation;
* that no authority is conceded to ICANN by any CENTR member on the management of any ccTLD; and
* the establishment of meaningful mechanisms for CENTR / CENTR members to participate in the planning of both the expenditure and the funding aspects of the ICANN budget.

In Trondheim CENTR members confirmed their willingness to continue discussions with ICANN on the above issues. Those able to do so agreed to donate funding to ICANN for the financial year ending 30 June 2000 on the basis that was established in the discussions with ICANN staff at the CENTR General Assembly meeting in Pisa in December 1999. The total contribution from CENTR members will be in the region of USD 600,000 based on a range of fee bands from which members selected the most appropriate to their circumstances and ability to pay.

Any request by ICANN for a funding contribution based on the number of domain names is fundamentally unacceptable to CENTR members.


For further information about CENTR see:
http://www.centr.org
or contact CENTR General Manager, Fay Howard <fay@centr.org>

Press Release 050600.doc