[ga] Tentative agreements posted for public review & comment

["Andrew McLaughlin" <mclaughlin@pobox.com>]

In case you haven't noticed --

Today the United States Department of Commerce, ICANN, and NSI announced
that they have tentatively reached a set of agreements to resolve the
differences among the three parties.

The Department of Commerce and NSI have endorsed the package of agreements.
ICANN's endorsement is subject to consideration of public comments.  The
agreements are posted on the ICANN web site at
<http://www.icann.org/agreements.htm>, and instructions for submitting
public comments will shortly appear on that page (ICANN is finally
implementing a more user-friendly and useful web-based threaded messaging
system for public comments).  The public review and comment period will last
until October 29, 1999.  In addition, a significant portion of the public
forum to be held in Los Angeles on November 3, 1999, in conjunction with the
next ICANN quarterly meeting will be devoted to the agreements.

The agreements will go before the Board (with, we hope, the nine newly
elected Directors from the SOs) for final consideration at the Board's
meeting on November 4, 1999.  If the agreements are approved by the Board,
they could be formally entered promptly afterward.  To allow the completion
of the ICANN consensus process concerning these agreements, later this week
the SRS testbed will be extended until shortly after the November ICANN
meetings.

The overall agreement is embodied in five prinicpal documents:

     1.  A Registry Agreement between NSI and ICANN;
     2.  A revision to the ICANN registrar accreditation agreement;
     3.  A revision Registrar License and Agreement to be entered into by
NSI and registrars participating in the SRS after the testbed.
     4.  An amendment (No. 19) to NSI's cooperative agreement with the U.S.
Government.
     5.  An amendment (No. 1) to ICANN's Memorandum of Understanding with
the U.S. Government.

The five agreements were negotiated and endorsed by the parties as an
integrated package, and it is anticipated that if finally approved they will
all be entered simultaneously.

A fact sheet, which has been prepared to describe the major features of the
agreements to the public, is posted on the ICANN web site at
<http://www.icann.org/agreements.htm>.

--Andrew McLaughlin

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andrew mclaughlin            |                 senior adviser
internet corporation for assigned names and numbers
mclaughlin@icann.org       |       http://www.icann.org
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