[registrars] Fw: [ga] Report from the discussion

["Erica Roberts" <erica.roberts@bigpond.com>]

For those who are not following the GA list, you may be interested in the
position emerging from the GA as detailed by Roberto below.

Regards,
erica
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roberto Gaetano" <ga_chair@hotmail.com>
To: <ga@dnso.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 6:18 PM
Subject: [ga] Report from the discussion


> Folks,
>
> I am preparing a summary of the discussion, as I promised to Philip, the
NC
> Chair.
>
> I will say that, after thorough discussion, the GA has shown rough
consensus
> in favour to option A, i.e. to keep the current contract.
> I will obviously quote the figures from the poll (the logical equivalent
of
> the "show of hands" at a physical meeting), as already done in a previous
> post.
>
> The reasons for the choice, as expressed by some participants, are mainly:
> - "horizontal" separation between Registrar and Registry, foreseen in
option
> A, is perceived as a better deal than "vertical" separation among TLDs,
and
> a better safeguard against a monopolistic position;
> - the switchover to option B is perceived as a change in policy, done
> without previous consultation of the DNSO (whose mission is to provide
> recommandations on policy), and moreover within very strict deadlines,
> absolutely inappropriate to evaluate in depth the implications of such
> change. For instance, some of the details of the new proposal, like some
> attachments, are still unknown as today. Also, this change in policy is
> considered irreversible
> - the financial advantages for the Internet community of option B are not
> balancing off the drawbacks above, as it is understood that the investment
> will be done by VeriSign at its discretion, based on a commercial logic
that
> is perfectly legitimate but out of the control of the Internet community.
> The benefits for the Internet community are therefore not identifiable at
> this point in time, and it may be even assumed that other competing
> operators might invest comparable amounts of money in the infrastructure
as
> well, if granted similar contracts by ICANN
> - the other claimed advantage of option B, i.e. a different management of
> .org, is minimal in value if of any value at all, because years of
practice
> of uncontrolled sale of names in the TLD originally intended for chartered
> use have irreversibely polluted the namespace. Moreover, a future
"cleanup"
> action to restore the original charter is specifically opposed by the GA,
> because it is considered contrary to the legitimate interest of bona-fide
> owners of .org names
>
> I would also incidentally note that a change in the charter of .org could
be
> very possible under the current contract, if VeriSign reputes this a *good
> thing*. Probably neither ICANN nor the Internet community would oppose
> enforcement of tighter controls on future registrations in .org even if
the
> registry stays in VeriSign hands. Of course, this should be decided by
ICANN
> and known to potential investors before the .org registrar part is put on
> sale. I bet though that this will not be done, as the economical value of
> .org, and its sale price, will suffer. ;>)
>
> This is just the report I owe as Chair, and does not preclude in any way
> other actions, like a vote (or a straw poll) on David's comprehensive
> motion, or the presentation of a "minority position" in the form, for
> instance, of Chuck's 10-points document.
>
> Comments welcome.
> Roberto
>
>
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