Public comments have been requested on a committee report which proposes to change the process for introducing new registry services. To share your views, send an email to the GSNO email list and the At-Large forum for posting.

The committee that issued the report was created last year, in part, in response to the “Sitefinder controversy” (VeriSign Registry's re-direction of queries for non-existent domain names). The report proposes new procedures for allowing changes in the architecture or operation of a gTLD registry (generic top level domain registry – such as .COM). Does it succeed in balancing the need for innovation and the introduction of new registry services with the need to protect Internet users’ rights and identify potential problems for users? Please share your views.

A member of the At-Large Advisory Committee (ALAC) participated (and represented individual Internet user interests) in the committee that issued the report. Formal ALAC comments in the committee focused on both the need to allow for innovation as well as the need to prevent harm that can be caused by changes to registry architecture or operations: changes that affect the network's openness for innovation; changes that cause cost at the edges but benefits for the registry; and changes that enable registries to leverage their monopoly position into different markets where they can then compete unfairly.

If you would like to refresh your memory on Sitefinder, read comments on this topic in the At-Large forum and background information.

After public comments are received, the report will be considered by the GNSO Council and, if approved, by ICANN’s Board.

Links

• DRAFT Initial Report: Procedure for use by ICANN
  in considering requests for consent and related contractual amendments
  to allow changes in the architecture or operation of a gTLD registry
  (15 July 2004)
• Registry Services Background Information
• Constituency Statements on Approval Process for gTLD Service Changes
• Terms of Reference for GNSO Task Force on Registry Services
• Issue Report on Registry Services
• At-Large Issue Page: Verisign Registry Re-direction of Queries for Non-existant Domain Names
• ALAC Remarks on a "Procedure for use by ICANN in considering requests for consent and related contractual amendments to allow changes in the architecture or operation of a gTLD registry"