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    The Electronic Frontier Foundation
    and the Domain Name Rights Coalition submit the following comments
    on the
    renewal of the .org Registry Agreement between ICANN and Public
    Interest
    Registry (PIR). As organizations that promote freedom of expression,
    oppose
    censorship, and pursue sound governance of the Internet, we have
    serious
    concerns about many of the proposed changes to the Agreement,
    particularly 1)
    the imposition of “Rights Protection Mechanisms” on the .org
    top-level domain;
    2) permitting Public Interest Registry to develop new and open-ended
    “Rights
    Protection Mechanisms;” and 3) applying the improperly created
    “Public Interest
    Commitments” to the .org TLD in a manner that will permit PIR to
    regulate and
    censor Internet content.
    <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> </p>
    <p class="MsoListParagraph"
      style="margin-left:.75in;mso-add-space:auto;
      text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
          style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;
          mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">1.<span
              style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">     </span></span></span></b><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Trademark Claims and URS Are
        Unnecessary
        and Harmful in the .org TLD</b></p>
    <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The Trademark Claims
      Notices and
      Uniform Rapid Suspension (URS) were developed by the ICANN
      community
      specifically for the new generic top-level domains. They were
      developed to
      address the concerns of some trademark holders that the creation
      of many new
      gTLDs would lead to a wave of cybersquatting on domain names that
      could not be
      addressed by the existing Uniform Dispute Resolution Process
      (UDRP). That wave
      has largely failed to materialize, and the efficacy of Trademark
      Claims and URS
      is currently under review by the ICANN community. </p>
    <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Procedurally, it is
      inappropriate
      for the ICANN organization to impose these mechanisms on .org, a
      legacy TLD
      that dates from the earliest days of the domain name system. Such
      a move must
      come, if at all, from the ICANN community after an evidence-based
      discussion.
      ICANN staff have presented no evidence of any need for Trademark
      Claims and URS
      in the .org TLD. In fact, the only rationale stated in the
      proposal is “to
      better conform with the base registry agreement.” <a
        href="https://www.icann.org/public-comments/org-renewal-2019-03-18-en">https://www.icann.org/public-comments/org-renewal-2019-03-18-en</a>.
      This is not a sufficient or even rational justification, given the
      significant
      differences between the .org TLD and the new gTLDs. The .org TLD,
      by
      long-established norm, is home to millions of nonprofit
      organizations of all
      kinds. The new gTLDs are less used, and are primarily marketed to
      commercial
      users. ICANN’s principles of multistakeholder evidence-based
      policymaking
      require that a change this significant come, if at all, from the
      community, not
      from bilateral discussion between ICANN staff and Public Interest
      Registry.</p>
    <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Substantively,
      Trademark Claims and
      URS are inappropriate for the .org TLD. The Working Group for
      Review of all
      Rights Protection Mechanisms has uncovered substantial evidence
      that Trademark Claims
      Notices received by people who seek to register a domain name tend
      to deter
      registrations that would not infringe a trademark or otherwise
      invade the
      legitimate rights of a trademark holder. Claims Notices, which
      warn of the
      possibility of infringement, can be misleading for non-commercial
      users,
      because non-commercial use of a word or phrase is not trademark
      infringement as
      a matter of law. Because the .org TLD is used primarily by
      nonprofit
      organizations engaged in a variety of charitable, educational,
      religious,
      scientific, and public interest activities, their uses of a domain
      name are far
      more likely to be noncommercial, and thus outside any exclusive
      right of a
      trademark holder. Warning noncommercial users to avoid registering
      a domain
      name because of the possibility of trademark infringement is
      similar to warning
      residents of tropical climates to wear heavy coats because of the
      possibility
      of snowstorms. Both warnings, applied in the wrong context, would
      cause more
      harm than they prevent.</p>
    <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> </p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"> </b></p>
    <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"
      style="margin-left:.75in;mso-add-space:auto;
      text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
          style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;
          mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">2.<span
              style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">     </span></span></span></b><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Any New RPMs for .org Must
        Be Developed by
        the ICANN Community, Not Imposed Unilaterally By Public Interest
        Registry</b></p>
    <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"> </b></p>
    <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">The proposed new
      Registry Agreement
      would also allow Public Interest Registry “to develop additional
      rights
      protection mechanisms” unilaterally. Experience in the new gTLDs
      has shown this
      to be a dangerous proposition. So-called rights protection
      mechanisms are, at
      best, compromises between trademark holders’ interest in
      enforcement and the
      broader public’s right to register and use domain names as a vital
      avenue of
      free expression. As such, they implicate public and private rights
      that may not
      line up with a single registry operator’s priorities. Some new
      gTLD registry
      operators have used the unilateral ability to create new rights
      protection mechanisms
      to institute mechanisms that were considered and rejected by the
      ICANN
      community as insufficiently protective of free speech rights. For
      example,
      registry operator Donuts enforces “Domain Protected Marks List”
      and “DPML Plus”
      policies that allow trademark holders to withdraw a name from use
      by others
      across hundreds of gTLDs, thus interfering with millions of
      potential
      non-infringing uses of those names by others. ICANN should not
      permit Public
      Interest Registry to impose its judgment about the proper balance
      of public and
      private rights in domain names upon millions of non-profit
      organizations by
      fiat, bypassing community input.</p>
    <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> </p>
    <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst"
      style="margin-left:.75in;mso-add-space:auto;
      text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
          style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;
          mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">3.<span
              style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">     </span></span></span></b><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">The Public Interest
        Commitments Impermissibly
        Invite Regulation of Internet Speech and Content</b></p>
    <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle"
      style="margin-left:.75in;mso-add-space:
      auto"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"> </b></p>
    <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast"
      style="margin-left:0in;mso-add-space:auto;
      text-indent:.5in">The so-called “Public Interest Commitments” are
      a set of
      requirements that were added to Registry Agreements for the new
      top-level
      domains. They were created and imposed by ICANN staff without
      community input.
      They purport to impose a general obligation on registries and
      registrars to
      regulate the contents of websites and Internet applications to
      prevent
      “copyright infringement,” “deceptive practices,”<span
        style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>or other “activity contrary
      to applicable
      law,” and to “provid[e] consequences for such activities including
      suspension
      of the domain name.” These provisions, in effect, repurpose the
      domain name
      system from a global system of unique identifiers for information
      resources to
      a global regulator of speech in which Internet users around the
      world must
      conform to a vague, inconsistent set of national laws, interpreted
      and enforced
      by numerous private corporations, or risk losing their domain
      names. And they
      run directly counter to ICANN’s mission statement, which states
      that “ICANN
      shall not regulate (i.e., impose rules and restrictions on)
      services that use
      the Internet's unique identifiers or the content that such
      services carry or
      provide.” <a
href="https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#article1">https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/governance/bylaws-en/#article1</a>.
      <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The mandatory and voluntary
      “Public
      Interest Commitments” are already being used to justify
      registry-imposed
      censorship of Internet content in the new gTLDs. They are utterly
      inappropriate
      for the legacy TLDs, especially .org, and the special
      circumstances of millions
      of domain names registered to organizations dedicated to free
      expression and
      engaged in lawful critique, including critique of companies and
      their products,
      services and practices.</p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"> </b></p>
    <p class="MsoListParagraph"
      style="margin-left:.75in;mso-add-space:auto;
      text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span
          style="mso-bidi-font-family:Calibri;
          mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-latin"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">4.<span
              style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">     </span></span></span></b><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Deletions to .Org Renewal
        Agreements</b></p>
    <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Accordingly, and in
      direct support of
      the issues and concerns expressed above, EFF and DNRC call for the
      deletion of
      the following provisions of the .org renewal agreement.<span
        style="mso-spacerun:yes">  </span>We note that none of the
      contractual terms
      listed below were ever discussed or intended to be applied to
      legacy TLDs when
      reviewed and negotiated in 2009 and 2010.<span
        style="mso-spacerun:yes"> 
      </span>Inclusion of these contractual terms, without GNSO
      discussion, review
      and agreement of their application to legacy TLDs in general and
      .org in particular
      would be disastrous to noncommercial speech online and to the
      multistakeholder
      process.</p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
    <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> </p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"
      style="margin-left:.5in;mso-prop-change:"Kathryn
      Kleiman" 20190429T1745"><b
        style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>Deletions necessary to
          address the concerns
          raised above: </u></b></p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Section
        2.8</b>: Protection
      of Legal Rights of Third Parties </p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Section
        2.17</b>: Additional
      Public Interest Commitments</p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Specification
        7: </b>Minimum
      Requirements for Rights Protection Mechanisms</p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Specification
        11</b>:
      Public Interest Commitments </p>
    <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">Any
        other </b>oral or
      written agreements between ICANN and Public Interest Registry that
      allow rights
      protection mechanisms outside of those explicitly approved by the
      GNSO Council and
      ICANN Board for legacy TLDs, such as UDRP</p>
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        margin-bottom:0in;
        margin-left:.5in;
        margin-bottom:.0001pt;
        mso-add-space:auto;
        mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
        font-size:12.0pt;
        font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
        mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
        mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
        mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
        mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
        mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
        mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
        mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
        mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
.MsoChpDefault
        {mso-style-type:export-only;
        mso-default-props:yes;
        font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
        mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
        mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
        mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;
        mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
        mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
        mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
        mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
        mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
@page WordSection1
        {size:8.5in 11.0in;
        margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;
        mso-header-margin:.5in;
        mso-footer-margin:.5in;
        mso-paper-source:0;}
div.WordSection1
        {page:WordSection1;}
 /* List Definitions */
 @list l0
        {mso-list-id:488405023;
        mso-list-type:hybrid;
        mso-list-template-ids:1862016374 -546826218 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715 67698703 67698713 67698715;}
@list l0:level1
        {mso-level-tab-stop:none;
        mso-level-number-position:left;
        margin-left:.75in;
        text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level2
        {mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
        mso-level-tab-stop:none;
        mso-level-number-position:left;
        margin-left:1.25in;
        text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level3
        {mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
        mso-level-tab-stop:none;
        mso-level-number-position:right;
        margin-left:1.75in;
        text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l0:level4
        {mso-level-tab-stop:none;
        mso-level-number-position:left;
        margin-left:2.25in;
        text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level5
        {mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
        mso-level-tab-stop:none;
        mso-level-number-position:left;
        margin-left:2.75in;
        text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level6
        {mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
        mso-level-tab-stop:none;
        mso-level-number-position:right;
        margin-left:3.25in;
        text-indent:-9.0pt;}
@list l0:level7
        {mso-level-tab-stop:none;
        mso-level-number-position:left;
        margin-left:3.75in;
        text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level8
        {mso-level-number-format:alpha-lower;
        mso-level-tab-stop:none;
        mso-level-number-position:left;
        margin-left:4.25in;
        text-indent:-.25in;}
@list l0:level9
        {mso-level-number-format:roman-lower;
        mso-level-tab-stop:none;
        mso-level-number-position:right;
        margin-left:4.75in;
        text-indent:-9.0pt;}
ol
        {margin-bottom:0in;}
ul
        {margin-bottom:0in;}
-->
</style></pre>
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