<html><body style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><p style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:106%;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">All, </span></p><p style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:106%;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">Let’s
remember that this is a contract between ICANN and the New gTLD
Registries. It is not a Registry-Registrar Agreement or a
Registrar-Registrant Agreement. Accordingly, everything in it must be
legit under ICANN’s Bylaws. We want our ICANN Board Members, including
Becky, to sleep at night. </span></p><p style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:106%;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">To
do so, terms that are put into an RVC must fall within terms to which
ICANN, as a signatory to this contract, must agree. Again, this is
*ICANN’s contract.* There are many things we would not put into the
vPICs/RVCs therefore, even though they may happen. Like some cooperation with
local law enforcement and providing data on users and use. It may
happen; it’s not in our contracts or blessed or enforced by ICANN. </span></p><p style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:106%;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">Accordingly,
to the end of Recommendation 9.12, we must add something about the
requirements of the RVC. A registrant cannot be required to paint the
moon pink, and the PICs should not be allowed to push ICANN outside its
mission, mandate, scope and core values. These are ICANN commitments to
all of us, and to the world, in its Bylaws. <i>Accordingly we must add:
RVCs will not address the contents of websites or apps that use domain
names, they will be consistent with ICANN’s Human Rights Core Value,
they will not allow the registry arbitrary discretion to suspend a
domain name, and they will not be used to create new policies that did
not come through ICANN processes. </i></span></p><p style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:106%;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">These
limitations are substantive – they will keep the RVCs within the bounds
of what ICANN is allowed to sign and what ICANN is allowed to do.
The Attorney Generals do not want to see a spate of new contracts from
California public interest corporation coming without principles and
guardrails for what one party, in its self-interest, can impose on other
parties, particularly those who are weaker – a registry imposing
arbitrary and unfair terms on its registrants (note: unfair RVCs <i>did not, </i>in Round 1, come through the public processes we are working hard to
protect, including GAC Early Warnings, GAC Consensus Advice, and
settlements of Objections e.g., Community, Legal Rights, etc). </span></p><p style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:106%;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">We
need to finish up 9.12 with the additions above. RVCs will no longer
be the dumping ground or the “kitchen sink” as they were in 2013-2014.
This is critical for ICANN’s integrity, and for this I quote, as I did
in my March 11, 2020, CircleID article: Becky Burr, then and still an
ICANN Board member, speaking in her personal capacity at an event at
American University Washington College of Law in February 2019, ICANN
and New gTLDs, <b>describing the Round 1 private PIC process: "</b></span><em><b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">I
hope we never see any like that [again]", "the process by which that
happened was appalling," "and most registries and registrars were
appalled by that process as well." "A subset of… registry applicants
came in and made ... commitments that were like, <u>literally, everything in the kitchen sink</u>."</span></b></em><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;"><b> </b>[emphasis added]</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;"></span></p><p style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:106%;"><b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">No more “kitchen sink,” and we’re done.</span></b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;"> <br /></span></p><p style="font-size:12pt;font-family:'Times New Roman', serif;margin:0 0 8pt 0;line-height:106%;"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri, sans-serif;">Best, Kathy</span></p></body></html>