[bc-gnso] RE: ICANN accreditation of UDRP providers

Thu Oct 14 16:46:34 UTC 2010

Phil,

I wanted to get your proposal onto the correct list, with a relevant title,
and adding my support.  The BC should make a statement on this, for the
reasons you mention.  I think your draft is a good first draft for further
comment of members, as I've revised it below.  If no members object, then it
could be submitted by the comment deadline as a BC comment.  Or it can be
revised and submitted based upon any friendly amendments offered to it in
the meanwhile.

Thanks,

Mike

Mike Rodenbaugh

RODENBAUGH LAW

tel/fax:  +1 (415) 738-8087

 <http://rodenbaugh.com/> http://rodenbaugh.com

From: Phil Corwin [mailto:pcorwin at butera-andrews.com] 
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 7:55 AM
To: Marilyn Cade; bcprivate
Subject: RE: Informational: update from Oct. 12: Transcripts and MP3
recording update - 12 October /reminder that BC election for Councilor and
V.Chair, Operations and Finance will open soon/

There is a pending request for comment regarding the application of the Arab
Center for Domain Name Dispute Resolution (ACDR) to become a certified UDRP
arbitration provider. ACDR is located in Amman, Jordan; The comment period
closes on October 28th.

The BC opposes approval of this application at this time on the grounds that
no new UDRP providers should be accredited until ICANN implements a standard
contract with all accredited providers or finds some other mechanism for
establishing uniform rules and procedures and flexible means of delineating
and enforcing arbitration provider responsibilities.

It makes no sense to require that domains be registered or renewed via
ICANN-accredited registrars who are under a standard contract (the RAA) but
then provide that registrants can have domains transferred away through a
process administered by an organization that has been granted this power by
ICANN -- yet is under no contract that defines its practices and procedures,
is not subject to any regular or standardized review by ICANN, and for which
ICANN's only disciplinary tool is accreditation revocation (so extreme a
sanction that it is unlikely to ever be used). 

The Business Constituency suggests that ICANN implement a contractual
relationship that defines and constrains this grant of power, and provides
flexible and effective enforcement mechanisms, because that delegated power
can extinguish substantial monetary investment and goodwill in a domain.
Granting this kind of power absent any restraints is not an accountable
practice.

We appear to be transitioning from a DNS that featured an effective duopoly
of UDRP providers (WIPO and NAF) and in which all significant gTLDs were
based in the developed world -- to one in which the majority of gTLDs and
UDRP providers may well be headquartered in nontraditional jurisdictions.
Business interests may well be investing substantial amounts in these new
gTLDs, for both defensive and new branding purposes.  In this type of
environment it is even more important that a proliferating cast of UDRP
providers be subject to uniform and enforceable responsibilities, as that is
the only means of furthering the goal that UDRP decisions are consistent
within and among UDRP providers, and that the UDRP remains an expedited and
lower cost means of addressing cybersquatting.

In closing, we note that this issue of whether UDRP providers should be
under standard contract with ICANN is almost entirely separable from the
question of whether the UDRP evaluation standards for determining the
existence of cybersquatting should be reformed.  There is no need to debate
the substantive elements of the UDRP in order to address the fundamental
issue of whether UDRP providers should be under standardized contract.

Regards to all,

Philip

Philip S. Corwin
Partner 
Butera & Andrews 
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., NW 
Suite 500 
Washington, DC 20004

202-347-6875 (office) 

202-347-6876 (fax)

202-255-6172 (cell)

"Luck is the residue of design." -- Branch Rickey

  _____  

From: Marilyn Cade [marilynscade at hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 9:07 AM
To: bcprivate
Subject: Informational: update from Oct. 12: Transcripts and MP3 recording
update - 12 October /reminder that BC election for Councilor and V.Chair,
Operations and Finance will open soon/

Thanks again to all BC members for your participation in the full series of
sessions and events October 12. 

Yesterday's meetings were a combination of CSG working session;
informational roundtables with special guests, including ICANN, and a BC
members policy forum/meeting.

The purpose of this email is to provide a brief and very high level update
from yesterday's meeting on a few of those items.  

A more detailed "next steps" summary is under development by the officers
and others who took work item assignments and should be

sent out by Monday. You should also expect to receive the PPs from the
speakers as they are gathered.

It will be a busy time between now and Cartegena. We will try to manage the
email notices to you by having clear subject headings, so that you know
whether an email requires action, or is for information/action, or is
informational only. This email is informational. 

To recap: 

CSG Charter drafting will continue and draft will be circulated. A vote by
members on a final draft will be scheduled for November, to meet a Board
deadline. 

Sarah Deutsch is the lead as our CSG rep. A small drafting group supports
her from BC: Marilyn Cade, Ron Andruff and Philip Sheppard. Other members
are from the other two CSG constituencies.

During the call, members did discuss other ways to improve communications
[discussion of a more formalized 'newsletter style approach] and move to a
more frequent members calls. Steve Delbianco, our V.Chair, Policy
Coordination, will be advising on a priorty topical approach for the policy
topics for monthly members calls. We also discussed launching a few 'working
group' approaches on key issues, where the BC can provide strategic
leadership.  Stay tuned for more news on that front.  

We discussed a newsletter approach, and other changes in communications
support tools; heard an update on finances, and membership; discussed other
administrative functions updates, including announcing the Finance Committee
members: Jon Nevett and Anders Halverson, and heard a report on options to
manage the banking account and administrative support. Outcomes will be
summarized in thee follow up report. 

Other actions that need your involvement will be announced shortly,
including opening our elections for Councilor - 2 year term and V.Chair,
Operations and Finance -- completion of term for this year. 

We will have separate working sessions on Charter development. The present
small group of volunteers for working further on the BC Charter are Marilyn
Cade, Chris Chaplow, Steve DelBianco, Sarah Deutsch, Philip Sheppard, Ron
Andruff, and Mikey O'Connor. As we have worked with the Charter, we have
identified some gaps that need addressing, along with changes coming from
GNSO Improvements recommendations. A staff developed topical outline was
presented on our call and we will continue to utilize staff support and
consultation to advance further drafting/discussions re both the CSG charter
and BC Charter.  If anyone else wants to join this small working group,
please so advise off list to Sarah Deutsch and myself by email. A couple of
working calls will be scheduled over the next weeks to get a draft document
with the proposed edits/clarifications. 

In the meantime, I will continue to provide the MP3 and transcripts from
Oct. 12 as they arrive.  

there are three MP3s from yesterday's call. 

CSG charter discussion

Roundtables/Dialogue with Kurt Pritz, ICANN

BC Members Forum/Meeting

Summary of distribution of MP3 and Transcripts:

MP3 sent on Oct. 12. . 

This email includes the CSG Transcript. 

The Roundtables MP3 has not yet been received, however, I do have the BC
call/MP3. 

Transcripts for both these sessions will be available much later today, or
tomorrow and will be posted then. 

http://audio.icann.org/gnso/gnso-bc-20101012-en.mp3

Apologies for any gaps due to acoustical challenges in capturing particular
speakers,

but they are still a very good resource to all. The PowerPoints from the
second Roundtable, Kurt Pritz discussion, and the BC officers and ICANN
staff Charter overview will be posted separately. 

Special thanks to ICANN for supporting the remote participation and
providing ICANN staff and the Chair of the SSAC [and ICANN Board member]
Steve Crocker have been extended.

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