[council] The Joint Project Agreement... that of 2006!

[Mawaki Chango]

Bruce, Denise, Dan - or whoever can authoritatively help clarify the
following:

While reading the document titled "Joint Project Agreement Between
the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers" signed by John M.R. Kneuer for NTIA and
Dr. Paul Twomey for ICANN on September 29, 2006, and retrieved from
http://icann.org/general/JPA-29sep06.pdf, I note:

The Preamble starts reading: "The U.S. Department of Commerce
(Department) has an agreement (the Joint Project Agreement) with the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)..."

Subsequently, all the section headers make reference to the JPA in
these terms: "To strike the Section [...] from the Joint Project
Agreement in its entirety" and to substitute or replace, as in I, II
and III, and finally in IV, it states: "Except as specifically
modified by this document, the terms and conditions of the Joint
Project Agreement remain unchanged."

My questions are:

1) Is there any Joint Project Agreement other than "this document" as
it seems per all the four section headers in the current document?

2) If such other Agreement, complete and comprehensive of all
provisions currently executed, exists between the U.S. Department of
Commerce and ICANN, is there anywhere it can be found and accessed by
the public, or is it meant to remain private?

3) Otherwise, what is being referred to here as a "Joint Project
Agreement" from which sections are striken to make the current
Agreement? As far as I know, the previous contractual document
between the two parties was a Memorendum of Understanding. And after
a check, I have noted that the initial MoU of 1998 does include all
the sections required to be striken (V.B, V.C, and VII) and replaced
by amendments made in the new document. So my best guess is that it
is the 1998 MoU that the current Agreement refers to in its body as
"Joint Project Agreement" (please advised.)

4) Then the question that comes to mind is what is objectively the
difference, and what difference does it make, for both the U.S.
Department of Commerce and ICANN to call their agreement a "Joint
Project Agreement" or a "Memorendum of Understanding"? If there is,
then was there any prior act that requalified the 1998 MoU as a JPA?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.
Regards,

Mawaki





 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Cheap talk?
Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates.
http://voice.yahoo.com