[council] Friendly Amendments to the VI Charter

[Tim Ruiz]

I would like to request two friendly amendments to the Vertical
Integration Charter that we will be voting on during the upcoming
Council meeting. It's understood that the definitions were intended to
be a work in progress, but I feel it's important that we have a common
and clear understanding of what's intended at the outset as well as
ongoing. 

1. Friendly amendment to definition of "Vertical Integration"

Based on the current Registry Agreements and the one proposed in the
current version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook, the term Registry
Operator refers to the entity under contract to ICANN. Therefore, in the
definition of "Vertial Integration" replace the phrase "domain name
supplier" with "Registry Operator" and the phrase "independent firms"
with "non-affiliated registrars." The term "Registry Operator" would use
upper case letters as shown. The definition would then read:

"Vertical Integration" (VI) is defined as a business structure in which
there is no separation between the Registry Operator and the registrar
in relation to a particular gTLD. They are either owned or controlled by
the same company or have another contractual affiliation that controls
the specific gTLD, and the Registry Operator is not required to provide
equivalent access and non-discriminatory access to non-affiliated
registrars to sell names under its gTLD.

2. Friendly amendment to the section titled "Changes to this Charter"

Council should emphasize that substantive changes to the Charter,
including the working defninitions and milestones, need to be approved
by the Council. Therefore, this section would be replaced with the
following:

The Chair of the WG will submit requests for substantive changes to this
charter, including working definitions and milestones, to the GNSO
Council for approval. The Chair may, at any time, refer questions or
requests for clarification on any of the objectives or definitions
contained in this charter to the GNSO Council. Such requests may be
relayed through the Council Liaison.


Tim