[council] ICANN has signed .xxx agreement with ICM Registry

[Bruce Tonkin]

Hello All,

From:  http://blog.icann.org/


Agreement with ICM on .XXX Registry

by John Jeffrey on April 2, 2011

 
ICANN signed an agreement yesterday with ICM for the introduction of the
.XXX top-level domain.
 
ICANN's Board of Directors approved entering into the agreement during
our recent Silicon Valley-San Francisco Public Meeting. We have now
finalized negotiations and executed an agreement that's posted at
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/xxx
. It includes some new and revised provisions that follow on from the
agreement that we last posted for public comment in August 2010.
 
Additional terms relate to some concerns that are unique to this
registry, addressing heightened compliance measures, pricing and
indemnification.
 
There is a new requirement for ICM to provide a compliance certification
signed by the ICM CEO twice in the first year and annually after that,
along with a summary of IFFOR's audit of ICM's compliance procedures.
IFFOR is the sponsoring organization obligated to oversee the sponsored
community's policy development.
 
In the event that ICM was not in compliance additional processes have
been added, including a new mediation procedure has been added that
would follow cooperative engagement and precede arbitration.  There have
been some changes to the basic structure of remedies for ICANN. The
requirement that ICANN obtain at least three arbitration awards before
requesting punitive or exemplary damages has been removed.  In the event
that a dispute can't be resolved through mediation, ICANN may impose
monetary or operational sanctions, and ICM may challenge them through
arbitration.
 
ICANN's fee per transaction registration fee has increased from $1 to $2
to account for anticipated risks and compliance activities and a fee
escalator that will allow for increases to the fees and to account for
inflation.
 
Revised indemnification procedures will allow ICANN to manage any third
party dispute proceedings at ICM's expense.  ICM's consent would be
required for ICANN to settle a proceeding in a way that requires ICM to
pay monetary damages, and ICANN would be required to work in good faith
to mitigate ICM's expenses.
 
Monthly reports must include a line item for "attempted adds" (success
and failure) and there are updated references to RFC's on
internationalized domain names.  ICANN also has a right to consent to
any proposed change to the definition of "Sponsored Community" by the
registry.
 
Yesterday's signing follows extensive consideration and review,
including an Independent Review Process. ICANN has also entered into an
"Agreement and General Release" [PDF, 1.31 MB] 
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/xxx/xxx-agreement-general-releas
e-31mar11-en.pdf
with ICM to resolve all outstanding dispute/possible litigation matters
between them. The rationale for the Board's decision was published along
with the Preliminary Report of ICANN's Board Meeting. You can see that
at http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/prelim-report-18mar11-en.htm.
 
You can learn more at Chronological History of ICM's Involvement with
ICANN as of 31 March 2011 [PDF, 84 KB] 
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/xxx/history-icm-involvement-31ma
r11-en.pdf
.
 
John Jeffrey
 General Counsel & Secretary
 ICANN