I am happy to announce that our own Philip Corwin, ICA counsel and lobbyist, has been chosen as the keynote speaker at Domainer Meeting Paris. He will bring domainers up to date on important legislative issues in Washington and policy issues at ICANN. As Domainer Meeting immediately precedes the ICANN meeting in Paris, Phil will be providing Internet Commerce Association members and other concerned domain name registrants with background materials on current issues at ICANN that can assist them in formulating their own comments for the open microphone public forums that occur during the ICANN meeting. ICA encourages you to go to Domainer Meeting and stay for the ICANN meeting and attend these public forums so that your voice is heard.
ICA will have a members’ meeting during the first break in the action at Domainer Meeting at 10:00 on the 19th. The meeting will be open to current ICA members and anyone interested in joining ICA.
Much more is going on at the Domainer Meeting. The conference will cover major hot topics of worldwide reach and of interest to all participants, such as the impact and evolution of new TLDs; the challenges faced by the Aftermarket and the primary market communities, and an in depth presentation of major legal issues (ie: Snowe Bill). A number of discussion panels will involve key players and global experts from the domain industry including Paul Keating (RenovaLTD), Jay Westerdal (DomainTools), Leona Chen (DotAsia Organisation), Matt Bentley (Sedo), and Tom Murphy (Namemedia), to list a few.
The two days meeting will be take place at the luxurious Hotel Meridien Montparnasse, located right at the heart of Paris. The glamorous Paris setting will prompt some exciting nights after rigorous days of learning. Book a room now and get great promotional rates.
On the Thursday night, the dinner and party will be held in a fashionable Parisian Club, Le Cabaret. DomainSponsor invites all Domainer Meeting attendees to join them for a night of gourmet cuisine, cool refreshments, and engaging conversation. Entertainment for the evening will be “magical” and “mysterious”. At midnight, the Club opens its doors to the public. As the pulse of the music quickly fills the Club with energy, the attendees will have a chance to dance and mingle with the hippest crowd in Paris.
SnapNames, a recognized global leader in aftermarket domain name auctions, will host a Live Auction on Friday. The auction will include an impressive selection of premier domain names. The auction will feature many domains targeting the European market. The final list will be available soon.
ICA provided a guide for domainers at the ICANN meeting in LA last November and several domainers were present in the public meetings and spoke out on our issues. We will produce an ICA/ICANN Issues Guide again for Paris. Even a few people expressing reasonable viewpoints on these critical issues can make a difference. We have seen ICANN move in a positive direction on most of the four issues that we dealt with in LA.
No More RegisterFlys – ICANN has begun requiring registrars to participate in a Registrar Data Escrow Program. This helps protect registrants in the event of a registrar financial or technical failure. ICANN Board is still considering amending Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with the purpose of strengthening protection for registrants. We have also seen an increase in staff concern for enforcing registrar contract compliance. Hopefully, RAA enforcement will continue to improve.
End Abusive Domain Tasting – ICA called on ICANN and the gTLDs registries to undertake market-based initiatives, similar to what .org has already implemented, to eradicate abuses of the add/grace period. At the Paris meeting, we expect ICANN Board to start charging the annual ICANN fee on registrar domain registrations deleted during AGP that exceed 10% of new registrations. Most informed people believe that this will effectively end abusive domain name tasting. However, further action by GNSO Council is also being considered to further increase the cost of tasting to registrars as some people do not think that the ICANN annual fee will be enough to end the practice.
Oppose the New DRP – We saw the proposal for a new Dispute Resolution Process for IGOs killed in LA. This was a dangerous proposal for domainers that went substantially beyond the bounds of trademark law, would have deprived DN registrants of current procedural protections, and would have given inordinate control over DNs to governments and Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs)
Sunshine for the GAC – Ok, we did not make any progress on this one and it will be on our issues list again for the Paris meeting. Almost all of the meetings of the GAC are still closed. This is completely counter to ICANN’s goal of achieving greater transparency in its operations. The GAC is increasingly influencing a broad range of ICANN policies and actions, and this trend will likely continue as U.S. government oversight of ICANN diminishes.
The Internet Commerce Association strongly encourages all members and other concerned domain name registrants to attend the Paris ICANN meeting. ICANN adopts and enforces policies of critical import to domain investors and developers. Please contact Michael Collins if you plan to attend ICANN Paris especially if you are not attending Domainer Meeting. I will make time to meet with you and go over our issues guide with you.
Best regards,
Michael Collins
Internet Commerce Association