[At-Large] [ALAC-Announce] Registrants 'Bill of Rights and Responsibilities' - Call for Volunteers

[Adam Peake]

Hi.

Like to respond to this comment Nick sent to the announce list.  Hope 
relevant, registrar agreements and policies are not really my great 
passion. However:


>Dear Community:
>
>As you may be aware, the ALAC sent an advisory to the Board of 
>Directors of ICANN in August 2008 related to At-Large community 
>views on amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement ("RAA") 
>(http://www.atlarge.icann.org/en/correspondence/community-views-raa-negotiation.htm 
>)
>
>A number of the proposals in the Advisory related to the protection 
>of registrants, including:
>
>"Add a clause in the RAA to require registrars to show a 
>standardized description of registrant rights, to be provided by 
>ICANN in different languages, as an appendix to the contract at the 
>time of registration, and also to make it available in the 
>registrant's domain management interface whenever available. Such 
>obligation should also be passed onto resellers. "
>
>In the public consultation on a package of proposed draft amendments 
>to the RAA begun in June 2008 (see 
>http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-18jun08-en.htm), 
>this proposal can be found as a redline addition to the RAA text:
>
>"In the event that ICANN gives reasonable notice to Registrar that 
>ICANN has published a webpage that identifies available registrant 
>rights and responsibilities, and the content of such webpage is 
>developed in consultation with registrars, Registrar shall provide a 
>link to the webpage on any website it may operate for domain name 
>registration or renewal clearly displayed to its Registered Name 
>Holders at least as clearly as its links to policies or 
>notifications required to be displayed under ICANN Consensus 
>Policies."


How clearly do registrars display ICANN consensus policies, is there 
some requirement/guideline?  If consensus policies aren't prominently 
displayed then this requirement to display the description of 
registrant rights equally (un)clearly may not be that helpful.

Long ago I was a member of the working group long ago on deletes, and 
that consensus policy includes this language "Additionally, in order 
to provide registrants with a complete understanding of registrars' 
deletion and renewal policies, the task force recommends that 
registrars inform registrants of those policies at the time of 
registration, and maintains them in a conspicuous place on their 
website."  I struggle to find those policies on most registrar sites.

What I'm trying to say is I think the instruction to registrars needs 
to be much more direct, along the lines of "you will display this 
policy/guideline prominently and ICANN will monitor."  "Prominently" 
probably needs defining (a menu item for ICANN Policy on every 
registrar top page?)

Adam




>The ALAC Coordinator of the Registrant / Registrar Relations Working 
>group of At-Large has asked that work begin, in consultation with 
>the registrar community, on producing such a document. Volunteers 
>from the At-Large community who wish to work on this project are 
>asked to subscribe to the RRA-WG list at: 
>http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/raa-wg_atlarge-lists.icann.org 
>and send an email introducing yourself to that list.
>
>The RRA Working Group URL is: 
>https://st.icann.org/raa-policy/index.cgi?at_large_registrar_registrant_relations_working_group 
>and you will find a new set of pages dedicated to this initiative 
>along with reference information.
>
>--
>
>Regards,
>
>Nick Ashton-Hart
>Director for At-Large
>Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
>Main Tel: +33 (450) 40 46 88
>USA DD: +1 (310) 578-8637
>Fax: +41 (22) 594-85-44
>Mobile: +41 (79) 595 54-68
>email: nick.ashton-hart at icann.org
>Win IM: ashtonhart at hotmail.com / AIM/iSight: nashtonhart at mac.com / 
>Skype: nashtonhart
>Online Bio:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashtonhart
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