The ICA is an International Member of ICANN’s Business Constituency. We recently learned that, on February 19, the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO), ICANN’s policymaking body, approved a motion (below) to establish a new Working Group on Registration Abuse Policies (WGRAP).
The ICA has elected to become a member of this Working Group. As professional registrants, domain name investors and developers have a vested interest in assuring that ICANN policies do not permit abuse of the domain registration process, while also assuring that legitimate business practices are not mischaracterized as abuses. The WGRAP is charged with identifying issues and recommending to the GNSO whether a formal Policy Development Process (PDP) should be initiated on registration abuses.
ICA Counsel Philip Corwin attended a WGRAP organizational breakfast in Mexico City on the morning of Monday, March 2. It plans to hold meetings every other week, starting two weeks after the conclusion of the Mexico City ICANN meeting. The WGRAP is embarking on a fact-finding mission and its immediate charge is to create a list of ongoing abuses that it might subsequently focus on. WGRAP members were urged to review its charter in preparation for the next meeting, at which potential topics that it might focus on will be discussed.
One participant noted that the WGRAP charter was “squishy”, which led to a discussion of what might constitute a registration abuse within its charter. Abuses arising solely from the abuse of a domain are beyond its authorized scope, but abusive uses of a domain in combination with an abuse at the time of registration are not. The discussion noted that abusive domain tasting had been effectively addressed by ICANN in 2008, and that the abusive uses of domains in fast flux phishing schemes was the charge of another ongoing ICANN working group. One participant suggested that the registration of domains with intent to have them host worms or malware could be addressed. Another opined that “bad faith” registration per the UDRP would be an appropriate topic – but ICA believes that any consideration of the UDRP and changes to it should be addressed on its own in a manner that fairly balances the views and interests of complainants and registrants. Other participants suggested that it should review VeriSign’s registry contracts, which do not contain provisions that are common in other registry contracts requiring it to address abuses, and this led to a suggestion that registry-registrar agreements might also be reviewed. There was also after-breakfast speculation that some participants in WGRAP may seek to characterize general, non-infringing domain parking as an “abuse” — the ICA will certainly speak out and work against any attempt to take the group in a direction that is biased against the direct search industry that has been developed by the domainer community.
A Workshop on Registration Abuses Policies will be held in Mexico City on the afternoon of March 3 and ICA will be in attendance seeking to learn more about what registration practices are perceived by others as abusive. A related workshop on e-Crime and Abuse of the DNS will be held on the afternoon of March 4.
In a related development, ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) has just released a report on Registrar Abuse policies that recommends that each registrar prominently list a dedicated abuse contact e-mail and phone number that will facilitate the rapid takedown of domains used in phishing and similar scams, and that registrars should provide complainants with continuing, updated information regarding what actions have been taken in response to their complaints.
WGRAP’s work will be public, with updates on its progress posted periodically on the ICANN website.
The ICA hereby solicits input from its members as to what they believe constitutes registration abuses that would be a proper subject for the work of WGRAP.
19 Feb 2009 Motions
DRAFT MOTION Registration Abuse Policies Charter
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Proposed by Kristina Rosette
Seconded by Mike Rodenbaugh
Whereas GNSO Council Resolution (20081218-3) dated December 18, 2008 called for the creation of a drafting team “to create a proposed charter for a working group to investigate the open issues documented in the issues report on Registrations[sic] Abuse Policy”.
Whereas a drafting team has formed and its members have discussed and reviewed the open issues documented in the issues report.
Whereas it is the view of the drafting Team that the objective of the Working Group should be to gather facts, define terms, provide the appropriate focus and definition of the policy issue(s), if any, to be addressed, in order to enable the GNSO Council to make an informed decision as to whether to launch PDP on registration abuse.
Whereas the drafting team recommends that the GNSO Council charter a Working Group to (i) further define and research the issues outlined in the Registration Abuse Policies Issues Report; and (ii) take the steps outlined below. The Working Group should complete its work before a decision is taken by the GNSO Council on whether to launch a PDP.
The GNSO Council RESOLVES:
To form a Working Group of interested stakeholders and Constituency representatives, to collaborate broadly with knowledgeable individuals and organizations, to further define and research the issues outlined in the Registration Abuse Policies Issues Report; and take the steps outlined in the Charter. The Working Group should address the issues outlined in the Charter and report back to the GNSO Council within 90 days following the end of the ICANN meeting in Mexico City.
CHARTER
Scope and definition of registration abuse – the Working Group should define domain name registration abuse, as distinct from abuse arising solely from use of a domain name while it is registered. The Working Group should also identify which aspects of the subject of registration abuse are within ICANN’s mission to address and which are within the set of topics on which ICANN may establish policies that are binding on gTLD registry operators and ICANN-accredited registrars. This task should include an illustrative categorization of known abuses.
Additional research and identifying concrete policy issues – The issues report outlines a number of areas where additional research would be needed in order to understand what problems may exist in relation to registration abuse and their scope, and to fully appreciate the current practices of contracted parties, including research to:
• ‘Understand if registration abuses are occurring that might be curtailed or better addressed if consistent registration abuse policies were established’
• ‘Determine if and how {registration} abuse is dealt with in those registries {and registrars} that do not have any specific {policies} in place’
• ‘Identify how these registration abuse provisions are {…} implemented in practice or deemed effective in addressing registration abuse’.
In addition, additional research should be conducted to include the practices of relevant entities other than the contracted parties, such as abusers, registrants, law enforcement, service providers, and so on.
The Working Group should determine how this research can be conducted in a timely and efficient manner — by the Working Group itself via a Request for Information (RFI), by obtaining expert advice, and/or by exploring other options.
Based on the additional research and information, the Working Group should identify and recommend specific policy issues and processes for further consideration by the GNSO Council.
SSAC Participation and Collaboration
The Working Group should (i) consider inviting a representative from the Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) to participate in the Working Group; (ii) consider in further detail the SSAC’s invitation to the GNSO Council to participate in a collaborative effort on abuse contacts; and (iii) make a recommendation to the Council about this invitation.
Workshop at ICANN meeting in Mexico City on Registration Abuse Policies – In order to get broad input on and understanding of the specific nature of concerns from community stakeholders, the drafting team proposes to organize a workshop on registration abuse policies in conjunction with the ICANN meeting in Mexico City. The Working Group should review and take into account the discussions and recommendations, if any, from this workshop in its deliberations.
The working group established by this motion will work according to the process defined in working_group_process.