GNSO approves motion for changes to registrar accreditation agreement.
At the Mexico City ICANN meeting, Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) approved a motion to adopt changes to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) including new amendments. These changes are now open for public comment, after which the ICANN board of directors will vote on the changes.
These changes will have major effect on domain registrars that have found ways to slip through RAA rules. This is good news for domain name registrants. Among the changes:
Sanctions and Suspensions – currently the only enforcement option ICANN has against a registrar is to issue a breach notice and pull its accreditation. Consider it “the nuclear option”. The new agreement would allow for escalating enforcement including fines.
Multiple registrars treated as one – essentially if one registrar breaks the rules, it can’t simply move its bad operations to an affiliated registrar.
Private registrations – domain registrars offering private registrations that hide whois information must either escrow the actual owners information or clearly inform customers that it is not escrowing this information. The escrow is important to claim ownership in the event of a registrar failure.
Registrar contact information – registrars will have to post their e-mail address and address on their web site.
Registrar audits – gives ICANN the right to audit and perform registrar site visits.
Training – mandatory training for registrar’s employees about ICANN policies and RAA.
Resellers – obligating resellers to comply with ICANN policies
Fees – potential changes to registrar fees
wannadevelop.com says
Wow — that is one of the biggest development to happen with ICANN in a really long time now.
Good stuff.
KELLY says
The fees should become cheaper!
They certainly should not be more expensive during this economic meltdown!
M. Menius says
The need for ICANN action to better regulate registrars has been there for years. Why it took this long we’ll never know. Something as obvious as requiring a registrar to make an email address available has to be mandated? Kind of sad, but true.
ICANN are having to figure out how to do their job while demonstrating that they don’t cater to special interests and special money. In my opinion, this is a result of public criticism, public scrutiny and growing intolerance for ICANN’s continual pursuit of self-interest.
ICANN have placed themselves on the radar due to several years of controversial and indefensible decisions & policies. More of this and they will be challenged as no longer able to do the job of administrating the internet.
So, good news with these “changes”. But in my view, it needs to be the BEGINNING of true, responsible oversight by ICANN. They have a legacy of failure, frivoulous expenditures, and playing favorites with deeper pockets.
This must now be stopped in exchange for integrity, transparency, and consistent decisions that reflect the needs of the majority, and which do not line ICANN’s pockets at the obvious expense of everyone else. Keep ICANN under a microscope. It’s completely justified.