Dot-Post Seeks to Head off Criticism of Proposed ICANN Contract
The Universal Postal Union, which in 2004 won approval for new sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) .post, last week took the unusual step of seeking public input on potentially ground-breaking changes to ICANN’s standard sponsorship agreement before finalizing its contract. The agreement emerging from ICANN and the UPU, a U.N. specialized agency, could be a model for other intergovernmental bodies’ sTLD proposals, said Paul Donohoe, director of e-services, in a Sept. 5 letter to ICANN. Early dialogue could head off some problems plaguing other sponsored domains, he told us.
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The .post proposal is the last one from the 2004 sTLD round still under negotiation. Given both parties’ intent to present a completed agreement to ICANN board members in November, the union, in consultation with ICANN, decided to seek responses before the contract is posted for comment in hopes of avoiding delays like those other sTLD applicants endure, he said. The UPU believes the contract changes it seeks comport with provisions approved in previous TLD agreements, he said.
An important difference between this and other sTLD applications is the subdivision of the .post domain space, he said. In the second, more traditional subdivision, qualified registrants would buy domains through ICANN- accredited registrars for local and international commercial organizations and their trademarks.
The “unique and innovative” element allows each UPU member country to delegate to a “designated operator” (DO) authority to administer corresponding second-level domains -- for example, uk.post or fra.post for use in connection with their postal services, Donohoe wrote. Each sovereign entity then could manage allocation of domains within its territory to register post offices, post codes, national services and physical addresses, he wrote. The union will seek approval from ICANN’s Governmental Advisory Committee for allocating the two- letter, second-level, country-code domains, he said. There’s precedent for more “liberal” use of the domains in the .aero and .jobs agreements, he said.
The union’s letter addressed objections that registrars might raise. The first is that ICANN- accredited sTLD registries should have to use ICANN- accredited registrars for all sponsored domain registration services, Donohoe wrote. But, diverging from the process with every other sTLD approved in 2004, the UPU seeks to act only as sponsor of the .post domain, not as the registry operator, he said. Structural separation between sponsor and registry is an important safeguard for registrars, he said. Moreover, the .aero and proposed new .museum contracts let sponsors register a specified number of names with their registry operator, he said.
A second possible concern is that allocation to UPU member countries of the two- and three-letter country-code domains could lead to DOs allocating billions of sub- delegations at no charge, Donohoe wrote. But as a not- for-profit intergovernmental body, the UPU must encourage the lasting development of efficient and accessible universal postal services, he said. DOs need flexibility to see what business models work best for their national postal communities, he said, adding that setting a per- domain fee on sub-delegations will only hamper innovation.
Registrars also may worry that .post will impede postal industry competition online, Donohoe wrote. The claim is “misguided,” since UPU members agreed years ago to interact more effectively with postal stakeholders other than DOs and regulators through a consultative committee representing customers, postal service providers and others, he said.
Registrars may claim that the UPU or national DOs should seek accreditation as registrars, Donohoe said. But UPU won’t be involved in an sTLD’s daily operation. In addition, he said, making every DO in all 191 UPU countries apply for separate accreditation will increase fees and cause more delays to the union and its members, he said.
Registrars may believe that the proposed .post agreement will set a precedent other registries will try to expand on, Donohoe said. The concern is understandable considering the controversy surrounding preferential renewal terms in some sTLD contracts, he said, but the UPU should seek an agreement respecting the autonomy of each member country and its DO.
The UPU is “going about this wrong way,” said Ross Rader, retail services director of registrar Tucows. It would be better off asking that all two- and three-letter country designations be reserved at the second level, except where specific countries claim them for use by their own national postal services, he said. UPU then could delegate second-level registrations to the party in question through its own accredited registrar, he said. The union easily could qualify as an accredited registrar in its own sTLD, he said.
The letter “seems to be more intent on baiting the registrar community” than on negotiating a contract, Rader said. The union proposal isn’t likely to be well received by registrars after the “poor treatment” they have gotten in other recent registry negotiations, he said.
The UPU doesn’t expect other ICANN constituencies to raise concerns, based on comments submitted in connection with other sponsored agreements, Donohoe told us. “However, you never know,” he added.