Domain 'Policy-Heavy' Discussions Set to Dominate ICANN's Copenhagen Meeting

CCWG-Accountability appeared to be continuing to make progress before the Copenhagen conference, though “some subgroups are way ahead of others,” said Phil Corwin, principal of e-commerce and IP law consultancy Virtualaw. CCWG-Accountability is collecting public comment through April 10 on draft recommendations for improving ICANN’s transparency (see 1702220067), while the Jurisdiction Subgroup is still considering how to address the organization's post-Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition jurisdiction (see 1701030021), Corwin said. “I think we’ll see more progress” in Copenhagen, including “fractious and interesting conversations” within CCWG-Accountability, said Generic Names Supporting Organization IP Constituency President Greg Shatan, the Jurisdiction Subgroup’s rapporteur.

The Copenhagen conference is expected to be a “very policy-heavy meeting,” as several important policy development processes (PDPs) are still ongoing, Shatan said. “I think a lot of the policy groups are really buckling down and you’ll see that reflected in Copenhagen,” a domain name executive said. Three major domain name PDPs are ongoing, including the Review of All Rights Protection Mechanisms in All gTLDs PDP, which is examining the efficacy of the current RPMs. The RPM PDP will have a “full schedule” in Copenhagen, said Corwin, one of the PDP co-chairs. The PDP is “having somewhat of a bumpy ride” since its participants include a “lot of strongly opinionated people” and divisions that “have crystalized” on the RPMs, particularly the Trademark Clearinghouse and ICANN’s trademark-centric uniform dispute resolution policy, Shatan said.

Several stakeholders highlighted a Monday “Privacy Summit” between the ICANN community and the Council of Europe’s Data Protection Unit to discuss the data protection implications of WHOIS domain registration data processing. European Data Protection Supervisor Giovanni Buttarelli and EU Article 29 Working Party Chairman Wilbert Tomesen are among the European officials set to speak during the summit. The panel appears to be aimed at “advancing the case that WHOIS violates EU privacy laws,” an important issue given the Next Generation gTLD Registration Directory Service (RDS) PDP’s work to update or replace the existing WHOIS framework, Shatan said.

The New gTLD Subsequent Procedures PDP is now “working in earnest” to review possible revisions to the generic top-level domains program procedures before any future rounds of gTLD rollouts, said Donuts Executive Vice President Jon Nevett. That PDP’s work will complement a series of meetings in Copenhagen on the initial new gTLD program round, including how to resolve delegating new gTLD strings from the round that have been on hold for years, Nevett said. He cited the ongoing hold on delegation of the .corp, .home and .mail gTLDs, which have been on hold amid name collision questions. Donuts is vying to be designated the registry for all three gTLDs. Rightside Vice President-Business and Legal Affairs Statton Hammock said he also would be closely involved in gTLD-related meetings in Copenhagen.

The GNSO Council and Governmental Advisory Committee scheduled two “facilitated discussions” aimed at making progress in an ongoing dispute over protections for intergovernmental organization (IGO) acronyms in gTLDs, which Nevett and others called important to watch. GNSO's IGO Curative Rights Process (ICRP) Working Group is collecting public comment through March 30 on its initial report containing policy recommendations aimed at resolving the dispute, said Corwin, who co-chairs the working group.

The facilitated discussions, which former ICANN board member Bruce Tonkin was slated to moderate, may also be helpful in “defusing the [IGO] situation,” particularly if there's “low-hanging fruit” on which there can be a better understanding, Corwin said. The dispute is in some ways a “test case” for gauging how the ICANN board will handle a discrepancy between GAC advice and GNSO policy recommendations, Shatan said. The GNSO Council’s state position remains that the ICANN board will need to “take formal action” on GNSO’s original recommendations before the council can revisit them, Corwin said.

Corwin and others said they will be listening for behind-the-scenes talk on other issues, including the hiring of ICANN’s first complaints officer. ICANN CEO Göran Marby announced Friday that he had hired Global Domains Division Director-Registry Services and Engagement Krista Papac as the organization’s complaints officer. The Complaints Office will “provide a centralized mechanism to track complaints received about the ICANN organization and is an additional way for the ICANN organization to be accountable for and transparent about its performance,” the organization said. Stakeholders are watching to see how the Complaints Office will compare to the Office of the Ombudsman, which also receives ICANN-related complaints, Shatan said. The ICANN board’s public meetings may also include “some fireworks” on various issues, a domain name industry executive said.