ICANN Set To Review Accreditation Policy

tinkertim writes "ICANN is re-evaluating the scope and purpose of its accreditations, apparently sparked by the recent collapse of garage domain name registrar Registerfly. In a press release dated March 21, 2007, President and CEO of ICANN, Dr Paul Twomey is quoted as saying : 'What has happened to registrants with RegisterFly.com has made it clear there must be comprehensive review of the registrar accreditation process and the content of the RAA.' Dr. Twomey is blaming (in part) 'weaknesses in the RAA' for severe and undue hardships that many registrants encountered when trying to transfer names away from the failing registrar, Registerfly. Many new points to be discussed include allowing registrants to view the performance of registrars in an 'independent comparative way', as well as new language to allow ICANN to forcibly intercede in the face of wide spread, persistent and consistent complaints. 10 good points for discussion are listed by Dr. Twomey in the release, who invites all ICANN stakeholders to participate in re-evaluating the RAA. Registerfly, the catalyst for this re-write does not officially lose their accredited status until March 31, 2007, and continues to display the ICANN seal on their web site."

Comments

Proxy registrations

[Baricom]

Personally, my biggest concern about the proposed agenda is discussions about proxy registrations. I hold proxy registrations on three domains, and I feel it's important to me -- important enough that I would seriously consider dropping my domains if they were done away with.

Proxy registrations are necessary because of what I consider a flaw with domain name registration as it exists today. You should NOT require personal domain owners to broadcast their street address, home phone number, and e-mail address to the world via WHOIS. It's an extreme privacy breach.

Instead, I would suggest that individuals (not businesses) be permitted to hide their registrations but remain the legal owners. This would be analogous to the way PO boxes are rented - businesses must consent to the release of their street address when renting, while individuals need not.

Strong need for confidentiality

[davidwr]

While you should be required to publish an email address and an address where you can receive legal documents, you shouldn't have to publish your own. The whole "proxy" system needs to be formalized and standardized, so if someone needs to reach you for technical or legal reasons or they need your real address so they can subpoena you, they can get it.

There are many reasons for privacy. Some of the more obvious ones are:

• your site hosts content that upsets people, and you want to avoid physical confrontations with net.kooks.
  
• You are in hiding, for example, from an ex-spouse
  
• You want to talk about your family life and don't want people tracking down your kids
  
• Just because
  

And of course

• You are a woman and don't want /. nerds dropping by asking for a date *cue rim-shot*
  

The UK already do this

[a16]

The UK already have a similar system, registrants who declare themselves to be "individuals" can opt-out of the whois database, and just have their name shown on lookups. .eu domains have something similar, except you still need a valid technical contact I believe.